O God, help us not to despise or oppose what we do not understand.
William Penn

Deep within us all is the desire for security; no doubt, it has its roots during our experience in our mother's womb and later in our earliest infancy, when we could depend absolutely on the outside environment and the care of our parents for our sustenance. Even this statement has to be qualified by the acknowledgement that not all pregnancies are harmonious and not all families happy, a circumstance only too obvious when we think of the many one-parent families in our midst nowadays. Certainly, the more secure we have been in the love of our own parents, and the more effortlessly we have entered into the mores of our peer group later on, the more able we are to accept ourselves as we are, taking both ourselves and our environment for granted. The ignorance that is a part of childhood is gradually eased away by the experience of adolescence and the deepening furrows of adult life: "When I was a child, my speech; my outlook and my thoughts were all childish. When I grew up, I had finished with childish things" (1 Cor. 13.10-11).

We should never lose the breathless receptivity and wonder of childhood innocence, remembering that "whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will never enter it" (Mark 10.15); but the inevitably limited understanding of the young has to be broadened by the chequered course of life. In this way sharp judgement is informed by deeper compassion, naive certainty by questioning faith, as deeper aspects of existence force themselves upon us. To be shown that one's view on a particular matter is simplistic if not frankly ill-informed constitutes an intolerable loss of face for the person who is emotionally immature, but affords a breath of fresh air to the healthy seeker who is prepared to sacrifice all personal comfort in the pursuit of truth.

"Do not stifle inspiration and do not despise prophetic utterances, but bring them all to the test and then keep what is good in them and avoid the bad of whatever kind" (1 Thess. 5.19-22). Here St Paul is warning his disciples not to quench the power of the Holy Spirit but the same caution applies to all insights and styles of living that are at variance with the norm. Tolerance is a feature of the well-centred person, but it can also drift dangerously into a thoughtless, indeed careless, permissive attitude that refuses the challenge of value judgements. Jesus warns us neither to judge nor condemn another person, an attitude he himself maintained in the case of the woman caught committing adultery (John 8.11), but he also reminds us that a person's actions and manner of life are recognized by their fruits (Matt. 7.15-20).

It is here that William Penn's noble prayer quoted above, finds its answer. Let us be quiet and flow out in goodwill to all new ventures even when their protagonists disturb our sense of convention; to be unshockable is the prerequisite of the effective counsellor. In this way our own adverse emotions are effectively checked as we enter into a deeper spiritual rapport with the person and his or her works. It is in the depths of such a relationship that the Holy Spirit can clear our minds of prejudice while bringing them to a clarity of perception in which we can see the fruit in terms of truth, beauty and goodness. St Paul's list of the harvest of the Holy Spirit is an especially helpful guide: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness and self-control" (Gal. 5.22). As we develop these fruits, so we can apply them to all that is aberrant and unclean, following the way of Jesus himself amongst the crowds of his time. At the same time we can respond in joyful recognition to the truth, beauty and goodness that we encounter in the new thing, exulting in its own integrity.

Give me, Lord, the humility to stay silent and to listen in courtesy and respect to the voices of the throng, so that I may learn more about myself as a preparation for more effective service.