The cost of conviviality

The cost of conviviality Does every generation lament the present? The present appears much worse than the past. We look back and see stable families, social networks that absorbed ‘the widow and the orphan,’ meaning anyone who had no security in their lives. Today we see so many rootless people; they have no relatives to fall back on. We see countless one parent families whose children do not know their father (normally the father). So is our generation worse than every generation that went before? In our bones we know the answer is ‘no.’ We know, for sure, the world is a better place and getting better all the time. But we also know that some pay a terrible price for the headlong ‘progress’ that others are enjoying. The migrations of people, for instance, from poor economies in Africa and Asia to perceived rich countries gathers momentum despite the terrible cost in lives and suffering of the migrants. Our generation prides itself on immense progress but we have not yet managed to surmount the greatest hurdle of all; accepting one another as brothers and sisters when it costs me something. We still have the old biblical horror of people who are different. Those suffering from leprosy, in the words of the Lord to Moses and Aaron, were condemned to ‘wear their clothing torn and their hair disordered … and they must live apart, outside the camp.’ Apartheid was not an invention of the whites in South Africa and it was not ended in 1994. It has always been with us and is alive and active today, for example, in the divisions between rich and poor countries and rich and poor individuals within countries. The challenge to learn how to share is the last big hurdle for humanity and success in doing this seems still a distant goal. We may have ended leprosy in the world but we still have ‘lepers’, people outside the camp. Pope Francis invites us to deny ourselves this Lent (starting February 18, Ash Wednesday). He says we are invited to devise our own form of self-denial. The only guide line is that it must cost us something. The Catholic Church made a beautiful move in the Vatican Council when she moved away from proscribed penances, which when performed could leave one with a sense of achievement! No, we have to touch the fibre of our being where it costs us, if you like, where it hurts. To welcome people who are different into our lives, to open the door to people who will ‘upset’ us, hurts. But if individuals move in this direction it will be easier for sluggish governments to do so too. Perhaps it is the last great frontier: to love one another. 15 February 2015 Sunday 6 B Leviticus 13:1-2, 45-46 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:1 Mark 1:40-45