Reflection for Monday in the Second Week in Lent Gosh, I was tired! It had been a long day at Jerusalem House with several people sick or just not feeling well, and I was glad to be heading home. Then I remembered I needed a couple of birthday cards. Being a member of a large family, I seemed always to need a card or two. I spotted a gift shop up ahead and pulled over to the curb and went in. I went to the card section, picked out my cards, then found the clerk to pay for them. The clerk, a young man, said to me, “You don’t know me but I know you. In fact, you are an important person in my life.” “Tell me about this,” I replied. “Well,” he said, “a few months ago we celebrated Gay Pride week in Atlanta. The weekend began with a celebration of Holy Eucharist at All Saints Episcopal Church. I’ve been struggling with the church for years; many people told me that I couldn’t truly be a Christian since I was gay and that I was surely going to hell. The Episcopal Church seemed to be different at times but I wasn’t sure. I decided to attend the service. You were the deacon at the service. You read the Gospel and took part in the Eucharist. When you served me the bread you looked me in the eye and said, ‘The body of Christ, the bread of heaven.’ At that moment I knew; I knew that Jesus loved me—me—a gay man. Thanks to you I knew that I was indeed a child of God and an inheritor of God’s kingdom.” Suddenly my fatigue was gone and the young man—my new friend—and I talked for awhile that day and continued to talk from time to time until he left Atlanta. Jim eventually died of AIDS and I know he has been healed. As St. Paul reminds us, in the future life, we will see, not through a glass, darkly, but fully, face to face. . . .
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 11:00:01 +0000
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