I have been turning over in the mind what I wanted to share this week and going back and forth between a couple of things, until I opened my email Tuesday morning and saw the following quote –
“It is surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path. Certainly, it is easier to believe that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the trees in the wasteland across the street, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park across the way. There are wars and rumors of wars, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, and God’s continuing promise to be with us always, with comfort and joy, if we will only ask.” – Dorothy Day (from: Dorothy Day: Selected Writings, edited by Robert Ellsberg)
I was first struck by Day’s identifying seeing “Christ in each other” as an “exercise of faith.” I wonder if most (if not all) of my experience of seeing Christ in others is passive. That is I “see” a person who manifests the presence of Christ to me or I don’t. I don’t look for it. I don’t seek it out. I put the responsibility on the other person to show it to me. Do you think Day is suggesting that I actively look for the presence of Christ in those I meet each day? Do you think she is even suggesting that I expect to find that presence?
I wonder how I might go through each day if I expect to find Christ in those I meet at work, on the street, in the checkout line, even while I am driving back and forth along the roads I need to travel each day?
What if each of us decided to exercise some faith this week and look for Christ in those around us?
* This quote comes from a mailing sent out by Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. You can find some the quotes at –
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http://inwardoutward.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=838944ee48d7a9d35dcce6d60&id=791e8aa8ec