We gathered five days after the high school shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, to begin planning for the Holy Week Triduum of 2018. There had been 18 school shootings since the beginning of January. Within a month’s time, the noted artist, Janet McKenzie, would bring her exhibit, “Embracing Hope” to Mercy by the Sea’s art gallery. How does “Embracing Hope” enter into our “celebration” of the Passion/ Resurrection of Christ with anything more than platitudes?
The news of the Parkland, Florida, shooting stunned me and has left me somewhat speechless. How could this happen again in our “civilized” society? In our schools? So many young people! And teachers and staff. So much loss. So much hurt.
Since that day, I have been impressed and deeply moved by the commitment and cogent words, the poise, presence and pain of the young people who have taken to the streets and to the halls of governmental power. They are on the march and we adults had better stand up or step aside.
One morning last week I watched a handsome and brawny hawk make its way across Neck Road onto the branch of a naked maple tree. The hawk stared deliberately and intensely at me as I drove to my ministry at Mercy by the Sea. I have noticed lately an increase in the number of hawks soaring along Neck Road making their way to a tree home. In reflecting on this, I noted that with the sparse foliage at this time of the year, more is visible to us, and the number of hawks may not have increased at all, just my ability to see them. I realized that in winter we see more clearly and more deeply into the woods and into the world around us. We tend to hunker down in winter, look inside ourselves, and wait longingly for spring. As we do so, what was not clear to us before becomes clear — or, at least, clearer. This, I think, is the gift of winter.
