Protect my Soul and Song
Excerpt from Psalm 137
“Happy they shall be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock.”
Reflection by Felix Carrion
After the invasion and destruction the Israelites wept “by the rivers of Babylon.” This wasn’t home.
The mockery of their captors and tormentors tore deep into their souls and songs. This wasn’t cause for song and mirth.
The exiled sought solace in the remembrance of their beloved Jerusalem, their holy place of worship and worth. But in their shock and pain and horror they prayed a prayer of shock and pain and horror.
“Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock!”
The descent done, they forget what is even more precious than Jerusalem and home and worship: the little ones of their enemies. These neither sat nor sung in the war councils offering their approvals to go and dash the little ones against the rock.
Fierce anger turns into blind rage and violence when sight of the others’ humanity—newly born, young or old—is lost. The unquenchable cycle of hate and violence then morphs into this tragic prayer for God to replicate our ways.
We do not stand in judgment of those who wept and prayed but in silent vigilance lest we, too, descend into the hells of hate and violence.
Prayer
God, when I’ve been hurt and torn, protect my soul and song against losing sight of what you forever see in the other. Amen.
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