PASTORAL CARE
Vicky Jamieson-Drake

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God ..  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  1 John 4:7, 11

When thinking about the theology of Pastoral Ministry a scriptural image comes to mind of Jesus' resurrection appearance in John, chapter 21, to Peter and other disciples on the shore of the Galilean Sea.  Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love me?”  Peter answers three times with increasing intensity, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” And Jesus responds first with “Feed my lambs,” then “Tend my sheep,” and “Feed my sheep.” Jesus makes it clear that love for him is expressed through caring for his “flock,” hence the term “pastoral” ministry. This is underscored elsewhere in the Gospel of John when Jesus says to the disciples, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Tending, feeding, loving the flock is an expression of our love for Christ.

If the church, the Body of Christ, did not love and care for its members, what an unhealthy, hollow organism it would be -  unequipped to take God's love into the world.

Love starts where we are, with those we are closest to, radiating outward from there.  When members of the parish family know themselves to be loved, then they can reach out in love and concern for others, out of fullness, not barren emptiness.  One can consider the pastoral ministry of the church as an essential support to its mission to the world.

The command to love as Christ loves is more than an exercise of obedience and will. It is a matter of entering into a new life or rather allowing that life to enter us, letting Christ's love dwell in us and transform us. The love and compassion we express wells up from the Spirit of Christ within us. The process may be thought of as living the Sacrament. Holy Communion becomes real in us and in our relationships with one another as Christ dwells in us and we in him.

Mother Teresa, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, used this sacramental image when she described the work of her order as a “living Eucharist.” As the Sisters feed, nurse, comfort the broken bodies of the poor and dying, they are touching and tending the very body of Christ.  Mother Teresa wrote:  “In Holy Communion we have Christ under the appearance of bread. In our work we find him under the appearance of flesh and blood.  It is the same Christ.” She would often quote another saying of Jesus, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.”  (Mt. 25:40)

It may be difficult sometimes to bring this awareness of a living communion with Christ when engaged in a humble act of service, but Christ is the heart of it. When a Pastoral Visitor calls upon a homebound older parishioner, they not only bring the love of Christ but meet Christ in the one they visit.  When a Good Samaritan bakes and delivers a casserole to a family with a new baby, the Christ who loves children is present. When the Prayer Chain prays for a woman with cancer, they uphold the suffering Christ in her through the grace of the healing Christ. Similar examples can be drawn from all acts of compassion and kindness done in the name of Christ and for Christ. Each interaction is an opportunity to love Christ in another.  As we are drawn into communion with Christ, we find Christ in everyone we meet.

The several ministry groups that are highlighted in this edition of Cross Roads are means to deepen our communion with Christ and each other. Through these ministries, strangers are introduced to one another and discover themselves to be brothers or sisters in Christ, kin to one another. Through loving one another, we love Christ.