Urban Hermit at 3156 Doyle Street, Toledo, OH 43608-2006 US - Year B, 26th-Christ the King
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Year B, 26th-Christ the King |
Numbers 11:25-29—Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! James 5:1-6—You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance. Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48—"Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." Has anything really changed? All those centuries ago—indeed, millennia—God's people tried to exclude from pastoral leadership some of those who were gifted by God. Even Joshua, close to Moses since his youth, complains to Moses when Medad and Eldad prophesy. Joshua points out that the two were not in the camp when the spirit came to rest on the elders, but they still went about prophesying. Moses names the problem: Joshua's jealousy. Again, Mark tells the story of the disciples' jealousy. John complains to Jesus about a non-disciple casting out demons in Jesus' name. Jesus' answer is like Moses' answer: Do not prevent him... whoever is not against us is for us." James condemns those who store up earthly treasures by maltreating the righteous, whose cries have reached God's ears. The earthly treasures will rot and corrode in testimony against those who mistreat their workers and harvesters. And so it continues to this day, in an exclusion based on gender. Do we not yet hear the jealous complaints? Think of the countless ranks of women religious who have labored throughout their lives, underpaid and without thanks, in service to the church. When they lift their voices in prophecy, as Sister Joan Chittister does, church officials try to silence them. When they do theology, or teach, or heal the sick, or comfort the dying, murmurs can be heard against them "trying to act like a priest" or "trying to take away another part of the priest's job." Or think of the long line of frugal homemakers whose pinched pennies allowed the building of cathedrals and the education of generations of children, or the crowds of secretaries whose skills and dedication still hold many parishes together. As we go about this week, let's make an effort to notice the unsung prophets, teachers, and healers among us, and to let them know that their gifts are indeed welcome and appreciated in our church. Let's not get caught "murdering" the righteous among us with our grumblings. 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: October 5, 2003--One Body: Equality in One God Genesis 2:18-24—Bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh: and the two of them shall become one body. Psalm 128:1-6—May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives. Hebrews 2:9-11—He who consecrates and those who are consecrated have one and the same Father, so he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. Mark 10:2-16—Whoever divorces and marries another commits adultery. Whoever dies not accept the kingdom of God like a little child shall not enter into it. The blatant oppression heaped on women as a result of centuries of exegesis of today’s passages from Genesis and Mark cries for justice! The homiletic tendency in recent years has been either to ignore these difficult texts or to relegate them as culturally biased to the dusty corridors of history. A third option, however, presents itself: we can choose a hermeneutic of Eucharist, an interpretation that looks at today’s lectionary passages through the eyes of believers at the table of the Lord. We are the Body of Christ, and we celebrate our union each time we gather for Eucharist. We eat the one bread, drink the one cup, and become what we eat: the living presence of God-among-us. When the Book of Genesis claims that we are not meant to live alone, it is calling us to the charism of community, the union begun with the Word spoken by God from the beginning, enfleshed in Jesus Christ, living today in the gathering two or three in his name, present in our service of the outcasts and downtrodden in Jesus’ name. We become at last and for all time flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone, when we share the Eucharist of our Sunday table. Our union and our unity are pre-figured in the Genesis story, modeled in its picture of the fleshly union of man and woman. Genesis tells us that the man and woman become one body, precisely the same thing that happens when we partake of Eucharist as the people of God gathered in the name of Jesus. As with so many Gospel passages, today’s pericope from Mark contains more than its surface meaning. More than a prohibition of divorce, more than allowing children to approach Jesus--nice as that may be--the teaching about marriage demands that the least of us be included permanently in the community on an equal basis, without prejudice, without restriction. Just as the partners in a marriage may not walk out, so may we not walk out on our partners on the Way with Jesus. We are connected inextricably with our community, tied to the people we travel with, bound to continue through the toughest of times. Our union in the Body of Christ is not to be broken. 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: Free to Follow Wisdom 7:7-11: All gold is sand, all silver is mire, compared to the Spirit of Wisdom. Psalm 90:12-17: Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. Hebrews 4:12-13: God’s Word judges the reflections and thoughts of the heart. Mark 10:17-30: Go and sell what you have and give to the poor; then come, follow me.
