Frank, a friend of mine with Down syndrome, put me straight about my ability to respond when he heard me bad-mouthing Paul. He said, "If you want to help Paul, you have to love him!"
My eldest sister, Joan, demonstrated another type of ability to respond. After losses of friends, income, and health, at age eighty-four she moved from California to Canada to be closer to family. Unable to bring her car, she learned the subway. Unaccustomed to winter, she bought cold-weather clothes. Then she joined a church, a bridge club, the library, and the art gallery, where she made new friends and established a whole new life.
Look at the two great commandments - love God, and love your neighbour as yourself - as priorities in becoming a responsible human being. And see how Jesus lived them out (Luke 6:12-19): "Jesus went onto the mountain to pray and spent the whole night in prayer to God." Presenting ourselves to receive and give love to God in prayer is first.
"When day came he summoned his disciples and picked twelve of them." Belonging to families and communities that teach us self-love in truth and humility, with compassion and forgiveness, is second.
"He came down with them and stopped . . . where a large gathering of people had come to be cured of their diseases... Power went out from him and cured them all." In communion with God and others, we walk amidst pain in the world and respond with compassion.
by Sue Mosteller
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