The call to reach out!
2 Kgs5:1-15; Lk 4: 24-30
"Go to the existential peripheries", invites us the Holy Father repeatedly! But why the insistence? One reason I find very close is, because for God there are no peripheries! For God every one is "chosen" in his or her own way; every place is a "chosen place" in its own manner! For God each and every person is at the centre of existence, no one at the existential peripheries, where we have pushed them to. We may brand someone 'strange', 'alien', 'outcast', 'unacceptable' or 'not-worth-relating to'... but let us understand they are at the centre of the universe that God beholds. Be it the widow of Zarephath or Naman from Aram, they were under God's care! Reaching out is a marked call of Lent, to reach out to the other in need! Reaching out means expressing God to the others. When we reach out to the so called marginalised, the so called persons in the periphery, we are actually in the footsteps of the Lord who chose to be with them, chose to be one among them. Let us reach out today, atleast to one person whom we have not considered within our circles of relationships.