Abundance
Wednesday, 04 May 2011 19:23
During Easter Week five of us from St. Hildegard’s participated in a conference held at Trinity University in San Antonio called “Our Abundant Communities: Neighborly Nourishment in the Wilderness.” One of the speakers, Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann, said that we are all ordained in scarcity mode. Biblical faith imagines an alternative that is based in shared grateful abundance. Showing what this could look like, another speaker, John McKnight, taught community development based on gifts rather than deficiencies. He told a story of going into a community with a soup kitchen for the homeless sponsored by a number of neighborhood churches—a model based on deficiency. Under his guidance the pastors of the churches conducted “gifts interviews” with all 250 homeless persons who regularly came to the soup kitchen, and developed a profile of skills for each one. A skill listed on almost every profile was cooking! The participating churches then hung up all the profiles, matched with a professional photograph of each homeless person, all around their worshipping spaces and parish halls. Relationships between the homeless persons and parishioners based on gifts and shared abundance grew up in the various churches. John didn’t say if the soup kitchen continued. If so, we can guess who was doing the cooking! Coming back from the conference, we’re still pondering how our community already lives out “shared grateful abundance” and wondering how this can grow.
Holy Week was flowing with abundance. Lynn Goodman-Strauss, spoke to us on Palm Sunday of her life as founder of Mary House Catholic Worker. Her words were full of stories and gratitude of St. George’s in the years when she stepped out into this new life trusting in God’s provision. “St. George’s and St. Hildegard’s—this is really a holy place!” she repeated like a mantra. On Maundy Thursday we welcomed guests from far away. This is the third year that Sylvia, Jorge and their 9 year old daughter, Sofie, have driven all the way from Mexico City to share Holy Week with us and Sofie’s God-mother, Gretchen who is part of our community. Gretchen’s grandchildren, Clara and Xander, flew in from Tucson. Xander read the part of Jesus on Good Friday so beautifully and all these guests were actors in Gretchen’s dramatization of “The Women at the Tomb” at the Easter Vigil. We rejoiced that one of our far-flung members, Mariah, could join us from Ann Arbor. Our Holy Week liturgies express an abundance of creative gifts and skills. Coordinator, Susan LeVieux, has conducted unofficial “gift interviews” so that everyone is contributing as we live through the stories of Passion and Resurrection. This year it all just flowed.
Intermingled with the joy was the heartbreaking news of the murder of Norma Hurtado and her mother, Maria, by a father enraged over his daughter’s lesbian relationship with Norma. On Maundy Thursday our own Virginia Marie was at the vigil for these women, sharing her pastoral gifts, mourning with the gathered community. From her gifts she has been moved to offer a community rosary to be held May 3 at Trinity Methodist. On Good Friday we remembered them and other places of violence and suffering in the world. Brueggemann stated that it is our scarcity mode that keeps us from imagining the abundance of God’s goodness that stretches out to embrace the rich diversity of gifts including sexualities. Violence is the ultimate symptom of scarcity.
May St. George’s and St. Hildegard’s continue to know God’s abundance in this holy place.
Blessings,
Judith
