We can too easily become entitled to abundance. We do not see the advantages so many of us take for granted: white skin, for example, or brainpower, health, or access to safe places to live. For most of us, our native language is not an impediment, our income is sufficient (and more), and we have communities of support.
When we get stuck grieving our losses, real as they are, we can get caught in anger and bitter disappointment. When we cannot lift our heads and see the abundance that surrounds us, when we cannot see all others and the creation as equally deserving of your grace and mercy, when our first instinct is to look for someone to blame, we have become victims.
Oh, God, many of us have honest stories of lack and loss, but we do not have to be victims, because you promise life out of death.
This message is an excerpt from “Amen: In the family of God” by Catherine Malotky in the June 2020 issue of Gather magazine. Today we remember Jerome, translator, teacher, who died in 420.
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