How Might We Participate

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January 18, 2024

I am keenly aware that at this very moment, on the other side of the world in the Middle East, extreme suffering is raining down indiscriminately on the human family and on the earth - hatred, revenge, bloodshed, disregard for life, destruction of all that defines safety and home, hardened hearts, and the certainty that peace is impossible and the future holds no hope for reconciliation.

The reading from Isaiah for tomorrow’s liturgy declares clearly which side God is on.

On this mountain God will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice wines…. On this mountain God will destroy the veil that veils all peoples, the web that is woven over all nations. God will destroy death forever and will wipe away the tears from every face…. (Isaiah 25)

It is this God to whom both the Israelis and Palestinians cry out. May God and all who love God destroy the veil over us and the web that prevents us from knowing and loving each other. May God and all who love God wipe away the tears from every face.

 

How might we participate with this all-embracing God in removing veils and webs that separate us from one another? Can we weep with those who weep and not run away?

 

Erica Jordan, OP

Muskego, WI

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