Oh, you can also buy bullet-proof hoodies.
Most backpacks cost between $120.00 and $200.00, some higher. Hoodies range in price roughly between $150.00 and $500.00. What if you have more than one child? I guess safety items for their well-loved children and teens are for the upper middle class and rich, rather than for the poor. Imagine starting your school shopping by laying aside hundreds of dollars first for bulletproof equipment.
I can't imagine the fears these days that beset the minds, hearts, and souls of parents of children/teens/young adults who attend school. But, then, I also face my own fears any time I leave the safety and security of my home to go to the store, the movie theatre, or even to church. There are no safe places in this country any more, even one's work place. The country seems to be de-volving into a culture of increased violence and death. Our media grow increasingly violent in the graphic images they use. Mental health issues are not addressed; insurance policies don't carry enough visits to counselors to make a difference. And there is a whole culture of violent insults, racism, white supremacy, and bullying, as well as partisan infighting and stalemates emanating from our own politicians.
I also daily face my own fears for this entire planet every time I read another article about the devastations wrought by climate change, a reality which many of our politicians deny, suppressing the truth. As mass shootings are escalating, so are "climate events" escalating. And the effects of climate change are directly hurting and will hurt, our children, those whom we love so much and want to protect. Eco Watch recently reported on these events in Australia, for example:
"Australia has seen fatalities within the last decade due to extreme weather and heat waves.
"There are absolutely people dying climate-related deaths, [especially due to] heat stress right now," said Misha Coleman, executive director of Global Health Alliance Australia, to the Guardian. 'During the Black Saturday fires [in Victoria in 2009] for example, we know that people were directly killed by the fires, but there were nearly 400 additional deaths in those hot days from heat stress and heatstroke.'
"It has also seen a cognitive effect on children who experienced extreme weather events in utero. For example, children born to women who were pregnant during the 2011 flooding in Brisbane had, on average, lower IQs, smaller vocabularies and less imagination than their peers at age two.
"As the world deals with higher concentrations of greenhouse gasses, the nutritional values of staple crops will decline, leading to stunting, anemia and malnutrition in children, within 10 to 20 years, according to the Guardian.
"'What's the future for our children?" said Coleman to the Guardian. "These events are more common, more frequent and not going to become less so in a short amount of time.'"
Need I address the world's growing fears of nuclear war, activated by countries withdrawing from treaties, the increasingly belligerent exchanges between world leaders, and actions performed that seem to almost provoke war?
And yet, despite, or maybe because of, these daily events, these daily assaults on our minds and emotions, there is a terrible malaise, a terrible lethargy, in our country, a learned helplessness, almost. People withdraw into social media, sports games on tv, rock or country or jazz concerts, the arms of family and friends, anything to escape the terrible, ongoing tension that is causing depression and anxiety in everyone.
What is the answer? Are we meant to do nothing, and rely only on prayer? I recently read such a poignant FB conversation between two young mothers, sharing their fears about their children soon going back to school, where they could be prey for shooters. One mother ended the conversation with "I guess all we can do is pray." Surely we all know that when a situation is beyond us, we need to leave it in God's Hands, because God will make a way where there is no way. But, is this what God wants us to be doing now, in this time, this place, these situations? Prayer is so necessary, but does God want and expect us ONLY to pray? Or does God also expect us to follow Jesus the prophet, who not only prayed to his Father, but also spoke and acted to perform works of teaching, healing and justice.
We who are practicing Christians have grown up hearing and reading the stories of the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels. Jesus walking around the sea of Galilee, healing the blind man, raising a young girl from the dead, discussing the finer points of the Law with Scribes and Pharisees, ignoring the law of "no work" on the sabbath to raise a donkey from the ditch. Jesus, accepting women as equal to men, ministering not only to Jews but to people who were his culture's enemies, like the Samaritan woman and the Roman centurion. Jesus saying he came to bring good news to the poor, to free the imprisoned. We can imagine the constant crowds surrounding him, pleading for help. "You have to know about Jesus our Savior," we've been taught. So our prayer life has become knowing our Scriptures, going to church services, saying rosaries, performing works of personal charity.
