Familiar Faces (7/31/2023)

Yesterday, at Mass, when Father invited us to exchange the sign of peace with those around us, I turned and found that I was surrounded by familiar faces. I can’t explain the sense of peace – wholeness – I experienced in that moment. How could one hope for more than being In the presence of our LORD and surrounded by those I know and love. I thanked the LORD in that moment for the gift I’d prayed for for years and it had happened without my realizing it. As one who has had to move so many times and start all over again, I have prayed for “belonging.” Yesterday, in that moment in Mass, I recognized I did belong.

Belonging is not a small matter. We are created in relationship for relationship. We are guided by the laws of our LORD that focus entirely on relationship with our LORD and with one another. Our journey to ourselves as we are created by our LORD involves building our relationships with our LORD and one another and in the process building a relationship with ourselves.

After communion, as I offered my prayers of thanksgiving, I thanked the LORD for the gift of belonging and begged the LORD to make me an agent of His desire for us to be one. I asked that I be aware of others and their need for connection, for companionship along the way, for meaningful relationships, for belonging.

Our journeys are ones of believing, belonging and becoming. None of them happen in a vacuum. All of them involve more than us. All of them involve our relationship with our LORD as well as with our sisters and brothers, our mothers and fathers, those we do not know but must love because they are our sisters and brothers in Christ. The journey is long; the journey is challenging. Always and everywhere, we are in need of the guidance of the Spirit and grace. And along the way we are called to be Christ to one another – companions on the journey.

This morning as I write, I pray that all the readers of this blog recognize the essentiality of belonging in our faith journeys and commit to building the relationships necessary beginning with the crucial relationship with our LORD and then flowing out to relationships with our sisters and brothers. What we believe is critical, but can it be real if we do not care for one another?

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.