Reflection for March 19

We cannot do this alone. You cannot do this alone. We need one another. The metaphor that’s used in the epistles about our being followers of Jesus is that we’re members of a body. The fact that not everyone is a head, or not everyone is a heart, or not everyone is a foot, or a kidney, doesn’t mean that they are not essential. We all need one another and we belong to one another. And so when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, Jesus leaves us with what we call the Lord’s Prayer. And, you know, it’s plural, “Our Father who art in Heaven…Give us…

Forgive us,” it’s presuming that we belong to one another, that we are partnered with one another, that we need one another…. There is a fascinating word that’s used in the letter to the Hebrews, and that is the word for the love of strangers, philonexia. It’s exactly the opposite of xenophobia, which is being afraid of strangers, or put off by strangers. The letters of the Hebrews says this reminder to love the brothers or sisters, and do not forget the stranger, because there are no strangers to Jesus (Brother Curtis Almquist, Society of St. John the Evangelist, Five Marks of Love).