Welcome, Catholic Pilgrims. We have another day where we are hearing about riches and poverty.
Many of you have heard my earthquake story that occurred when we were stationed in Turkey. If not, in summary, on October 30th, 2020, Izmir, Turkey was hit with a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that went on for 45 seconds. That is an eternity in earthquake time. My children and I happened to be on the 15th floor of our apartment high-rise and feeling the building sway and roll for that length of time was one of the most unsettling feelings you can possibly imagine. I figured at any minute the building was going to come down on us.
When the earthquake finished, I told my kids to run out of the building. I just wanted to get them out. So, we ran out with no shoes on and flew down the 15 flights of stairs to get out. What I didn’t know at the time was that our building was designed to move that way to keep it flexible during an earthquake. It was designed by Japanese architects.
My husband’s squadron was told to get to higher ground because there was fear of a tsunami coming (Izmir sits right on the Aegean Sea). And so, a group of Americans marched through town to higher ground. My kids and I, though, didn’t have shoes.
I’ll reflect on what happened when we got to higher ground as it pertains to our reading today. Let’s turn to Chapter Sixteen in the Third Part.
