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I remember talking with an American in London who had met a Jamaican who had just been put out of his house. They exchanged addresses, and three weeks later the Jamaican turned up on the doorstep with all his suitcases. The link had been created. And all of us are more or less confronted with situations like this, where we cannot see what is going to happen next. You visit a sick person and he asks you when you are coming back. You talk to someone who is depressed and you sense that it's not going to stop there, that if you ring him he'll ring you back tonight, or tomorrow. So many wounded people need a shepherd, a friend, a brother, a comforter, someone to help them, to listen to them. We sense this as we get close to people and their needs. We then throw up barriers. What will happen to us, to our way of life, to our children, our family, our commitments ? We begin to sense that we won't be able to respond.
Who are we defending ? Most of us are defending, more or less, a way of life, a whole lifestyle. We are living in a Rice Krispies civilisation, where there is a set pattern for breakfast, for the type of house, of car, and holiday, for what will earn the neighbour's respect. The children are oriented to a particular form of existence that is usually called success.
That doesn't mean following the Spirit; it means, for most parents, having a good job that brings a comfortable living, getting married, and carrying on the European way of life.
Why do we defend this way of life ? If we delve into ourselves, we will find that we are more anchored in the values of our society than in those of the Gospel.
Jean Vanier
Be Not Afraid
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