Oremus Pro Invicem

Once you catch the Oramus vision, you find yourself walking about quietly blessing the passersby, people about whom you know almost nothing. Are they good people? Bad people? Well-intentioned but with no follow-through? Calculatedly evil? You have no idea.

You might find yourself asking, “But what if the guy in the blue polo shirt doesn’t deserve God’s blessing? How can I ask God to bless him? Won’t that just reward him for his sin, and confirm him in it?” Such thoughts are understandable…and wrong-headed. For in what sense do you deserve God’s blessing? God died for us while we were still in our sins.

It’s up to us to seek the Lord’s blessing for those around us; it’s up to the Lord to decide the form that blessing should take. We can trust Him to do whatever will best lead the guy in the blue polo in His direction.

Of course, sometimes you do know something in particular about the guy in question: he’s annoyed, offended, irritated, or injured you. He’s cut you off in traffic, or refused to let you merge. He’s jumped the line at the amusement park. He’s swung his car door wide and put a ding into the side of your car. He’s talking loudly in the street at midnight and keeping you awake. He’s lied to the boss about you, and cost you a promotion. He’s stolen something from you. You don’t know who he is, but you know you dislike him.

There’s that bit in the gospels about loving your enemies. These are, in fact, the best people to seek God’s blessing upon—because we’re under orders to do it.

A reader asked, over at Mark Shea’s blog, whether the name of the site should be “Oremus” instead of “Oramus”; and the answer is no, it shouldn’t be.  “Oremus” means “Let us pray”; and this blog is titled “Oremus Pro Invincit” because it’s really for people who have caught or are catching the Oramus vision.  The “us” in “Let us pray” is those of us who have done so.

“Oramus”, on the other hand, means “We pray”.  This is meant to be a descriptive statement.  What do we do?  We pray.  It’s also meant to be a perscription, a statement to live up to.

It so happens that the domain name “oremus.org” was taken already, when this site was registered; but I believe we discovered that after the fact.

Bless ‘em all. Let the Lord sort ‘em out.

In our last post we talked about the four kinds of neighbor, and particularly the fourth kind. These neighbors leave near us, in our very midst, but we don’t know them, and we don’t know what they need. That is, we don’t know what they need in particular. In general, we know that they need God’s love. (They might, in fact, already be well-acquainted with God’s love…but we don’t even know that about them.)

What sorts of things can we do to show them God’s love? There are many possibilities. What sorts of things can we do that they will accept? That’s trickier.

Let’s see how we can love others in general, and then see which of them apply to these unknown neighbors.

1. We can meet their physical needs.
2. We can be a friend in need, listening to their troubles and offering advice and emotional support.
3. We can tell them the Goods News of rebirth and resurrection in Jesus Christ.
4. We can pray for them, for specific needs and for God’s blessing upon them.

We can meet their physical needs—but by definition, these neighbors have no obvious physical needs that we can see from outside. And we don’t know them personally, and so can’t see the needs that aren’t obvious. We haven’t time to meet them all. And knocking on their door and saying, “Hi, God loves you and I want to show you His love. What do you need?” is unlikely to be fruitful in the majority of cases. A polite “Nothing, thanks,” is the most likely response.

The possibility of being a friend in need fails for the same reason; these are neighbors we don’t know, and we don’t have time to befriend them all; nor would they necessarily welcome our advances.

This leaves two possibilities: we can show them God’s love in ways that do not require us to know them, or we can somehow encourage them to seek us out.

We’ll talk about this and the third and fourth ways to love them in subsequent posts.

Everyone has four kinds of neighbors.

First, there are the people you know to speak to, that you interact with as you go about your daily rounds: your family, first of all; your co-workers; your close friends; and a few others. Your first duty as a Christian is to this, for they are the ones God has put into your life. Loving them might be easy (because of your affection for them) or hard (because you can’t stand them) but they are in your life and they aren’t going away.

