Our Ministries
26 Jun

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Of Water and Influence

What is “the cup of water” each of us needs? When do we give and when do we receive water—refreshing and cleansing, essential for existence, re-creational? What does hospitality look like, feel like in the throes of a pandemic when we are sequestered? These are the questions that stayed with me as I reflected on the Scripture readings for this weekend.

What is on your list of needs? If you are sequestered in your home with all your family members, you probably are thirsting for privacy, peace, order, more rooms in the house, higher speed internet. If you are at work, you might be thirsting for assurance that it’s a safe environment, for job security, for the teamwork you enjoyed when everyone was there. If you are out of work, thirst for financial security, opportunities for new work, perhaps job training or re-training are on your list of needs.

We are all living with much uncertainty in our personal lives. And then there are all the social sins—the injustices and inequities—we are living with—racism, no access to healthcare or inadequate healthcare, COVID-19 and the various disruptions it is causing, increased homelessness due to inability to pay rent, growing poverty, domestic violence, and abuse of every kind.

The reading from Kings tells the story of “the woman with influence” who desires to provide hospitality for the traveler who frequents her dining place. Her arranging of a little room on the roof of the house brings the promise of the birth of a child. We too have an opportunity to be women (and men) of influence in attending to the corporal works of mercy—the hungers and thirsts, the nakedness, the ignorance (lack of knowledge and understanding), the visits to the “imprisoned.”

The “cup of water” that we give can be direct assistance, study and research of the issues, or action for systemic change. The “cup of water” that we receive can be a new sense of connection, of relationship, of engagement, and of action that changes us to experience the promise of “new birth”—the birth of understanding, empathy, compassion, and relationship that we are all in this together with Christ as our center. Christ gives us the groundedness, the perspective we need to do what he has taught us to do. As disciples of Jesus, we can do no less. May we all be women and men of influence!

Welcome to St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church