But - according to Sister Joan Chittister, what if we would see Jesus suddenly turning away from the eager, hurting crowds to say personally to each one of us "And you, what will you do for these - simply stand there, looking on?" (from "The Time Is Now.") Jesus isn't talking to us about those first century crowds, now comfortably remote. He's propelling us into the present, into the NOW, into the hurting crowds, the excruciating situations, facing our country and the world that we live in.
We can't live authentic spiritual lives unless we are immersed in the life of Jesus, and living as Jesus lived, not only Jesus the Healer but Jesus the Prophet. Prayer and good works aren't enough. Jesus not only healed; Jesus also spoke and gave witness to the Will of God for the world. Giving persistent, courageous witness to God's Will for the world is the work of the prophet.
The world accepts Christians praying and receiving the sacraments and doing acceptable "good works." But the world rarely accepts the prophet, who speaks uncomfortable truths and calls for social transformation. Yet, that is God's Will for the World: for it to be transformed into a safe, nurturing place for all people, offering salvation for all people. Sister Joan says, "The fully Christian life is a blend of both. To opt for sacramental spirituality devoid of prophetic spirituality is to ignore half the Jesus message, half the Christian mandate, half the Christian life....The only question is, Will we take up what we know is our moral and spiritual responsibility: to make the world a better place for all, to bring to life the fullness of creation for all? To help bring about equality, safety, security, and compassion for all?"
We aren't being prophets when we stay silent out in society and only talk to God about the injustices and corruptions that are making us angry and fearful.
Morning Prayer in the Breviary begins, "Lord, open my lips."
That means three things.
First, "LORD, open my lips." Lord, let me speak only what God desires me to speak, and be faithful to the Truth of the Word of God."
Secondly, "Lord, open MY lips." Lord, give ME the courage to open my lips to courageously speak Your Truth, wherever You send me.
And, third, Lord, OPEN MY LIPS!" Lord, I'm tired of standing still, doing nothing. Help me to speak out, to preach it, to teach it, the truth about what You desire for Your people, regardless of the consequences. Teach me how to live prophetic spirituality, which is "living out our faith on the streets of the world, rather than just talking about it." (Chittister).
The prophet understands the power of holy tongues that speak with the Power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit teaches us the Truth about what in our culture leads to spiritual death, and helps us to Choose Life. Daniel Berrigan once said, "The prophet is one who speaks the truth to a culture of lies." The prophet is that clear-eyed person who truly looks at what is going on in the U.S. culture and in the world and says both "no" and "yes."
"The prophet is the person who says no to everything that is not of God.
"No to the abuse of women.
"No to the rejection of the stranger.
"No to crimes against immigrants.
"No to the rape of the trees.
"No to the pollution of the skies.
"No to the poisoning of the oceans.
"No to the despicable destruction of humankind for the sake of more wealth, more power, more control for a few.
"No to death....
"And while saying no, the prophet also says yes.
"Yes to equal rights for all.
"Yes to alleviating suffering.
"Yes to embracing the different.
"Yes to who God made you.
"Yes to life." (from "The Time is Now.")
Living as Jesus lived means putting on the mind and heart of Jesus the Christ. Jesus, the prophet, coming from a long line of Jewish prophets, always allied his mind and heart and will with the mind and heart and will of his heavenly Father - and then spoke out, even when this led to his rejection. In his August 2 meditation, Bishop Robert Barron says,
"Friends, today in Matthew’s account of the rejection of Jesus at Nazareth, Christ refers to himself as a prophet.
"In the Old Testament tradition, the prophet is a religious visionary and truth-teller. The great Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel said that the prophet is someone who feels the feelings of God and then speaks out of that experience. He stubbornly reads the world through the lens of the word of God and speaks the divine truth. And this mission implies opposition, confrontation, and critique, since the keepers of worldly order are frequently looking through other lenses and listening to other words.
