Who is my family?

Humanity holds a special place in this work for the world. We humans are not just statistics, we are creatures with an infinite dignity conferred on us by the Creator.

So much of the discussion of climate change and how our responsibility to the planet involves dry statistics that are easy to ignore. Less easy is ignoring statistics with faces: the poor at our doorstep, the workers in farms, fields, and factories whose standard of living is low because ours is high. Pope Francis calls on us all to remember the human part of this equation – we are all important in God’s eyes, and it is our responsibility to care for one another in new and more intentional ways.

 

Ponder

What does my local homeless shelter need for its guests? What can I provide?

 

Pray

God of creation, when riches for one mean poverty for another, help me seek the welfare of all.

Moses in the Basket

Around 1700 B.C.E., famine forced the Israelites to migrate to Egypt. Over tie, the Israelites became like slaves in Egypt. Around 1200 B.C.E., the pharaoh, or ruler of Egypt, started to worry about the Israelites. He was afraid they might rebel against him. To keep them weak, he ordered that all boys born to the Israelites must be thrown into the river to drown.

One woman who ha a son hid the baby as long as she could. When he was about three months old, she took a basket and made it as waterproof as she could. Then she put the baby in the basket and left him near the river’s edge.

The daughter of the pharaoh found the basket. She guessed at once that the baby was an Israelite. But she was moved by pity for the baby. She arranged to have the baby nursed – by his own mother, though the princess didn’t know this. Later she adopted the boy as her son. She named him Moses, which means “one who was drawn out,” because, she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

What kind of person do you think would try to rescue someone she didn’t know and take him into her own home?