There is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in. Whatever else Leonard Cohen had in mind when he coined that phrase, it says something about how wisdom, compassion, and morality seep into our lives. Fr. Rolheiser writes that there is a crack in everything, and our culture is no exception. Despite tremendous technological progress and even some genuine moral achievement, all is far from well with the world. People are falling through its cracks, and it is these persons – the sick, the unattractive, the broken, the disabled, the untalented, those with Alzheimer’s disease, the unborn, and the poor in general – who are the crack where the light is entering. They give soul to our world. Imagine how soulless it would be in a world where only the strong, the young, the healthy, the physically attractive, the intellectually bright, and the achievers have a place! Imagine how soulless a world would be that views the disabled, the unborn fetus, the physically paralyzed, and the dying as having nothing to offer! Too often, even in our churches, we no longer stand where Jesus stood, where the cross stood, namely with the helpless. We stand instead where vested interest stands, be that the vested interest of the business world, the academic world, or pop culture. Such a world would be able to recognize neither the birth nor the death of Jesus because compassion, morality, and wisdom seep in precisely through what is helpless and marginalized. Our present culture is drawing ever nearer this soullessness. Those who fall through the cracks of the culture are indeed the crack where the light gets in. If our world has any real soul left, if indeed we still even understand the words wisdom, compassion, and morality, then it is because someone who has no power in the culture, someone who has been marginalized and rejected, has shared a gift with us.