"But Jesus is much more than one more prophet in a long line of prophets, one more speaker of the divine truth, one more reader of the divine word. Jesus is the Word made flesh; he is the Divine Truth in person."
Jesus was rejected because people thought they knew him, and so said "Is this the carpenter's son?" People will reject us; they will say "What right does he or she have to speak out about these things? Who gives him/her authority?"
But Jesus was speaking out for his Father, as we will be speaking out for our Father.
If we are immersed, as Jesus the Christ, the Divine Truth, was, in knowing the mind, heart, and will of God our Father, we will speak with the power of God's own spiritual authority. We will see through the lies and cover-ups of those who speak and do evil. We will speak up for and act for the people whom Jesus always spoke up for and acted for - the poor, naked, hungry, the leper, the widow, the orphan, the stranger.
Sr. Joan, that clear-eyed prophet, knows that the prophet's role is to speak about justice and peace. She speaks of what she sees as the challenges of the prophet in the country and world today:
"Immigrants in dire straits are locked out of the United States. Members of Congress barely speak to their counterparts across the aisle, let alone feel required to respond to their needs. Long-standing international alliances are fracturing. The proliferation of nuclear weapons has raised its ugly head again after years of negotiation - even in countries long considered too small and remote to be a threat to anyone.... Alt-right and far-left political positions are dividing people everywhere, threatening local and global peace. A secure and stable national future for a global community can no longer be taken for granted....In our world, profit increases at a great rate and goes to those who are already secure, though wages at the bottom, where insecurity is a constant companion, seldom change. The working poor get a 'minimum wage,' never a living wage."
We have a choice. Do we embrace the status quo, run away from conflict, or stay and embrace the spirituality of the prophet, ready to march into spiritual combat? Sr. Joan suggests one path for modern prophets to take: to join a like-minded community, those who are focusing on the issue or issues that most enflame your heart. (Hopefully, I've mentioned some.) Together you can learn the facts about the issues in order to present them fully and fairly. "The role of the prophetic community is to enable groups to study the issues, to become proficient in them, to take a specific, a particular stand for justice.
"Prophetic communities do a great deal more than pray. They study; they teach; they organize others; they add something of the things of God to the situation. They don't just complain about the poor; they do something to feed them....They lobby their legislators and leaders, their pastors and public agencies. They commit to doing something to change their world as well as to talk about it.
Prophets are patient and live in hope, for the present and the future. Chittister says, "The prophetic tradition is clear: We are not here simply to succeed today. The prophet will persist for as long as it takes to make the present what God intends it to be as well as to prepare the future to maintain it. We are here to seed the present with godliness so that others may someday reap the best of what we sowed...".the country, the world, needs you. God needs you, too."
In his August 2 meditation, Fr. Richard Rohr tells the story of a black woman who finally was healed of her spiritual fears and self-doubts when she forced herself to encounter her greatest physical fear: a thunderstorm, and lightning:
"Rebecca Cox Jackson (1795–1871) was born into a free family in Pennsylvania. After a mystical encounter, she divorced her husband and became an itinerant preacher. She discovered the Shakers and eventually founded the first black Shaker community in Philadelphia. Jackson’s spiritual awakening was catalyzed by what Joy Bostic describes as an 'emotional and spiritual crisis' when Jackson faced her deep fear of lightning. Jackson wrote in her journal that, as she was praying in despair for the storm to end: 'The cloud bursted, the heavens was clear, and the mountain was gone. . . . And I rose from my knees, ran down stairs, opened the door to let the lightning in the house.'” (Rebecca Jackson, Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson, Black Visionary, Shaker Eldress, ed. Jean McMahon Humez (University of Massachusetts Press: 1981), 72.)
