While I don’t recall the author, I have never forgotten his advice to Christian writers: Begin each morning with Scripture, then get on to the morning newspaper.”

The Scripture verse I chose today is the Psalm from David; 46: “Be still and know that I am God.”

In Haiti, among the rubble, the unfathomable suffering, the fear, confusion, starvation, loneliness, sense of abandonment from God, is there sufficient stillness for us to know God there? Here? Where their suffering is also ours?

On p. 181, in Eknath Easwarn’s book, Take Your Time, mentioned here recently, we find this advice: We all need the protection of a mind at peace.

If life were always pleasant, he reminds us, it wouldn’t matter so much if our minds were at times out of control, but life has a way of presenting us with speed bumps; it is then we need to slow down, enter into the deep recesses of our hearts, be with the suffering Christ, and all who suffer the ravages of Haiti. Stillness. Silence. Prayer. Then, we shall rise from our knees and get to work in whatever ways we can to be of service.

Bob Herbert, in his January 16th column of The New York Times, p A17, assures us that this earthquake will not defeat the Haitian people. It is the place where heartbreak never seems to end.

He tells of the time many years ago, when he was on assignment in Haiti for The Daily News, a man asked him to accompany him to the back of his pick-up truck, where two sick children were lying. He asked Herbert to take the children to the United States, for they would die if left in Haiti.

Herbert explained he could not take the children. The man listened politely, then quietly said thank you, and with the expression of the deepest despair, climbed into his truck and drove off.

In the following paragraph, Herbert pays tribute to the indefatigable strength of the Haitian people:

Enslavement, murderous colonial oppression, invasions by powerful foreign armies, grotesque homegrown tyrants, natural disasters – all you have to do is wait a while in Haiti for the next catastrophe to strike.

Herbert spoke of the determination of the island’s people to be independent:

“They rose up against the French, and defeated the forces of Napoleon to become the only nation to grow out of a slave revolt. They rose up against the despotic Jean-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier and sent him packing . Despite ruthless exploitation, including the United States, and many long years of crippling civil strife, corruption, terror and chronic poverty, the Haitian people have endured.”

Faulkner described his conviction about this kind of heroism:

“I believe that man will not only endure, he will prevail; he is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

In stillness, may we, as did David, find our God and one another in humility and truth, and love.

Amen. Amen.

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