June 25, 2010
Taking the Time to Make a Difference
On the blessing of family and community
BY PAUL R. LEINGANG
(Listen to Paul read this column | Weekly podcast)
We did three events on two days on one weekend. Now, there’s some time to think about it.
On Saturday, my wife and I went to a family reunion – not my immediate family, but the family of my Uncle Henry. His children – my cousins – organize the reunion every year, and they invite extended family members as well.
At this latest event, I had a chance to catch up with my uncle – still spry at 95 – and with cousins who are scattered over the Midwest and the Southwest and a few other places.
Two of my sisters also came to the reunion. And so did a friend of mine who had called me the day before the reunion, about something totally unrelated to it. He is also a friend of one of the cousins – so when I told him about the gathering, he came too. A happy coincidence, you might call it.
So there we were, members of nuclear families, extended families and some unrelated friends. Unrelated by blood, I guess you could say.
That was the first event – it was three hours away from home and three hours back again — six hours of driving for about six hours of our get-together. An event well worth the effort.
The second event was Sunday morning, the ordination of Father Thomas at St. Meinrad Archabbey in southern Indiana. When he was Brother Thomas, he had spent some weekends at our parish, St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville, and there, I had met him and enjoyed talking with him.
My wife sings in the parish choir, and the choir was invited to sing at the ordination. It was a pleasure to go to the ordination, to see him and other monks of St. Meinrad, friends developed over the years.
That was the second event. It required an early morning rising, an hour’s drive, and it too was well worth the time and travel.
On Sunday afternoon, my wife and I went to Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari. We spent the rest of the day, until closing time, in the water, on the rides, on the slides, and it was wonderful.
There were thousands of people there, but it was time for my wife and me to spend together — in our essential community.
* * *
I am blessed.
I experienced my family, my extended family, a friend, a monastic community and the joint celebration of having fun in the company of thousands of others people gathered for the same reason.
I realize, the longer I think about these experiences, that many people do not have such blessings.
I also realize that you and I could add to their experience of the Christian community – if we wanted to.
I can’t help but think of the various gatherings in our Gospels. The Holy Family in Bethlehem. The time Jesus spent with Martha and Mary and Lazarus. The multiple thousands on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. The disciples in the Upper Room. The two people on the way to Emmaus. Gatherings, communities, each and all of tremendous impact because of the presence of the Lord.
* * *
Think about the people in nursing homes. How could the Lord be present? Could it be through your visit there?
Think about people whose day-to-day experience is confinement to a room, a bed, a hallway, a rec room.
Think about the people in prison, cut off from family. And think about the prisoner’s family, struggling through separation.
Think about the immigrant family on two sides of the border; a wage earner here, a newborn baby there.
Think about people who have left home and friends, unable to face with them the reality of sexual orientation.
You could make a difference if you welcomed the stranger— that is, the one estranged by circumstances or society.
Take the time to share your blessings. Become the presence of Jesus, and make a difference.
Comments are welcome at office@cfm.org or the Christian Family Movement, P.O. Box 925, Evansvsille, IN 47706-0925