Daily Meditation for March 18, 2025

The down-to-earth Thomas Aquinas is supposed to have said that if something happened, it must be possible. He was no doubt talking about both bad and good happenings, but to encourage hope, let’s think about the good things. If we look far and wide in human history, we learn that, at times, people of different religions, ethnicities and cultures lived together in harmony and mutual care. Hatred, violence, war, greed, and vast differences in wealth and opportunities are not inevitable. Maybe humankind is an accurate description of who we are and hope to be. Maybe we can, as individuals and as nations, choose durable peace, equity, diversity and cooperation rather than cut-throat competition. If it happened before, not in fantasy but in this real world, so insists Aquinas, it is possible and can happen again. Freedom to choose is the wild card that God has put into our hands. How will we play it? How will we use this priceless and terrifying gift?

By Mara Faulkner, OSB