A Reflection – Who am I?

As the church emerges from over a year of challenges, this Padre is emerging as well. To say that the last fifteen months have been a challenge would be a massive understatement. Unfortunately, as the US and other nations appear to be emerging, there is still much of the world without access to vaccines where deaths are skyrocketing.

In the midst of all of this, I firmly believe that the church is at a crossroads. Will the church return to “situation normal” 2019 or will something new emerge? With the present state of religious and political division… with hatred, racism, sexism, grotesque nationalism, and the rejection of life which we all hold in common… where are we and how we will move forward is at the core of who we are.

Thomas Merton asked the following in his book, My Argument with the Gestapo: If you want to identify me, ask me not where I live, or what I like to eat, or how I comb my hair, but ask me what I am living for, in detail, ask me what I think is keeping me from living fully for the thing I want to live for.

So what are we living for? Are we living for love and life? Are we living for fear and hatred? In his 1967 address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr King had the following to say: Returning hate for hate multiplies hate… Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only love can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. I have decided to stick with love… hate is too great a burden to bear.

Sitting with these reflections from Dr King and Thomas Merton offers a challenge to me, and I hope to you as well dear reader. Who am I? Who are we? How will we choose to live? There is much to consider as we choose how to live day by day.