Alienation is a two-sided coin. We must want it for ourselves, in the measure that God gives it. It is a necessity, a horrible necessity of our human condition. If we are to receive God, who is infinitely far above our capacities, how he wants to give himself, we must, in this life or the next, be alienated from ourselves and our desires – even some legitimate desires. If we are not emptied, we cannot receive God.

But how could we ever want someone else to be alienated in any way from their life? How could we want another human being to feel alienated from their society? How could we ask another soul to be alienated from human happiness? It’s inconceivable. The only justification for being alienated is to be given to God; but God sets that schedule – not us. We don’t set that schedule for ourselves, and we certainly don’t set it for others.

When it comes to others, we must first take a stand against all injustice, prejudice, discrimination, abuses of power, and issues of human rights.

But beyond that, in the personal space of all the people we meet, there is a certain effort to alleviate alienation and suffering and loneliness. We not only must be just and fair, if these people really represent Jesus to us, we must be indulgent to them in their humanity. How could we act otherwise? They are part of this pitiable human condition, too.

In the story of those saints who – like Saint Damien of Molokai and Blessed Charles de Foucauld – lived their lives with and for others and who died because of their daily choices, we find the recurrence of the theme,

Be severe toward yourself, indulgent toward others.

Pater Damiaan even went so far as to give his life in suffering with the leprous when God took him there. But when he discovered that many of the children with leprosy enjoyed marbles, he was sure to get some for them. He got them ordered. He got them brought in. Marbles came to be a symbol of his love and his indulgence.

When I was in Leuven in the weeks after Father Damien’s canonization, his tomb had been decorated with marbles.