When the Homily is about Immunology

Causes

They are everywhere. I'm surrounded by them. Perhaps it's part of being "near" Seattle or a part of the University. Heck, even tiny little Bainbridge Island has no less than 20 environmental organizations. TWENTY! Everywhere you turn here there is some new "issue"...so many in fact that I'm inclined to think that the only way I can avoid not destroying the environment or enslaving Indonesia children who make my clothes is to sit naked and eat my own feces.

Can we save the world? can we usher in Utopia (however you might envision it) by way of our votes or our recycling or our charity or the car we drive? I don't care which end of the political spectrum you find yourself on, neither Barak Obama nor even Fred Thompson are going to save the world.

Ultimately, I think, what drives our world - in every aspect - into the dirt is sin. And it amuses me to watch how we try so hard to fix the world and avoid addressing sin. "Activists" abound, and frankly I am sick of them.

It's an odd thing, if you sit back for a moment and look at the world screaming and running...looking for a solution. Millions of people shouting out their solutions to the ills of the world in what has become an uninterpretable cacophony. We truly are desperate for a cure.

Legislation will never raise the dead. Activists will never raise the dead. The world, like our soon to be corpses will rot.

For all the good we think we do...for all the causes we embrace...I cannot even love my brother. I cannot truly see past my own desires. I cannot sacrifice my life as a father should. Perspective.

End world hunger? Please...I cannot end my own gluttony. End war? Please...I cannot end my own anger. What hypocrites we are...to pontificate to the world about peace, love, equality, morality, etc...when we cannot overcome our own hearts? What do we think we will accomplish with our marches, our voting, or our driving a hybrid?

Maybe the way to really start changing to world is to truly start changing ourselves. The degree of success we ought to anticipate is likely proportional to the degree of success you've had in the past attempts to rid yourself of sin. That's sobering.

The existence of saints is a sign of hope. Maybe the best thing we can do for the world is to look inward. I mean really, will you tell me something we are doing otherwise is working?