New Direction (2023-06-25, Sunday - 12)

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2023-06-25–  12^th Sunday   ●●   Exodus   ●●  Psalm ●● Romans 5:12-15  ●●   +Matthew 10:_____ ●●    TITLE:  New Direction

 [_01__]    Many years ago, I remember feeling uncomfortable for a while about something that someone said to me. He was reacting to something I had told him.   I am guilty of this form of worrying, that is, to worry about what other people say about me or think about me. Are you guilty of this form of worrying?  With time, I might “grow out” of or forget about my worry.

I'd like to share how this incident  took place --- in Part 1 as the REACTION … Part 2, the RECOVERY ..and Part 3, the REUNION.

[_02__]    This is Part 1. REACTION.

In August of 2001, which was many years ago, I saw an old friend – Dave – and told him I was entering seminary to study for the priesthood. Dave was shocked, stunned, and absolutely opposed to the idea.

          There is a scientific “law” in physics that says: “every action produces an equal and opposite reaction” (Newton’s 2^nd law of motion), such as jumping into a swimming pool causes the reaction of the waves which are equal and opposite to the volume and weight of your body.

          Dave thought I was “crazy” … “loco” to give up my life, career, future to go into the seminary. I ignored him feeling at least mature enough at that moment that I had to give the seminary a try. But I will admit that my clear memory of the conversation must be because I did care about his “reaction” to my “action”.

          Over time, I imagine Dave forgot all about his reaction.

[_03__]    Part 2. The time is 2022-2023.

RECOVERY. Last year, this year

Dave had a serious health difficulty, which culminated him having to travel to a major hospital thousands of miles from where he lives, to Boston, just so he could have very advanced heart cardiac surgery. Prior to the heart surgery, he was in a coma for several weeks. He had a heart attack, nearly died.

Recently, he texted me to report that while in the coma – in this unconscious state -- he dreamed that I was praying for him in his room. I never visited his room. I feel uncomfortable about talking about somebody else's coma, by the way. Am I violating confidentiality?

I've never visited him in person during his illness or recovery because we live so far from each other. He has had since had the surgery – in Boston – at a very fine hospital and is recovering well.

He texted me “I guess my Catholic faith runs deep.”

I hope that this faith is a new beginning for him in faith and Catholic practice. This RECOVERY might mean that maybe he wasn't truly as opposed in “equal and opposite reaction” to me becoming a priest, as he said he was.

You and I are called to listen carefully what are people saying. What does it truly mean?

[_04__]     What does it mean to go in the equal and opposite direction from everybody else?

I'd like to just give tell a little joke, and then remind you of what Jeremiah is doing. Perhaps you've heard this joke before.

A man arrives home after a long journey traveling on the Garden State Parkway GSP to Exit 145, to return to West Orange.

And after exiting at 145, and, he drives to his house on Eagle Rock Avenue. Coming through the door, his family says to him, we were really worried about you because we heard on the news about 1 (one) car driving in the wrong direction on the Parkway!

He says, “only one? I saw hundreds of cars driving in the wrong direction.”

I.e., [PUNCH LINE] he was going in the opposite direction from everyone else. In this case, he was in the “wrong”.

Is going against the crowd or going against the grain always wrong?

Do I judge what I should do, based only on what others doing or saying?

Am I guilty of that? Yes!

I am guilty of hiding what I did wrong, just because I don't want other people to know about it. I'm guilty of sometimes saying what I want other people to hear. I'm guilty of not being kind to a difficult person just because that person has been so difficult. I'm guilty of not speaking the truth, because I don't think of whether it's a really wants to hear.

Jesus is calling us not just to progress, but to perfection in our lives. And perfection is a tall order. It means being healed of our wounds, being healed of our memories, it means being forgiven of our sins, were born into, for example, and grow into our family relationships, not because our families are perfect, but because they create relationships and places and people through which we grow and are converted. These relationships teach us about forgiveness about mercy, forgiveness of sins, and recognizing that the sin in oneself, the sin we might see in another person might be the same sin we have. Or that the sin we have two needs to be forgiven, is a way of going in a new direction.

 

[_05__]      Jesus is also pointing us in a different direction, but he's telling us in the Gospel do not, do not fear Be not afraid. Every hair on your head will be counted.

