Nativity Catholic Church
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An Instant Flash or a Life in
Slow Motion Other than watching the replay of a key moment during a sporting event we happen to see on television, the remainder of our lives is hardly lived in “slow motion.” Rather, it seems, we are more into the “fast forward” mode of experience. The events of life are not only relayed to us at nearly light speed through television, our always present and connected cell phones, and even cell phones that take instant photographs and home movies—but our actual choices and decisions in the course of a day or week all seem to flash before us with the rapidity of lightning bolts illuminating a Florida summer afternoon sky. As life has quickened to a frightening pace, our ability to hold on to any of it continues to be greatly impaired! We are forced to consume experiences, information and knowledge in sound or sight “bites”—little snippets that are carefully chosen so as not to overwhelm our senses. As rapidly as they come to us, as rapidly they slip away. Even large-scale events that have taken years or even decades to come about are whittled down to the smallest consideration so as to seem they sprung up over night! Indeed, our little corner of the world is mostly fast forward and instantaneous—but this is not the case for much of God’s creation, cultures and peoples. Most of the world really lives in “slow motion”—at least compared with our frantic pace. All this comes to mind for reflection because of a passage I read recently on the tragedy of the Asian earthquake and resulting tsunami. In an editorial in America magazine (Jan. 17-24, 2005, p. 3), I found this description that gave me pause: As tragic as this disaster is, the numbers killed in one day can easily be matched and exceeded by the numbers killed in any year over all the world through hunger and preventable diseases. What we saw in an instant plays out every day in slow motion throughout the world in other ways, less dramatic but no less urgent. While the footage on television, the gut-wrenching magazine articles and pictorials, as well as the testimonies of survivors have been gripping and terribly unsettling—this scenario of death, destruction, heartbreak, tragic suffering, and hopelessness is endlessly repeated throughout our world without being captured through instantaneous media attention. In fact, most of it goes on unnoticed and unattended to by much of the developed world. We seem only to catch “fast forward” moments of deep human suffering, while the rest of the world lives through it in super “slow motion.” While for us images and “bites” come and go before we even have an opportunity to digest them, for most of God’s beloved creatures, the slow grind of pain and suffering erodes hope and desire one tiny yet constant drop of water at a time. Instantaneous dramatic accounts of human suffering, though striking when we encounter them, generally leave us unable to grasp the magnitude of the daily drama of survival that plays out in slow motion in every corner of the world. I find this awakening sobering…but I also find that it reminds me of the only response to human suffering we are called to give. Many years ago, after reading passages from theologian Edward Schillebeeckx’s writings, I remember being moved by a simple but profound observation he made regarding the nature of human suffering, what he termed the great “excess” of suffering and evil in our world. We seem to spend much of our time trying to “explain” human suffering (e.g., Why does it happen? What is its source? Is it fair or not? Why do bad things happen to good people?). And of course, we never seem to come up with adequate responses to those questions; some carry us for a while, but then they collapse and we begin the search to “explain” all over again. Schillebeeckx reminded me that while there have been and continue to be many proposals about suffering, and that we cannot seem to ever explain it—the one thing we do know about it is that human beings have consistently OPPOSED it! Indeed, in the face of suffering, especially the great tide of unmerited suffering the world knows day in and day out, human beings continue to rise up against it, and in Schillebeexckx’s words, we offer “RESISTANCE.” While we may not be able to explain it, we are always called to answer it with COMPASSION. “Salvation,” according to Schillebeeckx, is the opposite of suffering—and salvation comes only from a loving and compassionate and all-embracing God, who gathers up those who suffer into tender arms. As followers of Jesus Christ, the compassion of the Father, we then are invited to join in this resistance and the work of God’s salvation. Perhaps, given our normal take on life lived at the speed of light, we misconstrue the ways of God’s salvation—thinking that it too comes in an instant, in a fast forward mode. Perhaps God, like the majority of suffering humanity, moves more in slow motion, at a pace so terribly unlike our own.
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