Following so close on the celebration of Christ's victorious death and resurrection providing the universe with the image of sacrifice-in-love, the news arrived last night: Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of death, the symbol of twisted religion for violence sake, the man who did not sacrifice, is dead. And I pause...
The impulse to celebrate and even say 'alleluia, thanks be to God' is right on the surface. Yet somehow using my religion's language to encapsulate the death of a man, even one who has committed such evil and violence, is not easy. I worry I am doing the very thing I abhor in terrorist action, taking religion and manipulating it to fit into my little scheme of how life should go.
At the same time, a manager of evil has been stopped and I am very grateful to President Obama (and presidents before him) and our Armed Forces who have spent years and given their lives to bring a peculiar kind of justice. I pray this death does not feed fires of deeper hatred among us across the globe rather we take time to listen carefully to one another, even when we are in deep and abiding disagreement. It is such a challenge to remain and abide rather than divide into our little homogenous groups of like-minds and hearts.
"Forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus' final words haunt me today.
May the Holy One bring us all to peace and redemption.
The impulse to celebrate and even say 'alleluia, thanks be to God' is right on the surface. Yet somehow using my religion's language to encapsulate the death of a man, even one who has committed such evil and violence, is not easy. I worry I am doing the very thing I abhor in terrorist action, taking religion and manipulating it to fit into my little scheme of how life should go.
At the same time, a manager of evil has been stopped and I am very grateful to President Obama (and presidents before him) and our Armed Forces who have spent years and given their lives to bring a peculiar kind of justice. I pray this death does not feed fires of deeper hatred among us across the globe rather we take time to listen carefully to one another, even when we are in deep and abiding disagreement. It is such a challenge to remain and abide rather than divide into our little homogenous groups of like-minds and hearts.
"Forgive them for they know not what they do." Jesus' final words haunt me today.
May the Holy One bring us all to peace and redemption.
