Re: Verse reading–2 Samuel 13-18 (day three)
“O Absalom, my son, my son!” The last thing on one’s agenda is often the command to affirm the sacred duty of living in the presence of others. That command is sometimes explicit: “Love your neighbor as yourself”; “Love the foreigner as yourself”. It is sometimes implicit: “Confess your sins to one another.” Behind every sorrow, every anguished cry, every story of isolation, every act of hiding, lying, envy, and murder–behind it all–lies the failure to affirm the sacred duty of living in the presence of another person. Only God can teach us that. Until we learn, anguish will be the language most fluently spoken in this world.
