Shorelines of the Spirit

Right There, At My Door Today's Gospel is that familiar reading, from Luke,  about the rich man and Lazarus.   As I was doing lectio  on it this morning,  what caught my attention was the fact that Lazarus,  poor and sick and covered with sores, was at the rich man's door.    Does this mean that every time the rich man entered or left his house,  there was Lazarus?   Had this desperately needy man become so much a part of the scenery that the rich man simply stepped around him, without a second thought? I can become very opinionated about what's going on in the world and in the nation.   I can sign petitions,  attend demonstrations,  read and listen to the words of both Church and civil commentators on social justice,  sustainability,  concern for the most marginalized and vulnerable.  And I should! But is there a poor person at my door that I don't even notice?   It could be the unexpected phone caller, or the individual who drops in at my office when I'm

"Shorelines of the Spirit...."   Why that name for these reflections?   Well,  coming from New Jersey, where going "down the shore"  is part of the native vocabulary,  it seemed quite appropriate. But more importantly,  there is a "Shoreline of the Spirit" in each of us,  that deep place where the infinite ocean of  God's presence meets each of us in the sandy stretches of our daily lives.  We're invited each day to walk along that water's edge,  to be refreshed by the presence of God within us. In New Jersey,  we go "down the Shore" almost always by driving along some stretch of the Garden State Parkway, which begins in extreme north Jersey and ends at its southernmost tip, at Cape May. There are a few other ways to get there,  but the Parkway is the one that most people take, because it's quick and fairly direct. On the other hand,  to get to those shorelines of the Spirit within,  there are many routes:  Scripture,  sil