Reflection
Brothers and sisters:
–Romans 8:35
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?
As a young woman, I served as Catholic chaplain at the county juvenile detention center. I visited with young people while they were “locked up” in the Youth Home, in adult prisons after sentencing, and after they were released. Many of them suffered the burdens that St. Paul lists in todays’ second reading. They had lived with “anguish” and “distress” in homes riddled with violence or neglect, or they were abused while in detention. Some experienced “persecution” for the color of their skin or their social status as they moved out into the wider world. And some endured “famine” and “nakedness” because they were born into poverty. And many of the young men, seeking to escape the violence in their neighborhood, joined the military. And sadly, some of them found “peril” and the “sword” in a foreign land.
My heart went out to them, and I wanted to relieve their burdens. I came to believe that the best message I could share with them was that God loved them. We sometimes leave God, but God does not leave us. God’s love is unconditional and freely given as expressed in today’s first reading from Isaiah:
All you who are thirsty,
–Isaiah 55: 1
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, receive grain and eat;
Come, without paying and without cost,
drink wine and milk!
How do we experience this love when we are suffering? Is this unconditional love “too good to be true”?
I told my young friends that “God works through people”. God’s love is to be found in the loving relationships we have with each other.
In truth, I would not have had the courage to go to the Youth Home every day, if not for the support of the members of the Team for Justice, a prison ministry community to which I belonged. The woman religious (Sisters), mentored me, prayed with me and for me, and helped me to find and use my gifts.
Christian communities come in all sizes, from the Board of Directors at one of our Passionist retreat centers, to the thousands that Jesus ministered to in today’s Gospel. It is in these communities that we encounter and hold onto the love of God in Jesus. We hear the Word of God. We are healed of the things that hold us back, and we are nourished for the journey.
Where, when, or how have you experienced the love of God in Jesus in community?
How has Christian community challenged and supported you to find and use your talents and spiritual gifts for the common good?