Over the years I have come to appreciate the lectionary selections for their appropriateness to individual meditation as well as their ability to open God’s living and effective word sharply into my life. Meditating each week on the Word of God and examining my conscience in relation to the selections in the lectionary cycle for the week can force me to face those parts of my life that I am wont to ignore otherwise. So this week I am presented with selections from the Book of Wisdom, Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, and the Gospel according to Mark. The reading from Wisdom calls to mind the argument over Ohio's state motto. After inspiring generations of citizens, the state motto of Ohio, “With God all things are possible,” was struck down by the Supreme Court as inconsistent with the separation of church and state because the quotation issues from the mouth of Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Mark. It seems that, as a society we choose, more and more, the gold and silver—sand and mire--rather than the Spirit of Wisdom. No matter that these words will no longer grace our public buildings, they remain true. No matter how difficult it becomes to follow Jesus in the face of temptation, God’s grace makes it possible for us to do so. No matter how many times we fail at choosing wisdom over wealth, God remains powerful enough to turn our hearts. So it is not enough to follow the literal law of the commandments, though that is certainly necessary. More is required: in the Gospel pericope, the man who has kept the law since childhood must sell everything he owns before he can follow Jesus. Mark tells us that the man cannot do it; he has many possessions, and he is more attached to them than to his desire for salvation. He goes away sad, connected to his wealth and belongings and unable to free himself from them. Today’s second reading from Hebrews tells us “God’s word is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword.” We cannot conceal anything. Jesus sees into the heart of his questioner, knowing that he has followed the law; Jesus looks on him with love. The man is unable to yield to Jesus’ love and unable to follow Jesus’ invitation: he has many possessions, and he is more attached to his possessions than to life. If I were to ask Jesus what I must do to share everlasting life, what piece of my life would he tell me to “sell?” It might be something as simple as giving up my idea of superiority over people who are not like me, or it might be something as complex as changing my employment or as difficult as giving up certain relationships. Surely it would be an ongoing process, the giving up at each stage of life and growth that thing that prevents me from embracing Jesus and following him. What am I attached to? What connection am I unable to sever in order to follow Jesus? Is it wealth, like the story in today’s Gospel? Or is it something else, perhaps my job? friends? a certain lifestyle? sports? Occasionally I find it useful to log my activities for a week in order to pin down exactly how I am spending my time. That log can reveal my imbalances, can serve as a litmus test for my beliefs, and can show me where my priorities really lie. As we go about this week, let’s take a look at our lives in light of the living, effective, sharp words of today’s Gospel, and let’s ask God to help us get rid of the possessions, whatever form they may take, that keep us from following Jesus. 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)—October 19, 2003: Servant Disciples Isaiah 53:10-11: The will of the Lord will be accomplished through the suffering servant. Psalm 33: 4-5, 18-22: Let your mercy be on us as we place our trust in you. Hebrews 4:14-16: Let us hold fast to our profession of faith, confidently approaching the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to receive help in time of need. Mark 10:35-45: Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest; whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all. “Anyone among you who aspires to greatness must serve the rest,” Jesus says to his disciples as they head for Jerusalem, jockeying for high position in the kingdom to come. “Whoever wants to rank first among you must serve the needs of all.” That’s not a bad yardstick with which to measure the candidates for public office this fall: to ask which candidate best serves the needs of all. And that necessitates asking which one has policies which serve the least among us, for only by ensuring that the least are served will all be served. It’s obvious when people are jockeying among themselves for power, climbing the corporate ladder, stepping to success on the backs of others; we recognize it immediately when someone else is doing it. Our newspapers headline the peccadilloes of politicians and government officials who take it to the point of illegality: county commissioners who use road crews to pave their own