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KARA
The word from which care came from.
Kara is an old gothic word that actually means to cry out with; to share the pain of another.
This word can also be used to refer to a true follower of Jesus. Jesus taught us the pure meaning of the word Kara. He was the one who gives us the examples of love, compassion, and understanding which marks the true believer in Messiah.
We are called to want joy for our neighbor, not envy and malice towards others because of what they have more than you do. My mother began teaching me this lesson from about the time I was able to understand language: "Remember that when you see someone with something you want and don’t have, or if you hear that someone has had good fortune, you must not be jealous but instead say God Bless them." I remember this lesson being told to me countless times during my youth. My mother is and was wise to have taught me this. I only wish she could have been everyone’s mother, as I believe there would be much less greed and the resulting insular culture we are becoming if she had been.
I must say that it is not enough to just want joy for your neighbor, but rather that we all work for it. Our imposed isolation from one another is manifested in the erosion of our civic culture, which was the foundation of our democracy. In Connecticut Schools, and many in New England, we were taught a great reverence for the Constitution. So much so that when I was a young man, I was tempted to actually genuflect when my mother took me to Washington D.C. to see the constitution in its display case! I must admit that I had the same temptation and emotional response to the Lincoln Memorial, as he was a very important role model for me as a boy and to this day as well. All this to say that I find it revolting to watch the lack of civility between fellow citizens of our country. As a priest and as a patriot I cannot condone or be silent at what I see as the death of our proud tradition of civic culture and order. This is not to say that there have been, and are now, minority groups of people who do not share first class citizenship with the majority here in the U.S. The difference is that even when black people were in the worst years of discrimination they were not killing each other like they are now with black on black crime being epidemic in the inner city. When the Italians and Greeks, and Irish came to the U.S. they were not welcomed with open arms by the majority, but they were not killing each other in the ghettos they lived in for security. They were at least civil to each other!
Now I see the terrible looming storm of self centered me instead of we mentality overwhelming and corrupting our collective and individual souls.
We must not accept, as sincere, the words of people who identify peripherally with Christianity and feel comfortable with the words of faith without the evidence of faith.
Faith is evidenced by the accuracy by which the faithful reflect more perfectly the Messiah Jesus in their everyday lives and in the vocations they choose to pursue for the good of the many.
So let us truly care for one another, because if we care as in KARA we will experience the pain of one another but with the joyful hope of also sharing in one another's triumphs and ecstasies. This is the secret of real caring; it costs much but pays back in immeasurable ways.
God Bless you all.
Fr. Fred+
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