Wednesday after Lent 4 Read: Isaiah 49:8-15 Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. I have been doing a lot of travelling for work over the past week or so, and I have more to do before this week is over. While I actually love driving and being out and among the school communities of the Diocese, it is always good to return home at the end of the day. I may not always be at my best when I first get there - long days tend to wear me down just a little - however, I am restored and refreshed fairly quickly when I am in that place among the people who enrich my life. I dont take this blessing for granted. Many years ago, while I was teaching in the western suburbs of Sydney, I encountered refugee children for the first time. Until moving to that place I had led a fairly sheltered life in Newcastle. At St. Johns Park High School my eyes were opened to a whole new world. I will remember forever one of my students, Pat, who, with her little brother, had been put on a boat by her parents, who were to follow on another boat. Pat and her brother safely reached Australia and were welcomed into the country. She never saw her parents again. Escaping a place of terror, Pat and her brother found a new home in this land. Her parents longings for a better home for their children - bought at such a great cost in her parents loss of life - had been fulfilled here. I often think of Pat and compare her treatment with the treatment we are handing out to the Pats of our day. Fleeing terror in many instances, we place people into more terrifying situations, locked up far from the safe home they long for. By adding terror to terror we diminish our own humanity and create an unnecessary fear and terror of the unknown among ourselves. When I reflect on the treatment of refugees today it is Pat I see locked up in detention, trying to care for her brother, not knowing the fate of her parents, far from the safe haven she and her parents longed for. God hears the cries of the Pats of this world and we will be judged by the way we have treated the last, the lost and the least among us. Lord, have mercy, but only after I have learnt to be merciful. Amen. Canon Hugh Bright
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 20:55:48 +0000
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