Category: clean and unclean

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Boundaries

Sixth Sunday of Easter (B)   Acts 10:25-48

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall. – Robert Frost

Boundaries.

Every living thing, from the simplest one-cell amoeba to the complex organisms that we call our bodies, needs boundaries. The boundary separates what is included in the living thing from what is outside it. This boundary needs to be strong enough to enable the living thing to exist as a separate being, but not so strong that it keeps the living thing from interacting with the outside world.  Continue reading “Boundaries”

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Unclean!

Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

“Cooties! You have cooties!”

Perhaps you heard that childhood chant aimed at you in the schoolyard when you touched (or were touched by) a child of the opposite sex – or a child that stood out as ‘different’ in some way. Perhaps you aimed that chant at some other unfortunate kid caught in the same circumstance. Children, from a very early age, set up among themselves certain boundaries. Some are marked off – for whatever reason – as ‘radioactive’ or ‘unclean’, and woe to those to transgress the boundaries!  Continue reading “Unclean!”