“THEY GREW UP ON THE OUTSIDE OF SOCIETY. THEY WEREN’T LOOKING FOR A FIGHT. THEY WERE LOOKING TO BELONG.”

– THE OUTSIDERS

Comfort zones are aptly named. Having a space where you can recharge, be yourself, and find solace in familiar and life-giving activities, places and people is good and necessary. There is nothing wrong with being comfortable.

In the Gospels, the followers of Jesus were asked to do and be more. As they were going along the road, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” These are hard demands. They require us to leave behind our ego as the centre of our lives and to go beyond our comfort zones.

You may have noticed that Pope Francis talks, in fact quite frequently, about the need for the Church, the people of God, to go to what he calls the peripheries or the margins. It is a call for all of us to pay attention to the demands of leaving our comfort zones behind.

What are the peripheries? They are the places on the edges of our society. It can look different in various communities. Our towns and cities can mirror the structures and hierarchies of our communities: the more established parts of our cities and towns are often in the geographical centre. We can believe that being closer to the centre is the most ideal place to be because it may give us greater access to people and resources or gives us more options. Sometimes, it does. The newer places are always on the outskirts. We may associate these outer places with greater uncertainty and insecurity, and they may even invoke fear. These ideas transfigure into our relationships with people: those excluded from the centre of culture and society often end up on the very edges of our communities. Those who are experiencing poverty, homelessness, and injustice are often found on the margins.

The peripheries were the theme of the short speech that then-Cardinal Bergoglio (Pope Francis) gave in the meetings before the conclave of Cardinals of the Catholic Church in 2013. He encourages us, “The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery.” The call to go to the peripheries is not an easy one. It confronts us with our prejudices and fears. But we are not alone. As our Vincentian tradition highlights, it is the place where Jesus resides. We see the face of Christ in one another, and most acutely on the peripheries. Go with courage!

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

• When have you gone beyond your comfort zone?
• Where are the peripheries or margins in your community?

From: Firewood for the soul, vol. 2, A Reflexion Book for the Whole Vincentian Family
St. Vincent de Paul Society, Queensland, Australia.
Text by: Samantha Hill and James Hodge.