Thoughts and Prayers
A wise homilist once told me as a young priest: the best homilies are those given with the scriptures in one hand and the newspaper in the other! Friends, one cannot approach God’s Holy Word this week without some reflection on the tragic events that occurred at Annunciation parish school in Minnesota earlier this week. Once again, we are confronted as Christians with the mystery of both moral and physical evil and the inevitable spiritual distress and even doubt that can touch our lives as we strive to believe in the goodness of God.
Often, the question is posed simply: how can an all loving and good God permit innocent children to suffer and die? That question, my friends, has caused believers to wrestle with doubt and unbelief down through the centuries. It has caused good and honest people to turn away from faith. It has upended faith-filled lives and drained them of the thirst to believe.
Both physical and moral evil are part of this ‘veil of tears’ that we call human existence. Whatever happened at the dawn of humanity that caused humanity to turn in selfishness away from God’s loving plan, its sinister DNA remains lurking within us still. Theologians may call it the effects of original sin, nevertheless, you and I know in our heart of hearts that seeking good and avoiding evil is never easy. There is an inner tension that creates greater struggle for some than others. It is indeed the mystery of evil in our world.
Jesus, who is the Father’s definitive sign of his unconditional love for each one of us is one like us in all things save sin, came to show us another way. A way of hope and promise through being loving and merciful like himself. His definitive act of redemptive love on the cross sealed that hope and promise in his own blood, his definitive embrace of the human condition to redeem it and open a new way of living.
Does that remove the doubt and wrestling when we experience tragedies like the recent Annunciation school shooting? Would that it be so easy. So much of our life of faith is as St. Paul says, seeing through a ‘glass darkly.’ We have glimpses and intuitions of understanding mixed with the ever-present harsh realities of this world and all its messiness. Yet, faith urges us to lift our gaze from the present realities to the eternal destiny that awaits us. We have not here a lasting city. We are pilgrims and immigrants joined in solidarity as we daily strive to live the reality that we truly are, the Body of Christ.
Are ‘thoughts and prayers’ for those who have suffered in the recent tragedy a useless gesture? As the Body of Christ, when one suffers, all suffer and hence profound empathy in the face of tragedy is not only truly human but eminently Christian. We carry others in their suffering and loss by our solidarity with them in prayer as we, together, lift our crying voices to the God of all mercy and healing.
However, it would be the height of callousness if our ‘thoughts and prayers’ were not joined with an inner commitment to make a difference in our culture and society where we have foolishly enabled such tragedies through our unwillingness to enact common sense gun controls and substantive care for the mentally ill. A culture that lives in fear as it collects more guns than its population points to a disease that must be laid before the divine physician.