I heard today of the death of a dear friend. He was a devoted son, a deeply caring brother and a totally loving father. And yet, his marriage did not work out.
I have a priest friend who worked during most of his priestly life in the family ministry, helping couples and their families, specially the troubled ones. And yet, in his own family of origin, all the marriages of his siblings, but for one, were all troubled.
Then there was the top pulmonologist I knew who could not save his son from dying from asthma; or the lady doctor who died giving birth to her first born; or the cardiologist who died of a heart attack during a convention of leading cardiologists.
Life is a mystery and full of unanswered questions. There are some with obvious answers and yet we seem powerless to address them.
Like, we have the resources and the technology to wipe out poverty and the most common diseases and yet we don’t. It is not that we cannot. It is simply we will not.
Like, the US spends more per capita on those in prisons than on students who are in school. There are billions of dollars available for big banks in distress; while students are gouged to pay for their student loans.
Like, we know we are thrashing the planet to the point of poisoning the environment and yet, we will not change our profligate and destructive ways to heal the world. There are even those who would deny the degradation of the earth is happening at all.
We have lost our capacity to be awed by the mysterious. Our hearts have become calcified into stones and our eyes eyes blinded by the fancy lights of our own making. I pray that we recover our hearts of flesh and that our eyes may see the true light.