driveways, charity chairs who siphon funds to bankroll their relatives, planners who run freeways through central city neighborhoods, even church leaders who hide parish finances or transfer priests who should be suspended from ministry. Are we guiltless? Or can we ask the same question in every part of our lives? Are we personally best serving the needs of all? Or do our actions serve only ourselves, or only those in our inner circle? It’s standard these days to hear family heads say they must serve their children’s needs before they expend precious resources on outsiders. For those who are living on the edge, making minimum wage, single heads of household, that certainly is true. For too many families, though, the truth is that their standard of living is extravagant and wasteful in comparison to their true need. I’ve heard parents defending the “need” for a television and computer in each child’s bedroom, the “need” for $100 gym shoes, the “need” for pizza delivered every Friday night, the “need” to drive the kids to school, sports practice, music lessons, concerts, and the mall. Their god seems to be their own “need” for stimulation and entertainment. Exactly what does it look like to serve the needs of all? That question must be addressed on every level, on the individual and personal level, on the family level, on the neighborhood level, on the community level, and on the global level. Individually and personally, to serve the needs of all means that I must examine the resources God has given me and use them wisely. Basically, I have 168 hours each week. I use 56 or so of them to sleep, which is a wise use. I use 21 or so of them to take care of my food and clothing needs, like eating and showering and getting dressed. I use 40 or so of them to work. I use 7 of them for grocery shopping, bill paying, housekeeping, and various other tasks of life. The remaining 44 hours each week are discretionary, that is, I have about 6 hours a day that I can use in any way I choose. If I were to tithe my time to God, I would be spending 16.8 of those 44 discretionary hours in direct service through my church or community. Of course, all of those hours belong to God. I cannot morally avoid asking myself how I serve others with them. Do I serve others by following the custom in the USA of eating meat with every meal? Or could I serve others better by minimizing the amount of animal protein in my family’s diet, recognizing that it’s more efficient and healthier to eat the grain before it goes through the animal? Do I serve others by buying new clothes whenever my wardrobe shows wear or looks outdated? Or could I serve others better by wearing simple clothes until they wear out? Do I take care to buy clothes and shoes that are made in union shops instead of sweatshops? Do I serve others by driving an SUV on trips around town? Or could I serve others better by buying a smaller car and consolidating necessary trips? Could I cut my driving by just three miles a day? If every family in the USA would do that, it would be a significant enough drop in consumption to lower the price of gasoline! And finally, there’s my pet project: Do I serve others by planting and fertilizing and maintaining a broad flat expanse of front lawn and back lawn, or could I serve others better by planting perennials and shrubs and getting rid of the polluting lawnmower? Could I serve others better by volunteering in the local food pantry instead of spending Saturday mornings mowing the lawn? The wider perspectives of family, neighborhood, community and world parallel the individual perspective. When we individually choose to submit all our options to the yardstick of service to others, we impact not only our own lives but also the lives of people everywhere. Along the road to Jerusalem, James and John ask for special favor in Jesus’ kingdom, a theme that has plagued the disciples all along the way. In spite of Jesus’ teaching, they still do not understand that leadership in the kingdom of God comes not from domination but from servanthood. So when we’re walking along the way with Jesus, do we concentrate on domination? Is our main concern on getting ahead? Or do we set our eyes on living in a way that will heal and comfort and serve others, especially those who have the least among us? As we go about this week, let’s be mindful of the ways we can turn ourselves to service, not as subservient, groveling slaves but as assertive, strong and independent people of God examining our lives and choosing the good of the least among us in every decision we make. 