The Journey 52: Transformation in my community

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Read: John 6: 1-15
Key Verse: “And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” [ 2 Corinthians 9:8]

 Recycling- Everybody thinks recycling is all about waste products. Read the news report of John Ostapkovich of the CBS Philadelphia News.  He reported yesterday of a South Jersey couple who has been involved in a very innovative and life giving source. Forming an enormous kidney donation chain, thus bringing hope to untold people in the community suffering from kidney failure, thus instilling in them a sense of hope. This kidney donation chain is called kidney paired donation. A donation chain works like this: On behalf of person A, a kidney is donated to B, who has someone donate to C and eventually back to A. In this particular episode, The couple in this picture was Danny and Debbie Giaquinto of Bellmawr, who contributed to a chain of 30 kidneys. After a first kidney transplant deteriorated and Danny went back on dialysis, Debbie says she planned to donate directly to him, but at the last moment wasn’t a match. The people at Jefferson University Hospital then suggested the donation chain. “This summer, they came up with a perfect match for him and he’s a very difficult match, because he has a lot of antibodies due to the first transplant. We went in the hospital and were both transplanted. His kidney came in from California. My kidney went to Florida.”Debbie Giaquinto says she’s thrilled when looking at her health and also that of her husband’s. The Giaquintos donation chain was profiled in the Sunday New York Times. A couple who even in the  midst of crisis tries to bring in a chain of transformatory reaction in the community.                                                                                                    On Wednesday’s we meditate on how we can become agents in the transformation of our community. The biblical portion that we are meditating is from the John 6. Here is a portion that depicts a need of a community. Jesus is concerned about their need and He ask his disciples to provide for the needs of the community. The response from the disciples were not words of hope. It was only an unknown boy who decided to respond to the needs of the community. I strongly believe that there were others who had food and other resources which would have benefited the crowd and would have catered to the needs  of the community, but they chose to be deaf to the pleas of the disciples or may be they argued that they cannot share or may be they may have made lame excuses.  It is here that the boy shows a wonderful gospel principle through the sharing of his morsel. The principle of “ receiving when you give”. This is also what I feel the real principle of recycling is all about. In Gospel terms recycling is not the giving of the left over's or the waste that you have, on the contrary giving to God what is best, and what is precious to Him, so that through this giving, you provide for the needs of the suffering people and also for the needs of the community. The world thrives on the principle of receiving in abundance by hoarding and not giving or sharing anything with the community which is contrary to the principles of the gospel. Jesus tells us to give abundantly and when we give abundantly and then we shall also receive abundantly. The family of Debbie and Danny has been a model of what it means to give and receive and thus becomes agents of transformation in the community. Can we also consciously be agents of recycling so that we give to the community, cater to the needs of the community the best that we have.
Ready to recycle yourself ?
Let us Pray: O Lord you teach us that we should be able to recycle all that we have so that the needs of the community can be taken care of and also in the process we also receive your blessings abundantly. Amen

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