Church of St. Mary at Clinton Heights

I ran across a song this past week called the “Hand Song” by a group called Nickel Creek and a reflection that a Jesuit priest connected to it.

Fr. John Foley wrote the following:

A young boy picks roses for his mother. Trouble is, she has been raising these roses with great care, and he has now broken off the beautiful flowers. As he brings them to her, thorns dig into his hands. She lovingly extracts these, reminders of her roses, …

“and she knew it was love. It was one she could understand. He was showing his love and that’s how he hurt his hands”.

This is the love that Jesus calls us too…..a love that sacrifices for the need of another, a love that puts another first, a love that serves the rest.  The word in Greek, is “Agape” a  love is selfless and unconditional. Strong’s defines it as “brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence.” Why else would Jesus have gone to the Cross?  He went there to show us what true love entails.

True love means getting our hands dirty, risk getting hurt, rejected, and thinking more about another no matter who that person is.  True love means even embracing those we may not like.  The love of a Christian accepts the fact that we can get wounded as Jesus, but the fear of getting wounded or even being hurt by the people we help cannot deter us from loving as Jesus did.  This can seem impossible and it probably is without the grace that flowed from the side of Cross and continues to flow into our hearts through the mystery of the Eucharist.

We read in the First Letter of St John, what that the outward sign of love and it is not found in a Hallmark card.  John writes

There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother or sister, he or she is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother or sister whom he or she has seen, cannot love God whom he or she has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his or her brother or sister.

I think that says it all.

So my brothers and sisters, the way is clear and the path is marked out for us.  May we as God’s people follow the example of Christ on the Cross and love each other and the world with a selfless love.  May we wash the feet of all we meet as Jesus did because he is the greatest example of how to love.

 

 

 

I ran across this story this past week.

 A pop quiz was given to a new class of nursing students in the first year of their training. Most of the students did well on the quiz until they came to the last question, which they all left blank.  That question was, “What is the name of the woman you see every morning who cleans our section of the school?”    The students thought that the question was a joke.  But when they got their papers back, every one of them was marked off for that question.  They protested.  The professor said, “Her name is June. In your careers you will meet many people.  All of them are significant.  They deserve your attention and care, even if all you can do is smile and say “hello.” The students never forgot the lesson, or June’s name.

Jesus knows each of us by name no matter who we are or what we have done.  He died for each of us; not just for a select few.  His death and rising gives hope to all humanity.   Because he loved us so much, Jesus calls us to love all our brothers and sisters in the sheep fold.  I know I am not good at remembering names, but I strive to remember a face and who the person is. 

 I grew up in a house where I was often called by my brother’s name, thankfully not the cats, but I still knew that my mother and father knew me for me.  Jesus is the same way and He does know our names.  He calls us by name to follow him. In the sheepfold, no two sheep look alike or act alike.  They are all diverse and even when two or three herds are mixed together, each sheep will respond to only to his or her shepherd’s voice.  We must strive to hear Jesus’ voice today.

 We may not remember the name of the person who gets our coffee at Dunkin Donots, but we can strive to say good morning. The same with the person who checks us out at Price Chopper or Hannaford.  If we work in an office, do we know who cleans it everyday?  Do the youth know the name of the custodians at their schools?  How about asking the postal person who delivers the mail how his or her day is going?  The opportunities are endless.  We all see the same people everyday because of our routines; but do we really see them?  They are sheep of the same shepherd as we are. The people we walk by everyday are the voice of the Shepherd to us and we are the voice of the Shepherd to them

As we celebrate the Good Shepherd who gave his life for us, may we strive to get to know the other sheep of the herd, especially those we walk by everyday. Even here is church, we need to get to know each other because no shepherd ever has just one sheep; he or she has many.  May the Good Shepherd open our ears and our eyes to hear his voice in all we meet.  May he use us to speak to His love to the world.