Mixed Moss

My friend Rachel has spent the past few months in the Dominican Republic working with a doctor doing Aids work (she’s a pre-med student and wants to eventually get into public health). She is going back to the DR soon, but she was in town for a week or so for her Grandfather’s funeral, So I got to see her this past week-end.

In church on Sunday, Rachel told us about a woman in the DR who is suffering from breast cancer. Her husband, who was a minister or missionary I think, passed away not long ago, and she has children to take care of, and she’s in pain. And what’s to become of the children if the cancer takes her I don’t know. And she doesn’t have any money for the treatment she needs. So Rachel’s doctor friend scrounged up the money for the next month of chemo, but now they don’t know what to do.

So Rachel, who hates asking for money, got up in front of the church to tell this woman’s story, because the doctor she works with sort of told her, “You’re the one with a wealthy community in the states. You must do what you can for her. Or, I must tell her that there will be no more chemo after this because there is no more money.” And so Rachel asked. Because we are a community, and if it is Rachel’s job to do what she can for this woman, it is our job to help Rachel do it.

The crazy backwards thing is, that this was such a blessing for me, to be able to give. See, my mother is a breast cancer survivor. And I remember a few years ago when she was fighting it, how completely helpless I felt. There was really nothing I could do; health insurance covered the expenses, thank God; she refused to let me take time off school and move home to take care of her; all I could do was to sit in the OR waiting room with my Dad while she had her surgery and throw myself into fundraisers like Relay for Life.

But if the whole world really is our community; if all Christians really are our family; if, as Shane Claiborne reminded us this week-end at my church retreat, Jesus really meant it when…he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother,” (Mark 3:34-35) why then, that means that it doesn’t matter whose mother this woman in the DR is. She is somebody’s mother. She is a Christian. She is in my community, my family. Therefore, she is my mother. And that means, that by paying some of the cost to make her comfortable and hopefully, well– it is as though I am able to help my own mother, who I was able to do so little for when she was sick with the same illness. And that knowlege heals something inside of me, you know?

This is what it’s about, folks. This new mystical kingdom, where we are somehow all brothers and sisters with one holy Father. It’s about people loving and helping each other. Giving of ourselves. Bearing each others’ burdens. “For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.” –St. Francis of Assisi

And so, to all the moms in my online community, Happy Mother’s Day.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 15th, 2006 at 10:37 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.