Spring! Spring!

Written on March 19:

Sunday afternoon and I get to sit on our little balcony above the courtyard, our home here almost two years.  The sun is dropping on this last day of winter.  There is a hum of traffic, distant in the air.  A few filmy clouds create a western curtain into which the day sun slowly sinks.  Audible city sounds are distant enough to create a kind of silence, and out of that, peace for me.

I rejoice in the thought that tomorrow is spring's first day.  I feel it as hope, here in the middle of Lent.

The old rugged cross stood free on the platform in church today. Our sermon was GREED, its presence, its justifications, among the Christians.  We were asked, where are the Christians, giving up the money that seems to motivate most in our American culture?  It would seem to be the motive for almost everything, according to the news each day.

We don't see them because they are following Jesus' dictum of quiet humbleness about what they do, and what they give, and how they try to help others.  A young friend came and sat beside me in church this morning.  "I had a little op-ed in the paper this morning," he said.  I already knew its theme was "the world needs foreign aid."  He is a determined giver.  He wants his country to continue to be a giving people.

We are called to "feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick".  We are called to care - about the world.  And yes, about our country.   But not to fear to give away from what we have to those who have little.

How much?  Each one's struggle.  Spring is Resurrection time, rebirth time, born again time.  Time to look anew at giving ourselves away, sharing the gifts we have.  Learning how to help others in this word of our great privilege.  Jesus is the Way.  He's the One who can help us.