Week of August 29-September 4
Katrina… Katrina… Katrina… some people in New Orleans avoid us like the plague because we mention Katrina. Once person said years ago that her new year’s resolution was not to say the “K” word. And better yet, one of the more creative events to commemorate the 5th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is a Katrina funeral where residents are given a chance to mourn and put this experience to rest.
There is a lot of Katrina fatigue.
But here we are. The 5th Anniversary. It’s been 60 months since that storm came and caused severe levee failures which then resulted in many flooded communities all along the Gulf South. 60 months of heroes and heroic moments. 60 months of hard deliberating and decision-making. 60 months of waiting… waiting… waiting… for help. 60 months of hard work. 60 months of relationships reconciling and breaking. 60 months of healing. 60 months of music that speaks to the soul of New Orleans and our cry. 60 months of meals made out of gratitude and love.
The Good News is this: God has graced us with what we need, when we need it.
Survivors of recent tragedies in the Gulf South have been welcomed by others around the world. We are the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind that Luke refers to in his Gospel today. Our lives are the ones that challenge everyone else in their own pursuit of holiness and following God’s call.
People who have lived through Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans have deep scars and battle wounds from the trauma of these past extremely tense months of recovery. Although many want to forget, they cannot.
So it becomes the responsibility of all the other invited guests at this banquet of life to listen and heed Jesus’s teaching: "When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they may invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous." (Luke 14: 12b-14)
Please continue to take care of your neighbor. You may not realize it, but you may be THE ONLY reason they are alive.
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