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Good morning

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February 10th 1983.Ìý News headlines about an investigation in London where human remains had been found concealed in drains. The remains of 16 young men and boys were discovered. The name ‘Muswell Hill’ was to be associated with the intensity of inhumanity that demonized and diminished homeless or gay young men, murdered by one who crushed their humanity.

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In Rwanda I stood in Kigali Memorial Museum and saw the pictures, the bones, the words, the testimonies of those who had been demonized and diminished by their neighbours, friends, and sometimes-family members. The bones lay bare, crying out for justice, crying out for the recognition of their humanity.

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Among them the words of Donata, aged 11:

Sometimes I get very sad because I can’t imagine what my life will be like. I will never see my parents again, and yet I’ll see the people who killed them, and those people’s children, for the rest of my life. I can’t bear the thought of it.

It’s hard to bear the thought of how inhuman human beings can be. Yet in places like Muswell Hill, Baghdad, Belfast, Beirut, Kigali, Damascus, Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, and many more there is inhumanity every day. It’s hard to know what any of us can do, at least on our own. There are International Organizations for that and our governments play their role. Yet we can inform ourselves and begin to lobby for a better world.

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Lord help us to attend to our own humanity, taking care not to demonize or diminish any other human being. May all that falls around us and within us be made new by living with grace and mercy and in pursuit of justice.Ìý Amen