There can be three levels of defining our relationship with others and the world.
There is ownership: I have possessions, I can even have a family and children. Ownership is good but it can give way to selfishness and acquisitiveness.
Then there is stewardship: I cannot own the earth nor other people
but I have been given responsibility for them and expected to make them grow,
for them to become more and better.
And then there is kinship: we are one with everything that exists.
The earth, and people for that matter, does not belong to me
but I belong to the earth and to other people.
We are fruits of the earth and sons and daughters of the land.
We all belong to one another: dust from dust, blood of m blood, flesh of my flesh.
This is the strongest and most intimate of relationships.
And this is the kind of relationship that Christ was challenging the young man to have:
If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
For our real treasure are our relationships built on kinship,
our belongingness to one another in Christ.
This kind of faith is both a choice and a responsibility.
When I choose to believe, I acknowledge a Someone
to whom I owe the gift of life I have received.
As a sunflower turns towards the source of the light that provides it with energy,
I too seek to know and understand the source of this precious present.
I am responsible for this life and all the value attendant to it.
I am also responsible for this life that I share with the rest of the world
as I see it manifested and incarnated in others and in nature.
And I come to realize, the faith I have received brings me into a web of relationships
that is the very fabric of life itself.
