Pastoral Reflection
In light of the current war and violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip, a poem (imho) in the tradition of the Psalms, crying out to God and asking the question "Where are you in the midst of the suffering?":
"The Diameter of the Bomb"
by Yehuda Amichal
The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters
and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters,
with four dead and eleven wounded.
And around these, in a larger circle
of pain and time, two hospitals are scattered
and one graveyard. But the young woman
who was buried in the city she came from,
at a distance of more than a hundred kilometers,
enlarges the circle considerably,
and the solitary man mourning her death
at the distant shores of a country far across
the sea
includes the entire world in the circle.
And I won't even mention the crying of orphans
that reaches up to the throne of God and
beyond, making a circle with no end and no
God.
Rev. Dr. Jennifer Bales
Communications Director
Presbytery of San Jose
(408) 279-0220
pastorjennibales@gmail.com
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