A Prayer to Praise the March of Light

(Please feel free to make copies of this prayer and share it with those around you.)

Repeated reports on preparations for war in retaliation for the terrorist attacks are shown daily. These reports are, however, not the truth itself. The recent trend in reporting is the rarer the incidents and facts, the more widely they are treated and information is reported repeatedly. Since this is an unprecedented incident, there is all the more reason for the concentrated focus. It's not that the media is to blame. However, there is an undeniable reality that is not being reported. That is, if we are to think of this incident as "darkness", there is a tremendous outpouring of "light" to dispel that darkness, proceeding at a heretofore unheard of scale, with a heretofore unheard of number of people participating. This "light" is, without a doubt, proof that man is a child of God.

This light is being emitted from our country, too, but it is most remarkable in the United States. Many show business celebrities, singers and musicians came together to put on a show and raise money for the victims of the terrorist attacks in a two-hour commercial-free program broadcast in a collaborated effort on four major television channels. This was a very "showy" light, but individual donations, relief efforts for the family of the victims as well as to those injured--simple and inconspicuous acts of love--are being done daily, in innumerable numbers, by "ordinary" people. This movement is similar to the internal physical process our bodies go through when healing a wound. When a part of our body is hurt, our entire immune system is activated, and it fights bacteria and tries to heal the wound. Without asking for any compensation, the individual immune cells rush to the "scene", and, at times, even do not begrudge self-sacrifice for the benefit of the entire body. However, the "entire body" that is suffering now, is not just one country, the United States, but the entire world. The immune system of the entire world must be activated and heal the wound.

There is a true story* shared by Stephen Gould, PhD. Someone set up a depo near ground zero to distribute needed supplies--from face masks to shoe inserts--free of charge, to the relief workers. Many people who heard of these efforts joined in, bringing batteries and even hard hats. Then one night, a cook brought a shopping bag and said, "There's a dozen apple brown bettys, the best dessert in our restaurant, and still warm." A firefighter who received one of them, said, with a smile restored to his weary face, "Thank you. This is the most lovely thing I've seen in four days--and it's still warm!"

Unity and love are expressions of God's "Light." We must not change this into the "darkness" of hatred. Let us not extinguish this light, but spread it rapidly and steadily, to all corners of each and every country. Moreover, let us transcend narrow-minded national interests and spread this light so that it overflow into the entire world. Let the "Light" within us bring forth the "Light" within others. Darkness cannot stop this advancement of light. That is because God's infinite Love is within us and within others as well. I give my heartfelt gratitude to God who has given us all the realization that "Man is a child of God."

* Stephen Jay Gould, "Decency Trumps Depravity at Ground Zero, Too", International Herald Tribune, September 27, 2001