Inside Us All

Last Friday I had the priviledge to serve, for the first time at a local soup kitchen that serves a free hot meal to anyone who shows up, 365 days a year. My family has been volunteering there for one evening a month for the past year or so, but various circumstances have prevented me from going with them previously.

What I did to help out (bus tables) is insignificant in comparison to what I observed: people from all classes and all walks of life, whether volunteers or guests, all interacting with one another. A specific moment further highlighted this fact. Across the street from the diner is our diocese cathedral, where an evening wedding was taking place. Through the large windows at the south end of the dining area, the front doors of the cathedral are visible. Exit the newlyweds and their guests, and all the women in the diner run to the window or turn their heads to see the bride, her dress, the bridesmaids, the flowers, and reflect, for just a moment, on their own weddings or on such a day not too far in the future.

Just to see the common reaction of this most diverse group of women--women from every level of the social scale, both rich and poor, young and old, married, widowed, separated, single--was worth the entire evening. Just to be reminded of our common desires and the equal dignity deserved by all. Just to realize that what ultimately unites us is not our possessions or social status, but the longings of our hearts and the feelings we share when we see something as simple as a bride and her beloved. Why is it so hard to see that we are all equal?


"Life can hold you down,
When you're not looking up,
Can't you hear the sound?
Hearts beating out loud,
Although the names change,
Inside we're all the same."

(-Creed "Inside Us All")


God Bless