View from our home on yet another smoky day in August

Out on the deck under the trees early this morning in prayer, my sense of awe and gratitude are mingled with deep sadness and concern, not just for my family but for all humanity.  Breathing in the smoke from the out-of-control forest fires makes tangible the impact of global warming.  The drumbeats of war with Syria are sounding, and drone strikes continue.  I weep for our human family and for our beautiful earth.

I touch in for a moment with the heart of God, who is Love.  For a moment I share Love’s sadness at the damage we humans have brought about, and I share Love’s desire for healing and peace.

I first experienced this connection with the depths of divine sadness years ago, when I was a young mother, concerned about the nuclear arms race.  I wrote about this experience in Shaking the Gates of Hell, in the chapter on the military/industrial complex,  “The Iron Fist:  Enforcing Corporate Globalization:”

“I began my career as an activist in 1979 when I realized the extent of the danger of nuclear war and became involved with the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign.  One morning I was at home by myself, cleaning house while I listened to a tape of Helen Caldecott talking about the psychological effects of nuclear war on the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, known as hibakusha.  Listening to the stories about what these people had suffered over the years, I imagined my own family going through what they had gone through and began to weep.

“Suddenly, I was struck with the thought: How must God feel about all this?  How must God feel about what we human beings have done to each other, and about what we intend to do, as we stockpile nuclear weapons?  I fell to my knees, praying for forgiveness, overcome with a sense of the depth of pain that God must bear because of the horrors we human beings create for each other.  To this day, I believe that God weeps for the harm we do to each other.”

May my words and actions today bring some consolation to others, and through others, to God.  And may we continue to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, for God’s will is the  reign of mercy and compassion in the world.

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