In feeling their shared pain and struggle, Euodia and Syntyche are invited to feel a gentleness toward one another. When we feel a gentle spirit toward someone else, especially someone from whom we’ve been estranged, we give space for two vulnerable hearts to beat in rhythm with each other. These are the moments when Jesus is most near to us. These are the moments that lead to joy.
The question Jesus keeps pressing upon me and upon all of us is What does it look like for us, here and now, to set aside our confident, violent visions of what we think would set things straight and ask what love requires? Ask perhaps what these strangers to us might actually need in their lives to make them a little more whole.
Because even an easy question like “Which child did the will of his father” leads to another more difficult question: which child are you? Which child am I? Our willingness to let these ancient stories nudge at us, poke at us, and even interrogate us is what faithful engagement is all about.
The wisdom of God calls to us still, saying our economies don’t have to be built on the stingy ideas of our small minds.
“But here’s the question the parable poses to us. What do you need to forget? And what do you need to remember? Do you ever find yourself remembering and ruminating on some hurt you know you need to be set free from somehow and forgetting the many gifts and graces that have arrived in your life since the first breath you drew this morning? I sure do.”