A Synopsis of Life's Tragedies and how we must not give up

A Synopsis of Life’s Tragedies and how we must not give up

Take any disappointment that can enter into our lives and we are at a loss as to whom we can turn for an answer.  Currently, on the scene in Arizona with the abduction of Nancy Guthrie and the total admonishment people are feeling for her family and even wondering how safe they are as well.  As of this writing, (February 12th), Nancy is still missing and our hope for a good news result will be heard.  

As Lent is just around the corner and most Christians are preparing themselves for a period of Alms-giving, fasting, and of course prayer for their own souls; Do any of us consider the possibility of some tragic event to occur in our own family?  How will we respond if it becomes a personal occurrence for our loved ones or someone we are close to as well?  

Let’s take the mystery of Jesus’ trek on the Via Dolorosa as we walk the same Stations of the Cross, either literally in the Church or in our own silent moments of remembering the path to death that he willingly walked for you and me.  Deep inside these footsteps he took, falling three times from the weight of our sins, and the resolution that this was nothing but love in the most perfect manner that would open the door to paradise once we will walk the same agony of personal loss that confronted the saints before us.

It is a sign that no other religion could imagine except for those that are willing to take on as a belief that suffering is the only way to reach that cross that stands welcoming each of us to life high; saying to the world that  “I AM also ready to give up worldly comfort for someone I love.”  Here is the answer to whom I can look to for a way of understanding that life is not a bowl of cherries or a walk in the garden of peace, alone and without problems that go beyond our most perfection with theology and philosophy to lean on.  If we are following Christ to the Cross, for our sins, we must be willing to carry that same cross that our Savior holds out to us and tell him that Yes!  I am going to lift my brothers and sisters from their weaknesses by absorbing their own lack of understanding why their God paid their ransom for what they were not able to do themselves.

It isn’t the tragic occurrence in Tucson, Arizona with Nancy Guthrie’s abduction, that is a perfect sign of how much evil exists, but it is a sign of how many people have been saddled with an evil of being chosen by Satan to take human life and destroy it and those who love these persons that are praying and pleading for their release from tragic interference of a peaceful life that may end up in a sadness most of us do not want to see or hear about.

As the days that begin, with Ash Wednesday, please remember Nancy and any other mothers, sisters, and daughters who may become victims to evil consequences from people who have been touched by an evil hand of Satan and pray for them as well.  As much as we may not care for these soldiers of death, they too are God’s children; the very ones that Christ became the ransom for sinners; no matter what evil intent they have.

Ralph B. Hathaway