Truths to which I am very awake today: 1) Depression is real. Its not a bad hair day, or a fat day, or a sad day, or a Debbie Downer day. Its a life-long condition that deserves more than a cursory glance and a cant you just get in a better mood!? 2) Thousands of people, including too many children in the Middle East - in Syria, Iraq, Gaza - are still being slaughtered in droves by militant lunatics on religious crusades. More lives are surely on the block, should the conflict in Ukraine escalate... And thats to say nothing of the horrors wrought by Boko Haram in Africa, which has somehow flitted away from our screens and out of our minds. We still need to bring our girls home. 3) Safe as we may think we are in America, its not all roses for everyone. Those commissioned to serve and protect seem to be shooting to kill more and more of us, with little to no provocation aside from suspicion and fear. In all of this, the common foundation is a debilitating phobia of The Other that provokes us to defensive, violent lives, in which we resolve to annihilate those Feared rather than the fear itself. To all of this, my only response is: Kyrie Eleison. Lord, have mercy. Make us merciful. Let us be kind to one another; liberal and generous with our love and compassion; stingy with judgement. Let us be slow to anger, suffering long with the suffering. Let us abandon paranoia, compelled to live in the kindness of community. Let us withhold no good thing from each other, as Youve withheld no good thing from us. Let us be life savers and light bringers, that we may build a Kingdom of mercy and love in a world of darkness. Let us grasp what it means to be inextricably bound to one another in such a way that their loss, fear, suffering, sorrow, depression, and violence are our OWN loss, fear, suffering, sorrow, depression, and violence. Let us care for one another as wed care for ourselves, as You have cared for us. And Lord! Lord have mercy.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 17:02:06 +0000