WE ARE FAMILY
“I am fighting the world and the devil by myself.”
“Community ends isolation.”
“…Jesus was led by the Spirit into the
desert to be tempted by the devil...
and, behold, angels came and
ministered to him.”
These quotes are from, respectively, a recent
conversation with a woman in a homeless shelter, as she struggled with issues
most of us handle routinely and without thought; the philosophy of Earthlinks,
a Denver-based social enterprise providing safe space and community for people
experiencing homelessness and poverty (earthlinks-colorado.org); and from
Matthew 4:1-11 – the Gospel for the 1st Sunday in Lent. What, if anything, do they have in common?
I think they represent a progression – from a place
of ‘being stuck’ in self-reliance and individualism, (in this case born out of
despair), to a recognition that we are relational beings created in the image
and likeness of our loving and relational God, to a fullness of life gained
when we minister to others in their vulnerability and when we allow others to
minister to us in ours, just as Jesus did.
As our Lenten journey quietly unfolds, may we truly
recognize each other as sister and brother, as family; may our hearts be opened
to see the angels among us.
Kathy Flynn OP
Sinsinawa, WI
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