Month: February 2020

For as short as the month of February may be, it is a month that I find very difficult to get through. With the long winters in Minnesota, February is when cabin fever begins to kick in, and the cold, grey days of winter seem endless. To make it more difficult, it is a month where I grieve the loss of some very important people in my life, who have died in this month.

February 1st is the feast day of three people I know.

Donna Mae Kadrlik was an outstanding musician, director of music, educator, and colleague of mine at St Wenceslaus. She also was a spiritual director and worked with children suffering from loss. I assisted at her funeral. At the time, I was sick (some kind of flu/upper respiratory thing) but there was no way I was not going to be at her funeral (I made sure I did not distribute communion … no one needs the Body of Christ and an infection). St Wenceslaus seats about 900 people. The church was packed.

My brother Bill died on February 1st last year. Bill was my older brother. As a kid, I looked up to him. He helped me navigate my freshman year of high school. As what happens in all families, we both developed in our own ways. Bill moved away from Minnesota, and, toward the end of his life, moved back to Minnesota for 10 years. By that time, his health was going south, cigarettes and alcohol, taking its toll. For the last 2 years of his life, Bill moved back to Chicago where his family and friends were. When Bill died, I became the sole remaining member of our nuclear family (Mary died in 1997, Dad died in 2004, Mom died in 2018).

Marge Semlak, one of my diaconal family, died on February 1st as well. At the time that Tom died, Marge was looking pretty frail. She died a couple of years following Tom’s death. Marge was a woman of great class. She worked as one of the “higher-ups” at 3M in Maplewood for many years. Intelligent, kind, and compassionate, she was a good companion for Tom.

Here is the music I composed for Tom and Marge on the occasion of our ordination to the diaconate.

Deacon By Rudolphi died on February 3rd. I wondered at the time that By died why his funeral had not occurred shortly after his death. His funeral was the Friday of Easter Week, in April that year. By had been cremated and the family decided a great time, both in terms of weather and the liturgical year, would be during Easter Week.

By, or should I say Dr Rudolphi, was a man of great intellect and compassion. He dearly loved Ellen and was quite devoted to her. By, possessing a level headed way of approaching everything, including conflict, was one of those people you would consult for his wisdom and insight. What a wonderful man!

Here is the song I composed for By and Ellen when we were ordained in 1994.

Deacon Bill Beckfeld died on February 27. Bill was the first of our diaconal family who died. He suffered an aneurysm while he was preaching at a funeral and died a couple days later.

Bill was a bit of a bull in a China Shop. You always knew where you stood with Bill. Bill was a very opinionated, much like myself, and was an advocate for those most vulnerable. He was a church progressive like myself, eager to put his shoulder to the wheel and push this monolithic church of ours into the 21st century. In spite of his blusteriness, Bill’s heart was big and filled with compassion.

Here is the song I composed for Bill and Mary at our ordination in 1994. I remember playing it at Bill’s first Mass at St Bartholomew.

While it may sound like February is all doom and gloom for me, there is a bright lining to this month. It is also a time of life. Three of my grandchildren, Sydney, Ollie and Owen were born during this month. They are the source of great joy in my life and help me to balance the loss with happiness.

HOMILY FOR THE 7^TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A (2020)

In the scriptures for this weekend, we have a sequel to the scriptures of last weekend in which Jesus teaches his disciples that he will fulfill rather than abolish Mosaic Law. The scriptures answer for us the question, “What does Jesus mean when he says he will fulfill the Law?”

In my homily last week, I explained that the Commandment in which Mosaic Law is fulfilled is that Commandment Jesus imparted to his disciples at the Last Supper account in John’s Gospel. That Commandment is “love one another as I have loved you.”  Jesus explains to the disciples that in order to find everlasting joy, they must do three things.

The first is: “Remain in me as I remain in you.” (John 15:4a) The second is: “Remain in my love.” (John 15:9b). The third is to “Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12) Jesus tells his disciples that if they do all three of these, he promises them that his joy will remain with them, and their joy will be complete. (John 15:11)

What the scriptures address today is: 1) how we remain in Christ; 2) what it means to remain in Christ’s love; 3) how to love one another as I have loved you, so that the joy of Jesus may remain in us and our joy will be complete. The scriptures explain to us that in order to do all of this, we must first jettison the codes by which humanity normally lives and reorientate our whole way of life.

