Reflective Moments August 2020

Recently our country said goodbye to Congressman John Lewis. John Robert Lewis always wanted his voice to be heard. When he was young, he used to preach to the chickens. Perhaps that was because the chickens couldn’t talk back to him like people can.

Congressman Lewis suffered many hardships in his life; however, he allowed them to make him stronger. Many of us probably would have become bitter – not John Lewis.

He was inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who tells us we all have a moral obligation to stand up and speak out. When we see something that is not right, say something, do something. Congressman Lewis had the moral courage to question what is right and what is wrong. He called people to get into good trouble.

I believe Jesus and Saint Angela called people to get into good trouble. In scripture we read that Jesus sat with the Samaritan woman at the well. She challenged him by telling him he was not supposed to talk to her. The story ends with her conversion. She tells her friends she met someone who told her everything about her. Good trouble, I believe.

Angela Merici got into good trouble. She founded a Company at a time when women’s voices were not to be heard. She said no to the pope who asked her to stay in Rome. She knew she was called to Brescia. Good trouble, I believe.

This leads us all, I believe, to reflect on the kind of good trouble we are called to do.

By: Sister Marietta Wethington