“I
see Jesus in every human being. I say to myself, this is hungry Jesus, I must
feed him. This is sick Jesus. This one has leprosy or gangrene; I must wash him
and tend to him. I serve because I love Jesus.” – Mother Teresa
Gospel
Text: (LK 8:19-21)
The mother of Jesus and his brothers
came to him
but were unable to join him because of
the crowd.
He was told, “Your mother and your
brothers are standing outside
and they wish to see you.”
He said to them in reply, “My mother
and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and
act on it.”
When I was a young boy, I thought
it was weird when the priest would call us “brothers and sisters in Christ”.
Um, I have one brother; I don’t know who the rest of these people are I would
say to myself.
I guess the underlying question to
consider here before we can take this “brothers
and sisters in Christ” statement seriously is: Can we love people who are
different than us?
It’s easy to be kind to our family and
close friends, but how do you treat strangers? How do you treat that homeless
man on the street? How do you treat the bully at your work or school? How do
you treat your new neighbors or coworkers?
It may be easy to point out the
differences between you and them, to explain why you don’t like them, or to
explain your actions towards them. Even if you are completely different than
one person, you have the biggest thing in common – you are both a member of the
family of God. And this similarity overshadows all of your differences.
If you think of everyone as family,
wouldn’t you start treating them differently? Today, we are called to recognize
that we are truly united with one another because of the love of our Lord, who
said that everyone who lives in His Word, is a member of His family. So today,
try to view the world in a different way: we are not strangers, we are a
family.
No comments:
Post a Comment