This weekend Im basing my reflection on the Gospel for the weekend, Matt: 14: 13-21..... A friend in hospital ministry a number of years ago recounted a scene she had seen many times in her ministry. When a family gathers around a deceased loved one, the hospital bed becomes a sort of communion table. Around the bed there may be a weeping daughter, ex-husband, a current partner, two sons who havent spoken in years, an estranged sister, and a doting brother. When I enter the room, I instantly feel that I am in a sacred space. We form a circle, and we pray. I say something as simple as, Tell me about her, and the stories begin to flow, followed by laughter and tears. Held by love, people suspend their judgments and hurt feelings, if just for the moment. Such moments can be the beginning of a deeper king of healing. Everyone who ministers in hospitals has been part of such moments: when the bread of humble love heals the brokenness of anger and estrangement, when the fragments of our memories of loved ones enable us to grieve and accept their loss. More astounding than Jesus feeding the 5,000 is Jesus transforming them into a community - - community who becomes one in their need, one in the bread they share, one in the love of Christ who has brought them together. This week, offer your bread to another to help satisfy their inner hunger, to calm their inner fear, to satisfy an inner deeper longing. And who knows, perhaps another will offer you theirs...... Have a sparkle of a weekend, the first of August.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 18:12:37 +0000
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