How long lord

Look at me! Answer me! My God. God deliberately established a personal relationship with his people. The psalmist fears death; his enemies are getting the upper hand; and if he stumbles they will rejoice. Regardless of the situation and how it appears, the psalmist has come to a decision. It refers to the profound goodness and faithful love tha t God shows and has always shown his people because they are his — because of their covenant relationship that makes them his beloved children and spouse.

He knows God is merciful, he knows God has saved and will save him again. God has blessed him and will bless again. A determination to trust has risen from within, from the place where before there was only anxiety.

How long before you answer?! I turn to Psalms like this one. The more times you read it, the deeper it will reach into your soul.

You might want to remember that these are not just the words of the psalmist, they are words of the Lord as well. This psalm is so relevant now with the state that our country and our leadership is in. This gives me comfort and you could not have posted this at a better time! They are not victims. It is not they who need a message but our world, our country and our collaborators.

Perhaps you do as well. As a black Jesuit and a priest, I mainly live in a white world. Which means it is my burden, responsibility and task to talk about events like this with my white brothers and sisters. These conversations happen after every sensationalized black death. Sometimes my friends and collaborators just want to talk. Sometimes they call to listen. Usually, these conversations include a desire to better understand or to participate in some way.

But I must admit that I often avoid these conversations—and not because these people are unimportant to me or because these issues do not need to be discussed. I avoid them because they are exhausting. They are exhausting because, I have found, that while white people can engage these issues at their leisure, discuss them in person or on social media and then withdraw again to their daily concerns, I cannot do that. The students whom I love and for whom I am responsible cannot do that. Black America cannot do that.

I am exhausted because we cannot withdraw from this painful cycle. Psalm 13 is the cry of black Americans. We have been crying out this question for centuries. But we cannot cry it alone anymore. Of course, this means making changes to our unjust system: We have to change the structures that prevent black people from voting. Substandard education must be improved. We need to change unjust laws that produce economic inequality.

The criminal justice system must be reformed. All this remains true. But how does such change happen? Simply put, these structures will not change until white America—which means individual white Americans—gets close to black and brown people.

Until you can smell the stench of sin that we smell, until the smell of that strange fruit fills your nostrils and will not let you inhale the sweet fragrances of the world; until you can see in those nine minutes a black man as a brother and not withdraw from his suffering; until you can feel the pain of that knee on your own neck and suddenly find it hard to breath in front of your computer screen; until then nothing will change.

These structures will not change until that body has a name and relationship to you. When will they be heard? Patrick Saint-Jean. And let me be clear: This is Christianity. This sharing in the experience of others is what it is to be one body in Christ.

I am not inventing this. It is the soft flesh of these black bodies that America must grow close to. It is Jesus in the soft flesh of the black and brown children at Brooklyn Jesuit Prep and schools all across this land that this country must come to know.

How long O Lord? I cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save. How long before you save us from all this violence? I cry out to you, "There's violence! I'm crying out to you, 'Violence! I cry out unto Thee of violence, And Thou wilt not save. I call out to you, "Violence! I cry out to you "Violence. World English Bible Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear?

I cry out to you "Violence! I cry unto Thee -- 'Violence,' and Thou dost not save.