Seasons Greetings! Perhaps some of you will disagree with my message for the upcoming year. A few may even be offended. Just the same, I share with you my hopes and observations for 2008. I am not using this as an opportunity to endorse a candidate for president. Neither am I making some attempt to convey some sort of powerful homily destined to change the hearts and minds of the masses. I simply take this time to reflect back on 2007 and pray for our world in 2008.
A few of you will recall back in 1984, a group of musicians collaborated forming “Band-Aid,” which raised awareness of the crisis in Ethiopia. Today, you can still hear their famous song played on the radio during the holidays, “Do they know its Christmas?” The group was reorganized in 1989 and 2004 as well. Each album was quite successful. Today, our brothers and sisters in Africa still cry out for our help. More often than not, their cries go unheard. Recall the words of that powerful song:
“It's Christmastime There's no need to be afraid At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade ... And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy … Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime. But say a prayer … Pray for the other ones … At Christmastime it's hard, but when you're having fun … There's a world outside your window … And it's a world of dread and fear … Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears … And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging chimes of doom … Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you … And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime … The greatest gift they'll get this year is life … (Oooh) Where nothing ever grows … No rain nor rivers flow … Do they know it's Christmastime at all? … (Here's to you) raise a glass for everyone … (Here's to them) underneath that burning sun … Do they know it's Christmastime at all?”
I heard that song while driving from store to store loading my car with gifts, and I realized that life is certainly taken for granted isn't it? When I think of all the petty things I complain about, hearing that song really manages to somehow put it all into perspective. To be honest, I have it quite good no matter how “bad” things may seem to get.
Life has not been so
good
for some of our brothers and sisters the world over during 2007. Violence, death, senseless crimes, and destruction have happened in a wide variety of places. From Sudan to Nebraska, from Iraq to Colorado, from North Korea to Virginia Tech … life has certainly been taken for granted. One has to step back, look at it all and say, “What on earth is happening here? What has become of the human race?”
On May 14th, 1985, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin issued what has become his famous “womb to tomb” theory on life. In his address, Bernadin states:
“I am not suggesting that society should be a prisoner of violence or violent crime. On the contrary, the consistent ethic of life requires that society struggle to eradicate poverty, racism and other systemic forces which nurture and encourage violence. Similarly, the perpetrators of violence should be punished and given the opportunity to experience a change of heart and mind. … What does it say about the quality of our life when people celebrate the death of another human being? What does it say about the human spirit when some suggest a return to public executions which only twenty years ago we would have considered barbaric? … We must find ways to break the cycle of violence which threatens to strangle our land. We must find effective means of protecting and enhancing human life.”
So we find ourselves at the conclusion of 2007. Our brave soldiers continue to lose their lives in a war, for which the motives still confuse many American people. These heroic men and women have seen things that nobody their age, or any age deserve to see. I would like to take a moment to refer once again to the famous address by Bernadin:
“… Obviously such questions as war, aggression and capital punishment have been with us for centuries; they are not new. What is new is the context in which these ancient questions arise, and the way in which a new context shapes the content of our ethic of life. … Within the United States, the struggle to appreciate human worth more fully is found in the civil rights movement and in the public debate about our foreign policy toward totalitarian regimes of both the right and the left. … Faced with the threat of nuclear war and escalating technological developments, the human family encounters a qualitatively new range of moral problems. Today, life is threatened on a scale previously unimaginable.”
