Two questions. One put to Jesus. One offered by Jesus.
People come into our lives
do we ask of them
Are you the one?
We come into other’s lives
do they ask of us
Are you the one?
Do we answer:
Me? Who do people say that I am? Who do you say that I am?
Do we see these questions as a daily challenge for ourselves and those we meet? What if we were to ask these questions of each other?
Are you the one? we ask when looking for a life partner.
Do we say who we truly are to each other? Maybe in friendship we tentatively probe.
Who am I? Who are you? are questions at the heart of true community.
The individual may rightly see their relative unimportance as compared to the many, The greater insight is that the human community find its essential meaning in individual beings.
Healthy individualism in society means that we recognize and respect the individuality of others and they do so in us. Healthy Community is brought about when we recognize diversity as we celebrate our common humanity.
How anyone can read the Gospel stories and than have a judgemental idea of church is beyond me. How agape communities evolved into controlled judgemental churches only shows how difficult is forgiveness. Each person in each generation must come to terms with God’s healing in their own life, and respond to the call to be a healing presence for others. Churches need to continually reevaluate their structure in terms of abiding compassion. Churches like people need to begin anew each day with the guiding principles of Love, Mercy, Forgiveness and Compassion.
So I propose this exercise:
As you encounter others, strangers and those that you know well, ask the Questions:
Are you the one? And how so?