I recently attended the funeral service of a woman Martha was very close to. I am never very comfortable with these events but the woman was elderly and had been ill for some time, so not a surprise but still much sadness. I went to support Martha. The service took place in a Catholic church and I think I may have been the only non-Catholic person there. I surmise this because everyone else knew the routines - sign of the cross, genuflect, how to receive communion, etc.
I sat there, clueless, holding Martha’s hand and quietly taking in the sights and sounds. Pretty hymns, headache producing incense, and Jesus’ dead body hanging on a cross - which sent me down the rabbit hole.
I am heartbroken for folks today whose worst moments are caught publicly and then repeatedly shown to the world on social media. How often I read about some woman’s rape that was live streamed and can’t imagine how absolutely soul destroying that must be. I literally tremble just thinking about it. How grateful I am that phones were not an option on the worst day of my life.
My daughter is a Middle School social worker and deals with similar issues daily. The kid whose bullying is filmed so others can laugh, the girl that sends nude pictures to her boyfriend only to find they are being passed around the school, the kid who suffers some embarrassment now immortalized on social media. The psychological impact must be devastating. It’s no wonder that kids who experience this repeated victimization have such high rates of depression and suicide. And I wonder about the emotional deadening impact to the folks who view these atrocious videos.
I sat in a Catholic church, looking at a near naked man, on what had to be the worst day of his life. Stripped, beaten and nailed to a cross. A man’s murdered body put on display. I am told this is to remind Catholics that Jesus suffered and died for them. But it just made me very, very sad for anyone whose suffering is made public, open for all to see, which is all too common these days
