Deposuit Potentes de Sede

Last night was a concert of Bach’s Magnificat and it was. It was a time to get off the wheel of current events and dip into the timeless. But still, one can never wholly escape. So when I heard the Tenor solo and read the text in the program, I felt it as a hopeful sign that Congress, aided by some invisible hands nudging the moral arc towards justice, will do the right thing and follow God’s suggestion: 

He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. 

Followed by the Alto solo: 

 He hath filled the hungry with good things and the rich he hath sent empty away.

Hungry for food, health care, jobs, affordable housing, etc. but also hungry for justice and hungry to restore democracy to our founding vision. 

Then another sign in my nightly reading of Dicken’s Nicholas Nickleby, where the greedy, avaricious, cruel Ralph Nickleby is confronted by his nephew and told: 

I warn you that misfortune and discovery are thickening about your head: that the structures you have raised through all your ill-spent life are crumbling into dust, that your path is beset with spies and your hoarded wealth (and power—addition mine) will go down in one great crash!

All the signs are in place. Congress, heed them!