“Kings and Their Gods: The Pathology of Power,” and “Uncommon Prayer: A Book of Psalms” are two books I am very grateful that Father Daniel Berrigan, S.J., felt compelled to write. With the Holy Spirit deep in his heart, he shows the freedom and courage to write the truth about America.
Violence and war have been around since time began. We humans are slow learners. Pax Christi has something very pertinent to say in the following story:
“Tell me the weight of a snowflake!” a blackbird asked a dove.
“Nothing more than nothing!” was the answer.
“In that case I must tell you a marvelous story,” the blackbird said.
“I sat on a branch of a fir tree, close to the trunk and it began to snow, not heavily, not like a raging blizzard. No. Just as in a dream, softly without violence. Because I didn’t have anything better to do, I counted the snowflakes settling on the twigs and needles of my branch. Their number was exactly 3,741,952. When the next snowflake fell on my branch — nothing more than nothing — the branch broke!” Having said that, the blackbird flew away.
The dove, since Noah’s time somewhat of an authority on the matter, thought about the blackbird’s story, and finally said to herself: “Perhaps there is only one person’s voice lacking for peace to come about in this world …” — “The Weight of Nothing,” from “A Race from Nowhere,” by Pax Christi
Lois Ferguson
St. Patrick Parish, Brooklyn
