We Belong To Each Other

In this last post of 2025, I just want to say that I am grateful to all of you who read along, comment or give me some feedback and/or your own take on the scriptures and what they mean to you. I appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow collectively on our faith journey, and I look forward to more in 2026! 

As I try to do most mornings, I sit on my couch with a cup of coffee (in Fr. Jim fashion) staring out my back window – contemplating the trees and world around me. I often get to see a brilliant sunrise happening as this chilly Northern world awakens for another day.

In recent weeks I have been picking up Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry (thank you, Kit!) which is just a beautiful book about the reciprocity, generosity and kinship of the natural world. There is something both true and calming in her writing, and I strive to embody more of this in my life.

But our modern lifestyle – especially here in the United States – seems to be structured to do just the opposite of what Kimmerer suggests. Here we seem to favor accumulation, competition and forms of othering or disconnection that undermine some of the very necessary and life-giving processes that we (collectively) need to thrive.

Thus I am trying to reconnect in as many small ways as I can – for my own health and the health of our world. It’s a slow process though because so much in my life works against it. So every morning, I try to start my day by looking outside and acknowledging my relatives and neighbors in the non-human world and wonder what they might need from me today in order to be well.

When people are well, they are connected. And when people are connected they are more likely to be well.

Today in our scriptures we hear about people who are connected and people who are disconnected. People who are tuned in and those who are not.

In our first reading from 1 John 2, the author says, “Whoever says, “I know [God],” but does not keep the commandments is not telling the truth, and the truth is not in that person…[Likewise] whoever says they they are in the light, yet hates their neighbor, is still in the darkness.”

I know that some people would read this and might hear the word “commandments” and think of the 10 commandments.  While I can understand that, it’s probably because we never really heard Jesus’ summary of what “the commandments” meant.  In Mt 22 Jesus sums his tradition up by saying that you are keeping God’s commandments if you (a) love God with all your heart, soul and mind and (b) love your neighbor as yourself. This, he said, sums up the law and the prophets.

Love God with heart, mind and soul. Love neighbor as self.

Of course Jesus was tested in his life with a question that led to one of his most famous stories (the Good Samaritan). And the question was, “Who is my neighbor?”

Who is my neighbor?

If we were in a group setting right now, I’d love to hear from each one of you what this question means to you. How do you hear this question? And when you hear it, do you only think of humans?

Sadly, so much of Christian history has been focused on the opposite question – determining who isn’t our neighbor or who does not deserve our respect and love. And while it is not a new phenomenon, we’re witnessing a time where many who profess Christianity in our own country speak with the language of hate and engage in the demonization of others – even as they work to put the “10 Commandments” in schools and other public places!

I love the work of Fr. Greg Boyle who describes hateful and violent behavior as being “unwell.” He says that people who are well and grounded would not do these kinds of things. People don’t harm others (or the world) when they are well. His ministry – Homeboy Industries – which is the largest gang intervention program in the world holds 2 fundamental principles: Everybody’s unshakably good (and there are no exceptions) and we belong to each other (no exceptions).

I kind of see his 2 principles as being extensions of the “commandments” – that if we truly love God and neighbor then we will see EVERY neighbor as a reflection of God AND as connected to everything else (and by neighbor, I also include the more-than-human world). 

Of course all of us have forms of “unwellness” in us. If you have grown up in the United States like I have, then we have been steeped in various forms of illness – like racism, militarism, consumerism, excessive wealth, etc. that have prevented us from loving God with heart, mind and soul and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And of course we all grew up in families that had their own particular forms of being unwell that impacted us.

The good news, however, is that those who are unwell can be made well! But first, we must recognize that we are not well. And second, we must pursue our own personal (and collective) healing.

I often return to the work of john powell. For decades he and his colleagues have taken up the ideas and practices related to creating belonging. Powell says that “The root of all inequality is the process of othering – and its solution is the practice of belonging.” He goes on to say that “belonging” is both a state of being and a set of practices. 

While we have all had extensive training in the process of othering, I do think that we intuitively know what it feels like to belong and how to practice belonging. And I also think that this is what we all truly long for – a sense of belonging in this world that respects who we are and how we are.

Part of the work of creating belonging is seeing the world as kin. Part of that work is reminding ourselves that no one is outside of the circle of love and that we are all connected. Part of that work is wondering what it might mean to be a “good neighbor” in the place where we live. Part of that work is feeling our own connection to God who is the source of all connection.

Repeating the phrase, “we belong to each other” throughout the day might be an interesting practice. We see a bird and we say, “we belong to each other.” We get cut off in traffic and we say, “we belong to each other” to the person who cut us off. We see someone who is unhoused and we say, “we belong to each other.” We see our face in the mirror and we say, “we belong to each other.” Engaging in this kind of practice may not solve everything, but it might prevent immediate forms of disconnection from appearing and enable us to reflect more deeply on what we can do next that keeps us and “the other” well in this situation.

As we move through our week, may we feel an ever-increasing sense of belonging and connection in this world and may we be greater and greater agents for our neighbors (human and non-human) feeling the same.