60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

St. Paul the Apostle teaches the early Christian community that great and Divine wisdom comes to us from the message of the Cross. Suffering is not an empty or senseless moment. It is a teachable moment for us to come closer to how we understand ourselves in relation to God and one another. This is a universal wisdom. The Greek Philosopher Aeschylus spoke of this wisdom in this way:

“He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despiar, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”

Over 60 years ago a catastrophic event shook our global society to the core. The Great Depression and World War II brought unimaginable suffering. Our world experienced economic and military violence. We experienced the horrors of genocide, torture, and the vast ugliness that is absolute war. This event came to a close with a taste of the devastation from the Atomic Bomb.

60 years ago the global human community came together to make sense of this tragic event and gleam from this intense suffering the wisdom that could move us forward so that we would not make these same mistakes again. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was that wisdom that came to us.

The task remains for us to make this Universal Declaration come alive in us and in our world. Genocide and torture are still a reality for us. Economic disparity and the slavery of human trafficking are very much alive today. The threat of nuclear weapons and now the reality of climate change threaten to destroy both our society and our environment.

December 10th is the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration. Let us take this time to remember the social injustices that we now exist today and reflect on each of the 30 articles so that we to may understand and appreciate the wisdom that are Grandparents experienced.

Peace,