‘The bread you store up belongs to the hungry, the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor’. (St. Basil the Great).
‘Because a man is poor, do not cheat him. The Lord is listening and He’s on his side’. (Proverbs 22:22)
Our refugee friends are moving on, was there a better way? My friend Paulina from South Africa is happy here. Life’s basics keep Paulina satisfied and content.
They contributed a cosmopolitan atmosphere to our lacklustre town, we might have benefited greatly from their input. Every single one of our visitors brought with them a valuable gift to share with our community. Sadly, now we will never know.
Had we bothered to get to know them as visitors instead of refugees, accompanied and befriended them as opposed to looking on them as problems to be solved.
Yes, Corona made interaction problematic but if more time and effort went into helping them out instead of helping them OUT. They are nomads again, peripatetic. Pathetic if you ask me, I am crestfallen.
NIMBY-ism at it’s finest. (Not-in-my-backyard). If we will keep our eyes shut in the day time, we will not be able to shut them in the night time.
The Gospel is about building bridges between people, extending the hand of friendship to those who are on life’s journey with us but are very different to our ways and ideas.
Dear Lord, we ask for a growth in generosity, we ask too for forgiveness for the many times we miss the mark. Amen
‘They never bothered me’, a local guy told me after they had left our town. Simply said, they didn’t put him up or down. ‘Oh yes’, I replied, trying hard to muster up some kindness in my tone: ‘Many folk told me exactly that, our visitors never bothered them too. Thing is though, folk did nothing, they kept themselves to themselves and therein lies the crux of the matter’.
‘Have I today done anything to fulfill the purpose for which Thou did’st cause me to be born’. (J.Baillie)
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