Psalm 67

Easter 6 - Year C

Psalm 67

Indeed, if G*D can be merciful to us, to whom cannot G*D be merciful?

Let us count the ways in which we have hindered the earth from producing. If G*D can be merciful to those who do in their ancestress (being created of the clay), G*D can be merciful to many.

Oh, we always claim our care for the earth is honorable - mountain-top removals, over-fertilizing, seeing oil spill after oil spill simply as collateral damage, refusal to drive one less mile than we can, dumping hazardous waste in the poorest neighborhoods, and so much more, all have a stated best intention to trickle wealth to masses but none do it with integrity for the end result has been increasing riches in fewer hands.

Would that our reception of mercy would effect a change in our behavior. Apparently it will take more than mercy to transform our behaviors. One of the things it will take is openness to a teaching function for Spirit Holy. Another thing it will take is a consciousness that we are called to more than we have so far been up to accomplishing. Teaching "call" is an important ancillary function to expressing mercy.

In today's New York Times there is an editorial about banning burkas in Europe by Jean-François Copé, the majority leader in the French National Assembly and the mayor of Meaux. Here are two important paragraphs that we are not free to simply do what we want when we want to.

     "The permanent concealment of the face also raises the question of social interactions in our democracies. In the United States, there are very few limits on individual freedom, as exemplified by the guarantees of the First Amendment. In France, too, we are passionately attached to liberty.
     "But we also reaffirm our citizens’ equality and fraternity. These values are the three inseparable components of our national motto. We are therefore constantly striving to achieve a delicate balance. Individual liberty is vital, but individuals, like communities, must accept compromises that are indispensable to living together, in the name of certain principles that are essential to the common good."

If this Psalm is not intimately connected to the common good, it loses some of its soul.