There's not many to count to these days, but every hair will be counted for me and for you. But that that statement does not mean that you and I will never ever suffer discomfort or abuse. “Every hair on your head will be counted” may sound like a promise made by United Airlines that you're going to sit in 1^st Class. That's actually not what it means. It means that everything that we do, even our difficulties, are counted. Our difficulties and distresses are part of God's plan. When we suffer, we are growing closer to God. And that God does not forget when we're suffering.

Part 1 was the REACTION; Part 2, RECOVERY which included prayer a healing.

[_06__]       Part 3. REUNION. I had 1 more chance to see my friend Dave in person.

          After living for a year in Boston for his operation, therapy and follow-up, he is now leaving to fly west, back home.

This past Monday, there was a reunion for him of several friends. I was also invited, to a gathering starting at 4 pm this past Monday.

          I figured…no big deal, I’ll leave NJ around 2 or 3 pm and arrive “fashionably late”

Bad idea.  As soon as I got on the road, it was taking way too long. I drove New Jersey, New York over the bridge to Connecticut. It was getting later and later. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get    there.  So I turned around somewhere in Connecticut and came back home. I felt like the guy going in the wrong direction in that joke.

My friend was glad that I at least tried. He sent me a text message later saying, Well, you know what, Jim?

The bad news is, I'll be back. So he left Boston. But he said the bad news is I'll be back that was a sarcastic joke.

What does it mean to live forever? What does it eternal life means it means that you will be back  and old and even more importantly, that Jesus is back in our lives.

It means that no matter what state we are in, whether in CONN or NJ, no matter what state we are in financially, when other what state we are in physically, no matter how old you are, no matter how sick you are, whether you are alone or with family, that we can that you can turn to God to confess your sins. And this is what healing and perfection means to confess our sins to receive absolution to receive God's mercy to act and move in God's direction, regardless of whatever way everyone is moving and reacting.  [_END__] 

Healing (2023-06-18, Sunday 11th Sunday )

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2023-06-18–  11^th Sunday   ●●   Exodus 19:2-6a    ●●  Psalm 100 ●● Romans 5:6-11  ●●   +Matthew 9:36-10:8 ●●

 TITLE:  Healing

 [_01__]     In 1960, in the year 1960, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published. It is the story especially of a young girl and her father, they are the main characters. The setting is the southern state of Alabama, during the Great Depression in the 1930’s

In the novel, the main character and narrator of the story is a young girl – nicknamed Scout because she is both adventurous and intelligent -  and Scout is the daughter of Atticus Finch, a noble and generous man and lawyer in their Alabama hometown.

[_02__]    Scout cannot recall any time in her young life when she did not know how to read and thus is shocked on her first day of school – her first day of first grade – when her literacy as a reader is displeasing to her schoolteacher .. who is astonished that Scout can read not only the alphabet and the textbook but also the Wall Street stock market price quotations in the newspaper. The teacher says Scout should learn to read only at school during the day. No extra curricular reading !

            Coming home from school, Scout is discouraged and tells her father she is not going back, giving up on school altogether.

            Atticus, her father, asks, “Do you know what a compromise is?”

            Scout, “Bending the [rules / the ] law ?”

            Atticus, “No, a compromise is an agreement reached by mutual concession. If you  [Scout] will concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on reading every night as always. Is it a bargain”

            Scout is on board with this “bargain”

The describes it, a bargain but I'd suggest it's more not just a bargain. It also comes close to covenant agreement of love between two people who really love each other.

[_03__]     In our Exodus reading, the Israelite people are about to be introduced to the covenant with God at Mount Sinai.

God says, “If you hearken to my voice, you shall be my special possession.”  This is God's word to the people of Israel.

Yet it’s also true that the people of Israel do not always keep their side of the covenant. Yet God does not abandon them, even though God has seen their wickedness and sinfulness.

It is not spite of this wickedness – but because of this – that Jesus is sent to give up his life and die.

Paul writes:

“Perhaps for a good person, one might find the courage to die. But Jesus loves us so much that even when we were still sinners, he gives up his life for us.”

In other words, this is not a bargain. It's a covenant.

And a covenant is something for example, we see the sacrament of marriage, where the husband and wife don't simply say it's going to be 50/50 split, but rather 100/100 surrender for both of them. W

hy does Jesus bring you in me into the covenant? He brings us into the Covenant – not only to stay up late at night reading the law. Yes, we are called to read God's Word and study God's Word. But also we are called to go out and be His disciples.

