The New Wine Press vol 25 no 3 November 2016 | Page 11

exists only because its members are willing to change plans, adapt to
unforeseen circumstances, and change as members change.
The second guideline he offered was “We are called to discover
the dignity of difference.” In the book he shares a story that brings
this guideline to life: A teacher asks the disciples: “When do you
know it is dawn?” One said, “When you can distinguish a white
thread from a black one.” Another responded, “When you can see
the outline of a tree against the horizon,” and many of the other
students responded, but after all of the responses the teacher said
“No.” Finally, he gave the students the correct answer, “When you
can look into the eye of a stranger, an ‘other’, and see a brother, or
a sister, then it is dawn; until then, it is still night.” Sometimes it is
challenging to see the “other” because as a church and as a world we
slip into the routine of negatively labeling a person. He has a wonderful
description of this challenge: “The great human paradox is that we are all
the same and yet all different; the great human folly is that humanity is often
alienated from itself by using differences not only to distinguish but also to
disagree, dissent, and discriminate, sometimes with appalling consequences.
We are members of a single race, and its name is human.”
The last guideline is “We are called to rethink the way we think.” He describes
two ways of thinking. The first is a dialectical mode of thought. You have heard
millions of examples of this, “right versus wrong,” “either versus or,” “us versus
them.” The other way of thought is called complementary, which works to find
the compromise between the two extremes. He concludes, “To think and act
differently often requires nothing less than a radical conversion.”
Each of the guidelines that Fr. Gittens offers challenges our Companion
Movement. As we welcome new Companions, are we ready to offer the same
flexibility and adaptability that hopefully one finds at home? Are we truly ready
to embrace the other as our brother or sister? Can we see past what our differences are and truly welcome a new Companion as our brother or sister? Can we
develop our complementary perspective?
The guidelines that Fr. Gittens speaks about should sound familiar because
these are all pillars of Precious Blood spirituality. We are called again and
again to stand in the middle as a source of reconciliation and renewal. We are
called to continually widen our circles—and with a special invitation to those
who stand outside the circle. Over the last year we have revisited and made
a renewed commitment to these sentiments. As we continue to authentically
live our Precious Blood spirituality, bringing Gather, Send becomes a realistic
possibility, especially as we open ourselves and the Companion Movement to
welcoming people from other cultures and other generations. While we don’t
become the wonderful dishes that are prepared in “Chopped,” the life of our
Precious Blood community looks stronger as we allow ourselves to be reimagined as our circles are ever widening. W
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