In the Gospel, Jesus cites the ancient code of the Babylonian King Hammurabi, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” This code of ancient justice lays out a retribution or revenge equal to the crime perpetuated. It literally says that if you blind me, I will blind you. If you destroy my house, I get to destroy your house. Jesus tells his disciples that this very human law of retribution is contrary to the Law of God. The first reading from Leviticus (the book of the Law) spells this out. “You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:17-18)

To be his disciple, Jesus  explains that you must never seek revenge on those who have wronged you. ”But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.” (Matthew 5:39-42) To be his disciple Jesus explains that you must “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:44-45a)

This seems utterly foolish and contrary to human justice as we know it. However, Paul explains to us and the Corinthian community community that to love as Jesus loves will seem utterly foolhardy to the rest of the world. “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: God catches the wise in their own ruses, and again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.” (1 Corinthians  3:19-20)

Paul explains that human beings are not just commodities to use and abuse as one would like. Rather the human being is the dwelling place, the Temple of God. Anyone who attacks another human being will be attacking God. And, those who attack God will be destroyed. “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy.” (1 Corinthians 3:15-16) All of this is explained in depth by Jesus in the Gospel for today.

Why are we required to so drastically reorientate our lives and our way of addressing injustice in our lives? The answer is very simple, so that the joy of Christ may be ours, and that our joy will be complete.

To live by the Hammurabi Code is condemning us to live a life of bitterness and constant revenge.  We encounter all sorts of people who are embittered toward those who wrong them. There are those who harbor great resentment toward others who have wronged them in life. Their bitterness slowly poisons their lives creating within them a negativity that eats away at their souls to the point that their souls become empty. Even when they are successful in revenge toward those who hurt them, the revenge never satisfies them. The revenge never equals the loss that has happened in their lives. The execution of murderers never satisfies the revenge of those whose loved one has been murdered. Their anger, their hatred toward the one executed never goes away and their lives become all the more empty.

We recently have seen this how revenge plays out in our politics. Those who obeyed the subpoena to testify before the Congress in the Impeachment hearings were thrown to the street in revenge by the President, simply because their testimony incriminated the President in criminal activity. The President’s bitterness and hatred for those who testified will never take away the stigma of impeachment attached to him for all of history. His revenge toward those who testified only exemplifies the guilty verdict against him.

In Luke’s account of the crucifixion, we hear the story of the other two thieves executed with Jesus. One is consumed with bitterness and hatred because of his fate. The other thief, however, confesses that the punishment he has been given is deserved. Then that thief acknowledges that Jesus is not deserving of the same fate. “we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.”  Recognizing the absence of bitterness in Jesus and desiring the same, the thief follows, ““Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus responds to the thief, ““Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” In other words, the thief’s joy will be complete.

The scriptures today present to us a choice to make. We can choose to live lives that are consumed by hatred, bitterness and revenge, to choose to remain in Christ’s love and model his way of love in our lives.

It is not easy to jettison a way of human living that has been such a long part of the history of human kind. As the old saying goes, “old habits are hard to break.”  We have all experienced being wronged in our lives and have felt the revenge welling up in us against those who have wronged us. However, Jesus tells us that to act on that anger and hatred is only to succumb to a live of bitterness and misery. I am no different than the rest of humanity and struggle against the need exact vengeance on my enemies.

If we choose to live lives consumed by hatred, bitterness and revenge, we will carry all of that with us into the afterlife. Or, we can choose to live lives that are governed by the great commandment of Jesus to love one another as he has loved us, and enter into complete joy in the afterlife. I don’t know about you, but I choose to experience the completeness of Christ’s joy.

In the passage we hear from Matthew’s Gospel this weekend, we hear Jesus say, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Mt 5:17, NAB)

Jesus gives examples of this.

He cites the 5^th commandment, “You shall not kill,” then adds that anyone who is angry at another person is liable to the same judgment as a murderer. Jesus then preaches that those coming to bring gifts to the altar must first reconcile with those with whom they bear grudges.

Then Jesus brings up the 6^th commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” He adds that anyone who looks lusts after someone other than their spouse, commits adultery in their hearts. (Mt 5:27-28)

Jesus then confronts the evil of divorce as practiced at the time, when a man could easily obtain a divorce by merely presenting his wife with a script citing he was divorcing her. ”Whoever divorces his wife –  unless the marriage is unlawful -causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  In the patriarchal society of Jesus, women had no rights, and were totally reliant on their husbands for survival. Receiving a script of divorce was literally a death sentence for the divorced woman. Women were forbidden to engage in business and commerce, so the divorced woman’s only means of support was begging or prostitution. Citing the justice of God, Jesus condemns the divorce of his time in history and places the onus on the man divorcing his wife.