[_04__]   In the Gospel this Sunday, we read of Jesus sending out his disciples, sending them out on mission ..and that part of their mission part of our mission is to be a healer, expressed as:

 “[Jesus] he summoned his 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness.” (Matthew 9:36-10:8)

[_05__]    In other words, we are called to be healers. What does it mean to be healed or to be a healer?

A few months ago, I needed “healing”. It was early April, Holy Week and I had lost the ability to speak due to laryngitis. The medical diagnosis by doctor was nothing serious and quite simple: stop talking. Do not speak.

[_06__]        I also wish to consider how do I live my life as a priest. Do I just sit in my room and at my desk and text instead of talk ?

That was OK, but after about 2 days of texting behind closed doors, I decided to venture out.

The Catholic practices of prayer and fasting applied to me to me in this case. I did not set out to make this healing mission one of prayer and fasting, but that is how it turned out.

[1^ST.  PRAYER]   On Saturday Evening – the Easter Vigil – I arrived to co-concelebrate the Mass  I could not and did not say a word. There was nothing to say, I couldn't speak.

I suggest to you that your prayer and our prayer is not simply about retreating into silence and not saying anything.

Because there are times that we do not know what to say, Aren't there times that you don't know what to say?

Perhaps, you do not know what to say to someone in a crisis, to someone who is in disagreement with you. Or you do not know what to say to someone who seems too busy. Or, you do not know what to say because you feel rejected.

Jesus teaches us to pray for those we are spiritually distant from – this could be someone who is “opposing” us, against us, an enemy.

Jesus does not teach that we compromise with or concede to our enemies, but to pray for our enemies, to pray for those we have serious difficulty with.

This is the covenant.

So we need continued healing, and also to pray that we can find the right words to say my vocal cords are working right now.

But sometimes I still have laryngitis in terms of the gospel. In other words, I don't really know what to say. And I say the wrong thing. Prayer is a healing remedy. And it helps us to heal others.

[2^nd.  FASTING]  My lack of talking was also a form of fasting. And, I experienced this “fasting” as a form of Communion and connection with you.

I had to fast from talking.

Talking is good, but I had to fast from it.

Talking is something that unites us to others. But can silence not also bring us together?

I’d like to make a parallel with fasting from food as a form of Communion.

That is, we naturally associate eating and dining with connection.

However fasting also unites us to others fasting unites us to Jesus who fasted for us in the desert who gave up his life for us, fasting unites you to many hungry bodies and souls, around the block or around the world.

Fasting is something we are called to do in the form of abstinence from meat on Fridays, were called to abstain from meat on Fridays, or to abstain from something on Fridays, to remember Jesus's death and resurrection.

Fasting is also helped helps the body to recover physically, but fasting and prayer helps us to recover spiritually, and helps us to it's a way that we can make reparations for sin and for sinfulness to give something back to God.

This fasting and prayer does not mean that I Padre James Ferry take away the sins of the world, you do not take away the sins of the world. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. But by our fasting and prayer we share in his mission. We share the Good News of healing by our own practices, and we recognize that the real good news is received without cost and we are called to give without cost. This is not just a bargain or a compromise. It is the covenant.

It is the way of reading God's word each day so that He can speak and we, his servants, can listen and be healed.

[___END___] 

Corpus Christi Sunday (2023-06-11)

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2023-06-11–  Corpus Christi     ●●   Deuteronomy 8:2-3, 14b-16a ●●  Psalm 147 ●● 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 ●●   John 6:51-58 ●● 

TITLE:  Corpus Christi

[_01__]      The Book of Deuteronomy has a distinct literary style and purpose, in that the entire Book of Deuteronomy is in quotation marks. It's not air quotes, because Moses is trying to make some sort of symbolic point or emphasis in with air quotes. But the entire Book of Deuteronomy is in quotation marks because the entire book is a speech by Moses, at the end of his life. Before he dies, Moses is giving his deathbed speech. And he's reminding the people in this part when they were hungry, that God fed them in the desert with the manna from heaven.

[_02__]          The manna was a mysterious substance, which they had never seen before, but did in fact, tide them over. The word Manna actually does not translate as “bread”, but as a question: “what is it?”

