to whatever you choose, stretch out your hand.
17 Before everyone are life and death,
whichever they choose will be given them."
These words from Sirach 15:16-18 reflect the reality of today in so many ways.
With the reality of Covid-19, when we wear a mask or limit our social exposure, we are choosing life, not only for ourselves and our families, but for others. When we opt to refuse or ignore the restrictions to satisfy our own impulses, interests and comforts, we choose death --for we risk the spread and continued cross contamination of our families and all the families of those we encounter, and all the people they encounter. It's a very straight forward equation, and the mask is a sign of humility, like the crosses on our forheads on Ash Wednesday.
With the reality of racism, when we petition, when we speak up, when we educate ourselves and listen to the stories of those who have endured this rot in our society for far too long, we are again stretching out our hands to the living water. When we pay attention to our words so that they do not tear down another by either silence or speech, we are asking for life. When we refuse to accept "what has always been" over what could be, it is seeking life for our brothers and sisters in Christ and ourselves.
The reality is we keep being presented with opportunities to stretch out our hands, and sometimes, we don't even know it. The reality is we keep forgetting, we are always the Body of Christ --and as such, we should know, we should only be reaching for the water, to put out the fires in other people's lives and our own.
What can you do?
1) Educate yourself --these days, it's pretty easy but start. Don't use "I don't know," as an excuse, do the work.
2) Write institutions you care about (colleges/schools, baseball teams, etc) and politicians. Make your voice heard --you have a unique perspective and it counts.
3) Be part of the solution --we don't have to solve all ourselves, solve some of it in front of you now. The how of it is up to you.
4) Invite others to go deeper and deeper in...that's part of how we change the world too.
2) Write institutions you care about (colleges/schools, baseball teams, etc) and politicians. Make your voice heard --you have a unique perspective and it counts.
3) Be part of the solution --we don't have to solve all ourselves, solve some of it in front of you now. The how of it is up to you.
4) Invite others to go deeper and deeper in...that's part of how we change the world too.
5) Share your talents/platforms with others --we're all small potatoes...but we can still lift each other up.
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