Riverside robbery and shooting,
CSUF placed on lockdown.
Connecticut elementary school shooting.
Fashion Island, 50 shots fired in the air.
Bomb threats via telephone in the middle of noon Mass
at St. Rose of Liam in Newtown.
Man arrested for threatening LA elementary schools.
I just do not get it.
I do not understand why there are a bunch of evil crazies in the world,
why hundreds have to suffer at their expense,
why people have to fear holiday shopping,
and why some parents have to live the rest of their lives void of their precious children.
I do not think these incidents should result in arguments and discussions about
gun control,
or mental illnesses,
or school safety.
I think that these incidents should stir up in us an acknowledgement of the ugly evilness of sin but even greater than that,
the power of Christ’s healing.
It is going to be a long and hard road.
My guess is that many people will be asking why.
Why us?
Why right before Christmas?
Why my child?
Why did God not stop this all?
Why did God allow it?
Honestly, the only sufficient answer that comes to mind is this:
What God permits, He can redeem.
I still do not fully understand the concept which is confirmation of St. Augustine’s famous quote,
“If you can understand it, it is not God.”
God has permitted this string of heart-wrenching events this week.
But that does not mean that He does not care and
that does not mean that He was incapable of altering these events.
It means that He permitted them.
Which means He can redeem what has happened.
Maybe those children were most ready to receive God in that very moment,
maybe hundreds of people will come to Faith because of these incidents,
and maybe we will never know the form in which redemption will come.
But we can be confident in the promise that redemption will come
because He is in control
and what He has permitted,
He can redeem.
There is redemption in His name.
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