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as ourselves. The root of all evil is the love of ruling over others from a love of
self. We read about spirits who are in this love: “These spirits are all sensually
natural, and some are of such a character as to believe that they alone are alive,
regarding others as phantoms.” (Divine Love and Wisdom 144)
The love of self causes us to view ourselves as more alive and more human
than others; but love to the Lord and love to the neighbor sees everyone as a
recipient of life from the Lord, made in the image and likeness of God, and
therefore truly human.
Those moments where we see other people treating strangers kindly can
help remind us of this. In those moments, we see the Lord acting in the world.
Now, maybe the person who gave up his seat to me is mean in his everyday
life; maybe that man who paid for the woman’s meal was only doing it so he
could feel pride in his own generosity. Those small acts are not charity itself,
which consists in acting from love every day. But even so, the Lord uses those
moments to bend a person’s life toward heaven.
The angelic view is to look for the good in people – to assume a good
motivation, to put the best interpretation on everything. So I hope and choose
to assume that those peopl H