Mom, through all those years of exhausting labor, fierce love, and unseen tears, you were laying the foundation of a beautiful legacy. Every good deed I have ever done or will do, every life touched or blessed, every person influenced and inspired, any good thing that comes from my six children, their children, and their children’s children, is because of you.

In motherhood, you were the ultimate gardener.

People who possess eternal life are not afraid to risk what they can’t lose. The question we should ask is not the teacher’s “who is my neighbor?” but the more expansive “to whom should I become a neighbor?”

After much mental and spiritual despair, I am now confident, even optimistic, that there is a way forward. I have the privilege of witnessing the beginnings of it happening right here in York, PA. It is a tenuous start, but it is a beginning nonetheless.

We can build a beautiful city and I believe God wants us to do it together. This construction requires the recognition of four emerging problems in public life: outsourcing, ambivalence, intolerance, and tribalism.

Easter Sunday is still the ultimate reset for the followers of Jesus. Just as the Church was awakened to a bright new reality 2,000 years ago, so too, the modern Church should embrace again the life-giving power of the resurrection of Jesus.

I propose there are several affirmations the Church can make that will chart a new trajectory for generations to come.

If you pay attention to the vast sum of human suffering in the world, it surely must break your heart.

The question each of us must ponder every day is this: What am I doing about the issue that is breaking my heart?

Good Friday is a day we should allow our hearts to be broken again.

We build gates in communities that are restricted with key-code access, and erect fences in our neighborhoods to mark off our territory, give us privacy from our neighbors, and safety from unwanted intruders.

The logic of good fences seems indisputable. Fences keep little kids and pets within our boundaries, but more importantly, they keep the unwanted and unwelcome out.

In the midst of busy lives, often chaotic schedules, and a fraying and raging world that demands our constant attention and loyalty, I am convinced we often miss the most lasting reality in life: love.

Love is the most important legacy you will leave. Love remains. Love never fails.

To refuse to see the plight of your brothers and sisters is to be robbed of the opportunity to feel your heart thump with the compassion of God. We must resist the impulse to look away.

There is another way. You can rise above. You must figure out how to do it ASAP.

TODAY is the day to begin rising above the chaos and the vitriol that threatens to undo the good work of our institutions.

YOU must lead. You must become the bigger person. You must refuse to be dragged down to despising your attackers. When they go low, you must go high.

As a minister, I have often witnessed the families and friends of the dead honor, gush, and even weepingly recall the goodness of their now deceased loved ones. Why do we wait to honor those we love until they are not alive to hear it?