I CAN’T BREATHE

Our Federated Theme for 2020 is TREAT OTHERS AS YOU WOULD LIKE THEM TO TREAT YOU.  This verse is straight out of the bible in Luke’s Gospel.

At the end of the day life comes down to how you treat others.  

I am convinced that when it is my time to have the interview with God to enter His eternal home he will not ask me my Year 6 grades nor my VCE score.  God will ask how did you treat others when it counted.

Every day we see examples of how people MISTREAT others.  If you were NOT shocked by the words: “I can’t breathe” then something is seriously wrong with how you see the world.  I was totally against the protest Black Lives Matter in the streets of Melbourne because of the COVID-19 health risks.  BUT I was not against the need to voice that BLACK LIVES DO MATTER.  

Saving whales is a wonderful cause but surely saving human lives is also an important cause.  

The Catholic Church is not faultless in this issue either.  At one stage in their history whether the Church condemned or allowed slavery is debatable but the fact it did not outrightly condemn slavery is deplorable.

Racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism and ageism just to name a few all exist in our society and also in the Church.  Each of these ‘isms’ and other negative ‘isms’ are all totally against the Gospel message of love and treating others as you would like them to treat you.

The image of little children playing in the sand pit is always a beautiful and rejoicing image.  They are all playing and having fun oblivious to age, race, class, etc.  At some stage someone will tell them who they should play with and who they should not play with.  If we were true to the Gospel message of love we would let the children play with whoever they liked.

Of course, there are exceptions, like if the other person is a drug dealer or abuser, etc.  But even if this was the case we would still want to treat them as we would like to be treated ourselves.

The hearing of three heart breaking words “I can’t breathe” are haunting.  The fact that others stood by and did nothing is deplorable.  The fact that more people of aboriginal race die in custody is a fact which needs investigating.

God gave us the gift of Free Will.  I do wonder at times whether God ever envisaged what dreadful choices humans would make with this gift.

Can we change the world and its attitudes to mistreatment of others?  The answer is YES.  It first begins with a change of heart. It changes when we hear other people’s stories of life.  Perhaps these last two months of isolation has brought back the gift of listening.

Stop and listen to the story and our heart may change for the better.

Edward Dooley (Mission and Faith Leader)