Third Sunday of Lent: Relationships of Love

Relationships of Love

BY JOAN ROSENHAUER | March 7, 2021
Third Sunday of Lent – Today’s Readings
Reflexión en Español

In my work with Jesuit Refugee Service, I am able to see so many relationships of love, as we find in Scripture. Before travel stopped because of the pandemic, I had the opportunity to join one of JRS’s Home Visitor teams as they called on refugees in Beirut. Our Home Visitor teams, composed mostly of refugees, provide basic accompaniment—a supportive listener and modest assistance where possible. 

At one home, we met a woman and her two children, including one with a serious eye disease. They lived in two rooms where she welcomed us with warmth and excitement. Although we couldn’t help her return to the comfortable life she knew in Syria, we were able to offer her comfort, provide a small stipend, and refer her to an eye doctor for her child.  

Relationships of Love - Jesuit Refugee Service

[Image courtesy of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA]

As we moved toward the next home, people emerged from their doors to greet the Home Visitors and urge them to stop by soon. Clearly, this small experience of accompaniment meant a great deal to them. 

When the Beirut explosion happened last August, JRS’s Home Visitors were among the first to respond. Even those whose own homes were damaged immediately visited “their families,” letting them know they were not alone and would be supported. 

In this week’s readings, when Jesus throws the money changers out of the Temple, he distinguishes between our relationship of love with God and the transactional relationships in the marketplace. The Ten Commandments connect our relationship with God to our relationships with each other, laying out fundamental directions that are summarized in the Great Commandment to love God and one another. Despite challenges they face as refugees, the Home Visitors are living examples of the relationships of love we find in Scripture. How can each of us promote relationships of love in our communities and around the world?

For Reflection: 

  • When have you been the recipient of accompaniment, support, generosity, and love? 
  • Where are you being led to extend the same to others in your community and in our world, building relationships of love? 
2 replies
  1. Dr Eileen Quinn Knight
    Dr Eileen Quinn Knight says:

    For the last six years I have known/felt the accompaniment from a person who takes serious the relationship he has with God and the sense of assisting others in developing/deepening that relationship. He has been filled with encouragement and love as well as challenge to live more fully with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I have offered him the grace of the encounter as when a person is accompanying me there is an exchange of grace. God loves him in a special way and makes it possible and enjoyable to talk about the relationship becoming more in tune with the Holy Spirit. The accompaniment is stronger for one person more than for the other at times and that person lifts the other up to the sacred words of God. He offers his words of wisdom to encourage and support your movement with the Lord. I do the same for his movement toward God and all He wills for us in this understanding of the soul of the other.

    Reply

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