Lent
is half over, and I am just now posting the first reflection upon the season. I
suppose I could claim the discipline of silence but it would not be completely
honest. I have allowed myself quiet even in the midst of parish and family
activity.
I
will confess to sitting down and initiating thoughts upon the spiritual themes
of Lent on multiple occasions. I also have tried to compose words on social
events such as the tragic violence at Marjory Stoneman
Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but sighs and wordless prayers were
all I could create. The aftermath has created the latest chapter in our
nation's long and divisive debate concerning gun control. I do commend the
efforts by the surviving students to express the kind of trauma produced by a
person roaming the halls of your school shooting a semi-automatic assault
rifle. I believe our country and especially those who legislate laws and
policies, must listen to their message.
For me, I have carried this national grief
and division as I have walked the Stations of the Cross on Tuesdays and Fridays,
bearing our world's grief and sorrow to the divine seat of mercy and healing.
Ours is a vicarious and sacramental faith, and there is power when the church
invokes the spirit of God through its ancient liturgies to bring light out of
darkness, and resurrect life from death.
The place of Jesus is the place of the
church: to bear up under the burden of the pain and sorrow of our day in the
grace and strength of God, transforming the ashes of death into the garland of
life and the tears of sorrow for the joy of peace.
Fr.
Richard
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