Me Thinks

The Most Rev. Oscar A. Solis, the 10th bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, wrote an opinion piece for the Deseret News this week.  He emphasized our need to return to our foundational American values, and to invoke God's blessing and help in the process. Here is some of what Rev. Solis had to say:

We are a nation that takes pride as a land of freedom, liberty and peace; a country founded on the principles of trust in God, of love, compassion and mercy, especially for those coming into our shores — the tired, battered and poor brothers and sisters who need our help. Yet we are sunk in a quagmire of hateful division and painful fragmentation in every facet of our society socially, politically, economically and even religiously.

t seems that we have somehow lost our identity and destiny and have failed to live up to the noble ideals of our nation. Instead of being instruments of peace, artisans of bridges of unity and agents of transformation for a better world, we embraced a culture of death that has contributed to the demise of the goodness of humanity, the desecration of the sanctity of life and degradation of human dignity. We have failed to recognize the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed and the marginalized in our society. Instead, we have not only succumbed to the culture of global insensitivity and callousness to their plight and suffering, who are the focus of our compassion and love, but made them the target of blame for the woes and misery in our midst.

I wonder and pray whether we can regain our sensibilities. Perhaps it might help if we stop to observe, think and reflect deeply on what is happening around us and realize that what we need now is more tenderness, sympathy, compassion, love and care for one another.

In the midst of this ugliness, we can still recapture the beautiful spirit of America and transform these tragedies into a moment of hope. It is never too late to restore the goodness in our hearts — our core moral values — and manifest these in concrete actions of kindness and care for each other. We start with the humble recognition of our own failings, sharing the responsibility for the pain, grief and suffering that our entire nation is experiencing brought about by inequality, injustice, hatred and bigotry.

However, we accomplish change not through our efforts alone, but with the help of God who never abandons us. Let us pray for all the victims of the shooting incidents, their families and communities suffering in grief, for our government and political leaders, emergency responders and medical personnel, for our nation. We also pray for ourselves to have the moral conviction and steadfastness to be the instruments of change to build the better world God has designed for us. May God’s mercy be upon us that love, compassion, reconciliation and peace prevail once again.