When
we hear Jesus warn us about storing up all of treasure that are the things of
this earth and in the process disregarding those treasures that are of God’s
kingdom, we may think about all the different earthly treasures people put
their trust in: not only the accumulation of material possessions and material
wealth, but also power, control, accolades and accomplishments. When
we look at the need for power and control in our society, we see acts of
intolerance and violence spill into our daily reality. So many of us are
disheartened when we see all the violence around us, as we try to understand
how someone could be motivated to carry out a mass shooting or a suicide
bombing that kills so many innocent victims.
I got
to see my brother Cameron when I went on my mission appeal last weekend in
Indianapolis last weekend, a special treat for me since I don’t get to see him
very often in the midst of our busy lives.
As a teacher in a Chicago suburb, he talked about how the violence and
crime and gang warfare that have infiltrated so many neighborhoods of that city
have become the norm of life up there.
As of Memorial Day weekend, there have been more than 1,500 shootings in
Chicago this year, an increase of more than 50% over the previous year, with
more than 250 people killed. Indeed,
every weekend in the Chicago area there are dozens of shootings and attacks,
many of them seeming so senseless.
In
our first reading from the 2nd book of Kings, the Queen mother who
kills all but one of her grandchildren who is hidden in an attempt to gain
control of the throne after the death of her son the King of Judah is as
shocking to us as some of the reports of the crime and violence that occurs in
our cities in modern America and places across the globe. In
response to the shooting that killed so many in Orlando, Florida over the
weekend, just the latest incident of terror and violence to rock our country, Archbishop
Blase Cupich of Chicago called for great efforts on gun control. He stated that: “In response to hatred, we
are called to sow love. In response to violence, peace. And, in response to
intolerance, tolerance.” Indeed, we need
to find ways to implement our Gospel values into a solution that will address
the violence and terrorism that we hear about each day. We
may want tolerance and kindness ourselves when we are hurting or when we are
reaching out for help, but how do we show tolerance and kindness to others in
those messy, complicated realities that we often face in life? There are no easy answers to this complicated
reality, to be sure. Thus, we need to
ask ourselves: Where are our treasure and our values stored as we journey
through our lives here on earth?
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