With Vast Respect Does God Treat Us
by Frank Duff

"Your power is the beginning of justice: and because You are Lord of all, You make Yourself gracious to all" (Book of Wisdom 12).

G.K. Chesterton once said that "St. Francis honoured all men, that is, he not only loved but respected them all. What gave him his extraordinary power was this: that from the Pope to the beggar, from the Sultan of Syria in his pavilion to the ragged robbers crawling out of the wood, there was never a man who looked into those brown, burning eyes without being certain that Francis Bernardone was really interested in him, in his own inner individual life from the cradle to the grave; that he himself was being valued and taken seriously".

The Christian faith is a matter of facts and fixed truths - not a set of opinions which vary with one's feelings. The love which is founded on that faith should have the same substance. It must be no creature of our thoughts - a sort of barometer indicating mental climate. It must be an active love, turning into force the things the Faith has taught us. One of its subjects is to be our neighbours. We must love him for God's sake; because God has commanded. We must love him even for our own sake; for if we fail therein, we do grievous hurt to our own soul.

Respect is the first-fruit of Charity. Therefore its presence is the mark of the genuineness of that thing called love. It defines love which otherwise is incapable of definition. Respect can only proceed from the conviction that our neighbour is in himself a worthy subject of our respect, and hence that he must get it from us. It must not depend on our just feeling that way; nor on that person's possession of certain qualities or assets. Likewise, the expectation of gratitude is a powerful but unspiritual incentive to do good to others. Neither is awe equivalent to respect. It may be nearer to fear. Christian respect is none of these emotions, but a realisation of the supreme dignity of our neighbour as a soul in whom God is living. If that is really appreciated by us, the automatic response in us will be that delicacy of behaviour which I call Respect. Respect is the very kernel of our love, the living germ of our service of others. In that light God looks on it, and for that reason insists on it. But even the crudest worldling prizes it uniquely. It is the "healthful binding" in all human relationships. It is the ingredient which gives savour to all the amenities of life.