Being a Meaning-Maker

At a recent liturgy, as I was reciting the familiar Trinitarian formula and signing myself, I became acutely aware of what I was actually doing. Too often these ritual signs become habitual and intentionality is lost. But this day I was struck by how an act of violence became a sign of unconditional love. In and of itself, the sign should have been a reminder of a cruel and unjust execution, but the meaning-making followers of Jesus endowed it with a different and much more powerful significance. The challenge stood before me: What signs of violence, greed, exclusion, abuse of power or mindlessness that I commit or that go on around me might I redeem by altering negativity into a sign of love? Can I transform an act of violence into a call to peace, greed into an invitation to generosity, exclusion into acceptance, abuse of power into a challenge to heal, mindlessness into a summons to intentionality? As a human being I am called to be a meaning-maker and as a disciple of Jesus, it is within my power to transform meaninglessness into meaning.

– Blog entry by a Sister of the Precious Blood

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