Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

In How You Can Be a Peacemaker, by Mary Evelyn Jegen, the author states that “it is by God’s grace that we are offered the gift to accept ourselves as we truly are: fragile, weak, disordered – yet loved and loving, a little less than the angels, entrusted with each other’s lives.”

1. It is so easy to think of ourselves as individual, separate islands. This is my little world and that is yours. I will tend to mine and you take care of your own. From time to time, at our choosing, we can meet and relate.

But that is not the reality. We walk the same ground and breathe the same air on this one planet. Our lives are those of continuous bartering and mutual understanding (relating) – I give you money, you give me that; I do this for you, you pay me for my labor; and, of course, our deepest desire being, I show you love, you love me back.

 

2. Now let’s pause that thought and consider that these days, more than ever before, with rampant shootings either of masses or singularly on the highway, plus the random mistakes that take lives, are we not vulnerable one to the other, often a brief nano-second away from accident and tragedy; and therefore, are we not actually entrusted with each other’s lives every day?

 

3. And pause that thought too, now considering those in need – those needing food, drink, covering – those in need of loving care for their mental, physical, spiritual state – all these in need, if neglected, will likely become fearful, hopeless, desperate – and the desperate become unbalanced, unpredictable and possibly violent, in words and actions.

Our Lord, Jesus, speaks to us in Matthew 25:31-46, explaining that what we do or don’t do for those in need is the same as doing or not doing for Him. If we give food to the hungry, we give it to Him. If we refuse food for the hungry, we refuse food for Him.

The author (Jegen) adds, “With good reason we cannot be indifferent to anyone who lacks the necessities of life. As our knowledge and love of God grow, so does our concern to respond as fully as we can to Jesus in what Mother Teresa of Calcutta calls ‘his most distressing disguise.’”

 

Pulling these three ideas together:

1. We are all together on this one planet.2. We are all connected, one to another, affecting and affected by one another. 3.And per Jesus Christ, we are responsible for each other’s care and well-being. Big task, yes, but there it is.

Lord, sometimes we turn our eyes from lack (unless it’s our own). Sometimes being too selfish at heart to bother, to share, we ignore. Please forgive us our insensitivity. Lord, may we never deny You food, drink, assistance, kindness in any way. May we do better at loving and caring for one another. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.