Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”
Football in the spring! What else can we expect? Women priests in the Catholic Church? Dishwashers averaging $35.00 per hour? Specialists in pandemics say that a downright oppressive period like Covid-19 results in seismic changes in our way of thinking and doing.
Daily challenges smash our certainties and we’re forced to accept drastic changes. Did we ever think we’d see the day when college football would compete with Holy Week or when we’d see a leap in pay for dishwashers?
Changes in our way of thinking and doing suggest Lent to Christians. A pandemic Lent is meant to be a bit like that, an interior renewal of our commitment to Christ, allowing ourselves to be changed.
Perhaps, we should be looking ahead now to what would be desirable changes, not simply in me, but for the one human family.
It will truly be a new world if we insure justice and equity, equal opportunity -- economic, educational, medical, political -- for all Blacks, for all non-whites, foreign and domestic, immigrants and native Americans. We will eradicate discrimination so that all children, irrespective of color, have access to quality educational opportunities, equal access to health care, protection from criminals and police brutality, from the scourge of gun violence.
“We cannot tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form and yet claim to defend the sacredness of every human life.” Pope Francis speaking of George Floyd’s killing
We will generously welcome refugees and immigrants seeking a better life.
We will eliminate the situation where a small part of the one human family has moved ahead with lifestyles that cause the majority to be left behind, to suffer poverty.
“Our common home is falling into serious disrepair. We have polluted it, we have despoiled it, endangering our very lives. We have no future if we destroy the very environment that sustains us. Why reinvest in fossil fuels, monoculture farming and rainforest destruction when we know they worsen our environmental crisis? " (Francis)
We will elect political leaders who will work for the common good, provide the means and resources needed to enable everyone to lead a dignified life and, when circumstances allow, to assist them in resuming their normal daily activities.
We will thank all who work to assure essential services to civil society, who help ease people's difficulties and suffering, the ordinary but often forgotten people: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transportation, guardians of civil peace, volunteers, religious leaders, religious men and women, as well as fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers, the lonely and the elderly.
Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love, and you shall renew the face of the earth.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”