This past Saturday hundreds of thousands of today's younger generation rallied throughout the nation to demand a change in our gun-crazed culture.
They did not ask for this change, they demanded it. And they fully deserve to demand it. Many of them have personally experienced the slaughter of their classmates, and also the murders of their friends on the streets of our cities. So they fully deserve to demand change. They justly deserve an Easter Sunday after far too many Good Fridays.
I am old enough to have experienced other times when our youth demanded change in our society. But never like today's youth. In the 1960's for example, the young tried to change our society, not by building a new one but by naively dropping out of the established one. The Hippie movement was fun for a while, and even had a serious side in protesting the war in Viet Nam. But it inevitably died. Without any real effort of their own, the young expected a Phoenix to rise from the ashes of the culture of that time. But all they got was ashes.
In the 1970's, the Watergate scandal heaped more ashes on our declining government. And today, our federal government has fallen even farther to a frightening and dangerous low. But this time, even against the heavy odds, I believe that maybe, just maybe, today's youth may have started to bring a true moral change to our government and our society. The promise of a new Easter may be dawning.
One sign that they may succeed this time is the newly awakening opposition to the National Rifle Association, which has devolved into a mindless lobby for the gun manufacturers. Also, there is some opposition arising against the heavy weight of so many Americans who openly carrying rifles, even military AR-15 assault weapons.
So I see some hope. In Catholic terms, we may be on the verge of what Vatican II called, "A New Pentecost." In and through today's enlightened and dedicated youth, America has a new opportunity to rise up to new life from the disunited, passive culture that we older citizens have created, and that has brought us too many paranoid gun owners and too many political leaders who can't work for anything other than their own re-election to their corrupt power.
On Sunday, we will celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, and his gift of a new life in his Spirit. Wouldn't it be great if this Easter we elders could contribute our participation in Jesus' ever-new life to the vigorously alive youth in whom new life and hope may very well be rising. Wouldn't that make for a wonderful HAPPY EASTER.
They did not ask for this change, they demanded it. And they fully deserve to demand it. Many of them have personally experienced the slaughter of their classmates, and also the murders of their friends on the streets of our cities. So they fully deserve to demand change. They justly deserve an Easter Sunday after far too many Good Fridays.
I am old enough to have experienced other times when our youth demanded change in our society. But never like today's youth. In the 1960's for example, the young tried to change our society, not by building a new one but by naively dropping out of the established one. The Hippie movement was fun for a while, and even had a serious side in protesting the war in Viet Nam. But it inevitably died. Without any real effort of their own, the young expected a Phoenix to rise from the ashes of the culture of that time. But all they got was ashes.
In the 1970's, the Watergate scandal heaped more ashes on our declining government. And today, our federal government has fallen even farther to a frightening and dangerous low. But this time, even against the heavy odds, I believe that maybe, just maybe, today's youth may have started to bring a true moral change to our government and our society. The promise of a new Easter may be dawning.
One sign that they may succeed this time is the newly awakening opposition to the National Rifle Association, which has devolved into a mindless lobby for the gun manufacturers. Also, there is some opposition arising against the heavy weight of so many Americans who openly carrying rifles, even military AR-15 assault weapons.
So I see some hope. In Catholic terms, we may be on the verge of what Vatican II called, "A New Pentecost." In and through today's enlightened and dedicated youth, America has a new opportunity to rise up to new life from the disunited, passive culture that we older citizens have created, and that has brought us too many paranoid gun owners and too many political leaders who can't work for anything other than their own re-election to their corrupt power.
On Sunday, we will celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, and his gift of a new life in his Spirit. Wouldn't it be great if this Easter we elders could contribute our participation in Jesus' ever-new life to the vigorously alive youth in whom new life and hope may very well be rising. Wouldn't that make for a wonderful HAPPY EASTER.