Second, there are the people who are obviously in need in your local community: the homeless, the hungry, battered women, unwed mothers, the unemployed, the imprisoned. Christ tells us that as often as we bring love to these, we bring love to Him. Loving them is both surprisingly easy and surprisingly difficult. Easy because opportunities abound. Precisely because these needs are so obvious, there are usually many organized ministries to support, either indirectly, by gifts of money, and directly, by giving time. Both are worth doing, and it is especially worthwhile to find some one ministry that brings you face to face with the people who need your love. It is people you are helping, not ministries, and it is quite possible to give money without giving love. (Prayer should be a part of either method.)

Loving this group is surprisingly hard because of our own selfishness. There is nothing technically difficult about helping to bring meals to the homeless, beyond the investment of time. The difficulty is in choosing to do it.

Third, there are the people who are obviously in need in the wider world. It seems odd to call them neighbors, when they live far away, but modern communications bring their needs to our attention. These people have the same difficulties as the second group, but few of us will have the capability of helping any of them directly and face to face. The most most of us can do is to pray and to give money, and again, this is worthwhile. But again, it is quite possible to give money without giving love, and we should remember that charity begins at home.

So far we’ve talked about the people we really know, and the people, both near and far, who have obvious unmet needs. But there’s a fourth kind of neighbor: those who live near us, who have no obvious unmet needs, and who we do not know. They live in our community; they often live on our street; but we do not know them. And yet, they need God’s love; they need others to bring God’s love to them. In our increasingly secular and a-religious world, there might well be no one doing that (intentionally, at least). (God’s love, is, of course, all around us. The sun warms us; the earth supports us; the air and water nourish us. But most take these signs of God’s love for granted.)

In future posts, we’ll talk about ways to bring God’s love to them, and why Oramus focusses on prayer.

It used to be that in most places where people lived, they knew most of the people in the area, but sight if not by name.

This is no longer true. If you live in the United States, chances are good that you live in a suburb. You may know a few of the people who live on your street. If you have kids in the local schools, you probably know a number of their classmate’s parents. If you go to church, you know people there. But chances are excellent that there are hundreds of people who live within a few blocks of your house that you have never met and do not know at all.

It used to be that the most important thing people had in common was the community in which they lived. That’s what the word “community” means. But in our day, with increased population densities and the Internet, community has become largely non-geographic. You know a few people in your vicinity: people from your church, or your school. You know the people you work with, but many them commute long distances from their homes. They aren’t really locals, and you might not be either. You probably know lots of people on the Internet: some you’ve got real ties to—folks you used to go to school with, distant family members, and so on—but most are people who like the same movies, or the same genre of music, or the same kinds of books, or the religion, or the same politics. Birds of a feather flock together.

But your neighbors? Them you don’t know.

Jesus asks us, “If you do not love the brother whom you can see, how can you love the God whom you cannot see?” But what if you don’t know your brother because he stays in his house and you stay in yours? What if you have nothing in common beyond living a few blocks apart? How can you love your neighbor if you don’t know him?

How can you find him, so that you can know him?

As you walk down the street, or through the mall, or where ever, focus on the people you see, one at a time, and say the Oramus prayer for them.

While at the mall, spend some time sitting in the Food Court, or on a bench, or anywhere that people stream by. Focus on them, one at a time, and say the Oramus prayer for them.

If you have more time, sit and silently pray the Rosary for the people passing by.

So you’re walking down Main Street, or through the mall, or the grocery store.  You’re surrounded by people from your community, most of whom you don’t recall ever having seen before, and most of whom you might never see again.  These are your neighbors.  How do you pray for them?

Try this:

Lord, bless him (or her) and keep him and make your face to shine upon him, that he may know how much you love him. And have mercy on me. Amen.

The person will never know that you prayed for him. But you have taken a moment of your time and given it to him, and to Him.

You’ll never know the good that you do.