What is this mysterious substance? They were still in the wilderness. The manna momentarily solved their hunger problem. But it also asked invited them to ask the question on who were they really relying on? Who were they trusting in and who do you and I trust in?

 [_03__]   There are trusted people listening to Jesus today. Some of his disciples, they trust him. This is John chapter 6,  we read of Jesus’ debate with “friends”… with “enemies” and some who could be called “frenemies”. There hung around Jesus for the good times, the miracles and a free meal

          They were friendly to Jesus but fundamentally disliked his teaching.   Now, Jesus is asking everyone – the friends, the enemies, and the frenemies to recognize he is going to lay down his life, and bless us with his Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

And in our final Communion meditation today, we will pray the words and sing with help our choir, cantor, organist, “we adore you, o Christ, and we praise You for by your Holy Cross, you have redeemed the world” = Adoramus Te Christe.

          In John 6^th chapter, today,  Jesus reminded them that their ancestors ate the manna in the desert and still died. In other words, there is more to life than getting earthly food and material things.

 

[_04__]       And, is not true that even earthly banquets give us “nourishment” that is more than simply more calories and carbohydrates?

          In 1991, a good friend visited our  house in my hometown for the first time. He originated as my friend, someone I knew, but quickly endeared himself to the whole family and became a friend to all of us. My mother cried when he departed our home.

 

[_05__] He came from Japan and was travelling in the U.S.  Our house was his first stop for about a week.

          On the final day of his stay,  we went shopping so he could prepare us a typical Japanese meal with Kirin beer and everything which we very much enjoyed.

          Right before dinner, my sister returned home and was dropped off by a neighbor who wanted to know what was going on in our house.

          We told our neighbor about our Japanese visitor, the meal, everything to which she said, “You have such an interesting life!”

          My mother thought this was funny because hey it was just one meal, just one night !

          But, is it not true that sometimes we have such treasured memories about a Thanksgiving, a Christmas, an Easter, a birthday party,  that that meal can stand for or symbolize our lives.

          This is what the Eucharist and new Passover is meant to be.

It's not just a symbol, it is Jesus's Body and Blood. It is his whole life given to you and me.

Now, why do you come to Sunday Mass, to church? You might say, Padre, I don't really come to mass just for the eucharistic prayer because that's the same every week almost the same every week. Padre, I come to mass because I want to hear the readings and the homily and maybe the other priest instead of you once in a while.

Because readings change every week and homily changes every week. And the Eucharist seems to be the same every week. You're right. But you are changing every week. I am changing every week and we need different graces from Holy Communion every week and it invites us to change.

          Father Ronald Knox, writing about the Holy Eucharist: “we cannot estimate the value or gift of the Holy Eucharist by any human standard of “rarity” – availability.  We confuse value with the price in dollars online or in person, or because a product (object) is difficult to come by …therefore it is worth a great deal or that because an opportunity to enjoy a thing may be rare, that opportunity should not be lost.”

          We are tempted to devalue “church” and God’s Real Presence for example because He is available 24 x 7 and 7:30, 9:30, 11:30 am, 52 Sundays a year and more on Holy Days !
          The Church is here all the time for you – not because your worship and prayer are less valuable – than the latest and greatest tournament or concert, but because they are more valuable.

          Taylor Swift’s concert performance at MetLife was not an act of charity. Your prayer is.

[_06__]  The reason I treasure our family meal and Japanese cuisine memory was not because it was “rare” and “one time only” but also because it was a high point of an ongoing journey and relationship in our family family.

          The moment neither stands alone – nor defines – our family connection.

          The family connection defines the one-time event, not the other way around.

          I am not saying we had a perfect family – far from it !

 

[_07__]   I am saying that family meals and connections – over time – are made possible also by more than a desire for excellent cuisine or the secret sauce or perfect table setting

          To come to a family table, or to come together in any community, or marriage or even workplace requires that we are seeking more than our own personal satisfaction.

          The Eucharist today is not only about what you receive but also about what you give.

          This is a new Passover which is

also meant to be a liberation and a new journey which will – at times – make us hungry.

          But we gain forgiveness and freedom – Forgiveness = Freedom ! because we have the opportunity – in the church – to confess our sins, to bring our sorrow and humility before God.

