I am thankful...

--


"No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks." 
St. Ambrose


The last weekend of March there was a fire in my building. The first thing that comes to mind as I think about that is: thank God nobody was hurt. And I am thankful for that. In fact, as I think about this more and more, I find more and more reasons to be thankful. For example, if that fire would have hit a gas line...well, you can imagine.

To those wonderful people that did all they could to help and make sure everything was and is fine, I say: thank you.

I am also thankful to everyone that told me (usually after saying 'I hope nobody was hurt') that if I needed something to let them know. To all those wonderful people, thank you.

And I give thanks that I have a place to go back to...
I could be fully homeless right now...
I could have lost everything...
So many horrible things could have occurred...

St. Ambrose was right:
"No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks."

So once again I say:
Muchas gracias, thank you...

Why does God allow this?

The last couple of weeks have been, well...a bit hard on me. A nasty cold has morphed into a less nasty cold yet it is still there refusing to die. And now it appears that's the easy part. It feels like multiple problems in my life have decided to all conspire against me at the same time, including new problems and brand new situations that make me say:
"Oh, come on!!!!!!"

You know...one of those times in our lives...

Also, there is pain and suffering to people close to me right now...physical and emotional pain.

And I admit it, times like these my faith and my sense of reason are both fully challenged. And I am pushed to these questions:
Why does God allow this?
Where is God, the same God that the Son of Man himself called "Father"?
Is this not the "Father" that should protect us?
What do I do?
What can I do?
Can I even "do" anything?

The Son of Man was both God and one of us.
As one of us he cried.
As one of us he suffered.
As one of us he saw the suffering among friends and strangers, Jews and Gentiles, men and women, girls and boys...

It is to the Son of Man that I pray to at this moment.
And for now that's all I can say...

Oscar Romero...

The 24th of March 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated. He said: 


Peace is not the product of terror or fear.
Peace is not the silence of cemeteries. 
Peace is not the silent result of violent repression. 
Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. 
Peace is dynamism. 
Peace is generosity. 
It is right and it is duty.

Days before his murder Archbishop Romero told a reporter, "You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish." 






Descansa en paz, rest in peace Oscar Romero...