BLOG 11/15/16. “… I WILL FEAR NO EVIL, FOR YOU ARE WITH ME …”

I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, … but the events of this past week have left me a bit  frightened, more than a little unsettled. I have been reflecting on that. I live very comfortably and secure. I have a modest but adequate income, but even that modest income makes me to be among the 3%-5% wealthiest people in the world. I have well-furnished home in a great neighborhood, and in a larger community that provides utilities and police protection, and so much more.  In the larger scene I have trusted in the security of a stable democratic government with reasonably gifted leadership. But then … I was undone by the election. I am a student of American history and I know that there have been all kinds of erratic and controversial episodes from the very beginning of the republic. But suddenly my world was uncertain.

Then I was reflecting the reality that the huge majority of this world’s population live incnstant fear, and so that what is happening is that I am now sharing, in a very minor way, with the majority of the human community a life that is filled with fears, uncertainties and tragic events. Just consider that there are today over 65 million refugees, many of whom have been uprooted from their jobs, their traditional cultures, their homes and events far beyond their control. I think of the refugee camp in East Kenya with something like 300,000 inhabitants, i.e., a population the size of the city of New Orleans. I think of my Christian brothers and sisters who have been the target of radical Islam and driven out of their middle eastern homes where their families have lived for centuries, … and so many more in so many nations.

Or the victims of earthquakes in Nepal, or New Zealand. Or those whose homes have been destroyed by forest fires, or hurricanes. Lots of folks in this world who have had their worlds disturbed by events not of their making.

Then I thought of the Psalmist:

“Even though I walk through the

valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,  

for you are with me …”

(Psalm 23)

Or, …

“God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear though

The earth gives way,

Though the mountains be

moved into the heart of

the sea.”

(Psalm 46)

And in reflecting, I was rebuked. I realize that it is this very broken world that Jesus came on his cosmic ‘search and rescue mission,’ and has called upon me as one of his followers to be like him, and to be emissaries of the love of God, and the humanitarian ministries of mercy and hospitality and gospel among the community of, very often, frightened, hopeless, and despairing men and women who have no sense of security, no sense of the  God who is their ultimate refuge and strength, … who do fear evil when they walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

So, I will fear no evil, … and with St. Francis, in the midst of my own fearfulness:

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace …”