Katrina's Moment of Truth

To chime in on the recent posts in response to the “fault lines” emerging from Katrina’s destruction . . . Like Rob, I was also struggling with a certain sense of the surreal as I compared the peaceful calm of the cool New York end-of-the-summer in New York, and the enthusiastic buzz of students beginning a new semester –– with the images of chaos and suffering coming through the internet and television.  How to “come alongside,” as Rob put it?  And how to process the shock of the images of total anarchy?   

At mass this morning I was able to name what was hardest for me to digest: the images of who was left behind, who was without water and medical help – images, as David Brooks has put it so well in his recent New York Times editorials, of economic and racial inequality.  The whole event enveloped me as a massive “moment of truth” for the entire country. 

True, we may want to discuss, as Steve suggests, the moral dilemmas of the use of force to reassert authority in the midst of anarchy.  But I believe we may come closer to the heart of “what we do best” when we reflect on the resources that  Catholic Social Thought may offer to inform a vision of justice and equality that emerges when we see every person as a child of God, and prioritize our own economic choices accordingly – to the point that they inform how I use material resources (e.g., how much gasoline I consume), what I buy, when I turn on the air conditioner, how through dozens of daily choices I respect the environment as a common patrimony for humanity…

But it can’t stop with personal choices and examples.  We are also in dire need of reflection on how to take it to the next level – to discuss how this vision can inform a push toward social structures which reflect a commitment in which no one – in this country or in any country – is left without what they need to lead a dignified human life. 

We have tremendous resources to draw on – not least of which, the profound vision of the unity of the human family – or as so well expressed in a beautiful line from this morning’s readings: “…in him all things hold together.”  (Col. 1:17).

Amy