麻豆社

Good Morning.

I was really shocked when I saw the truly awful picture of the young father 脫scar Alberto Martinez Ram铆rez and his young daughter Valeria, lying face down in the waters of the Rio Grande river. They had reached the Mexican Border from St Salvador but never made it across to the United States.

Like the similar picture four years ago of young Aylan Kurdi, the little Syrian boy who also perished, the question of whether such images should be published is balanced by the attention they demand of each of our consciences to do everything we can to avoid such a thing happening again.
But once we have seen it, we cannot look away; avert our gaze. How can humanity allow such a devoted father and his innocent daughter to perish simply because the dad wanted the very best for his family鈥檚 future? And, of course, they are not alone. More have died this week. Thousands are trapped at borders across the world in terrible conditions.

Valeria鈥檚 grandmother has said that it is her faith which is sustaining her in her loss. And, like anyone of faith who tries to pray.鈥� it鈥檚 never easy and hugely complex to find the right words. We wrestle constantly with the injustices and irreconcilable priorities of a distorted world order as we remember those who simply want to look after their loved ones. They only want to be safe. A better life?

As the G20 leaders meet in Japan this weekend, the United States bishops have put out a statement saying that the shocking image of Oscar and Valeria silences politics and 鈥渃ries to heaven for justice.鈥� St Paul believed that to achieve real and lasting justice we should put on 鈥渃ompassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience鈥�: the suggestion being that we should literally put it on ourselves, like a garment, for that is where it starts? And yet, so often, we as humanity fail to deliver what we know to be just.

At every thanksgiving service I鈥檝e ever taken for the life of someone now deceased, I always talk first about the uniqueness of each human person before going on to explain how the hope of heaven is the very antithesis to the suffering and injustices of the world.

This week I heard some children singing Queen鈥檚 song No One But You and the image of Oscar and his daughter were to the forefront of my mind as the opening words were sung and they have stayed in my mind ever since:

鈥淎 hand above the water

An angel reaching for the sky.

Is it raining in heaven

Do you want us to cry?鈥�

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