Solidarity on a Summer Sunday (07/24/2024)

I was stocking the dessert table when I looked up and saw Nicki. She smiled and asked if we needed help. I told her I was sure we did. I took her to the kitchen to get her some latex gloves. As we walked, she explained that she’d been with her kids at the county fair. The judging of their projects had ended. She hadn’t volunteered earlier because she didn’t know if she’d be able to get away because the timing of the judging wasn’t clear. I told her how much it meant to have her come and join us as we celebrated together at our parish festival.

After we stocked the dessert table, she joined in with others in the dessert room to plate desserts donated by members. I walked around to help in other areas. The serving line opened up. I noticed a gentleman with a cane and realized that balancing his meal on the Styrofoam plate could be difficult. So, I walked up beside him and asked if I could help by carrying his meal. He agreed that would be helpful. I noticed Nicki watching me. Within seconds, she volunteered to help a woman with a cane. We accompanied our dinner guests through every station including drinks and took their selections to the table of their choice.

As I started to walk away, a woman asked if we had coffee. I admitted ignorance but promised to get some answers. Turns out we did have coffee. Within a short amount of time, we had coffee for the woman at her table thanks to a teenager who volunteered to help with the dinner. As I stood by the table waiting for the coffee, I realized that the diners were introducing themselves and getting to know one another.

When I finished my shift, I looked around the center. We were a community. We came at different times. We had different tasks. But all of us were contributing in the ways we could through volunteering, through participating, through financial support. And after 3 hours there, I had to admit that I hadn’t heard a single criticism. Everyone was getting along. And I wondered if solidarity and unity was possible here, where else in our world could it occur.

Unity. How do we recapture the unity of the Garden?

We are one family, but we are a family in crisis. We have one Father. We share one Savior. We are guided and graced by one Spirit. But disharmony rocks so many events. Our politics are polarizing. War is ravaging the populations in the Middle East and Europe. How do we recover that which we have squandered?

As with all things, it begins with us. It begins with us honestly examining our own lives and how we have contributed to either unity or disunity. It involves time in prayer, lots of time in prayer, perseverance in prayer. And it requires changes in us. That is part of our prayer, we pray for the courage and strength to change, to turn toward the LORD and the LORD’s desire for us to be one.

As we journey, let us consider how we are discerning the will of the Father in our moments and what we are doing to realize that will. And we know from scripture and from the teachings of Christ that the LORD does desire that we be one. Let us find ways to surrender to the LORD’s desire, to put down “our way” and embrace the LORD’s will. Let us be agents of reconciliation. Let us be instruments of the LORD’s peace.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.