The Gospel concludes with Jesus prohibiting sacred oaths. “Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne.” (Mt 5:33-34) Jesus tells his disciples to leave God out of it when they take oaths. “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No. Anything more is from the evil one.”  (Mt 5:37) The impeachment trial of Donald Trump is a good example of the evil of cavalierly swearing to God and subsequently dismissing that sacred oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

In each of these examples, Jesus illustrates that it is not enough to simply live the letter of the law. In the words of Father Richard Rohr, to only live the letter of the law produces an ugly morality devoid of love and compassion. Jesus tells us that as disciples of Jesus we are compelled to live beyond the letter of the law, that there is a greater commandment  that supersedes the ten commandments we know so well. We hear Jesus teach this commandment in the Last Supper discourse of John’s Gospel.

“If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.” (Jn 15:10-12)

We have a saying, “Put your money where your mouth is.” After Jesus completed his last instruction to the disciples, he put into action what it means to “love one another as I love you.”

He got up, went to the Garden to pray, was arrested, interrogated, tortured and then was executed. His love for all humanity was so great that in his greatest agony, he calls on God to forgive those who betrayed him, who beat and tortured him, and who executed him. Jesus illustrates for all his disciples what it means to fulfill the Divine law of love, by dying out of love for us and forgiving those who brought about his death.

We cannot just quote little Biblical periscopes spouting pious platitudes. If we are to be authentic disciples of Jesus, we must put Jesus’ great commandment into action in our lives. The famous ten commandments are merely stepping stones to the great commandment of Divine love. If we truly live the commandment that supersedes all other commandments, then there will be no need for commandments condemning murder, adultery, divorce, or swearing false oaths. God’s divine law of love will be the only law we need follow.

I have told this story on more than once occasion. The power of the story is such that it has profoundly impacted my life.

It was the first Christmas of my assignment at St Stephen’s, an inner city parish in South Minneapolis, that I experienced God’s light working through others. St Stephen’s at that time was a spiritual refuge for many disenfranchised Christians. Though a Catholic parish, there were many from other Christian traditions who regularly attended Masses at the church. The parish mission statement stated that the church was a large circus tent under which all were welcome. Because the parish based most of its ministry on the social justice teachings of the Bible and the Catholic Church, there was a huge outreach to the homeless in the city, to ex-offenders, the gay and lesbian community, former priests and religious, and all other disenfranchised in the area.

As in many parishes, the 5 pm Mass this one Christmas Eve was packed. At the beginning of Mass, a homeless man, dressed in a purple suit, came to Mass. He appeared to be intoxicated, and sat in the front pew of the church. Throughout Mass, he wept. At the conclusion of Mass, he remained in the pew. He had nowhere to sleep that night. Because he was intoxicated he could not stay in the parish homeless shelter. Newly assigned to the parish and living in rural New Prague, I didn’t know what to do. Among those at Mass were two gay men and their children. One of the men was employed in human services. I remember him sitting next to the homeless man. He listened intently to the man as he poured out his soul to him, and, embraced the homeless man when the man sobbed into his shoulder. Though this gay couple and their children had made plans for Christmas Eve, they took the homeless man into their care, and found a place for the man to stay that night.

As I witnessed this fount of God’s love, grace, and mercy poured out by my gay parishioners that night, I thought of the words of Jesus expressed in the Gospel today. You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16, NAB)

We are living in a time when the “cultural warriors” judge one’s “righteousness” (their words more so than mine) or one’s “light” by a narrow set of criteria, namely, abortion and gay marriage. This is done to the exclusion of a far greater criteria spelled out in the Bible and in the life of Jesus as portrayed in the Gospels. By the narrow criteria of these cultural warriors, they would reject the ministry of Jesus, the followers of Jesus, and those to whom Jesus ministered. It was to those, who many “cultural warriors” oppose , that Jesus chose to associate and lived among. Some of the greatest saints of the early church emerged from the ranks of the greatly despised and rejected of Jesus’ society.

We are called to Christ’s light of the world. One does not have to be Christian to be God’s light to the world. There are many non-Christians, Mahatma Ghandi, for example, whose lives showed God’s light far brighter than many Christian religious leaders. The prophet Isaiah spells out the criteria that God requires of those meaning to be God’s light to the world.

Share your bread with the hungry, shelter the oppressed and the homeless; clothe the naked when you see them, and do not turn your back on your own. Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your wound shall quickly be healed; your vindication shall go before you, and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am! If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday.(Isaiah 58:7-10, NAB)

If we truly live in a relationship with Jesus, we will respond to the plight of others by the criteria given to the prophet Isaiah by God, and, in the manner lived by Jesus. For Jesus, orthodoxy to God was not narrowly defined to a strict living of Mosaic law. Jesus was severely critical of the strict orthodoxy of the Scribes and Pharisees of his time. Jesus blew the confines of Mosaic law away. He didn’t define people’s worth by the narrow orthodoxy of the Scribes and Pharisees. Rather, Jesus peered into the hearts of people to see if they were capable of opening their hearts to the law of God’s love. What was that Law? In the Last Supper discourse of John’s Gospel, Jesus spelled it out very clearly to the disciples at supper. “Love one another as I have loved you.”

