Security in ambiguity and uncertainty

A band of Hasidic pilgrims were once lost in a deep, dark forest. They chanced upon their Zaddik, their spiritual leader, who had been lost even longer. Unaware of his helplessness, they asked him to show them the way out of the woods. He told them, “I cannot do that. I have been lost even longer than you. But I can point out the ways that lead farther into the forest, and after that, let us try to find the way out together.”

In the face of massive poverty in the world today, Pope Francis says: “Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.”