If I open my mouth, I shake a tree with my words… and I ask questions like "what is ‘the left’?" "What is a liberal?" "What is Conservative, anyway?" "So medical treatment costs a lot, and your diabetic friend with Obama Care stands in line for hours to get treatment… who should pay for it?" "Why did a person killing another person on camera look into the camera so beligerantly? was he trying to make a point?" "Who paid him?" "Is it really 3 months until election? and what difference will that make in our country?" "Do we really think things will change if Pelosi, McConnell, and Trump are changed out?" and finally, "I think the election won’t make a difference in the rhetoric." Wow! That should take a load off my chest for a few moments, but it doesn’t. I believe it will take a remarkable effort of leaders and citizens to bring the USA together. Saying things that marginalize, disunify, and antagonize cannot improve our toxic environment. We need unparalled leadership; Congress, Senate, Executive, and Justice Branches that speak to each other in non-toxic ways. No "Twitter", but talk from faces that is balanced, and not ugly. No use of words like "fraud," "hoax," or "lies" unless we can show the source. We have a choice to lose hope.
Every day, my niece Jennie’s husband takes a photo of the sunrise on his way to work and sends it to her. How sweet is that bit of love, sent every day? A small beautiful act that opens a day that could be physically or mentally frustrating… but a day that starts with a flower to the heart. All day long, remember the sunrise. Send sunrises. Call out Love! Remember Martha who said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, Lazarus would have lived." He does live! Jesus, nods his head, back and forth, and says, "Martha, Martha, if only you have faith…" And then Jesus calls Lazarus out of the tomb. (John 11). We have to have faith. Maybe we are being marched off to Babylon until we change. We can either react with Faith and Love, or we can react with Toxic words and hate. We have a choice. As Moses said…. "Choose Life."
In daily Mass lately, the Old Testament readings have been from Jeremiah, the last Prophet who pleaded with the people of Judah to change their hearts or get carriend off to Babylon. Jeremiah wrote, "The lord spoke to me… ‘ Go, cry out. The people have dug broken cisterns that hold no water’ " We have created wells that hold no water. Our hearts are full of leaks and holes. We have "created" that which is no good. We kill with our hands and our mouths, yelling at each other. Jeremiah cried out when Jerusalem was without a shepherd. People stopped speaking of hope and healings. People shouted of pain and fear. People stopped reflecting God, and started reflecting the fear inside their broken hearts. They got carried off and when they returned, priests prayed, "Have pity on us O Lord, and don’t let us return to the way we were. Change our hearts…" Today we plead, "Change our hearts, encounter us, O God-Man Jesus… Change our hearts." Today, let us speak of Jesus, let us be light. Let us think of what our mother’s taught us! I told a young man yesterday, "Remember what your mother taught you." And I prayed she wasn’t full of rage and pain. Speak of cooperation and compassion. Educate children with love.
On my birthday and for a few days afterwards, the church readings talked about sowing seed. Some people sow weeds and some sow good seed. If we water the seed, it will grow. Will it bear good fruit? Hover over the bean and watch! Yes there’s beans. Lots of them! Weeds grow, but God and angels who attend all deaths, separate the weeds and fruit, the goats from sheep, and the weeds are pulled out at the end, and they get burned by the farmer-God. If we didn’t believe this, we wouldn’t have Mother Teresa’s houses of care all over the world. One small woman accomplished so much because she asked God for help. Daily, constantly. How did she attract young women to join her to help people in the hell of poorest India? God brings good out of the fallen world. We must have faith that the fruit will grow and the weeds will be thrown out. So the Gospels say, "Be light! Be leaven! Pray for those who look like they are strangling from the weeds." Right now, that is some of us who are being strangled.
"Only do the right… Love goodness, and walk humbly with your God." wrote the prophet Micah 6: 1-8. Walk humbly. Speak gently. Expect life. Expect Peace.