          It is important to note what we give back God in act of repentance. It is not our sins. It is our sorrow for our sins.  Sins are bad. Sorrow is good.

          Similarly, when you sit down at table, for a family meal, you also come with your own sinfulness, your own brokenness. But, you also come to the table not to lament what you did wrong, but rather to come to the table in repentance, to give your sorrow and humility to your family, to your loved ones. This is Good News

          In this regard, you are united by God who knows what you need before you ask Him. Nevertheless, ask Him.  This is the Body of Christ. Amen.   [_END__] 

What Makes You Run? (Trinity Sunday, 2023-06-04)

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 2023-06-04–  Trinity    ●●   Exodus 34:4b-6, 8-9 ●●  Psalm / Daniel 3:52, 53, 54, 55 ●● 2 Corinthians 13:11-13  ●●    John 3:16-18 ●● 

TITLE:  What Makes You Run?

[_01__]       What made Moses – the prophet in our Exodus reading today – run or climb up Mount Sinai?

          In fact, this climb is the 2^nd of 2 upward endeavors. In both endeavors, Moses had been traveling in the desert – at “regular” altitude – with his Hebrew brothers and sisters on their way out of Egypt to the Promised Land. And, they stop at Mount Sinai which Moses climbs.

This episode for Moses and the people is known as the “testing at Mount Sinai”

          And, it is a physical test and a spiritual test.  Is not true that most real challenges for you and me are not just physical and not just spiritual?  They are both. For example, the discipline of waking up early or on time is not just “physical” but also “spiritual”.

          Sometimes, I hit the SNOOZE button and fail both tests.

          Moses climbs – alone - the mountain, the 1^st time. He spends 40 days up there, which is so long that his fellow travelers get scared, feel abandoned by him and by God and they decide – on their own – to melt down all of their gold and precious metal and they create the “Golden Calf” idol. And, they like their idol so much that they profess faith in it and declare that that the Golden Calf really was their spiritual guide and their liberation from Egypt.

          They are physically scared, spiritually scared. They created an idol. This causes – to say the least – an angry outburst from Moses who tells the people that he will go up Mt Sinai – for his 2^nd climb – to atone for – to make reparations for – their sinfulness, their idolatry.

          And, this is our 1^st reading – Moses praising God and pleading with God, “pardon our wickedness and sins and receive us as your own.”  (Exodus 34:9)  

[_02__]       Are you and I not tested –each day – by both physical conditions and spiritual conditions?  For myself, I notice that I am much more calm and virtuous when I am “rested”, having enough sleep food. There is a body-soul connection.

          On the other hand, this is also Trinity Sunday and June is the month of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, reminding us that we are not only physical beings.  Even the heart – as a physical organ – is both healthy or unhealthy based on things that not purely material, like stress.

[_03__]       In the Gospel this Sunday, we recall that Jesus is the new Moses comes “down” being born as a divine person with a human nature and comes down so low and vulnerable that he can be put to death in physical terms.

          But, his death is also a spiritual ransom – his death does not just “raise a a debt ceiling” so that we can accumulate more debts or sins, but gives you and me a new heart, a new consciousness of the law written in our hearts.

          His death and resurrection also shows the first disciples and you and me that we have a life beyond this world.

          There is a danger of being so caught up in the things of this world that we can lose sight of eternal life.

[_04__]                 In Allendale, NJ – northeast of here – a family suffered the death of a beloved young daughter to suicide and have started a foundation devoted to mental health awareness called the Madison Holleran Foundation which also led to a Suicide Prevention Act in the state of New Jersey.

          Anxiety, depression – is something that can truly afflict us both body and soul.

In 2014, in Philadelphia, Madison –called Maddie by everyone –a freshman student at the U of Pennsylvania was very depressed and troubled, took her own life and a tragic act of suicide. Her biography is told in a book called What Made Maddie Run.

          By many measures, Maddie was a great success: All State, All County both soccer and track and field, member of a state championship girls soccer team.  Maddie believed in God, a Catholic, baptized received confirmation and 1^st Communion. And she came from a well off family.

[_05__]       What Made Maddie Run is the title and troubling question. What made Maddie or any young person run or run away?

In terms of what makes us run ? What makes us tick / operate? What gives us joy? What makes you and me work harder?  Asking this, we also examine our lives – as a body – soul unity, to uncover our true motivations.