Jackson encountered the loving power of God in the storm, a power that transformed her so that she could freely share God with others. Her biographer Joy Bostic describes Jackson's spiritual transformation:
"Within this mystical space, Jackson experiences intimacy with the divine and is overcome with feelings of peace and protection. . . . The obstacles and burdens that previously seemed to stand in her way vanish. . . . In fact, she writes, 'at every clap of thunder I leaped from the floor praising the God of my salvation.' . . This ecstatic encounter consoles and frees her soul. The love and joy she feels wells up into a yearning that everyone in the world could experience that same love . . . particularly those whom Jackson believes have injured or wronged her. ."
Sr. Joan Chittister speaks to each of us today - NOW. She says "the country, the world, needs you. God needs you, too."
And so, I ask you -
Can you rise from your knees where you kneel praying over your despair about this world, and run down your stairs, and open the door of your soul to the healing, transforming Storm that is the Power, Majesty, and Love of God? Can you let God's Lightning, His Holy Spirit, into YOUR spiritual house? Can you open yourself to discovering God's peace and spiritual protection within that will be with you as you actively choose to be a prophet? Can you allow the deep experience of the storm of God within to paradoxically free you, console you, even as you embrace the possibility of anger, criticism, shunning, and rejection from others?
Let the lightning come. And then, ask
LORD, open my lips.
Lord, open MY lips.
Lord, OPEN MY LIPS!!!
I'll end this post where I began it, with the terrible and terrifying issue of gun violence, an issue with many causes, and a group of politicians who refuse to consider any political helps like expanding background checks, producing consistent gun control laws across the states, and banning assault weapons, the kinds that many bullet-proof vests cannot protect our children from. In the October 2, 2017 (2017!) issue of "America" magazine, Fr. James Martin wrote a prayer to God about gun violence, a prayer which is a perfect example of prophetic spirituality:
Almighty God,
I come before you,
once again,
after another shooting.
I am sad, God.
So I ask you
to receive into your loving care the souls of those who were killed,
to care for those who were wounded or hurt in any way,
to console the family members and friends of those who died or were wounded,
to strengthen the hands of the rescue workers, medical professionals and caregivers
I pray too for the shooter, as I must as a Christian.
All this makes me inexpressibly sad, God.
But I know that the sadness I feel is your sadness.
It is the same sadness your son expressed
when he wept over the death of
his friend Lazarus.
I know that the sadness I feel is your sadness.
I am tired, God.
I’m tired of the unwillingness to see this as an important issue.
I’m tired of those in power who work to prevent any real change.
I’m tired of those who say that gun violence can’t be reduced.
All this makes me tired.
But I know that the tiredness I feel is your tiredness.
It’s the same tiredness that Jesus felt after his own struggles against injustice
that led him to fall asleep on the boat with his disciples.
I am angry, God.
I’m angry at the seeming powerlessness of our community to prevent this.
I’m angry at the selfish financial interests who block change.
I’m angry that these shootings happen at all.
But I know that this anger is your anger
It’s the same anger Jesus felt when he overturned the tables in the Temple,
angry that anyone would be taken advantage of in any way.
Help me see in these feelings as the way that you move me to act.
Help me see in these emotions your own desire for change.
Help me see in these feelings your moving me to act.
Help me see in these reactions your pushing me to do something.
Because I know this is the way you move people to action.
And I know that you desire action.
For Jesus did not stand by while people were being hurt.
He plunged into their lives.
So help me to answer these questions:
How can I help?
How can I fight against gun violence?
How can I urge my political leaders to enact change?
How can I help people understand that this is
an issue about life?
I am sad over the loss of life,
tired of excuses for the loss of life,
and angry that we are paralyzed by the loss of life.
Turn my sadness into compassion. Turn my tiredness into advocacy.
So
Turn my sadness into compassion.
Turn my tiredness into advocacy.
Turn my paralysis into the freedom to act.
Help me
to be compassionate,
to advocate
and to act,
as your son did,
Almighty God.
THANK YOU, FR. MARTIN. AMEN - LET IT BE SO FOR ALL OF US!