Be a Tassel

Last updated on: February 7, 2022 at 7:33 pm by Sherry Antonetti

Be a Tassel 2022-02-07T19:33:57-05:00 Sherry Antonetti

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We’ve all heard the Gospel so many times, we no longer hear what it says, what it promises, what it reveals.

Two weeks ago, we heard the story of Jesus raising the little girl of twelve from death for an official who came and asked. In the midst of the story, we heard of a little miracle:

A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the tassel* on his cloak.

21She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”i

22Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, “Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.” And from that hour the woman was cured. (Matthew 9:20-22).

The miracle is both her faith revealed and a commissioning to each of us –to be so close to Jesus, that if people were to touch us, we would not stand in the way of Christ. Christ could work through us, like He does through the tassel. The tassel simply is, but is close to Christ and yet through touching with faith, the woman finds herself healed.

We need to be the same to those around us, a source of healing any time we are touched.

Praying, “teach me to be a tassel.” feels strange and yet, it is the reality –we want to be vessels through which Christ works in the most extraordinary of ways, even while using us, the most ordinary of beings. God keeps showing us He can work through our ordinariness –with stone washing jars, with loaves of barley and fish, with tassels. He rather delights in revealing His love through the ordinary.

Then I read an article by a friend of mine, and I found her words rang true…The Church You’re Building.
It seemed to me, we’ve spent far to much time worrying about how unextraordinary everyone is, instead of worrying about how to love everyone with everything we have. We lash out at this group for failing to consider other perspectives, and at that one for their marketing and at a third for their associates –and none of these may be wrong criticisms –as they may be doing things which give scandal, which show a lack of reflection, or indicate a worshiping of something other than God, but whatever else the lashing out reveals, it indicates a lack of charity to those who may be wrong and gives those who might be wrong zero reason to reflect or examine their own motives and thinking. Love compels people to reflect, because it puzzles the world.
Love is not the response the world expects. That is why the One Who Is Love, conquers even death with His offering from the cross.

If Christ can be charitable from the cross to the ones who denied, betrayed, ran away, shouted “Crucify Him,” played the cruel games with the reed and the purple cloth and crown of thorns, and nailed Him, (which by the way is all of us) then who should we not be charitable with? Who should we not forgive with our whole hearts fully no matter what? It is narcissism to believe that we are somehow beyond or better or more evolved, it is a denial of our sinful nature, of our capacity for sin. If one sin lost Eden for us, and Heaven for Satan and His followers, then how can we do anything but want to embrace all comers, to invite them in and hope with all we have, they will come through the door?

How can we not pray to but be a tassel on His mantle, or even just a thread? The world needs the gift of charity, the heart of Jesus revealed in our day to day life. Today, pray to be just a single thread, and for Christ to work through you, and watch what happens.

Love in the little things

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