“The times are bad! The times are troublesome!”
This is what humans say. But we are our times.
Let us live well and our times will be good.
Such as we are, such are our times.
+St. Augustine of Hippo
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
+Bishop Kenneth Untener, 1979
Unloved people do bad things.
Loved people do good things.
+Father Richard Rohr
I’M VERY TEMPTED to stop watching the news, and so much of the programming on TV contains overthe- top violence that I’m not sure what I’ll do for true information and entertainment. Here it is 2023, and we don’t seem to be anywhere nearer to being a peaceful world than folks were in so-called primitive times. I agree with St. Augustine when he writes that “we are our times.” These times certainly reflect who we are and how we live our lives and do our work. We are a diverse people in a country among other countries of diverse people. I think it has always been this way, and now we are more than ever aware of just how different and diverse we are.
There is certainly much to do about war, climate change, gun control, violence in our streets and neighborhoods, political dysfunction, disintegration of a variety of institutions, so much so that we need to heed Bishop Untener’s wise words when he suggests that we “do something and do it very well.” It is easy to get bogged down and depressed, and perhaps we need to think of all this as liberating because we cannot do everything that needs to be done and we can do something! I suggest that we also heed Father Rohr’s words and be aware that whatever we choose to do must be done out of love by people who are loved. You may recall that Jesus the Christ said something like that a few centuries ago.
Look at the people in the past and in our own times who have made a difference and tried to do something to change our world for the better. I’m sure you know folks right in your family, co-workers, neighbors, friends who have done some pretty wonderful acts of kindness, and aren’t they loving people because they are loved by you or someone else in their lives?
I have a friend who is passionate about people who have memory loss and has spent years helping to make the everyday lives of these folks as normal as possible. She is a champion, a crusader, a lover of those who become less themselves and discarded because they no longer function as “perfect” people. Her method is very simple: “Treat others with respect, love, kindness, and tenderness, and they will respond accordingly.” Loved people will do good things!
Our times will be good if we love one another rather than tear one another apart figuratively and really. Our times will be good if we care for one another because we are different, not because we are alike. Our times will be good when we realize that all of creation is precious in the eyes of the Creator.
Let us live well and our times will be good!
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org. ✲
