How welcoming are you to strangers? - Daily Reflections October 21,2014

NO LONGER STRANGERS AND SOJOURNERS

 

We Filipinos are the new denizens of the world. Almost all of us have a relative or an acquaintance who works someplace else in this shrinking world. At least vicariously, we have an experience or two about being given temporary welcome to a place other than our own home.

       We know how it feels. Being a stranger in the midst of people who look at you precisely as one, and who make no secrets about their discomfort at having you around, is not a pleasant prospect. We feel different and not fully inserted into the culture. At times, we feel unwelcome, rightly or wrongly.

       But most of us also have an experience of someone who came to our rescue and made us feel at home. They sat by us, walked us through as we tried to get our bearings in a seemingly hostile and strange world, and perhaps even gave us the means to start life anew in a place where we feel exactly like what St. Paul says: “alienated.”

       Truth to tell, we were once alienated from the community of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise. Owing to our sins, both personal and social, we literally estranged ourselves from God, ourselves, others and even from the natural world. How often do we feel powerless before the onslaught of nature that seems to rebel against the abuses humankind has wrought on it for so long? How often do we feel left out when, due to our own sins, we feel unworthy to belong and to worship in spirit and truth?

       But there is good news for us strangers today. That good news is not a concept but a concrete person in flesh and blood. In fact, He shed His blood literally for you and me. Among other things, at least that was so powerfully depicted in the great movie, The Passion of the Christ.

       Christian faith and life, however, is not just a movie. On account of the Blood of Christ, we are strangers and sojourners no more. We belong to Him. Fr. Chito Dimaranan, SDB

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: How welcoming are you to strangers?

 

Thank You, Lord, for making me feel that I belong even if I don’t feel worthy at times to be called Your child.