Sep 03, 2017

 

Follower of Jesus (34)

Blessed are the merciful,

For they will be shown mercy. (7)

Matt. 5:7

“My People”

I would like to look at the racial intolerance that seems to be buried deep in the psychic of our country, and indeed, inborn in our humanity. What sets the United States apart from all the world, except for Canada, is both our greatest strength and our greatest weakness. We are called the “melting pot of the world”, as almost all the cultures of the world have established enclaves somewhere in our nation. Unfortunately, these enclaves are too often actual enclaves, where anyone outside of that particular culture is rejected and given short change if they try to intermingle, or heaven forbid, try to intermarry. This peculiar facet of our society has always been part of the culture, at various times rejecting the Irish from marrying the German (as did my Irish grandfather and German grandmother, my mother’s parents), the English from marrying the Italian, the Caucasian from marrying a person of color or Asian, the Catholic from marrying the Protestant, and of course the inverse: both tribes reject the result of love that reached across the breach.

         Almost all of the rest of world consists of countries whose inhabitants can trace their lineage back a thousand years or more, all from that same part of the world. Oh, they may move to another town or city, but they stayed essentially with the same ethnic tribe. Even when portions of that tribe fled due to famine or religious reasons, they congregated anew in conclaves of their own people. The internal comfort levels of “being with one’s own”, including the stigma of marrying outside of that group was intense.

         This concept of “being with one’s own” dates back throughout recorded history, and probably dates back to very beginning 70,000 years ago when the groups broke into smaller subgroups that ventured out of their original place in Africa. At first it would have been for protection from the predators of that time, then as the numbers grew it would have been for hunting rights in given areas, even if most tribes were “hunter-gatherers” that migrated with the seasons, each group claiming their own hunting territory. As the groups ventured further and further, eventually certain tribal features (color of skin, height, hair, etc.) became to be associated with one’s own tribe. When it became time to move into agriculture only over the past 8,000 years, each tribe claimed an area of their own and sub-divided into clans, while still maintaining the tribal affinity. Thus was born groups like the Celts, which migrated from an area by the Danube westerly, eventually moving into what is now England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Oh by the way, they left a group on western France, Brittany, that still speak their own version of Celtic. Even here, there are six versions of Celtic languages, and each version keeps carefully separate and stay, in general, local. That is, the Irish version of Celtic is different from the Scottish version, which is different from Welsh, etc.

America has a difficult task in breaking down the tribal influence and has torn apart our nation time and time again. This is where Mercy has to take place, and one of the great opportunities in our world grouping is to attack that concept of “my tribe”, to begin to feel the oneness in God that mercy demands of us. Mercy demands of us to listen to others, and is the one beatitude that is truly demanded in this time of evolution. The melting of the tribal boundaries will be forced on us if our little world is to become mature, and maturity will be a requirement in the future as the world becomes smaller and smaller through technology.

We will continue this discussion.

Meditation

Merciful God, I bow before You in gratitude to be alive at this time and place. You are calling us to take another step towards maturity. I surrender myself entirely into Your care, I ask that You make me an instrument of mercy to aid in healing this suffering world. You are calling us to overcome the tribal nature of our human society, calling us that we either change or cease to be. I ask that I be Your instrument of help, mercy and peace where You place me. Help me to open my heart to welcome all, that I might serve Your will for whatever time remaining of my life.