 |
||||||
Jesus said, "What
is your
thought on this: a man owns a hundred sheep and one of them wanders
away; will
he not leave the ninety-nine out on the hills and go in search of the
stray? If he succeeds in finding it,
believe me he is happier about this one than about the ninety-nine that
did not
wander away. Just so, it is no part of
your heavenly Father’s plan that a single one of these little
ones shall ever
come to grief.
|
||||||
At
the beginning of the movie “Dead Man Walking,” it is clear
that Sr. Helen
Prejean, C.S.J. believed the doctrine of love. She
had been taught it early on in life by her parents, and it was a
significant part of her training for religious life. Interpreting
the love of neighbor to include
especially the poor of the world, she had asked her superiors to give
her the
opportunity to work with the poor, to help find those who were lost. Her understanding was to grow even more, when
she decided to write to Matthew Poncelet on death row.
|
||||||
|
Jesus wanted everyone
to be saved, even to the point of leaving the ninety-nine who were
found in the
story he told, to search out the one who needed help. His
followers claim to love others in the
same way. However, many times our love
as Christians has remained only on the surface: we give lip service to
it, we
only “say” that we will look for the one who is lost. We
express our love by giving to people who
will appreciate us, for example; we love, but without any real cost to
our
comfortable lives. The test of love
comes when care for others goes beyond our comfort level and begins to
cause
uneasiness.
Love of others may not require heroic stands or martyrdom, but if it does, the true Christian will carry it out. Sr. Helen Prejean, C.S.J. understood that perfectly. Little did she know that her life would be so affected by simply reaching out to one particular person who was lost. |
||||||
|
THOUGHT
“We
love, but without
any real cost to our comfortable lives.” Why
is this a true statement?
PRAYER Good and gracious God,
you wanted no one to be lost, and everyone to have the opportunity of
eternal
life. Help us do our part by trying to
love those who have no one to love them. Be
with us, we pray.
|
||||||
©2007
Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America |