In the pastoral letter of James, we hear that spelled out in clear and specific terms. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith of itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Indeed someone may say, “You have faith and I have works.” Demonstrate your faith to me without works, and I will demonstrate my faith to you from my works. (James 2:14-18, NAB)

If we truly want to be the light of God to our world, we must be willing to share God’s light within us to those who are in need. This is what Jesus did. He became one with those most in need of God’s love and light. He fed them, listen to them, and led them to God, much like those parishioners from St Stephen’s who listened and cared for the homeless man that Christmas Eve in 2004. If we are truly in a deep relationship with Jesus, our relationship will be visible to all.

²² When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (Luke 2:22, NRSV)

There are numerous customs around the birthing of children throughout the world. The custom of parents presenting their children to their communities and dedicating their child to God is not isolated only to the Jewish and Christian religions. This custom is present in many cultures, religions, from the rain forests of the Amazon to the skyscrapers of modern cities. What compels us, as parents, to do this?

When Ruthie and I had our first children, it was vitally important for us to have our son, Andy, baptized soon after birth. If you asked me at that time why I did this, I would have told you that my motivation stemmed from two things: 1) when you grow up in a Catholic culture, that is what is expected from the Catholic parents of a newborn child; and, 2) fear of Limbo. Now while the teaching of Limbo, which said that an unbaptized child who dies would not go to heaven, has been declared by the Catholic Church a false and erroneous teaching, in times when infant mortality was very high, it was a major motivator for parents to have their infants baptized soon after birth. After having raised our four children, the youngest now thirty-six years old, I would say to you that the major motivator for having my children baptized, presented to God, is my love for them.

I remember having this discussion with God at the birth and baptisms of each of my children. “God, I will do my utmost to love, guide, and provide for the children you have given to Ruth and I to my dying breath. However, after they reach the age of eighteen years, I hand whatever control I have had over them to you. From that time onward, you must be the one who has primary care of them.”

This was a lesson I learned as I grew up in the home of my parents. While I lived with them to the time I married Ruthie, the choices I made from the age of eighteen became more independent from the choices of my parents. Yes, they continued to influence me, but I had reached the age when I had to make decisions on my own, and they allowed me, within reason, to make my own decisions, to direct my own life, even if it resulted in me making a mistake.

Ultimately, there will be a time in our life when we must hand our lives completely over to God. As we get older, the fact that we are not as much in control of our lives as we would like to think, becomes a very real, brutal fact. Why wait to dedicate the lives of our children to God till much later in life? It is far more loving for parents to dedicate the lives of their children into the loving care of God at the beginning of their children’s lives.

Secondly, at the baptism of my children, I didn’t dedicate their lives to the Catholic Church, or some other religious tradition. I dedicated their lives to God. This is an important distinction.

As a child of the sixties, with all its social unrest and violence, I became wary of all human institutions, including religious institutions. I learned that not all decisions made by human institutions were honorable and for the common good of all people. Greed and power was a major motivator behind many government, business, and, yes, even at times, religious decisions. The betrayal of trust perpetrated by what had once been considered trustworthy institutions was devastating, sowing a deep cynicism within me that still exists to this day. The words of Jeremiah came to my mind. “

“You fooled me, God, and I let myself be fooled. You were too strong for me, and you triumphed. All day long, I am an object of laughter. Everyone mocks me.” (Jeremiah 20:7)

So often, our trust in human institutions is so great that we think that they are divinely created by God. We make the mistake to think that when they speak, they speak for God. Only God can be God. Our Church traditions and institutions are not God, but offer us a way by which we are led to God. God does do wonderful work for people through the Catholic Church. In as much as our Church is run by humans, the Church will still disappoint us and betray us. Jesus was a devout Jew, and his religious authorities not only opposed his earthly ministry but were instrumental in his torture and violent death. This important lesson learned by the Catholic Church was such that the Church made the important step following Vatican II to teach that while Jesus, head of the Church, never sins, the human component of the Church can sin and is in need of conversion like all human beings.

