What causes a hurricane, we may ask, and although the answers are clear: low pressure area over warm water releasing hot water vapor that become swirls of wind carrying the water vapor higher and making it stronger so that the water vapor, now rain, and wind speeds intensify to the point that there can be massive destruction, scientific answers alone do not satisfy us. As Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “Everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it.”

Those of us who suffered moderately little damage – uprooted trees – or inconvenience – loss of power – should be grateful that we emerged unscathed. Some people lost more than just power: a 47-year old man was swept to his death; a 20-year old woman drwoned trapped in her car; a Wanaque man decided to walk in the midst of the storm and lost his footing; a Postal worker was swept into a drainage canal. These are but a few of the more than 40 deaths from North Carolina to Vermont caused by this hurricane.

Listening to certain politicians calling the storm an “Act of God,” as if somehow it was a willful act by a benighted deity is disturbing and reflects little more than ancient mythological understandings of gods like Zeus in the Disney Beethoven segment in “Fantasia.” It also belies our understanding of the Creator who embraces us into the very center of being with love and compassion.

Storms have become more fierce as the oceans and seas are growing warmer. We human beings impact our environment and our refusal to recognize our culpability is not much different than the ostrich burying its head in the sand.

For the present, as followers of the One who came to enlarge our vision of the Holy, we have the responsibility to bind up the broken-hearted and show compassion to those who suffered far more than we. For the future, we have the responsibility to look at the seriousness of the questions on the environment and to take action.