Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

27th Sunday In Ordinary Time (October 5, 2003)

Suggested Emphasis

"It is not good for man to be alone."

Salesian Perspective

A resident of Covenant House once described her desperate situation in life this way:

"I can't go home. My stepfather doesn't want me. He won't let me in. I've been on the streets for about a year. Mostly, with some friends, I rip people off. But lately I've had to come up with some money for the baby. She doesn't cry when I hold her. Her father, Tony, is my best friend. Sometimes I have to hustle johns to get money for the baby."

Today's readings remind us of our need to respect one another. Today's readings speak of the reverence we should have for every human being. Today's readings speak of the care and concern that we should have for all creation.

More importantly, the readings speak of a deeper truth: like the God in whose image and likeness we are created, we are not meant to live alone.

Francis de Sales tells us that we are born to love. We are made for relationship. Much of who we are - much of who we could be - only becomes reality through the relationships we establish and nurture with others.

To be sure, we need to be ourselves. We need to grow in self-knowledge and self-acceptance. We need to embrace our strengths and our weaknesses. We need to consider what we can do. We need to accept what we cannot do. But none of this happens in a vacuum: the fullness of who God calls us to be is found precisely in our relationships with one another.

All of us are part of the wider web of life. Whether we are conscious of it or not, how we feel, how we think, why we choose, how we act, what we do and what we fail to do all have an impact on others. In our relationships with one another, we experience hurt and healing; we experience union and division; we experience solidarity and isolation.

Bottom line? At any given moment, we can either live for ourselves alone, or we can live - really live - with one another.

What's your choice?

Rev. Thomas F. Malloy, OSFS, is pastor of St. Ann Catholic Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina.