There is a building located at 2016 Millennium Blvd. Cortland, Ohio that captures my imagination. It is not one of the raucous football stadiums of my youth nor one of the sublime cathedrals of my adulthood, but rather the local Walmart, and I love to be there. For some reason that I do not yet comprehend, the Lord’s voice echoes through the produce section, down the dairy aisle, across the home goods, and all the way to the check-out lanes. Perhaps the limited pretensions of this store combined with the common task of trying to run a household allows a feeling of community-in-transparency to abound in all of us shoppers. And though it is true that the Walmart business model is deficient in many ways, who am I to judge how the Lord chooses to draw me into relationship and speak the simple Word of communion to my heart? Let’s therefore try to cultivate a spirit of openness – this week and beyond – to the possibility that the Lord will encounter us in the ordinary and anonymous circumstances of our human lives. Ave Crux, Spes Unica.
Amen to the “community” that is found among ordinary shoppers!