Gather Your People

Dear Friend,

This week we’ll sing “Gather Your People” as our opening hymn. Its driving three-quarter rhythm will remind us that at each Sunday liturgy we re-enact our initiation into Christ. We are fed, and like the newly baptized, we receive the light of Christ and learn again to walk in that light. The final verse explicitly brings us to the waters of life and hope that flow from the Lord’s side. Like the beloved disciple and the mother of Jesus in John’s Gospel, we stand at the foot of the Cross and experience our birth into a new family. 

The scripture readings sound a challenge that accompanies the Spirit’s action in gathering us. “Make room for foreigners,” writes the prophet Isaiah, a summons that proves unsettling even for Jesus, as we hear in the Gospel. To a Canaanite woman who begs him for a healing for her daughter, Jesus is at first resistant, so much so that he even issues what sounds to us of a later era like an insult. But the woman surprises him with her faith, and gives us an insight to what might well have been happening in the new community for whom Matthew is writing.  A healing ensues.  

As I compose this letter, I’m looking forward to a gathering of family up in Oregon to celebrate the 90th birthday of a beloved cousin of my mother. While time and distance have kept many of us apart, great memories and gratitude have been flowing through my heart like fresh water. I widen my vision and pray that you and I, as the Body of Christ, can allow the love of Christ to make the circles of our families, parish, and our country places of healing and renewal. Gather your people, O Lord!  

Gratefully,

Father Dan ofm, Pastor