Haiti, an already desparate, small country, is now faced with a multitude of suffering following the earthquake yesterday. This is not my city, my state, my country. Those suffering are not my family members...
But wait. Oh, it IS my family. MY kin.
Walter Brueggeman pointed out that the noun used to describe the oppressed, poor, hungry, naked- those on the margins and those suffering- in the prophetic call in Isaiah 58:7 is the word "kin" (NRSV). The Hebrew word for "your own flesh." So, our hearts, and support for all the efforts to share with our global family, go out to "our own flesh" in Haiti.
I'm glad Mennonite Central Committee, the Red Cross, and a host of organizations will respond quickly to aid our brothers and our sisters.
This Franciscan Prayer of Blessing, that Esther Malwitz cited today, is one I copy here:
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths and superficial relationships,
so that we will live deeply in our hearts.
May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression
and exploitation of people and the earth,
so that we will work for justice, equity and peace.
May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer,
so that we will reach out our hands
to comfort them and change their pain to joy.
And may God bless us with the foolishness to think that
we can make a difference in our world,
so that we will do the things which others say cannot be done.
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