This morning’s reading was from 1 Corinthians 12: 12-20. (see below for the text) All parts of the body, being different yet working together. I cannot help but think of the living situation here in Calais. Perhaps you like me, wonder how so many people, different ages, different languages, different cultures can get along and live together. Keep wondering!!!
Since I’ve been here we’ve had the following living in the house:
Brother Johannes a monk from Holland, the house Master speaking Dutch, French and English
Maria from Romania, speaking Romanian, French and English with an enchanting voice. MAria moved on to Taize for retreat time…
Babak, Ali and Moein from Iran, speaking Farsi and English and Babak speaks French as well. Babak and Ali make movies…
Alexandra, a Scotch born French woman with a law background, (English and French)
Julie is also French with some English, she has left and hopes to return
Hussein, an Egyptian Arabic with some English
Young David, a Sudanese left trying to get to England. He may return.
Ibrahim from Syria, an Arabic speaker who is working hard on his French and works even harder at making us laugh
Hussein is a 17 year old from Egypt who speaks Arabic
Abdullah is from Sudan and speaks English very well as well as his native Arabic
Sr. Sheena, Mark and Avinash are originally from India and speak English and Hindi. Avinash also speaks French,
and then there is me, limited to English, although I understand a little French.
We gather every Monday morning after morning prayer and breakfast to assign or volunteer for the week’s work assignments in the house. Most get done.
Key assignments are cooking, cleaning up after dinner and other chores like cleaning bathrooms, floors and the refrigerator. Someone is assigned to house duty every day so the house is never unattended and there is someone assigned to welcome those who come to the door. S/he also has responsibilities of making sure bed linens are changed so beds are available as people move out and in.
The house also hosts a Farsi/English evening prayer one night a week (tonight’s prayer service lasted an hour!) Farsi and French lessons during the week along with many unscheduled and serendipitous gatherings. Basically half of us are basically volunteers who have come to help in the Jungle, and the other half are refugees who formerly lived in the Jungle and now live in Marie Skobtsova house as volunteers or as folks recovering from injuries or illness.
I have not discerned any bickering because people are not carrying their share of the load. Quite the opposite, there are many helpers for those who have task assigned to them. Yes, there was tension today because recycling bins were not loaded properly and the dirt (garbage) was not picked up today. But when the muttering started I heard an effort to get this right, not to blame someone for doing it wrong.
It is a privilege to live in a community like this, if even for a month. I’ve had my share of community experiences but there is only one that even comes close to what we are living here. That one was Camp Fatima, and we knew where that led. (Hi honey!)
Text for 1 Cor. 12:12-20:
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.