What Made Maddie Run is – in the end – unanswerable.  Maddie ran away throughout months of suffering. In her body  - physically and outwardly – she was succeeding.

Inside, her family knew she was suffering and was trying to watch over her. She goes to see more than one psychologist and counselor.

[_06__]       SUICIDE. MERCY   But as Catholic Christians it is our calling to trust in the mercy of God for those who do commit suicide and to remember that it is not too late, even today, years later, to pray for someone who has died to pray that even at the moment of death, he or she might repent and be received into the arms of our loving God.

As Moses prayed: “pardon our wickedness and sins and receive us as your own.”  (Exodus 34:9)  

[_07__]       SPORTS.   What Made Maddie Run is question is also about a young person at the crossroads, making a decision about “success”.   In her senior of HS, Maddie had new found stardom as a runner on the track team. But her longer term experience was a soccer player. Technically, both are “team sports”, but soccer is more explicitly a group endeavor.

In her senior year, an Ivy League NCAA college – U Penn – offered her acceptance if she were to run track. This meant giving up soccer. Her choice to abandon soccer meant she was also giving up on soccer team opportunity at another college Lehigh University which had a place for her on the team wanted her very much.

1 Question is that raised by “What Made Maddie Run” is if she had not been drawn to U Penn, gone a less prestigious route, stayed with what she knew, she might be alive.

It is not that simple. But Maddie’s is a cautionary tale of a young person caught up seriously in social status, social media, Facebook, Instagram, and other things that were just getting launched in 2014. Clearly, Maddie looked at her own screen her own phone or own laptop more than once and thought everyone else was having a much better time. This made her run. Social status is not a bad thing. But it can also be a Golden Calf. It can be an idol.

These idols can affect what we choose for ourselves, both body and soul.

[_08__]       Trinity Sunday.

The 3 persons of the Trinity, sharing the sharing one nature, but all of them God had a plan to save the world, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that all who believe in Him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16)  Today's Gospel, this is what Jesus this is what makes Jesus run his love for you and me. Are you aware that both your joys and your troubles are not merely material challenges, or financial equations, or academic exercises, rather, the troubles we have affect both our body and our soul?

For this reason, it's important for young people, for all of us to know that

while our bodies are certainly important and precious gifts, the body itself could become an idol that we worship.

          Or, the body alone – or material things alone – are what we used measure

goodness.

          In the case of young Maddie, you could read the book and conclude that if she had been getter better grades in class or faster times in track, she would still be alive.

          At some point, all of us “hit the wall” physically. And, that will affect how we look at ourselves both body and soul.

[_09__]                 Pope St. John Paul II wrote a series of teachings called the “Theology of the Body” about our true appreciation of the body.

          QUOTE (RENEW.ORG blog): It’s important to know that Theology of the Body is not a hit piece for a culture war. It was actually a weekly teaching JPII did for the Catholic Church during his first five years of being the head Bishop of Rome. And, even though it was in the 70’s, John Paul was not just responding to the Sexual Revolution. He was Polish, and he was also responding to the Holocaust.

Because both movements are built on the same basic philosophy: the belief that human bodies don’t really matter. The idea that human dignity is not inherent to everyone in the same way.  (https://renew.org/theology-of-the-body/)

[_10__]                 Also, regardless, what your view of the secular / popular “Pride Month”, everyone has something to be truly proud of in his or her body and soul unity.

          It was made by God and contrary to some scientific and psychological opinions, it is not alterable.

          Yes, it is true we may spend a lifetime trying to figure out what it means to be a woman or a man, to be either a mother or father, or a mother or father spiritually, to be nurturing to be protective.  All of this comes at a cost. But all of this also comes to us through our own physical being. And our spiritual being. We are body and soul together we are a body and soul unity.

          This body soul unity can be challenging, but it is also what makes us run and what makes us need love, support, prayer, God's mercy, especially when we're in trouble.

As St. Paul wrote in 1^st Corinthians chapter 12 about our unity with and for each other and to look out for each other:  “For the body does not consist of one member, but many we are the members of Jesus's body and the eye cannot say to the hand I have no need of you …  If one member suffers, all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” (1 Corinthians 12)

This is what makes you run.  [_END__]