A word from the Bishop: Before it is too late
Editor's note: Bishop Easterling shared this 'sacred poem' on Facebook on Oct. 27, the day of the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings.
I do not know exactly what lies ahead; how far we will have to travel on the road of unrest.
I cannot foretell the number of bombs that will have to explode or the lives that will have to be lost before...
Before we understand that we cannot kill each other
You cannot hate enough to make yourself happy.
You cannot destroy enough to make yourself feel secure.
You cannot oppress enough to make yourself feel superior.
You cannot commit enough evil
to make yourself feel holy.
I do not know exactly what lies ahead; how far we will have to travel on the road of unrest.
I cannot foretell how many rights will have to be taken away, or how much progress will have to be reversed before...
Before we understand that
we cannot persecute each other
We cannot neglect each other enough to feel worthy.
We cannot starve each other enough to feel full.
We cannot silence one another enough to feel heard.
We cannot fragment each other enough to feel whole.
I do not know exactly what lies ahead; how far we will have to
travel on the road of unrest.
I cannot foretell how many babies’ bodies will have to float on the sea of greed and vainglory before...
Before we understand that we cannot bully our way into the future we think we have imagined.
We cannot bury each other deep enough to feel alive.
We cannot rape each other enough to feel loved.
We cannot infect each other enough to feel well.
We cannot enslave one another enough to feel free.
Before it is too late may we understand that the call is coming from inside the house.
Before it is too late may we comprehend that the
Stench Rot Brokenness Emptiness Insecurity Woundedness Disease
is from within and not without.
Erasing you will not heal me.
May we understand before it is too late.
God, help us to understand before it is too late. Amen.