free from bondage

Some days its easy to forget that if we knew what other fires people were facing, there would not be one fire that we wouldn’t help fight with the heat of greater love. 

I was reminded this while sitting in anointing of the sick mass this morning, watching many people receive the oil with a sense of peace, sense that something greater than any man made medicine can sink directly to the soul and smooth, strengthen and brighten them. 

Afterwards, in the rush of people leaving, speaking to a few, greeting others, wishing lord blessings on a few and then listening to the stories that came. One gentleman told me of his MRI scan tomorrow - please keep him in your prayers - while all I asked was how he was, the response left me asking for the spirit for words to reply. We joked in a friendly manner yet the eyes never lie of the unknown that lays before him. 

While I started to make the journey back to the Sisters in the office, talking to another lady she was going to wait in the car for her daughter so I invited her to have coffee with me. Hearing her story of how her husband and self live with their children as they can not work nor have rights to any support here in Australia I was taken back. To speak with an ounce of sadness to the situation while still embrace it with all ones strength is a beauty and moving experience to witness. 

To see someone then actually see them is two very different things! 

Beautiful, heart warming individuals that have a deep struggle which just reminded me we all have our crosses. 

We all have our crosses. 

To be a follower of the Crucified means, sooner or later, a personal encounter with the cross. 

On the 11th October is International Day of the Girl. In my Inbox I have been receiving updates for the build up to the celebrations for the Day. Today was focus on shining light on the girls who aren’t counted by their governments; invisible girls. Girls must count and be counted. 

I was in talk with a girl from my music group the other evening, exchanging our self motivated fitness programs or more so hopes with each other. She express how one day she was out running in the neighbourhood and a guy along the street whistle at her. The first whistle elected a fierce glare. As her feet pounded the pavement her heart rate and her anger increased. She was taken back, a little miffed as she wished she said something to the guy. 

As I take this story and personally reflect on it, it highlights a lot… in a period we are in when legislators seek to redefine rape and make outrageous statements that disparage violence against women.. in a time when girls and women are bought and sold as easily and sometimes with less thought than buying a cup of coffee… in a time when girls are emaciated by anorexia because their bodies do not match the bodies in the teen magazines.. in a time when some girls are maimed for simply wanting to learn smaller acts of unwanted comments and gestures toward women point towards even greater violations of selfhood. Words and images help shape how women perceive themselves and how women are valued in the world. 

Justice begins in how we describe those among us. Something as simple as how we describe an secretive women versus an assertive man speaks to a continuing difference in valuing. 

When Jesus healed a women bent over for eighteen years, his actions and words spoke to her ‘bondage,’ challenging those who had defined her by her gender and her condition. He confronted the powers that protested her healing. he directed her and all present to see her fully as a beloved and valued part of the community; “And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham who Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?”(Luke 13:16)

And ought not all girls and women, beloved daughters of the Lord, be set free from bondage.. all forms… on each day?