Epiphany 3. The brilliant youth worker illustrated the Pauline text with a string of soft yarn. The thin wool as a single strand was loosely wound and easily broken by a teenager passing a finger through it. . When the yarn was wound around the hands into a strand of more than ten it was virtually unbreakable. Along with Paul’s wise insights into the heart of Christian (and other) community, I’ve always liked Franklin’s remarks to the assembled delegates in Philadelphia at the beginning of the American Revolution: “Either we hang together or assuredly we shall hang separately.”
If Paul addresses the means and power of community, Jesus, quoting Isaiah, gives us our vision and mission statement. “Bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, liberation for the oppressed and imprisoned, and a reordering of wealth and power”.
It’s hard. Many of us get so far out front on issues that when we look behind there is no one there. But it all seems to fit together like a weaving when we let other strong hearts lead .Each thread: the higher vision, the gifts of the community, and the vulnerability of the priest and the community leaders, all weaving together the threads of their own beautiful and broken humanity to strive for the higher gifts. And don’t these gifts include, foremost of all, compassion for the poor and each other. It doesn’t seem we get anywhere without the ability to walk in each others shoes.