The healing we need

Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them.  St. Luke 8:37

Our hearts have been broken this week, as we have read and watched coverage of the killing of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.  Saint Paul urges us to “weep with those who weep,”[1] and this has been a week for tears and prayers.  So many people slain in the prime of life, hatred that is difficult for us to comprehend—the world seems a darker and more dangerous place. 

Allison and I had been in Orlando the week before last for a theology conference.  We had dinner a mile and a half from the nightclub the evening before the tragedy.  “It could have been us,” we thought.  If you are gay or Latino, I imagine you may be feeling much more threatened.  Another unpredictable act of gun violence, another undetected terrorist, one of us turned against all of us.  “How long will it last?” we ask ourselves.  Is this just how it will be for us now?  

For Meditation: Anger born of love

“Anger does not characterize the Father in any essential way. His anger, like any human parent’s anger, is born of love. It is frustrating in the extreme to see your children hurt themselves and others. Moreover, kindly Jesus displays this anger too. ..Among other examples we might select, the most famous instance of Jesus’ anger is the overturning of the moneychangers’ tables in the Temple (Matt. 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 2). The moneychangers may be doing essential work, but they are sitting in the Court of the Gentiles and impeding the power of Temple worship to draw in the outsider. They are sitting in the way of God’s love. But the Father doesn’t give up his Son because he is angry with the world. Jesus doesn’t go the Cross full of rage.  God’s anger (in the Old Testament and New Testament alike) is never the byproduct of fear and loneliness. But mine usually is.”

Andrew Petiprin, “I’m Mad as Hell.”  Covenant 25 Nov. 2015