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12.06.05  Tuesdays Reflection

We, human beings are strange. Let me rephrase that: I am strange and I

suspect some other human beings are strange also.

I was sorry for the four Christian Peacemakers - two Canadians, one American

and one British - held hostage in Iraq and I felt for their family. I knew

that they were a "good" group - true peacemakers.

However, the tragedy of this event hit me with major force only when I

recognized one of the Canadians, James Loney, from an article in the Globe

and Mail, a Toronto newspaper I buy for the book reviews on Saturday.

There was a photo of Loney in a Toronto Catholic Worker t-shirt - the one

with the painting of the breadline and Jesus among the street people waiting

for food. Then I recalled Loney's articles in the Catholic New Times and the

way he makes his readers - oops! he makes ME feel called, challenged to

really live the gospel.

I tell myself that I can't feel deeply everything that happens. But then I

wonder. Jesus certainly seemed to feel everything that happened: the ten

lepers, the newlyweds without wine, the woman with the flow of blood,

perpetually "unclean," the widow with her miniscule offering, the crowd with

no food, far from home on a hot, sunny day.

What a beautiful time of year - Advent - to stop and reflect! Last evening I

was on the bus when an old immigrant woman with a cane went beserk. It took

a while for three of us, an old man also with a cane, the driver and I, to

figure out what was wrong as she wailed, searching in vain through her bags.

When we finally realized she'd lost her wallet two bus stops back, I offered

to walk back with her but the driver said: Get back on. I'll go around the

block to the stop where you got on." I hope she found her wallet or that

someone will turn it in. Still shaken, I gave a couple of dollars to the

young man who approached me as I walked to a Christmas choral concert.

I also felt for that little kid who felt it was a very long concert just to

hear his older sister sing and whispered to his father: "Daddy, my ears are

tired." Yes, I may be tired of all these tragedies - but the're real,

really real. Feeling them makes me human, Christlike.

Cecily