Quiet for Today

This week, I had experienced some sort of a crucifixion that made me realize how wounded work-places can get.  People in the work place need ministering too.  But I am young and inexperienced compared to most of them who are all in their mid-40s or early 50s.  What can they learn from someone like me?  Sometimes I find myself wondering if I have lost my place and purpose but there are times when I see it very clearly.  Three years ago, my Mom had told me when I just started here, "Be the miracle." 

I wonder if I have already been one.

January is about to end and the second month of this year is about to begin.  There are quite a lot of new things brewing and growth is being anticipated.  There are areas at work that have started to change for the better.  Areas of youth ministry that have responded more authentically to what needs to be paid attention to.  There is this sifting and this morning I just sit still and ponder about it all.

I pray for some quiet today.  A sinking in of all of these things.  Finding the words from Fr. Ronald Rolheiser guiding me once again.

To be a member of the church, to be a believer, is to be linked to all of this, grace and sin. In this context it is significant to point out that Christ died between two thieves. He was innocent; they were not. However, because his sacrifice was seen against that horizon, it was judged by association, by those present, to be as tainted as the deaths of those he died with. People watching the crucifixion did not distinguish between who was guilty and who were innocent. They assessed what they saw en bloc. For them all crucifixions meant the same thing. The church is still judged in the same way. 

To be a church member is still to be connected, by association, with sin and sinners. Christ was the object of suspicion and misunderstanding. Every kind of accusation was leveled against him. This will be true, always, of his church. Like him, the church will always be seen by outsiders as framed against a certain horizon--on display with scoundrels, child molesters, fakes, frauds, bad thieves and good thieves. The crucifixion of Christ is still going on and it is mixed in the personal tragedies of honest and dishonest sinners. Christ is always pinned up among thieves.