one grain of truth

As I said before, I seem to have developed a mental winnowing fan, separating the wheat from the chaff in matters of religion, theology and such.  A particular kernel of Truth which has been presented I shall pass along to you forthwith, though I shall warn you that it is a hard seed which may taste bitter.

I see, now, that the vast majority of the problems facing the world and the Church are of our own making and not of God.  Futher, the solutions to those problems are within our purview (our mess, our cleanup). 

The economic, environmental and socio-political crises which presently plague our world are principally rooted in the 'benign avarice' of western capitalism.  There are specifics I could mention and various examples I can give, but boiled down to its simplest form we have abandoned the future for the now and jostled our neighbour aside to get our heads into the feeding trough.  Social Darwinism and our ability to vote ourselves a 'free lunch' has put us all on the endangered species list.

Putting a more personal and painful angle on this is the one year anniversary of Billy Lucas' death, punctuated with Jamey Rodemeyer's demise.  When teens like Jamey or Billy or Jim or Tyler or Seth or Raymond or Asher or Carl or the scores whose names we don't know...when they prefer to take up arms against this sea of intolerance and hatred rather than suffer the slings and arrows of that grave misfortune, we are all complicit in their deaths.  We, individually and collectively, have stood by and done nothing while these kids called for help.  They looked for someone to save them, to care about them, to comfort them and society (individually and collectively) was too interested in its own personal concerns to care for them.  Been there, seen that.

Where is God in all of this?  Simple.  As a responsible and loving parent, He has given us the rules by which She wishes us to live and then has stood back and is letting us (individually and collectively) choose to follow them...or not. But what if it all goes down the crapper?

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make.Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! (Deut. 30:19)

In short, it is OUR choice.  We can love each other, work for justice and tend to the stranger.  We can love our possessions, work for 'just us' and tend to our mutual funds.  We can save the world or be a party to its destruction.  We can prevent another funeral or dance upon a child's grave.

Your choice.  My choice.  Our choice.

Kyrie Eleison