If you are like me, there are a lot of things that you find wrong about our society. Some of the things that are acceptable (or unacceptable) and encouraged, some of the things talked about, and some of the things done by people that are "normal" are sometimes hard to believe.
But how do we change it? We generally focus on society as a whole, and want to make big, sweeping changes. However, CS Lewis tells us that the changes must first come from ourselves.
"A Christian society is not going to really arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to fully want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey him. And so, as I warned you, we are driven on to something more inward - driven on from social matters to religious matters. For the longest way round is the shortest way home."
The last line is one of my favorites from the whole book. When you consider the ways to change our society, we initially think of large changes and quick actions. To focus merely on loving your neighbor and obeying God would seem to be a long, tedious process, would it not?
However, there is no other way. There is no other way to change the hearts of others and by virtue the whole of society. The longest way round is the shortest way home. Indeed, it is the only way home.
The way to create a Christian society is, simply put, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to share everything about your life with those around you. As St. Luke writes, "The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common." (Acts 4:32)
As Mother Teresa would say, "Do you know your next door neighbor?"
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