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Our Broken-Hearted Brother
"The point of Christmas is not a sentimental optimism about the human condition or even a teaching about the will of God. It is an assertion that God came to our rescue, and holds our hand, and becomes, at the worst moments, our brokenhearted brother. It is preposterous, unless it is true. And then it would be everything."
Michael Gerson,
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For Whom the Bell Tolls | |
No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
John Donne's words, from 1624, still echo truth today. Last month, news of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, caught my attention, even more than most. Some 20 years ago, I lived for a couple of years in Bethlehem, Connecticut, about 20 miles from Newtown. Still, I remembered little about Newtown, and could not remember a single person from Newtown whom I knew.
Like so many, I was touched by this horrific massacre, but not personally touched. Or so I thought. Several days after the tragedy, I was reading our local newspaper, which printed brief biographical sketches of each of the victims. In the sketch about one of the school staff who had been killed, the reporter quoted the staff member's friend, Lissa Lovetere-Stone.
"Lovetere," I idly mused. "I used to know someone named Lovetere." I read a couple of lines further before I realized: The person I knew was Lissa Lovetere, at that time the very young, but very professional, funeral director at the small-town funeral home that served Bethlehem. Now she was preparing the funeral for her friend who had been murdered.
Just that quickly, the headlines shifted from sad news about people I'd never met, to a tragedy for someone I had known and liked. Donne was right: there are no distant tragedies; there are only human tragedies, tragedies which hit closer to home than we would often like to admit.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee. | | -- Bill |
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Desiring Happiness - by Jan
Smiles are contagious. I smile at you and you smile at me. You are likely to smile at the next person you see. It's contagious. In fact, happiness is contagious. "The effect," a recent study shows, "continued through three degrees of separation" and on to about 6 degrees before totally diluting. "Other experts praised the study as a landmark in the growing body of evidence documenting the influence of personal connections and the importance of positive emotions," the report continues.
When I see my friend Kay, with her happy face, her cheerful "Hi!" and her positive energy, I want what she has. This mimetic desire causes a similar desire to arise in me. The advertising industry well understands this. If I see a TV commercial of a bunch of happy people eating Whataburgers, I want one too.
Creative mimetic desire - to value something because someone else values it - is a uniting force that links people's well-being to the happiness in their surroundings. For some, it just comes naturally. You've heard it said: "She's a joy to be around." When the joy is a gift of one's relationship with God, it's doubly desirable to be around that person. You can say, I want to be among people who desire a deep relationship with God. Or, I desire to be with peace-full people. Or, happy people. As Jesuit Joseph Tetlow said, "each individual's desire grows so close to those of us around, that it is possible to say, Desire is the influence of others."*
Whom do we desire to be around?
*Following Christ on His Way: An Introduction to Ignatian Spirituality. Audio, Disk 2. (c) 2009 Now You Know Media.
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