Michele Kearney's Snuffysmith's Blog Major Foreign Policy, Economics, Energy, and Irrelevancies of the Day
Why Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Won’t Lead to Action on Climate Change | The Energy Collective Daily |
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| Fr. Bob's Reflection for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time | |||||
| The Gospel opens today with a straight on question from Peter ‑ How many times are we to forgive? It is an interesting question for us all. The question requires us to take stock of ourselves as human beings and as Christians when we hear the question ‑ How many times must I forgive? | |||||
| We remember more than 9/11 because that day was not a singular act of evil but rather it came on the heels of a spate of other such attacks on planes, ships, Embassies, trains, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and marketplaces. When we think of all the people whose lives were ended or forever disrupted and they were of all religions and nationalities, it is tempting to rationalize or to categorize such acts in a class of their own, unforgivable. | |||||
| So if we go by this Gospel, is Christ asking the mother to forgive the drunk driver who killed her child? Is He asking us to forgive every Judas who has ever betrayed us? I would like to make an important observation here; we have to distinguish between crime and sin. You punish crime and you forgive sin. Forgiveness is not condoning, we may forgive without approving of the offense. Forgiving is not forgetting, some wounds are simply unforgettable. | |||||
| Some years ago, Saint Pope John Paul went to visit Mehmit Ali Agca, the man who tried to assassinate him. He held his hand and forgave him but he did not ask the Italian Government to release him. The Pope forgave the sin within the crime. | |||||
| Now I would ask you to think is there anyone in your life who will not forgive you? I know a man who is an alcoholic and in his drinking days was abusive to his wife and children. He shamed and embarrassed them, poisoned their minds, turned their hearts and left them with many scars. His children have grown and left home and he went into rehab and is doing well. He has not had a drink in years, he has a great job, he is a good husband but his children, disgusted from years of abuse, want no part of him. Before he dies he is desperate for their forgiveness. They are either unwilling or unable to forgive so what does he do? | |||||
| What about the people who will not forgive us? The people we may have wounded. We can do one of two things, we can nurse our guilt, turn into ourselves and destroy ourselves or else we can turn to Jesus. When others will not forgive us, Jesus comes in and takes on their identity. He steps into the place of those we have hurt and he tells us ‑ all is forgiven. | |||||
| When people will not forgive, Jesus will. When people cannot forgive, Jesus will. When people are unable to forgive, Jesus will. Just look at the Gospel, they tell us the Shepherd left ninety‑nine sheep to look for the one or the Gospel of the Prodigal Son when the son repented, the Father went to meet him. He gave him hugs and kisses and said "all is forgiven." | |||||
| Some of us need to forgive and others need to be forgiven. This is, I suggest, why He invented the sacrament of confession. It is the place Jesus has set up where you and I are reconciled to the Father. It is the one place where we can be reassured during our broken and dying moment that the Lord will come and say "Go in peace, your sins are forgiven. I on behalf of your mother, your brother, your daughter or anyone who will not forgive you, I will forgive." | |||||
| If you are among those who find it hard to forgive, I would like to repeat the words I left you with last week of Archbishop Tutu of South Africa who lived with apartheid. He said "sometimes the victim has to forgive in order just to live. You cannot carry around resentment forever, sometimes for our own sake, we just have to let go." | |||||
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Beyond Harvey and Irma
Militarizing Homeland Security in the Climate-Change Era
By Michael T. Klare
Deployed to the Houston area to assist in Hurricane Harvey relief efforts, U.S. military forces hadn’t even completed their assignments when they were hurriedly dispatched to Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands to face Irma, the fiercest hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. Florida Governor Rick Scott, who had sent members of the state National Guard to devastated Houston, anxiously recalled them while putting in place emergency measures for his own state. A small flotilla of naval vessels, originally sent to waters off Texas, was similarly redirected to the Caribbean, while specialized combat units drawn from as far afield as Colorado, Illinois, and Rhode Island were rushed to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Meanwhile, members of the California National Guard were being mobilized to fight wildfires raging across that state (as across much of the West) during its hottest summer on record.
Think of this as the new face of homeland security: containing the damage to America’s seacoasts, forests, and other vulnerable areas caused by extreme weather events made all the more frequent and destructive thanks to climate change. This is a “war” that won’t have a name -- not yet, not in the Trump era, but it will be no less real for that. “The firepower of the federal government” was being trained on Harvey, as William Brock Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), put it in a blunt expression of this warlike approach. But don’t expect any of the military officials involved in such efforts to identify climate change as the source of their new strategic orientation, not while Commander in Chief Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office refusing to acknowledge the reality of global warming or its role in heightening the intensity of major storms; not while he continues to stock his administration, top to bottom, with climate-change deniers.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176327/tomgram%3A_michael_klare%2C_the_new_face_of_%22war%22_at_home/#more
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Dear Michele,
Late
last week, Hurricane Irma ripped through the Atlantic Ocean before
turning north toward the United States. Our own CRS supporters have
experienced heartbreak in Texas, Florida and other southeastern states,
following Hurricane Harvey and Irma. Our thoughts and prayers are with
them.
The Caribbean was also hit hard. As the international humanitarian organization of the Catholic community in the United States, we’re
asking for your help in reaching our brothers and sisters in the
Caribbean Islands, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
Cuba
and other Caribbean islands–especially the Antilles–remain the most
affected, with loss of life and “incalculable damage” to homes, schools
and crops, according to government reports.
Hispaniola,
the island that comprises Haiti on the west and the Dominican Republic
on the east, is low lying and flood prone on its northern coast, where
some of the poorest people live. Besides losing their homes and
livelihoods, many remain without shelter or safe drinking water.
CRS
has been on the ground in Hisapniola, with our local partners,
providing emergency supplies and helping communities clean up debris in
canals to reduce flooding.
We
have deployed an emergency team member to the lesser Antilles–the
island formation that include Barbuda, Antigua and St. Lucia–where many
are still evacuating and need fooc, shelter and water.
In
every emergency, generous donors like you have responded: Last year,
200,000 people received help in the first months after Hurricane
Matthew.
Today, will you help families affected by Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean? Your gifts provide emergency tarps, shelter repair kits, and hygiene and kitchen kits.
CRS
has worked in Haiti and the Dominican Republic for more than 50 years.
You make our lifesaving relief possible by giving generously.
We could not do this work without you.
Thank you for your continued support.
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