There is a lot of instability in the world today, and the US are experiencing their share of it as well:  a presidential candidate facing assassination, inflation roaring, the economy faltering, wars flaring.  This being the case, one would expect the political leadership in Louisiana to do everything possible to shield our state from the threatening disorders.  And to their credit, they did some good things in the last session to that end.  Affirming gold and silver as legal tender will offer some protection against a weakening dollar; legislation making illegal immigration a state crime should help with physical safety; the pro-Ten Commandments and anti-trans legislation will help us spiritually; etc.

But inexplicably, they are doing the opposite vis-à-vis one of the most vital spheres of State life.  Instead of making a bit of sacrifice by holding one more special session in 2024 to get Louisiana’s economy on a secure footing, they are folding their hands, propping up their feet, and waiting until next year while the world burns all around us and while Louisiana’s people suffer unnecessarily.  Both chambers are complicit (via KATC):

“Since adjourning in June, talks have continued with Revenue Secretary Richard Nelson and others to discuss what comprehensive tax reform would look like in Louisiana,” said President Cameron Henry. “We’ve made a lot of progress, but it’s a very complicated issue that requires continued discussion. The public deserves time to see our plans and understand the implications for their families and their businesses. We want to get this right.”

“The House is committed to tackling tax reform and plans to meet in the interim as often as it can on a number of issues including insurance, transportation, and several others to keep a spotlight on the needs of the state and develop solutions that can be brought forward next session,” said Speaker DeVillier. “We have a group of legislators this term who know we have to think differently if we’re going to make Louisiana more competitive and prosperous, and we are committed to reaching that goal in due time.”

‘In due time.’  That’s a gut-punch to the plainfolk throughout Louisiana who are struggling right now and will probably be struggling even more in early 2025 while Mr DeVillier, Mr Henry, et al., bump their gums in their calm, stress-free discussion groups.

It is not as though solutions and plans don’t already exist.  The Pelican Institute, Paul Hurd, and others have put forward plans on tax reform.  It would be a simple matter for the Legislature to analyze and adopt one of them.  But they stubbornly refuse to do so.

Good shepherds they are not:  ‘I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.  . . .  The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep’ (St John’s Gospel 10:11, 13).

The contrast with real self-sacrifice for others couldn’t be more depressing.  To remind everyone, including Louisiana’s legislators, what it looks like, we turn to an unsung, heroic missionary of the Orthodox Church to the Native Americans in Alaska in the 19^th century, St Jacob Netsvetov:

The new assignment for the newly-ordained Father Jacob would also prove to be quite a challenge. The Atka “parish” comprised a territory stretching for nearly 2,000 miles and included Amchitka, Attu, Copper, Bering and Kurile Islands. But this did not deter the godly young priest, for when he was clothed in the garments of the Priesthood, he was found to be “clad with zeal as a cloak’ (Is. 59:17), and so he threw himself wholly into his sacred ministry. His deep love for God and for his flock was evident in everything that he did. Both in Atka and in the distant villages and settlements which he visited, Father Jacob offered himself as a “living sacrifice” (Rom 12:1). Having “no worry about his life” (Mt. 6:25 ff), the holy one endured manifold tortures of cold, wet, wind, illness, hunger and exhaustion, for to him life was Christ (Phil 1:21).

Where, we wonder, is the zeal of our legislators to make themselves ‘living sacrifices’ for the sake of bettering the lives of Louisianans?

His labors were diverse, and he was always active in serving others:

Father Netsvetov led an active physical and intellectual life, hunting and gathering for his own subsistence needs, preparing specimens of fish and marine animals for the natural history museums of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, corresponding with Saint Innocent (Veniaminov) on matters of linguistics and translations. He labored over the creation of an adequate alphabet for the Unangan-Aleut language, and the translation of the Holy Scriptures and other appropriate literature into that language.

Though he experienced deep sorrows, he remained undeterred in his work as a pastor:

In March of 1836, his precious wife, Anna, died of cancer; his home burned to the ground in July of 1836; and his dear father, Yegor, died of an undetermined illness in 1837. Who can utter the depth of sorrow felt by this God-pleaser? Yet he lifted up his voice with that ancient sufferer and cried, “shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? In all this he did not sin with his lips” (Job 2:10). In his journal Father Jacob attributed all to “the Will of Him whose Providence and Will are inscrutable and whose actions toward men are incomprehensible.” He patiently endured hardships and sufferings like the Holy Apostle Paul. He saw in these misfortunes not a Victory by the hater of men’s souls (i.e. the devil) but a call from God to even greater spiritual struggles.  . . .

. . . Father Jacob continued to serve his far-flung flock of the Atka parish until December 30, 1844. A new zeal had taken hold of him, and it was then that Saint Innocent appointed him to head the new Kvikhpak Mission in order to bring the light of Christ to the people of the Yukon. Here, aided by two young Creole assistants, Innokentii Shayashnikov and Konstantin Lukin, together with his young nephew, Vasilii Netsvetov, Father Jacob “settled’ in the wilderness of Alaska.

He learned new languages, embraced new peoples and cultures, devised another alphabet, built another church and Orthodox community, and for the next twenty years, until his health and eyesight failed, continued to be an evangelical beacon of the grace of God in southwestern Alaska.

Even the end of his life was fruitful:

. . . due to his ever-worsening health, he remained in Sitka for his final year serving a Tlingit chapel. He died on July 26, 1864 at the age of 60 and was buried on the third day at the entry of the chapel. During his final missionary travels in the Kuskokwim/Yukon delta region, he had baptized 1,320 people—distinguishing himself as the evangelizer of the Yup’ik Eskimo and Athabascan Indian peoples.

If Louisiana’s legislators had even a fraction of the devotion to the people of this State that St Jacob had for the tribes of Alaska, we would have tax reform, tort reform, and a good many other things well in hand.  Their inaction is quite a loud statement of their lack of love for us.

Despite that sorrowful thought, there is still no need for despair.  This is why the Good Lord raises up saints – to help us in our time of need, whether those needs are spiritual, mental, or physical.  Since our legislators will not answer our cry for help, let us instead turn our pleas to St Jacob, a wonderful and loving intercessor for all those in North America, as well as to our more familiar saints like St Martin of Tours and St Genevieve of Paris, St Helen, St John the Baptist, and St James the Apostle, that they would provide the financial help for Louisiana’s people that the State Legislature is unjustly withholding from them, an act which, if they don’t repent of it, will wind up harming them very severely.  Yet there are gracious promises for doing the opposite:

Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard (Proverbs 21:13).

If you extend your soul to the hungry

And satisfy the afflicted soul,

Then your light shall dawn in the darkness,

And your darkness shall be as the noonday (Isaiah 58:10).