If you’ve grown up in the midst of cool Christianity, you might think that the call of the Gospel is to “be nice.” And Jesus said unto them, “Be nice to one another as I have been nice to you.”
To be “nice” is the secular equivalent of being virtuous, but with the fire taken out of it. It's not a hot word, but it's not cold either. It's like Cream of Wheat without the brown sugar.
We say so often today that a given person is “nice,” but what do we really mean to say? That person is innocuous. There is no spice in him. He is about as tasty as a meatloaf dinner at a diner.
“Nice” is not a heroic adjective. People are called nice if they don't do bad things. It's a word that serves more as filler than flattery. What do you say when there's nothing else to say?
“Oh, it was… nice.”
“No, it looks really… nice.”
“He's a nice guy, though.”
I was talking to a friend a while back about the etymology of the word “nice” — we were smoking rich Maduro cigars on a balcony and trying to blow smoke rings like a couple of hobbits. (Many people do not believe cigar smoke is a nice thing to subject people to, by the way). Smoke-wreathed, we pondered the origins of the word. Perhaps from the Latin nescio, which means “I don't know.”
“What do you think of this outfit?”
“It looks… nice.”
“How was your date last night?”
“He was… nice.”
Rabbi Abraham Heschel once said “God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake.”
The Gospel is still a radical fire. It is and remains a two-edged sword, slicing through our common everydays and calling us out into the deep. One step beyond mediocrity, it's been said, and we are saved.
So away with Cream of Wheat on Sundays! Away with insipid homilies! Let us be challenged. Let us hear the truth spoken in love! Let us be called to higher things, even if we kick and scream on this path to holiness like kids on the way to the dentist. May our fathers fearlessly lead us.
I don't want to be nice. I want to be like a whirlwind that stirs things up, a beacon that shines a fiery beam towards our destiny, a man who lives! I want to fight for truth, lay down my life for my beloved wife and for the Church.
May God stir more hearts to the radical love of the Gospel, that we may leave behind the nice for the new, the bland for the beautiful banquet that our Father has prepared for us!
© Copyright 2006 Catholic Exchange
Bill Donaghy is a lay evangelist who writes and speaks on topics of the Catholic Faith. He is a certified Theology of the Body speaker, and teaches Scripture in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He and his wife Rebecca live in Lansdowne. Learn more about his speaking ministry and semi-serious blog at www.missionmoment.org.
