Synergism

Mark 12:30-31

Love The Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  The second command is this: "Love your neighbor as yourself."  There is no commandment greater than these.

We started our day at morning mass sitting among nuns who dedicate their lives to charity listening to an American priest who delivered a homily on Mark 12:30-31.

Fr. Hagen spoke of our three critical dimensions that make us human:  love of self, (honoring and respecting ourselves), love of others (putting the needs of others before our own) and loving God with all our heart.  If we have the first dimension but lack the other two, we are narcissistic incomplete beings with no purpose beyond our own selfish desires.  When we have all three we achieve synergism.

I spent time with two different orders of nuns today.  Both are dedicated fully to love of others and love of God, and  the fruits of this love are peaceful and lovely homes for abandoned elderly and children.   The fruits of the spirit are everywhere in these holy places.  We worked details with Sr. Alta for a new partnership between Reiser Relief and the Sisters of the Companions of Jesus.  We intend to work with the Sisters to make obviously needed facility improvements to assist in the care of beautiful elderly women.

This afternoon we visited General Hospital and my feelings of serenity were replaced with despair and tears.  I saw one disabled girl who was perhaps 8 or 9 years old, completely naked, tethered with a dirty knotted rag to a crib that was far to small for her.  She had pieces of diaper hanging on her face (had to chewed up her diaper?) and strewn all over the dirty floor.   The hospital building she was in was nothing more than a rickety narrow shed with open 'windows' and of course flies, other tropical bugs, and heavy tropical air flowing through.  It smelled of human waste and suffering.  It was a scene that will haunt me.  Where is the synergism here?  Who is loving this child of God?  Why could I do nothing but stand a safe distance away in shock and disgust?  What human sin and narcissism have led to this moment in time where a vulnerable, disabled girl is tethered to a filthy crib in a place filled with despair?

The Sisters of the Companions of Jesus regularly visit General Hospital.  They find women who are truly abandoned in this forsaken place and care for them in a God filled place.  With support from Reiser Relief they could take in perhaps 10 more women.  They make a difference one person at a time by loving themselves, others and God: beautiful synergism.  It's an inspiring example to emulate.