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)--October 26, 2003: Following Jesus up the Road to the Cross Jeremiah 31:7-9: I will bring them back: the blind and the lame, mothers and those with child, and lead them on a level road, so none may stumble. Psalm 126:1-6: We go forth weeping, carrying seed to be sown; we shall return rejoicing, carrying the harvest’s sheaves. God has done this for us, and we are filled with joy. Hebrews 5:1-6: You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Mark 10:46-52: Master, grant that I may see. We’re on the go again, traveling the road toward Jerusalem with our friend Jesus. Once again he stops, this time for a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus. Two weeks ago we heard the rich man turn away because he loved his possessions more than he wanted to follow the Way. Last week we heard Jesus ask this same question, “What do you want me to do for you?” of his own disciples, who were unable to walk away from their desires for power. Today Jesus turns aside to this blind beggar, and the beggar asks simply, yet all importantly, to see. The beggar asks for sight, and in doing so reveals his great faith in Jesus’ true mission. Jesus looked on the rich man with love, but he could not heal him of his love of worldly goods because the rich man could not see. The man could not see that his love of wealth kept him from all but the most perfunctory following of the written law. He could not see the poor crying out, he could not see the burden of his own wealth, he could not focus on the Word of God even though Jesus stood right in front of him. Jesus likewise could not heal his closest friends, who could not “see” beyond their lust for power. They could not see that their own desire for domination kept them from following the servant way that Jesus laid out for them. They could not see that the power they hungered for was the very power that hurt the poorest among them. It’s the jubilee call again, in a new setting! Today the blind man sees! He knows he is blind, and he asks to be released from the blindness that afflicts him. And he receives his sight and starts to follow Jesus down the road. What is it in our lives that we cannot see? Is it love of wealth? Lust for power? Desire to dominate? The need to control the people and things in our lives? Whether our work is schoolwork or housework or jobwork, it’s good to take a look at where we are and what we’re doing. In a given work day, do our goals and habits and actions match our idea of Christian service? That is, are we acting like a disciple of Jesus? Do the people who see us know we are Christians by how we do things, how we decide, how we act? Or do our actions speak of our love for money or power or domination? Today’s second reading from Hebrews, historically set in the patriarchal tradition where women are excluded from leadership roles, must be sifted out before it can become relevant for today’s world. Significant here is that Melchizedek is not of the traditional order of the cultic priesthood; he is called by God to priesthood out of the normal order of things. In the same way, today’s women, excluded from leadership roles in the traditional church order, stand at the edges as servants, hearing the call from God to be priests forever, servant disciples in the model of Melchizedek and Jesus. Ironically, the holders of power, those ordained males who hold fast to domination, still—as the first disciples did—hold to their structures of domination and think that only they have the key to gaining eternal life. Finally, as if underlining the importance of the message, today’s reading from Jeremiah heralds the vision of God’s people called to deliverance: the blind and the lame, mothers and those with child, an immense throng. God will lead the anawim on a level road, and none shall stumble. Jesus’ call to a jubilee overturning of the order of the world in favor of the oppressed and dispossessed is loud and clear. Let’s listen! Let’s follow on the way! 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B: Hear, O Israel! Deuteronomy 6:2-6: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Psalm 18:2-4, 47, 51: I love you, Lord, my strength. Hebrews 7:23-28: Jesus’ priesthood will not pass away. Mark 12:28-34: No one had the courage to ask him any more questions. Two days away from the Presidential election. The airwaves are weighted down with superlatives about the candidates, full of importuning that we vote for this person or that person. And, as if that’s not enough, the leading edge of the Christmas commercial advertisements boom in the distance. What once hit us after Thanksgiving Day now dwarfs that celebration and threatens to overtake Halloween in its gobbling up the national psyche. In all of this hype about political power and economic power, Christians turn to Deuteronomy and the Shema, the Great Commandment: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone!” Our God is not political power. Our God is not prestige. Our God is not a Nintendo, big-screen TV, a computer, a trip to China, an SUV. Our God is not diamonds forever, a case of Bud in the fridge, a designer wardrobe. Our God is not a half-million-dollar house in the suburbs or an Ivy League education for our kids. Our God is the Lord. The scribe who asks Jesus what the greatest commandment is already knows the orthodox answer. Every Jew knows the Shema, the law of Deuteronomy Chapter 6. It is inscribed in the mezuzah on every doorpost, touched prayerfully on the way in and on the way out, the framework of all life. It is wrapped around their heads, bound around their arms, in the phylacteries that accompany their prayer. The scribe knows the answer. Jesus knows the answer. All who hear this exchange already know the answer. And Jesus gives the answer, citing Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” We