Certain texts in the Bible put the “fear of the Lord” into me — not the accounts of fire and brimstone when God rings the world away but words of Jesus that remind me of how far I have to go on my road to genuine discipleship. Take the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in St. Matthew’s Gospel: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ The goats were condemned not because of any Snidely Whiplash kind of evil but because they did not see the needs that were all around them. When doing an examination of conscience I should not only look at my faults and failings but also at my tendency to see things only from my perspective, what I am going through. The parable challenges us to see things from the point of view of those who are suffering. In Chicago currently that certainly includes the refugees who have landed on our doorstep. Yes, we are going to be inconvenienced but we must see in them the person of Jesus. These refugees also serve to remind us that we have learned how not to see the homeless in our city who have a claim on us. Those living in front of police stations and those living under the train tracks both possess the face of Jesus. Globally the victims of war require us to respond with charity and closer to home we have family members and neighbors who are hurting. They too challenge us to reach out in care and compassion.
When my brother was sick I did all that I could to help him simply because he is my brother. Jesus dares us today to see that there isn’t anyone out there who isn’t brother or sister or mother to us since everyone has a family resemblance to him. Our lives as Christians must be re-oriented to look beyond what we are getting from the faith to see that by giving of ourselves to others we truly become alive.
