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Connections
November 24th, 2002- Solemnity of Christ the King
The parables of the sheep and the goats:
"Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me...Whatever you did for one of the least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 25: 31-46
A VISION OF LIFE
In the midst of horror, a spark of peace:
In September, a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated his explosives on a crowded bus in Tel Aviv. Among the victims was 19-year-old Jonathan Jesner, a student from Glasgow, Scotland. Five people were killed outright; Jesner, a Jew who had postponed medical school to participate in a religious retreat, was critically wounded in the blast; he died a day later at a Tel Aviv Hospital.
The young man's family volunteered to donate Jonathan's organs--and placed no restrictions whatsoever on the choice of recipients. The Jewish teenager's kidney was transplanted into a seven-year-old Palestinian girl named Yasmin who was suffering from a genetic life-threatening kidney disease. The little girl, who had waited two years for a transplant, is doing well.
Jonathan's family said that the seven-year-old's religion and nationality were "unimportant."
"We believe it was what [Jonathan] wanted us to do...The most important principle here is that life was given to another human being. We are happy and delighted that [Jonathan's] memory will live on."
[Reuters, September 22, 2002]
CONNECTION: Jonathan's family possesses the vision of humanity that Jesus articulates in the parable of the sheep and the goats-- a vision that realizes the holiness of God within every man, woman and child a vision of humanity that sees deeper than the externals of race, nationality, culture and language to behold the life of God animating the lives of all who draw breath. On this last Sunday of the church year, may we embrace God's own vision of his creation; may God's spirit instill in us the compassion and wisdom to recognize every human being as the manifestation of God's life and love in our midst. ¦
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