Again and again comes the question of exclusion from mainstream economic,social, political or religious societies. For many it means dram, sufferingand even death.
True enough!
Who has never been excluded in some way?. It is a basic reality of our lives.To reflect realistically, can one recall in what circumstances he/she feltexcluded? What sort of suffering was it?
It is always when confronted whith a group or a person that one feels excluded.The feeling of loneliness which it brings in its wake can be a source ofa deep seated anguish. Deep down it affects our will to live, to love.
This feeling can be related to a kind of megalomania: we would like to haveit all, to be sure of everything, to know everything, and we can only bedisappointed. It is so trying to accept that one is only oneself, knowingone's limitations. It is so difficult to love oneself as one is. We wouldlike to be someone else with five talents when we have received only one,as Jesus said. When the dream goes broke, we feel expelled from our ownselves. We close ourselves in, out of deceit, and we build walls to protectourselves. This is the tragedy of human history. For lack of trust (in ourselves?in others? in God?), we in turn exclude others.
We can only get out of this feeling of being excluded wich we have created,if we have met someone who has truly welcomed us, who has loved us as weare, without conditions. Happy we are if we have met sucha person. Many people have never met someone looking at them in this way.In our economic, social, political world and even in families, so many tangiblesigns mean: you're worth nothing, you're no good, you don't exist. God caneven be called upon; how often, people say in his name: you're guilty, you'reof no worth, get away, go to blazes!
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