can almost hear the crowd grin and nod in time with the measured words of the familiar prayer. Then Jesus continues: “This is the second, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” The crowd gasps. The scribe, hearing the addition of Leviticus 19:18, can only join in agreement. Jesus connects the love of God as the greatest commandment with love of neighbor as the second commandment, thereby condemning those who exploit their neighbors. And it is in the exploitation of their neighbors that the guilt of the leaders lies. The scribes are privy to the workings of the Temple. They understand the righteous anger Jesus aimed at their practices yesterday when he drove the money-changers from the Temple. Along with the chief priests and the elders, they have been looking for a way to discredit Jesus. They trapped themselves in their own questions earlier today when they questioned Jesus’ authority. They were unable to trap Jesus on the question of taxes to the emperor. They were unable to get the better of him in the questions about the resurrection of the dead. So now they think they have him! What is the greatest commandment? Jesus’ answer condemns them: Love God; love your neighbor. But the religious leaders have taken advantage of the worshipers coming to the Temple on annual pilgrimage. They have exploited the poor. They have not loved their neighbor as they love themselves. Bested by this itinerant rabbi from the hinterlands, the Temple officials lack courage to question him further, lest the injustice practiced in the Temple be exposed and ridiculed even further. The scribe backs off, citing Hosea 6:6: “For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than holocausts.” Jesus sees the scribe’s acquiescence for what it is and refuses to back off. More than the correct response from Deuteronomy, more than knowledge of the law, more than the ability to banter back and forth with citations from the Torah, God requires justice! God hears the cry of Israel and responds, “Hear! The Lord is God, the Lord alone!” Those who set up false gods, whether it be religion or temples or political power or money, are not acceptable to the one God. So Jesus takes up a position opposite the treasury in the Temple courtyard and proceeds to comment on the activities there, which we will hear about next week as he zeroes in on this disparity between the law of love of God and neighbor and the actions of his religion’s leaders. Once again we hear the call to jubilee, to the preferential option for the anawim, the poor and oppressed among us. And we are forced to ask ourselves who it is we are oppressing, who it is we are refusing to call neighbor. It’s easy to point the finger at someone else: slum landlords, redlining realtors, gerrymandering school boards, polluting industries. It’s harder to ask myself if I consider a specific person to be my neighbor: a homeless family, a person of color, someone with a different sexual orientation, a Hindu or a Muslim or a Buddhist, a woman, a resident alien. Jesus’ answer is clear. 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B): All She Has 1 Kings 17:10-16—The widow of Zarephath empties her pantry out of hospitality to the stranger. Psalm 146:7-10—Praise the Lord, my soul! God hears the oppressed! Hebrews 9:24-28—Christ brings salvation. Mark 12:38-44—The scribes devour the widow's savings; the institution is a corrupt system, requiring all the poor have. The poor and the oppressed, it seems, are the first to hear the cry of the poor and respond with charity. Perhaps the reason is, in part, due to the fact that the poor recognize the cry of other poor. In today's Gospel Jesus derides the institutional corruption that requires the poor to pay a temple tax amounting to all they own, while the rich pay the same tax that in fact amounts to a pittance for them. In our patriarchal church we have been sermonized again and again about charity when faced with this pericope. It's been presented as a challenge to give more to the church because we must match the charity of the poor widow who gives out of her sustenance rather than her surplus. Give, so we've been told, give everything you have and rely on the Lord. But Jesus is not telling us that. His derision is clearly aimed at the temple system that takes advantage of the poor. Systems that place heavy burdens on the poor among us are in place in America today, and the challenge to us as followers of Christ is to expose those systems and change their oppressive rules. This is not a call to stewardship. Yet I fully expect that I will be again encouraged this weekend at my home parish to respond generously to the call for contributions to the parish, the diocesan church, the renovation fund… or maybe just a general call to increase my tithe. It is highly unlikely that the homilist will announce a tithe by the parish to the poor in the neighborhood. It is highly unlikely that I will hear that the Altar-Rosary Society has voted to feed without cost anyone who comes to the parish doors. While it's likely I'll hear a plea for my pledge to a half-million dollar campaign to renovate the worship space, it is highly unlikely that I will hear that the parish will spend half a million dollars on pre-natal care for pregnant teens. Has anything changed? The poorest of the poor are still women. The poorest of the poor are still oppressed by the corrupt institutions in this world, including our church. So Jesus' message is still true, and still needed, and we're still challenged to listen to the cry of the poor. As we go about this week, let's pay special attention to the institutional oppression we're part of—and let's take one little action to help those who continue to suffer as a result of our choices. 