Monday Meditation

look for the signs

I have never been in a theater when someone screamed “fire” and the people scrambled for the exits. I have thought about it. It’s scary and for that reason, I notice where are exit signs. “Just in case.” The scenario of people trampling over one another, in a desperate attempt escape is one reason it’s against the law to yell, “fire” when there is no fire. There are those voices now screaming that our nation is on “fire.” In some cases, the response is to scramble to the exits (where?) or fight the fire (somehow). Then there are those who want the screamers to be arrested for inciting a riot or much worse, an insurrection. Irony rules here. 

I’m not yet certain the fire is raging everywhere and the whole thing is ready to crumble in ashes immediately. I do sense people anxiously listening for the warning - fire! - and looking for the signs. Not so much exit signs, though Canada always tops the list followed by Costa Rica. (Their future is also debated.) It’s more like many of us are looking for signs indicating what to do in the case of a fire of this magnitude. What do to? 

Stay awake. Encourage those whose life and leadership for the common good is crucial. React less, respond more wisely. Pray. Listen. Ask daily: “What is mine to do? Who am I encouraging, supporting, protecting, helping?” 

I say look for those people who show the marks of human wisdom, virtue and especially courage in the face of intimidation. Among those right now is President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose nation is at serious risk of being consumed by Russia. While he is being mocked, ridiculed and threatened by President Trump. Zelenskyy has chosen not to run for the exit - but rather, speaking honestly, declaring Trump is in a “fog of disinformation.” More importantly, he insisted that Ukraine will not relinquish its sovereignty nor bow down to bullies. Of course, we don’t know the future but we do know who, and what, is right to support in this moment, for the sake of humanity and all this is good. 

My friend Tony Robinson recently wrote in his weekly commentary: “The nihilism that is at Trump’s core stands revealed in his willingness to sell out Zelensky and Ukraine no matter the price and to lie as he does it. The rich man will, it appears, slaughter this lamb for the guest he wishes to flatter and entertain, namely, Putin. Yet, as St. Paul wrote, “God is not mocked.” There will be a reckoning. But it may well be that Trump, like David, who while he did not die, saw others suffer and die as a consequence of the evil he had done.” 

Listen. Look. Encourage. Let us pray for one another.

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While at Mepkin Abbey, one of the monks offered this in his homily:

Holy One, we remember and trust: 

That: You meet us in our grief.

That: Our pain is the way we fall into your outstretched arms, not so much to take it away, as to bear it with us.

That: Hope grows in the dark.

That: You turn darkness into light and night into day. 

That: Lament is the doorway to hope.

That: Hope is not something we have, but something we do,
Loving the unloveable,
Comforting the hurting,
Advocating for justice,
Upholding principles of democracy,
Speaking the truth.

Then: You will draw near to the brokenhearted, lift up the poor, bring down the powerful and help us to love ourselves, love one another and the world of your making.