An abiding hope is the only human way to embrace the future, hand in hand with our best efforts through work, wariness and love. We may on occasion be convinced that the sought after end of our journey is somehow promised to us, but we all must know better. We don't merely wish for an outcome. We prepare every day in a sense for the worst by striving to do our best through our diligence, our forethought and our mature judgment of probabilities, the consideration of and predictability of our friends, family and of course, of our enemies. And we still hope for the best: it is perhaps the only way to "put out into the deep" as a local clergyman advises. Life is, come to think of it, not unlike a deep sea fishing trip; this one being an arduous journey that we do not return to port from until our time on this earth is over.
The atrocities last week in Newtown, Connecticut were nothing less than the war cries of the Father of All Lies, screaming while wickedly smiling his "I told you so's" for any of us (in truth, all of us) who for a second did not calculate into our daily strategies the guardianship required to put the malevolent wolf that is the Evil Intelligence of this universe howling in retreat from our doors. Of course, as humans we will inevitably fail at some point to stay at our posts as unsleeping sentries, vigilance unending. But we are not alone in the struggle. A changing of the guard is normal and a helping hand from angels, saints and the mortals who love us and even from those strangers who stand ready and willing to love and be loved, given the chance, are all part of the invisible and visible army of God, the realization of whose presence crushes despair every time.
Like the deeds of Maryland's "Old Line" (see blog entry of January 2011), love and sacrifice has been repeated through the centuries of our republic's history. The supreme sacrifice of these very young men of our Continental army in the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, at the very birth of our nation was not only gloriously reprised by military heroes of our subsequent wars, but also by men and women from all walks of life in unsung sagas forgotten by all yet remembered by God. Their heroism made even the angels cry as well as St. Michael and his meta-stalwart allies of the Heavenly Host. Now add to this long and luminous honor roll, the women of Sandy Hook Elementary School. "Greater love hath no man or woman than to lay down his/her life for his friends." Protection of the innocents with their bodies (these were not merely instinctual protective acts): at least one fallen teacher was found still caressing the murdered child in her care, and unceasing love and unselfishness in many other noble ways were the rule when these marvelous women of Light and unswerving rocks of the decency of our civilization fought, however seemingly futilely, against Evil and its cowardly assault. The humanity, compassion and empathy displayed by an elderly man who was approached at the entrance to his home by a small traumatized band of some of the children who escaped the carnage at the school was truly heroic as well. He had no weapon to fight any other black hearted foe who might have appeared on this blackest of days in Connecticut history, but his understanding of the anguish of a human heart and especially of that of a child's was more than worthy of the eternal embrace of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "Love is the answer to the problem of human existence" wrote Erich Fromm. There is little doubt that other paths may attract those enraptured by their senses and the physical delights and riches that the worldly realm offers. But time and the longing within each of us are both relentless. We want a place of refreshment, a home where we may rest and yet never become bored (the strangely true condition of the so called "exciting" life of worldly pleasures, narcissism and of the self-hating authors of our wounded land's recent and too frequent mass annihilations). END OF PART 1.
Like the deeds of Maryland's "Old Line" (see blog entry of January 2011), love and sacrifice has been repeated through the centuries of our republic's history. The supreme sacrifice of these very young men of our Continental army in the Battle of Brooklyn in August 1776, at the very birth of our nation was not only gloriously reprised by military heroes of our subsequent wars, but also by men and women from all walks of life in unsung sagas forgotten by all yet remembered by God. Their heroism made even the angels cry as well as St. Michael and his meta-stalwart allies of the Heavenly Host. Now add to this long and luminous honor roll, the women of Sandy Hook Elementary School. "Greater love hath no man or woman than to lay down his/her life for his friends." Protection of the innocents with their bodies (these were not merely instinctual protective acts): at least one fallen teacher was found still caressing the murdered child in her care, and unceasing love and unselfishness in many other noble ways were the rule when these marvelous women of Light and unswerving rocks of the decency of our civilization fought, however seemingly futilely, against Evil and its cowardly assault. The humanity, compassion and empathy displayed by an elderly man who was approached at the entrance to his home by a small traumatized band of some of the children who escaped the carnage at the school was truly heroic as well. He had no weapon to fight any other black hearted foe who might have appeared on this blackest of days in Connecticut history, but his understanding of the anguish of a human heart and especially of that of a child's was more than worthy of the eternal embrace of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. "Love is the answer to the problem of human existence" wrote Erich Fromm. There is little doubt that other paths may attract those enraptured by their senses and the physical delights and riches that the worldly realm offers. But time and the longing within each of us are both relentless. We want a place of refreshment, a home where we may rest and yet never become bored (the strangely true condition of the so called "exciting" life of worldly pleasures, narcissism and of the self-hating authors of our wounded land's recent and too frequent mass annihilations). END OF PART 1.
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