Two of the righteous stood Thursday, gazing down at the etched brick walks of Diamond Square. Chilly gray clouds contorted above as the dawn struggled to hold back tears of rain. The hour-long National Day of Prayer service was just completed. Participants were dispersing to begin a busy day.

“The funerals are wearing me down,” said the one church pastor. The other nodded in agreement, adding his observation that it’s not uncommon for friends of the deceased to attend a funeral while high, maybe on the very same drugs by which their dear friend departed.

This might be the most discouraging part of the ongoing opioid scourge, they said: that death and self-destruction have become commonplace — an everyday occurrence. It’s becoming situation-normal these days.

Have the funerals become social events? Let’s hope not. But consider them part of the bigger trend. With more and more frequency, street heroin is being laced with fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid that can kill a user with one injection. Now there is carfentanil, a concentrated form of fentanyl intended for veterinary use on elephants and other large animals. Carfentanil is so potent that just touching a drop of it can kill a person.

The potency of heroin-fentanyl mixtures has given rise to reports of “shooting galleries” — drug users getting together in groups to indulge while a few stay sober, acting as designated revivers, ready to administer the antidote naloxone to anyone who might overdose.

The argument has been made that Pennsylvania’s 2015 directive making naloxone — Narcan — available over the counter has backfired. It enables addicts to take more and stronger heroin and opioid doses with less fear of a fatal overdose because of the assurance (1) that they will be revived with Narcan and (2) they won’t face prosecution or any other consequence even if a law enforcement officer or EMT administers the Narcan.

That kind of thinking is flawed. It’s fatally flawed. And the truth will never be more apparent than at the funeral of a friend who died too young.

Add to this formula another distressing trend: the junkies are getting younger. Just last week, an 11-year-old sixth grader in Pittsburgh overdosed on heroin and had to be revived with Narcan. Family members said they had no clue the girl was taking heroin.

Our spiritual leaders have resorted to giving altar calls during recent overdose funerals. They say some of the young mourners have responded to the altar calls, coming to grips with the stark realization of their own mortality.

But here’s the crux of this biscuit: Recovery takes an every-day commitment. It doesn’t matter today what an itchy addict confessed the day before. They need assistance staying sober today, and they’ll need help taking care of tomorrow when tomorrow gets here; and by tomorrow, the victory of today won’t mean a thing if you can’t repeat it.

Agitate, rinse, repeat. The grim truth is that there can be no break from a day-to-day recovery routine.

The righteous — our community’s spiritual leaders — know this truth perhaps more than anyone. It’s not our intent to preach to the choir, but rather to exhort and encourage the weary to keep up the good fight. We are grateful for what they do, and duty-bound to amplify the truth they see more clearly than the rest of us.

Don’t grow tired of doing good things. In time they will produce the desired results if we do not give up.