The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Jesus Christ’s impact on God’s children is a paradox of service that models ways Latter-day Saints can serve others in the modern world, Presiding Bishop Gérald Caussé said this week at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
“Consider how Christ’s teachings during His mortal sojourn transcended both space and time — having application to all lands and peoples in every era — and yet His ministry took place among an astonishingly small segment of the earth’s geography and population,” he said. “He spoke the local language, lived the local culture and participated in local events and ceremonies like weddings.”
His practice of loving everyone was radical in His time, from conversing with the Samaritan woman at the well to healing untouchable lepers, from dining with publicans to defending the woman taken in adultery.
“All who were excluded by society found a welcome place in his company,” he said. “Can we not see through His example that strong communities are never achieved by ignoring or isolating strangers or those who seem weak, different or misplaced?”
Bishop Caussé said Christ’s example is more needed now than ever. He said Latter-day Saints have a responsibility as Christ’s disciples to kindle His love within their communities.
Church culture, he added, is intended to be inclusive, not exclusive, to look outward instead of inward.
“The Lord invites us to be conscious of the broader world in which we live — something which the increased worldwide connectivity now facilitates — and, at the same time, to stay rooted and engaged within our immediate communities. In other words, He expects us to form and strengthen associations on both a global and local scale.”
The Savior showed us the perfect example of how to do this today, Bishop Caussé said during his presentation to the International Society, a global network for Latter-day Saint professionals with international interests from business to development to Church growth, during the group’s annual conference on Monday, April 4.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.