At the Margins

Those who are marginal in the world are central in the Church (or that's how it is supposed to be). Going to the margins revitalizes the Church. We thus find ourselves going to the edge, going to the bottom, going to those who are excluded at the margins. This is to imitate our Master who is constantly going to the lepers and those whom society labels "sinners." The Church will always be renewed when our attention shifts from ourselves to those who need our care. If we go out to the edges, to the poor, then we discover that petty disagreements, fruitless debates and paralysing rivalries will eventually recede and gradually vanish. The most remarkable experience of those who work with the marginalized and the poor is that, in the end, the blessings flow through the poor; and the poor are those who give more than they receive. The poor give food to us. "Blessed are the poor." (See Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, Nov 1; see also Richard Rohr, The Divine Dance, 133.)