How do we tame this status quo [the us vs. them mentality]
that lulls us into blindly accepting the things that divide us
and keep us from our own holy longing for the mutuality of kinship
—a sure and certain sense that we belong to each other?
--Fr. Greg Boyle, Barking to the Choir
A deacon at my church once shared a metaphor from earlier Christian times that can be traced back to the sixth-century monk and hermit, Dorotheos of Gaza. It goes like this: Think of a wheel or circle. (In our modern times, we can think of a bicycle wheel.) Imagine the spokes of the wheel. As the spokes travel from the outside tire towards the hub in the center of the wheel, they necessarily get closer to one another. In this metaphor, the center of the wheel is God and the spokes are each of us on our own path to God. It does not matter at what point on the circumference you start, as one continues on their journey to the center, one must get closer and closer to other people on their own paths.
The beauty of the two-fold nature of the greatest commandment, to me, is that we are all given many, many opportunities to convey our love and gratitude to God through how we treat others. This can range from the time we spend with our family and friends to the mundane interactions we all have with strangers in our daily lives and everything in between. God calls us all to be in communion with him, and at the same time, to be in communion with each other. “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it,” as it is written in the Book of Proverbs (3:27). Love is a gift God has freely given to all of mankind… and that is something I hope to keep in mind next time I see my neighbor.
--Sean Wild
Image source 2: The North Rose Window, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris, https://blogcathykellyphotography.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/notre-dame-de-paris-rose-windows-survived-the-fire/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2
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