Holding the Light in a World of Mercy

By Eileen Doolong, RSM

Posted on 3/21/2017

Ann Grasso, whose exhibit, “Begging Bowls, Offering Bowls,” is currently on display in our Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery, included with her artwork a poem by Stuart Kestenbaum called “Holding the Light”:

Gather up whatever is
glittering in the gutter,
whatever has tumbled
in the waves or fallen
in flames out of the sky,

                                for it’s not only our
hearts that are broken,
                                but the heart of the world as well.
                                Stitch it back together…

As I read about the national budget priorities and the health care proposal, I worry about how we as a country are “holding the light.” The focus of the national conversation is not about assuming world leadership or better managing our health care insurance so more can live healthy lives. It is not about carefully stewarding this magnificent earth. Rather, the conversation is about being “strong” and not appearing weak. It is about other countries paying their “fair share” so we are not taken advantage of. It is not about caring for people in need, or building a more peaceful world, but about building a war machine. How are we holding the light?

Recently one of our political leaders spoke of the health care proposal, which would cut millions from health insurance as an “act of mercy.” Mercy? Really? Another politician spoke of climate change research as a “waste of your money.” Again: Really? In spite of all the data and research? Their comments are all hardly believable!

I don’t want this blog to take a political tone but I don’t want to allow the current focus to become the norm for our conversation. I have always believed that good-willed people with different points of view could work things out, could find common ground. But I also know that the measure of a society is the way poor and needy people are cared for, and I do not like what I see.

Kestenbaum’s poem continues:

It all comes down to this:
In our imperfect world
we are meant to repair
and stitch together
what beauty there is, stitch it

with compassion…

It sounds like we have a job to do. Pope Francis asserts that Mercy “makes the world less cold, more just.” Let us work together for that world of mercy—less cold, more compassionate, more just. Let us “hold the light” for one another as we continue on the journey.