GETTING ON LINE

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I’m currently living in a comfortable room in the monastery’s infirmary where Br. Asiel is living up to his recently acquired title of “deacon” -- the Greek word, diakonos, as you know, means “servant.” He’s going way beyond just keeping my room cleaned up and so forth while my left knee heals from the surgery.

I started using the cane yesterday, weaning myself off of the walker, and the p.t. therapist who comes a couple of times a week has started stretching my “bad” knee to tighter angles. OUCH! I can see where rehab is heading over the next few weeks.

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Let me start this post with the first reading for this morning’s mass  for the Passion of John the Baptist:

Consider your own calling, brothers and sisters. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. Rather, God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, as well as righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, so that, as it is written, Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord. (I Cor. 1:26-31)

I woke up this morning to the sound of quiet conversations on the sidewalk one story beneath my window. Then I

remembered that this is Saturday, and people will be coming for bags of groceries this morning. With six-foot distancing, the line will sometimes reach up to the corner by the abbey church.

Thanks to my experience of depending on Br. Asiel and my fellow monks so much the past ten days in the infirmary, this morning I easily identify with my brothers and sisters down on the sidewalk who have come with empty hands, depending on the generosity of everyone involved in the Pierre Toussaint Food Pantry. 

I picture myself on a line approaching the merciful Lord with empty hands, needing the sustenance that only the all-merciful One can provide. I have not earned anything, rather, everything I receive on this line is a gift. I just stand before the heavenly abba, the Father that Jesus revealed to us: He doesn’t ask what I’ve done to earn my way into divine favor, he doesn’t ask if I’m qualified to receive anything from him. It’s all grace -- unconditional love. 

If  someone driving past the long line of folks on the Saturday morning food line grumbles to himself that a lot of those on the line are just taking advantage of the monks, and ought to get jobs and support themselves, I suggest that he might try to identify with the folks who are genuinely in need of help. I suggest that he look closely at Saint Paul’s words above: 

“God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world.... It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus .… Whoever boasts, should boast in the Lord.”

In terms of our experience of God, I’m sure that there are folks who feel that they don’t need to stand on the line because they have followed all the Rules and have earned enough Grace to get them to heaven. This morning I realize that I’m definitely not someone who can drive past the line smugly knowing that I’m earning my own way, and so don’t need any handouts from God. 

Beneath my window the quiet conversations continue.