Note: Picking up on a suggestion made many months ago to me by that great deacon, evangelist, author and intentional disciple Keith Strohm, I’m launching this Lent an occasional feature on the blog, which I’m calling Urban Lectio — brief reflections on snapshots I capture in my travels, mostly in New York.
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I saw this label pasted to a metal beam holding up some scaffolding in Queens. It is probably the last thing you’d expect to find in a spot like that, in a city like this, at a moment when our world seems overwhelmed by anxiety, hesitation, unease, fear. Check the headlines. We are a people infected. Infected with discord, mistrust and, of course, that virus.
But in the midst of that, there is this anonymous reminder, staring us in the face. Nothing is impossible with God. Even love. Even compassion. Even mercy.
Today’s Gospel, on this first Monday of Lent, offers us this lesson: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Just for today, for this moment, I will remember that — and remember, too, that “love is possible.” That simple testament of hope is supporting scaffolding in my city. It supports my faith, as well.
So: What will I do this day, for one of the least brothers of mine, to make what is possible visible, and to make Christ present to those who most need to see him?