When I was ordained to the permanent diaconate 25 years ago, I promised to Archbishop Roach that I would live a chaste life, I would live simply, and I would promise obedience to the Archbishop and his successors. However, I made it very clear, at least to myself, that while it was through and within the Archdiocese I did my ministry as a deacon, it was not the Archdiocese I served. I served God and the people in the communities to whom God entrusted me through the Archbishop.

Our lives and the lives of our children must always be directed to God!

³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed ³⁵ so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed— and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” (Luke 2:34-35, NRSV)

This passage from Luke vividly paints for us the third, and final reason why it is important to dedicate and entrust our children at their birth to the loving care of God.

Imagine for a moment receiving the prophecy of Simeon at the birth of our children. What do you do with being told that your child would be the rise and fall of many human beings, would be opposed; and, that we, as parents of our child, would not only have our hearts broken but the pain would be so great that the sorrow of it all would kill us?

When I held my infant children in my arms, I wondered what come for them in their lives. What are the gifts they will possess, and what are the challenges they will have to face in their lives? What could I do to support them in their lives, to guide them in the good times and through the troubles they will have to face? I simply did not know, but I trusted in God to help me in my parenting, and to be there to help me love and help my children.

The lesson I have learned is simply this: In order to dedicate and entrust our children to God, we, as parents, must first dedicate and entrust our live to God.

Whether we like it or not, our lives are immersed in Divine Mystery. In order to navigate our lives through this Mystery, we must entrust our lives to God. We just can’t navigate through life by ourselves. We need help. If we do not, we will flail away ineffectually and grow bitter.

It is important for us to adopt the attitude of the psalmist in Psalm 131.

¹ O Lord, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. ² But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me. ³ O Israel, hope in the Lord from this time on and forevermore. (Psalm 131, NRSV)

So what does this Feast of the Presentation teach us today?

First, like Mary and Joseph, we need to entrust our children to the loving care of God. Second, while our Church traditions are important and we should form and raise our children within our Church traditions, it is to God, alone, that our children are entrusted. Third, in order to entrust the lives of our children to God, we must first entrust our lives as parents to God. We are incapable of raising our children, helping them develop the gifts with which they have been gifted, and support them through their troubles by ourselves. We need the loving parenting of God to assist us in the parenting of our children.

Yesterday, our nation experienced a great betrayal of justice in the Senate. I truly fear that our nation, the United States is slipping from a democracy for the people into a despotic feudalism owned only by the very greedy and powerful. The Biblical individualism espoused by the Founding Fathers of the individual serving the common good of all, has been replaced by the evil individualism that only focuses on the good of the individual and says “to hell with the common good.” For a complete study of this I suggest reading the book, “Habits of the Heart” which predicted this degradation of the common good as far back as 1986.

This poem is my visceral response to the travesty of justice in the Senate yesterday.

THE FIRST OF FEBRUARY 2020

Out into the crisp February morn,
Sunshine finally frees nature
From the long oppressive grip
Of the icy, snowy, bitter cold of
Grey darkness that has enveloped
Both sky and human heart alike.
Nature briefly awakens,
The small winter birds scatter
And chase about the sky and chirp,
While the squirrels search and forage
For nuts buried in the cold,
White layers on the ground.
Is it foolish optimism to think,
Much less feel, hope?

A similar oppressive layer of
Enforced grey darkness
Has enveloped my nation,
As men and women in the Senate,
Bereft of a human soul,
Feed ferociously on the chumming
Of ambition, greed, and power
Thrown to them by wealthy despots and bigots.
Well did they know the guilt
Of the predator occupying the high seat of power.
Well did they know the sewage
Of corruption and deceit
Into which they immersed themselves.
Yet, bereft of a human soul,
Shaking their fists furiously
At the heavens, they curse God
To whom they previously pledged fealty.

They damn and ban both God and God’s justice
From our nation with great solemnity and decorum,
Then dance around the Senate chambers
With smug smiles of victory on their faces.
Accused of blinding justice in our nation,
These parasitical, political Pharisees,
Cry out with great indignation,
As in the story of the man born blind,
“Surely, we are not blind!”
While the 2000 year old words of Jesus,
With the tenacity of tinnitus rings in their ears,
“If you were blind, you would not have sinned.
But you do see, and your sin remains.”

On this cold, crisp winter morn of February,
As sunshine dispels the dark greyness
That has oppressed nature, I wonder
Whether the dark blanket of despair
That is now covering our nation
Will ever be cast off and the sun
Of God’s justice will ever return to our nation?
Yet, the birds still chirp
And chase around the sky.
The squirrels still dig for the treasure
They buried in the frozen landscape.
Is it foolish optimism to think
Much less feel, there is hope?

© Robert Charles Wagner, All rights reserved.