A little over a week ago the neighbor of a friend of mine died after an extended illness. My friend had often asked for prayer for her neighbor and also for herself, that she would know best how to care for her neighbor. Her neighbor had no friends or family nearby and she had been estranged from her family for years so my friend would look in on her every day and bring in an occasional meal to help out in a small way. The woman was difficult to serve and bitter about life but my friend persevered through it all, even arranging for people from our church to help clean her house and also provide an occasional meal. The woman didn’t want help from anyone associated with the church because she was convinced they would come later asking her for money. My friend contacted the neighbor’s estranged daughter and told her to come to visit her mother. The daughter did and, a few days later, the neighbor died after having made peace of some sort with her daughter.
My friend is exhausted in the aftermath of it all, having poured love and energy into an ungrateful and recalcitrant person. Her prayers for her neighbor eventually led her to action and her actions revealed the need for even more prayer. Today I read an excerpt from Compassion: A Reflection on the Christian Life by Donald P. McNeill, Douglas A. Morrison and Henri J.M. Nouwen that explains this cycle of prayer and service. “If prayer leads us into a deeper unity with the compassionate Christ, it will always give rise to concrete acts of service. And if concrete acts of service do indeed lead us into a deeper solidarity with the poor, the hungry, the sick, the dying, and the oppressed, they will always give rise to prayer. In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.”
I thank God for my friend, whose simple, loving acts of service toward her neighbor allowed the neighbor to experience the love of God. The world needs more of that.
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