Strange Days

Benedicamus Domino!

I am certain that the thing on many people's minds this week is the horrifying tragedy of the bombings in Boston on Monday. Whoever has done this, it is clear that they wanted to cause definite harm by loading the bombs with ball bearings. How can we make sense of this? It is really impossible to even try, but the real question is: why does this surprise us?

I mean, I know why it surprises us. I know why evil deeds which seem simply to cause harm and to have no possible redemptive purpose surprise us, but should they? They should shock us. They should offend against our sensibilities, because even in our fallen state, we have a sense of fair play and a sense of honour. However, I sometimes think that the fact that we're all not out there just beating each other up every day is surprising. I often think myself at any rate above that sort of thing. What need have I for violence whether of word or deed toward my neighbour? I live in a civilized culture, don't I? Well, if I were really to look at the thoughts, every little thought I mean, that swirl around in my brain, I'd soon realize that my thoughts are just as bad as, if not worse than, the kind of thoughts which lead people to attack others in this massive and grotesque manner. The truth also is that I am capable of wounding just as deeply with my words as with those ball bearings. It gives one pause to think this way.

Of course, the other question that gets asked at times like this is: how could a benevolent God allow such a thing to happen? Why is there still so much horror caused by man's inhumanity to man? It's simple and yet not simple. First, we have free will, and this doesn't mean that our wills are free to a point. This means that we are free to choose to do *anything* we wish to do. God can perhaps warn us. He can perhaps give us morality or a sense of honour to combat and to check our free will, but if we throw all that away, and we can do it if we set our minds and souls to it, then nothing stands in our way. We still have the wills which were given us when our destiny was to become rulers of the earth, but we lack or only have fragments of the God-given wisdom to exercise our wills correctly.

As Christians, we believe that God came to us as a man so that we might be made like Him, so that we might be made into the kind of noble and powerful beings that He always wanted us to be. I only pray that those killed in the bombings will rest in peace, and I further pray that those responsible will be brought to earthly justice. I actually don't wish Heavenly justice on them, because I don't know what that would mean. I'd rather see them be healed and forgiven for whatever deeds they have done. Still, that takes an act of will on our part as well as an act of unbounded mercy on God's. We have to ask to be forgiven. We have to know ourselves to be in need of help. This is a difficult thing to know in a middle-class Western life such as mine anyway. I also pray and hope that charity and mercy will come out of this tragedy, that people will help each other and support each other as neighbours and fellow pilgrims on this earth. That's all that can be done now by the average person. We can't investigate or hunt culprits down or anything. All we can do is lend what strength we have and what prayers we have and hope that some good can come from the ashes of this evil!

Deo Gratias!