Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - May 24, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
“Isn't this the carpenter, the son of Mary, a brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters our neighbors here?” (Mark 6:3) These are the words of people in Jesus' “own part of the country.” They model a way of whittling down the importance of Jesus. In other words, they say, would any exceptional person come from this neighborhood? It seems to be an enduring characteristic of us humans.
We spend our time (before the TV) and our adulation on overpaid commercial athletes and neglect the hard-playing, hard-working boys and girls next door. We look for heroic Christians somewhere across the world or in history and miss the ones we live or work with right here.
It's shocking that TV evangelists get incredible financial support from viewers while local pastors struggle and beg. (As someone has pointed out, the TV evangelist won't be visiting you when you're laid up with cancer. The local pastor and church workers are the ones who will be there.)
Support and encouragement of our neighbors in their work, sport, lives, talents, achievements is so often neglected in favor of celebrities. The little people, those around us who are doing good work, living good lives, they need and deserve support and appreciation. The big guns will get theirs as well as outsized salaries.
Recognizing the talent and goodness near us also builds community, solidarity. Isn’t that what we mean when we say that charity and many good things all begin at home? This is the loving concern we see in the neighbor who brings dinner to our home when we are grieving.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
