Begun, in March of 2020, at the suggestion of someone whose love and wisdom I trust, the way things within the human family in virtually every country on earth, have unfolded, and continue to unfold, I discussed with two other people I trust about ending this series and beginning in due time a new one with a broader scope given the current conditions within the human family.
Close
to 18 months into this pandemic with the almost innumerable casualties, death
cutting a wide swath among the infected, with the hardened positions, the
inflexible attitudes, of those both who accept it is a pandemic, those who do
not, between those who get vaccinated and those who refuse to, there is so much
anger and hatred within the human family, on a scale that in the past would
have been constricted by geography.
Nowadays
with the internet and ever-expanding social media sites, akin to the infamous
clouds of gas that drifted silently, like huge green snakes, across the
battlefields of WWI, we are increasingly loosing a willingness to accept
objective fact. Facts have become the bailiwick of groupthink on both sides of
virtually ever issue from the pandemic to………..each of us can fill in the blank,
likely with a long list of contentious issues.
In
mathematics we all learn as children that 1+1=2.
Today
1+1=equals whatever I say it does.
Anger
and division flows between individuals, families, citizens, and governments,
like an unending lava flow: hot, deadly, destroying everything in its path.
As a
result, we live in nations where, democracies or totalitarian, politicians of
all stripes, at every level of government from national to local have usurped
the right of the people to have true freedom of government for the people.
Thus: “Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.”
― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
“Even
the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.” ― Victor Hugo
How
much longer will this night last is unknowable, that at some point we will
return to what was allegedly ‘normal’ before the pandemic is a mythological
tapestry still being woven by the dreamers.
It is
highly probable, besides new covid variants, there will be revolutions, wars,
national bankruptcies, increased bitter and vengeful divisions within families,
within nations, between nations, simply because we have become, in such a short
time, more than ever preoccupied with self, with our own ideas, interpretations
of the issues of the day.
“I”
dominates. Other is no longer seen as one like me.
You are
either with me or against me: with me tolerated friend, against me hated enemy.
Part of
this tragedy is self-hatred has become as common place as the air we breathe.
All the
above spills out of the stressed minds and wounded hearts of countless people I
hear from, good people who unwittingly as they speak are crying out like the
Psalmist: Save me, God, for the
waters have reached my neck. I have sunk into the mire of the deep, where there
is no foothold. I have gone down to the watery depths; the flood overwhelms me.
I am weary with crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, from looking
for my God. [Ps. 69: 2-4]
There
is no way, individually or collectively as the human family, by our own wits,
we can get ourselves out of this global swamp. No amount of science, money,
government legislation, revolutions or riots, no screaming arguments, nothing
humanly devised can save us.
Individually
and collectively, we need to cry out, like Peter sinking beneath the waves:
“Lord, save us.”: [see Matthew 14:22-33].
Jesus
stretches out His hand, for He loves us and wants to lift us out of the swamp.
The way
we grip His hand and hold on tight – and this is our hope – is to live out: You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’…….‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ [Mk. 12: 28-24]-and- You have heard that it was said, ‘You
shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute
you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes his sun
rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the
unjust. [Mt. 5: 43-45]
© 2021
F. Arthur Joseph