At the root of the problem

This is one of the most profound and faithful statements I have heard in light of the pandemic of health, violence, and anger of these last four and a half months. YES. That's 18 weeks.

Today I am overwhelmed with concern and anxiety and fear. Perhaps down the road I will turn around and say how much I've learned living through them and in them. But today, I'm taking Dr. Fauci's words and turning them into a cool drink of water

In this past Sunday's scriptural text, I talked about the parable of the sower by noting the way that its words seemed to lead the reader down a path that says there is only one good place for a seed to land in order for it to provide an abundant yield. ....and then went on to talk about how one interprets the words are what produce the harvest of how we understand a parable.

Friends, there is MORE THAN one good place for a seed to land for it to yield an abundant harvest. The problem arises when that seed is a seed of confusion, anger, hate, division, violence, and egotistical behavior and thinking. Because, guess what? It's gonna grow where it lands. The root of the problem (pardon the pun) is always what I end up looking for. And my sense in these days is that the root of the problem is that we are NOT viewing world events in light of how caring for other people will mean the difference between life and death.

Seeds that produce love in practice are grown in the fertile richness of CARE for the other. It's the root of the problem we need to be talking about - not only how to cut off the shoots that are killing the world.