Being Jesus for Each Other Every Day

Now that Easter and all the intensity and glory surrounding it has passed, today as I was going about regular activities I had a realization. I had been thinking about how it often seems that my city is like a big community, a large collective, a kind of family. Not long ago I was having a discussion with someone about how some cultures are collective-oriented whereas others are not. I happen to live in a community with a strong presence of a collective-oriented culture.

I think when you live in a collective-oriented culture for a while it kind of hits you. You are not just living on a street, in a city anymore. You are living in a collective that, for whatever it means, you are a part of.

Part of being in the collective means that each day of our lives we are all Jesus for each other. It is not just Jesus who gave his life for us 2,000 years ago, but every day as we members of our collective live together we are all giving to one another, always.

It is not just some glorious position that someone might have – a priest adorned with garments on an altar – but it is every day people who are giving: a vendor at the farmer’s market, an attendant at a gas station, a worker at a clinic. It is one thing to think about the meaning of the ultimate sacrifice of giving one’s life for others as with Jesus, but how much more profound is it to realize it in our day-to-day existence, in our brothers and sisters around us who we see every day? Imagine feeling just as much gratitude from everyone around us as we do towards Jesus, feeling the same level of sacrifice and of loving.

So maybe in this post-Easter time it is a good time to reflect on the gift that all our brothers and sisters are for each other – every day we are Jesus for each other in all the things we do.

This kind of love is the core of a healthy society. Without it a society may enjoy “prosperity” for a while, but it will not last. What makes a community strong are the bonds of love between its brothers and sisters.