One of our
Community Centres
and a local bar called
'Chiller's Den'
are found standing side by side
Once I happened to pick by chance a copy of June 21, 2008 issue of the USA national publication of the War Cry. Inclusion in the magazine’s column of 'Quotes of the past and present' was Commissioner Lalkiamlova, International Secretary for South Asia’s verbatim - “The question is not who’s my neighbour, but whose neighbour am I”. Together let’s try to answer this question.How easy it is to count ourselves as acquaintances of people whom we admire, the rich and famous elite, and how hard we may try to have them accept us! But equally difficult is even to simply consider ourselves as neighbour to the poor, infamous and the down-and-outs of society. Still more unlikely is this latter category of fellow beings accepting ‘us’ as their neighbours!
Today, where image seems to be all-important, we note that Jesus cared nothing for his image. He made himself ‘nothing’. He came into our world, into our mess, into our shoes and ultimately into our place. He embraced the cross. He made total identification with us sinners. (Philippians 2: 5-7).
Two thousand years later we still need to hear the Master’s words - ‘Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant’. The parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us how easy it is for us to be so committed to our standards, practices and work schedules that we fail to make an impact in the ‘real world’– a world of chaos, violence and suffering, where our faith and service are most needed.
Jesus identifies himself with me, so shall I with the suffering world.
