I’m happy to be returning to Reflections after a wonderful, restful,
inspiring and beautiful vacation and tour of four major Canadian cities:
Toronto, Ottowa, Montréal, and Québec.
This morning before Mass I was
sitting in our cloister garden and savoring the peace and beauty that was all
around me. No one else was present, and there were (thankfully) no noises from
outside the monastery. My prayers were of gratitude, of mercy, and of
intercession, especially for all the people in the world who are suffering from
this demonic rash of senseless violence extending throughout the world. I was
aware of just how many people there are in the world who never have an
opportunity to sit and simply savor silence and beauty, and also how many people
there are, myself included, who have access to such environments but often take
them for granted or even ignore them because they think they have more pressing
concerns.
I prayed that those who do not
know the silence and beauty that the monastery affords, may, even for just a
tiny moment, experience some of what I was experiencing this morning before the
bells rang for Mass.
Silence and beauty: are they
luxuries or necessities? And what happens to us when there are taken from us,
or when we are forced to live in an environment where these things aren’t even
available? Could there be any connection between that and all the violence in
our world? I certainly don’t know for sure, but these are things worth
wondering about.
Can it be possible to live in
your world in a way that you can opt for silence? Again, just wondering.
My entire day wasn’t peaceful,
however. Shortly after Mass I learned that in a tiny village in France, and
84-year-old-priest was assassinated by two ISIS fanatics while he was saying
Mass. And so the violence continues.
Assassinating a priest (reports
say he was beheaded) while he is saying Mass. The assassins were killed by the
police. At first I thought that surely they must be writhing in hell. But then
. . . I recalled the peace I had enjoyed this morning, me a sinner, given such
beautiful gifts, and I wonder . . . could God’s mercy be so great and unfathomable,
as Pope Francis teaches us, that even they would be forgiven what they had
done?
After all, does anyone in this
world really have God’s permission to draw the line between mercy and
punishment?
What do you think?
God bless you!
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