Most Reverend Jerome E. Listecki
Archbishop of Milwaukee
 

It seems that there is a new crisis in the world or in our country every week. Christians being slaughtered in the Middle East and in Africa, Russia threatening the Ukraine, the immigrant children on our southwest border and the recent shooting and violence in a suburb of St. Louis. It certainly makes anything we face in our backyard seem small in comparison.

However, I remember a reflection offered by my friend Father Joseph Jackson, who is the pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Chicago. He said, “You’ve heard it said, ‘I cursed the fact that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.’” This is obviously a reference to the fact that there are bigger problems than our own personal problems. However, Fr. Jackson went on to say, “But when I walked away, my feet were still cold.” I always remember that insight because our problems are still our problems and we can’t ignore or diminish them simply because they are not as great as the problems of others.

Perhaps we can begin to solve the great problems of the world and our country by being sensitive to the problems that we have right in our environment. Crime and violence exists in our city. I’m told that Milwaukee is a strong target for human trafficking. Imagine how difficult it is for students to go to school or study in a hostile environment with gangs and drugs. Poverty is increasing and our lack of attention to those suffering from mental illness adds to homelessness and the demands on welfare.

These larger problems can make us feel helpless, allowing us to abdicate our responsibility to do something. When it’s closer to home, however, it’s more difficult because there are things that we could do. Our law enforcement officials cannot be everywhere; however, we can be the eyes and the ears that make crime more difficult by reporting suspicious activities. How many crimes occur because people just don’t want to be involved? Crime feeds on poverty and vice.

If we begin – even in a small way – to pull the weeds from the garden, the flowers, our children, will have a chance to grow. We need to give our children a chance. An entrepreneurial environment would allow businesses to grow and jobs to develop. The improved economy would attack the poverty that wounds us.

We have yet to establish a comprehensive plan to help those who suffer from mental illness. Comprehensive education on the effects of mental illness would go a long way in raising our consciousness about its associated problems. Even as millions of us were recently saddened by the death of Robin Williams, the entertainer, we often fail to ask how that death could have been avoided.

Our sensitivity to the problems we face helps us to be empathetic to those global problems faced by the world. We pray every Sunday for an end to those problems that plague us as brothers and sisters. As people of faith, we know that God hears us and will answer, but do we hear our own prayers? What answer will we give? Is it to LOVE ONE ANOTHER?

Note: This blog originally appeared as the August 19, 2014 "Love One Another" email sent to Catholics throughout the Archdiocese of Milwaukee by Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki. If you are interested in signing up for these email messages, please click here.