Learning to Love and Be Loved

“As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post. He said to him, ‘Follow me.’ And he got up and followed him. While he was at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat with Jesus and his disciples.” -- Matthew 9:9-10

When I first meditated on this passage, what struck me was how the simple act of eating together must have opened up the hearts of these sinners, who were surely isolated and reviled by society. That Matthew chose to follow Jesus tells us how this experience convinced him that here is what he had been searching for. 

Jesus, by his very personal example, must have shown these sinners both how to love, and how to be loved. Contemplating the scene, I could feel their joy at finally finding the love they had hoped existed, but had never encountered from other people. And I could relate to it personally. 

Through my roommates Chelsea and Marcela, I get to witness the interpersonal effects of faithful devotion to the Lord, from whom we learn to love in saying yes to him.  

We don’t have Jesus sharing a meal with us in the Clifton house, or sharing at our post-ministry debriefs, but we do have his presence with us. Instead, what brings out the truest friendship in this year is our Missionary Rule of Life—our day-to-day schedule and guidelines that help us live out God’s will for us this year. The way we have each learned to love is by saying yes to the regular prayer, service, and little sacrifices the Rule of Life prescribes, and by trusting in one another’s “yes” to the same. 

One of the deepest moments in community life is when we share our experiences from street ministry in a debrief. These experiences often unsettle our human expectations of God’s power (like hearing of a healing from addiction), but we also share simple joys like a beautiful prayer led as the sun peeked out from behind the clouds—as if to tell us that God was watching over us there. 
By saying yes to the Lord in difficult moments, like being vulnerable with my roommates about challenges in street ministry, or accepting that I might not independently have the best way of doing everything, I can allow his presence to radiate forth into this little Mercy Missionary community. 

~by Ariel Lewin