Dear Family,
As you know, I usually write these Twitches early in the week prior to the weekend you read it. Right now it is (last) Monday, the 18th and the news is filled with the tragic details of the deaths of the Baton Rouge policemen. That was the latest in the series of assaults on the very fabric of our consciousness.
This morning, the daily Mass readings included Micah 6:8: You have been told, O man, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: Only to do the right and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God.
The question I asked of myself and the folk at Mass was, “How do we make the Gospel work amid this heartbreaking chaos?”
And there was the reading from Micah. “Do right… love goodness… walk humbly.”
So oen I think the tendency we have in these critical moments is to think about what should be happening to everyone else, and what everyone else should be doing, or what we should do to them.’ Ever think, “hanging would be too good?” There’s the rub. Probably not a good solution… The only way I can guard my life is to pay attention to how I’m living it, not how everyone else is or is not living theirs.
“Do right…” Lord, let my words and acons speak justly, things that reflect what is moral and noble and upright. Let my acons and words be yours in a bleeding world. “Love goodness…” Lord, I know what is good. That’s why you gave me a conscience, to know good. Help me take the me to always evaluate what I love and how I love. Is it choosing you?
“Walk humbly…” The first thing that comes to my mind about humility is the idea of 16th century philosopher Erasmus who said, ‘humility is truth.’ Lord. Help me know things for what they are including my own strengths and weaknesses. Give me real energy and power to walk humbly, walk in the truth. (I don’t quote 16th century philosophers off the top of my head; I had to look it up, and thank you Lord for computers.)
If you have made it this far in my Twitch, God bless your paence. I’m trying in my mind and my heart to go back to the brutalies I mentioned at the beginning and say, “How does the Word of God help us through?” Does the Word have any relevance to the lives we live every day? Of course, it does, but we need to always be watchful that we don’t take it so for granted that it loses its impact.
Rehearing Micah 6:8 last Monday was so providenal for me. How does the Word help me live in the midst of evil? “Do right, love goodness, walk humbly.” And if there are enough of us doing that, then we will win the battle of good versus evil.
I used to have a ball cap that had a very formal looking insignia on it, and nested in the design were the words, “Ne illegimi vincant.” Literally it means “lest the dishonest people overcome.” Our colloquial translaon was, “Don’t let the bastards get you down.” Indeed. Seems like the choice is ours. In reality there are awful things happening each day that need our prayer and attention.
But when those evils become focused in the things like what we have being seeing recently, then I think we give them a power they really don’t have.
In Jesus, 
Please sign up for a 30-minute visit during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament this Friday, July 29. We will end the day with a special Prayer for Peace at 5:00 p.m.
