So Many Faces In The Crowd

There are so many of them.

A torrent of fresh faces,

Numb, panicked, silenced.

Images bloodied,

Dissolving, inseparable, into one.

Their young bodies absorbing

A seething hatred with every bullet.

Casualties in a deadly conflict long underway.

A world war on a path uncertain,

Even to those who now wage it.

 

There are so many of them.

A torrent of hidden faces,

Trained, angry, set loose.

Consumed by a blood revenge,

They unleash their hate with every bullet,

Destroying young and old alike.

Blinded by rage, they reject any notion

That each was made in their own self-same image.

 

There are so many of them.

A torrent of mixed faces,

Frightened, vulnerable, away from anything familiar,

Seeking shelter from their tormentors,

Looking so much like those who rage against us,

Yet, too, made in our own self-same image,

Our compassion stirs, as do our fears.

The compassion is genuine, the fears not irrational.

Our reactions are not those grounded in hate

As some have said – no, not when war has ruptured our reality.

But neither are they fully graced by selflessness and mercy.

 

Lord, we need your help to sort it out.

We turn to you, the one who breathed

The very spirit of life into each one of us,

Help us to assuage our fears,

And help us to temper our

Exceedingly prudent reflexes,

With a full measure of solidarity and kindness and charity.

Lead us to more fully see that very one standing before us,

And not just so many faces in the crowd.

Peace

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Copyright 2015