Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Traveling mercy
Take nothing for the journey, neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money, and let no one take a second tunic.
Marc and I, on our way driving 6000 miles through Niagara Falls, autumn in New England, and finally to Nova Scotia, then back again to Illinois and finally Austin, aren’t taking much along with us. We want to have room to stretch out in our Prius to sleep.
Of course we’ll take a walking stick and sack, and food and money, and both of us will take an extra shirt. We’ll need heavier coats in the October Maine coastal air. So I guess this list Jesus gave to his disciples doesn’t really fit our situation.
Except that we are as interested in listening for the Holy Spirit as were the disciples.Both of us love to pray for healing and listen for stories that guide us closer to God’s arms. God’s grace. God’s forgiveness. God’s ever-present protection. We ask our guardian angels to cover our car, and our conversation, our hopes and dreams.
All of this is in the very near future (October 4 through October 18). But in the very recent past our friend in Springfield, Deacon Dan Frachey, spent a week at McCormick Place in Chicago with fellow travelers at the 2023 Parliament of the World’s Religions. He went with a few friends and made a whole bunch more.
McCormick Place is huge, did Dan say eight football fields fit in there? 7,000 folks came from around the world, from 95 countries and 210 religious traditions. Most religions feel threatened, both from within and without. That’s not new news, of course. But the threats here and now need to be described and thwarted, always by their opposites. Love trumps hate. What do you think of this keynote statement by Phyllis Curott:
Today we are all standing at a pivotal moment where history seeks to repeat itself. It is a moment of urgency – an existential global scourge has returned…It is a stark reality that transcends borders, cultures and faiths. A reality that demands our collective action and moral courage. As people of faith and spirit we have a singular responsibility. Here is the truth we must all confront and change. Despots are misappropriating religions to justify the unjustifiable. Tyrants proclaim themselves saviors posturing with religious symbols and exploiting language to affirm their power. And tragically, there are religious leaders who stand beside them and religious communities who cheer them.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Pick your side, or pick your religion – you’ll find plenty of takers in the ancient power game. At Chicago’s 1893 World Columbian Exposition the Parliament gathered for the first time to encourage the givers, as well as shore up the hopes and enthusiasm of those who felt the heat of opposition and even persecution. After a hundred year hiatus, the Parliament has met every three years in cities around the world.
So they set out and went from village to village proclaiming the good news and curing diseases everywhere.
We’ll be skipping along from village to village too, and I hope we proclaim the Good News and even cure diseases. I remember the week-long welcome that Gander, Newfoundland gave to 38 planes and their 7000 passengers, stranded in the air after the 9/11 bombings in 2001. We’ll be 400 miles and a ferry ride from Nova Scotia, but I imagine the villages on Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia (New Scotland in French, right?) are as welcoming as Gander.
All we have to do is smile, open our mouths to say hello and God bless you, then see what happens next.
(Isaiah 55, Psalm 145, Philippians 1, Acts 16, Matthew 20)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
#
