As I write, hurricane Helene is bearing down on the Florida Gulf Coast. The sure widespread disaster Helene will leave in her path prods a still-tender nerve of empathy in most New Orlenians. Nineteen years after Katrina devastated our city and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the stories we still tell with full eyes and shaking voices are stories of the kindness and generosity America and the world showed toward our region.
Four days after Katrina hit, I saw rescue and EMT teams from Sweden, Canada, Italy, and most states mustering on the LSU campus. They were preparing to enter our flooded, darkened city. The kindness of America continued unabated for the next two, plus years. I wish such generosity and compassion for all victims of disaster, not because it fixes broken stuff; but because compassion made into work fixes broken souls, souls that are lost to what is of ultimate importance: love between humankind and God, and obedience to God’s commandments.
Ecclesiastes can read like a biblical ode to mid-life crisis if one does not pay attention to the opening clause of today’s selection. “Remember your creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come…” Tempest, pestilence, the ravages of war, financial calamity, a sudden cancer diagnosis in a beloved; they all reveal the tangibles we acquire and worship as the vapor and enigma they are. The good news is there is immutable meaning to help us make sense of everything between the breath of birth and the certain return to the dust from which we came. That truth is the love of God and the call for us to live by God’s commandments, with love and compassion for one another. Beyond that, there is a lot of smoke and mirrors.
Musical Reflection
Within Our Darkest Night, Taize
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