I try not to watch the news on TV anymore. Too depressing, too aggravating, too salacious, too whatever. I didn’t used to be that way. At one point I was a news junkie and if I wasn’t watching it on TV, I made sure I had a program on the radio so I could listen to it. What changed? I guess I did. Do you remember the song Don Henley wrote entitled “Dirty Laundry”? The news, in my opinion, is not news at all, but a source of generating a lot of money exploiting everything that is wrong in our society today. And sometimes worse than that, it entices people to act out in some very violent manners which then becomes the next topic covered on the “news”. It seems to me a very viscous cycle.
I do listen to KMOX daily – I think because it was a station I grew up listening to because my parents listened to it. Anyway, they had a story yesterday about a confrontation between an armed 14 year boy and a City police officer. An alderman witnessed the entire incident and reported it to KMOX. They aired the story; I looked it up on line this morning and I’m attaching the article for you to read. I don’t know if anyone else picked this up but I can tell you the only hit I got on the web search this morning was from KMOX.
My point it rather simple. I’ve found too much intake of the “news” hardens my heart. It tends to lead me in a direction that I don’t want or need to go. I begin to think that there is very little good in our world when the exact opposite is true. God created this world. I want to look upon God’s creation with a clear vision so I can see the beauty of His Works. Take some time to think about our response psalm from this morning…
Responsorial Psalm PS 95:1-2, 6-7, 8-9
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works.”
R. If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
St. Mary Magdalen Men of God 