Pointless points . . .

Shades of fraternal concern . . .

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For some reasons, we are prone to take another in the community for granted as though each of us were a completely self-sufficient autonomous human person. We recount the local and world news to one another, we try our latest jokes on one another, and we laugh together, and many times genuinely enjoy one another’s company. Then we go our own way, thinking that we have important things to do, classes to prepare, term papers to correct, a book to read, a friend to phone or visit.

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Is it because our zeal is too often turned outward toward other people who need our help without at the same time turned inward toward our own religious brother who is hurting inside? My neighbor is not only the blind beggar lying on the road to Jericho but also the confrere who has coffee beside me at the breakfast table.

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Is it not sad to see two religious sitting beside one another like two blocks of stone, mute and impervious to what goes on inside each? Think of two airline passengers sitting together in the waiting room, each absorbed in his own anticipations, completely oblivious of one another… charity, it is said, should begin at home!

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