When tragedy strikes a friend or the entire world, we may catch ourselves offering up “thoughts and prayers”, almost as a knee jerk reaction. It’s a given when some politician grabs the microphone to offer his condolences. And I’ve noticed myself and others starting to have a negative reaction to what has become a cliché or platitude that has no meaning anymore because it has been said so many times without any meaningful action as a consequence of the tragedy. The phrase has become good fodder for the creators of memes.
I’m reminded of the
parable of the Good Samaritan where a man asks Jesus “what must I do to inherit
eternal life?” He asks how the man reads
the law? And he rightly replies that I
should love God and my neighbor. But,
the man asks, “who is my neighbor?”
Jesus then relates the
parable of a man who was traveling alone and was beaten and robbed, leaving him
half dead. Both a priest and a Levite passed
by the man, but offered no assistance while perhaps offering “thoughts and
prayers.” Then, a Samaritan who the Jews
hated, stopped and provided aid.
Jesus asked “which of
the three do you think was a neighbor to the man?” The expert in the law easily answers, “The
one who had mercy on him.” And Jesus
told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The Tibetan prayer flag
above states that “Happiness comes when your work and words are of benefit to yourself
and others.” Offering “thoughts and
prayers” is surely a wonderful thought, but when those words are all that is
offered without some positive action to attempt to right the wrong, those words
become cliché and merely platitudes.
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