HOPE AMIDST THE HARSHNESS

In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame;
deliver me in your righteousness.

Incline your ear to me;
make haste to deliver me.

Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold;
for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.

Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me,
for you are my tower of strength.

[PSALM 31:1-4 BCP PSALTER]

I confess that when I sit to write these days I do so with a measure of sadness.

As I stare at the computer screen and ponder what I want to share, I merely shake my head and say to myself, “Why bother?”

Each day seems to surpass the previous one in acts of heartlessness and cruelty by immigration enforcement agents on the streets of our country against fellow human beings without regard to their age, health, or status. All that seems to matter is that they look different.

And their brutality is on full display daily on our televisions or electronic devices.

I’ve considered shutting down for a while, but I don’t want to get out of the habit of posting regularly.

I’ve also considered writing about something other than current events, but that seems to me a measure of escapism.

So I’ve come up with a temporary solution.

Since so many others have expressed what’s on my mind so much more eloquently than I, I’ve decided to borrow some of their thoughts and share them with you.  

I recently came across a collection of homilies, addresses, and prayers of the late Pope Francis, of blessed memory, titled A Stranger and You Welcomed Me.

Included in this compilation is a portion of the address he delivered to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. on September 24, 2015.

I’ve written previously that I was in Washington on that day and was able to watch the presentation via closed-circuit television from the Senate Office Building.

So what follows is what those lawmakers heard that day.

Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.

All political activity must serve and promote the good of the human person and be based on respect for his or her dignity. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” (Declaration of Independence, 4 July 1776). If politics must truly be at the service of the human person, it follows that it cannot be a slave to the economy and finance. Politics is, instead, an expression of our compelling need to live as one, in order to build as one the greatest common good: that of a community which sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life. I do not underestimate the difficulty that this involves, but I encourage you in this effort.

Let us treat others with the same passion and compassion with which we want to be treated. Let us seek for others the same possibilities which we seek for ourselves. Let us help others to grow, as we would like to be helped ourselves. In a word, if we want security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others will be the yardstick which time will use for us.

These words were spoken only a little over ten years ago, but they may as well have been said a century ago, because, sadly, they have been long forgotten by the ones who are still around to set public policy.

Am still hopeful?

Yes, but barely.

On this day especially, the words of Psalm 31 (see at the top) are a shelter from the storm of despair.

Let us pray:
Grant, O God, that your holy and life-giving Spirit may so move every human heart, and especially the hearts of the people of this land, that barriers which divide us may crumble, suspicions disappear, and hatreds cease; that our divisions being healed, we may live in justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
(Book of Common Prayer p. 823)

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Pope Francis, Ellsberg, Robert, ed. A Stranger and You Welcomed Me: A Call to Mercy and Solidarity with Migrants and Refugees. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2018.