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (B): People of Justice Daniel 12:1-3—The wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever. Hebrews 10:11-14, 18—Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. Mark 13:24-32—Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. Some Christians try to read the Bible literally, ignoring the many literary forms it contains and the many types of figurative language it uses. When they read today's passage from Mark, for example, they read it as a prediction rather than as the apocalyptic type and attempt to fit its description into current history. Actions both laughable and tragic have resulted from such attempts, as the turn of the millennium recently showed us. One reading of today's scriptures reveals comforting words of wisdom about the end times. Believing as we do in God's unconditional love and mercy, we can have faith that our feeble efforts for peace and forgiveness, justice and equality, are finding favor with the God who made us. The scriptures tell us that the Word of God will not pass away, and those words can indeed be comforting. With great power and glory, Jesus says, the angels will be sent to gather the elect from the end of the earth to the end of the sky. "The wise shall shine brightly like the splendor of the firmament, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever," Daniel prophesies. Still, the Word of God is a two-edged sword. Perhaps these passages are not a comfort to us. Do we act with wisdom? Do we lead the way to justice? Or are we enemies of Jesus, soon to become his footstool? As we creep up on the end of the liturgical year, we have yet another opportunity to re-examine our lives and measure them against the final standard. As we go about this week, ask ourselves what one thing we could do today in order to "lead the many to justice." 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B): Christ the King—In Control Daniel 7:13-14, Nations and peoples of every language serve him. Psalm 93:1-5, Our God rules, robed in majesty. Revelation 1:5-8, We are a royal nation of priests in the service of God. John 18:33-37, My kingdom does not belong to this world. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice. Who controls you? To what person or persons do you defer? Whom do you obey? Some of us may think of a spouse, the person we are committed to love, cherish and honor above all others as the one through whom we find our salvation in the sacrament of marriage. But for some the last person we would think of is a spouse. Perhaps we are single. Perhaps we are in a marriage that lacks mutual respect Some of us may think of parents, the ones whose selfless love gave us life and breath and nurture without stinting and without question. But for some of us the last person we would think of is a parent. Perhaps our parents have passed away. Perhaps the people who gave us life were unprepared to nurture us and raise us to adulthood, in some way neglecting to do those basic parent things that would have caused us to respect them.
Some of us may think of public officials, those leaders in the civic world who sacrifice their time and their own interests for the interests of all the people they are elected to serve. But for some of us the last people we would think of are civic leaders. Perhaps we have seen so much graft and corruption that we no longer think of elected officeholders when we look for role models. Or we might think of police officers, pledged to enforce the laws of the city and state and nation, dedicated to keeping order in our world. But for some of us the last place we would look would be the police, our experience of law enforcement having taught us that justice in America sometimes depends on the color of our skin or the amount of rust on our car or the level of education we have attained. And so we walk through life pretending to defer to police, political leaders, parents, teachers, or spouses because we don’t want to make the effort to protest. But we do not completely respect them. We obey them when we need to in order to save ourselves hassle. We get along. In today’s Gospel we see Jesus in front of Pilate, a civic authority who holds the power of life and death over him. But Jesus is stronger than Pilate, stronger than all the power of Rome, stronger than the power of those in the Sanhedrin who fear him, stronger than the demons he has exorcised throughout Galilee, Samaria and Judea. In his strength Jesus faces Pilate and tells him that his kingdom is “not of this world.” It is a kingdom of justice and truth, so far removed from Pilate’s world that Pilate’s fear increases at the thought of it. And what of us?
