Remember God

How often do we read a Russian-born, Nobel Prize winner, novelist, historian, short-story writer and critic of his own country and its communism tell us what is wrong with our times??? I am speaking, of course, about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, born in 1915 and deceased only nine years ago! He writes: "If I were called upon to identify briefly the principal trait of the entire 20th century...I would be unable to find anything more precise and pithy than to repeat once again, 'Men (sic) have forgotten God.' The failings of human consciousness, deprived of its divine dimension, have been a determining factor in all the crimes of this century" (The Orthodox Monitor 15, 1983).

What more can be added to those ponderable words, except perhaps "Risen Savior, King of Glory, come to us in mystery. Let us see your face in glory when you come in majesty"? Our freedom is an awesome responsibility. What have I done in the choices I’ve made? And you, as well? We have failed in our times and we will continue to see unspeakable crimes until we remember God.

Renée Domeier, OSB