The papers are still full of stories and pictures about the destruction in the Vanuatu archipelago, where Cyclone Pam has destroyed more than 90 percent of the housing. People are drinking seawater; they have nothing else.

Christians in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa are being kidnapped and held for ransom or sold into slavery because they deserve it, according to ISIS or Boko Haram, for not becoming their version of Muslim.

As we prepare to celebrate the Triduum we need to remember and be in solidarity with those whose lives have been shattered, their families lost to them forever, whether by natural disasters or theological disagreements. We need to remember how incredibly fortunate we are to live where we may worship freely, openly, and without fear.

The rich heritage of African American hymns and spirituals speaks directly to the experience of those who are not free, whose worship must to be hidden, who sing to encourage one another in desperate times and circumstances. “Go Down, Moses,” “Give Me Jesus,” “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” “Stand by Me,” “A Shelter in the Time of Storm”—we need to incorporate this stirring music into our liturgies and learn to sing it authentically and well, because it is part of our heritage, too. What we sing in freedom, we sing for and with those for whom freedom is only a far-off dream. What we sing in our pleasant churches, we sing for and with those who have homes no more.