prayers and thoughts

Spending a lot of time thinking about how, when every road is filled with rubble, and with no places for helicopters to land, you can effectively get food and water and medical supplies fairly to a city twice the size of the KC metro. The thought of trying boggles my mind, and my prayers go out to those who are trying to make it work. Bigger than the question of why this happened to Haiti, which is a big enough question itself, is how unprepared we are as a people, even though there exist the resources to be prepared. Of course, what has precipitated this horrendous situation is the natural evil of an earthquake, but what really makes it an unthinkable tragedy is the moral evil of not being prepared and not being in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Haiti. Everyone feels helpless and guilty. And we should. Not that any one of us could have prevented what is happening, but that the world should be better than it is. And we all bear the blame for that. All of us.

It will be a little hard to gather tonight for the Catholic Charities Snowball, although it shouldn't be. It is a very fancy gala, with the proceeds going to help needy families in the Kansas City area. It is a fantastic event. Very worthwhile. Greatly needed. I am proud to be going to it. But it is hard to dress up and to celebrate when so many people are devastated. The question of why them, and not me, will be palpable this evening, even as we are enjoying ourselves. And it is better to ask the question than not to ask it. The timing is weird this year. I wonder if they will take up an additional collection for Haiti.

I watched the Blind Side last night, and I loved the movie. It was fantastic. Again, I was haunted about watching a story about the saving of one life, when 50,000 or more, including the bodies of children, lie dead in Haiti. But the situation in Haiti, though paralyzing in its scope, is not to discourage us, but to remind us all to do what we can, when we can, as promptly as we can, as sacrifically and generously as we can. St. Therese of Lisieux taught us all the little way of love, that it is perhaps when we feel most helpless that we are near to our next opportunity to do the most. If each one of us took it upon ourselves to save one soul, all the world would be saved. So let us move forward in hope, praying for all, sacrificing for all, and loving the neighbor who is right next to us. +m