In Him

To my kids,

            These past few days have been filled with more questions then this mom can handle.  Jordan I hope one day when you read this you will understand some of our conversations.  On Monday a horrific act was carried out, the bombing of the Boston Marathon.  You were scared, you told me you didn’t want to die that way…(deep breath for mom we just went there)  You must of known how uncomfortable I became as I tried to throw out my best mommy answer.  Between Sandy hook killings and this you have been worried that this could happen to you.  I wish I could protect you from everything in this world, but sadly I cannot (I feel sick to my stomach saying this).

            What can we do you asked?  Can God still love these men?  Why, if God can stop it He didn’t?  What a conversation to have.  How I thought how I can answer any of these question in a way that made sense, since I don’t always understand.

What came to mind is something that never changes is Christ Love for us.  Love is a verb which requires action and is not meant to be passive. That gets overlooked and miss used.  It is a word we use all the time without giving it much thought.  Christ love for us never fails and is unending.  Jordan when bad guys do bad things it is easy to hate, to point the finger , wish them harm.  But LOVE takes commitment and effort.  It requires a choice.  St Benedict stated “the common love of truth unites people, the common love of Christ unites all Christians".  We are called to love even if we are harmed.   This takes courage, faith and mercy.  God doesn’t tell us to out to lunch with them or forget what they did.  We are called to love.  I love the way St. Teresa stated “perfect love to be an imitation of the love of Christ.”   ^{I doubt  Christ would say KILL him.}

What do we do with this? We pray for the families and those who lost their life.  This was senseless act, but we also pray for the bad guys. I know that sounds odd and the last thing we would want to do. Praying for the bad guys doesn’t mean I agree, or I am not patriotic, It means I trust in a God who is ABLE and GOOD, He who ultimately knows there heart and will judge them.  He gave us the ability to make choices (how awesome is that) in life and I for one choose LOVE; Love that was freely given to me on the cross, love that I don’t deserve. We can PRAISE all the first responders and regular people who became life savers.  We Praise the the officers who worked so quickly and risked there lives to make us safe. Kids when you make this choice to love and not hate it gives you a freedom from within.  My hope for you is that you will take this with you as you get older.  Choose LOVE.  My prayer for you guys is the same one Paul prayed for the Ephesians.

  "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

 I do not have all the answers but I know we live in a world that desperately needs our LOVE!