Reflection for the 31st Sunday of Ordinary Time – November 3rd
In her book My Grandfather’s Blessings Rachel Naomi Remen recounts this story
A highly skilled Doctor keeps a picture of her grandmother in her home. Every morning, before leaving for the hospital, she sits quietly in front of the picture. Her grandmother was an Italian-born woman who held her family close. Her wisdom was of the earth.
Once when Louisa was small, her kitten was killed in an accident. It was her first experience of death and Louisa was devastated. Her mom and dad assured her not to be sad, that her kitten was now in heaven with God, but little Louisa found little comfort in that.
She prayed, asking God to give her kitten back. But God did not answer.
In her anguish, she turned to her grandmother. “Why?” she asked.
Her grandmother lifted her up and held her close. She did not tell her that her kitten was with God. Instead, she reminded her of the time when Grandpa died. She didn’t know why either. She prayed, but God did not bring Grandpa back. Louisa turned into the soft warmth of her grandmother’s shoulder and sobbed. At one point, she turned to see her grandmother crying, too.
Although her grandmother could not answer her question, a great loneliness was lifted and Louisa felt able to move on.
“My grandmother was a lap . . . a place of refuge. I know a great deal about [medicine and disease] but what I really want to be for my patients is a lap, a place from which they can face what they have to face and not be alone.”
Jesus’ Gospel is not a collection of pious words we commit to memory but a perspective through which we see and live our lives. We can’t be disciples by being mere spectators of God’s presence. Authentic discipleship calls us to become consciously and totally engaged in the hard work of building the kingdom of God — a kingdom of justice, mercy and peace. Our identity as disciples of Christ is centred in the compassion we extend to others — in our willingness to be a “lap,” a place of refuge, a source of peace for others. Our faithfulness in imitating the love of the Risen Jesus is not in having the right answers or in the correctness of our dogmatic judgments but in our openness of heart and spirit to love selflessly, completely and unconditionally, as God has loved us in his Christ.