Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

A few centuries ago our ancestors in Germany, Korea, Nigeria or Poland would only have heard about the loss of a ship at sea months after the fact. If there was a famine in Ireland, the same thing. A tribal war resulting in many deaths in Afghanistan might never have come to their consciousness. Today within minutes we hear of the crash of a plane off Malaysia or of a terrorist bomb in Spain. The world-wide impact of Covid-19 made clearer than any of us needed that we are one world in such a terrible disruption.

One almost feels obliged to apologize for good spirits and happiness. Somehow, we must make it obvious that we are aware of the suffering around us. It is not possible for us to live contentedly while simultaneously oblivious to so much human suffering. What do we do? Do we continue to watch the news and get progressively more discouraged? Or do we refuse to read the news and live in a happier if make-believe world?

As we prepare to enjoy the evening meal or go out to dinner, TV is showing pictures of people being slaughtered in the Middle East or rioting for food in Somalia, women weeping for their husbands and sons taken away and shot. Hate-filled men traveling miles to kill Black people, emboldened by TV personalities and white politicians, all on this small planet among people with the same feelings and hopes that whites have.

One can justify a certain amount of depression in us well-off Westerners or First-Worlders. But, more helpfully, can we not do something by our votes and what we expect from our own country or the world? Can we not keep up some hope and good spirits so that we all don't despair or make everyone miserable? Can we not speak up whenever we hear anti-Black language? Active concern and sympathy are one thing; general discouragement and a sad face help no one.

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!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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