Common, the rapper, nailed something the other night on One World: Together at Home. He connected the dots between our global health crisis and the realization that the world is a very small and connected place. For the first time, we are coming to realize, through our separation, that the problems in one corner of the earth call for our love, compassion, attention, and involvement because what happens in one place touches us all eventually.
We cannot isolate ourselves ultimately in terms of our concern, from the suffering of humanity.
We cannot live with a "me-me" attitude toward our neighbors far and wide.
We cannot exclude ourselves from the human community.
We cannot survive alone.
MLK said we asked the wrong question when we inquired, "What will happen to me if I help?"
He said the right question was, "What will happen to my neighbor if I do not help?"
As Common suggested, most of us are getting it these days. For that, we are grateful. In fact, I am impressed, blessed, and strangely unstressed.
There is no room for political posturing and grandstanding. There is no place for favoritism or nationalism. There is no time for pettiness or classism. It is not an occasion for conspiracy theories, misinformation, opportunism, or profiteering.
This is a time for teaching and being taught the meaning of the Golden Rule and for living it out.
What a shame that, after all the world wide and localized tragedies of the last decades, it takes one that threatens us all to get our attention. But if that is what it takes, let us learn the lesson and live the lesson after the crisis passes.
Love is the only bond that will ever tie us together and make us strong as one. The apostle Paul said that it is even greater than faith and hope in its enduring quality. It is the simplest definition of God in the Bible - a God who defies definition.
I say thank you to all who are living love in these hours, showing love, giving love, and loving by receiving love. Let us love one another.
And take some time to smile.
