Near the beginning of David Brooks’ book How to Know a Person, he confesses that he used to be a “sizer upper.” When meeting someone, he was, consciously or unconsciously, fitting them into descriptive categories, which prevented him from really encountering the person. We all do that, of course, and so did the people of Jesus’ day. They and we peg people as poor and rich, men and women, well-educated and uneducated, skilled professionals and day laborers, liberals and conservatives, people in power and those not, and so many, many other categories, including race. In today’s Scriptures, Jesus breaks down all these categories when he says to his motley crew of apostles: You are my friends … I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. … This I command you: love one another (Jn 15:14ff). Love and friendship: these words break through all the blocking categories. Jesus is talking about radical friendship, or agape love, which leads Jesus to add: No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. We’ll meet lots of people we don’t know every week, some purposely and others casually, including in the pews of our churches. As we encounter new people this week, inspired by this Scripture and Brooks’ book, we try see them through Jesus’ eyes, as potential friends and someone new to love.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
I have been a member of my parish St. Vincent de Paul society for 40 years. Our neighbors in Detroit are some of the poorest in the U.S. We meet monthly to pray for God’s eyes in serving them to meet those needs we can. Your words are at the heart of our prayer. Thank you.