Thursday - 6th Week of Easter

Gospel – John 16: 16-20

In A Little While

Along The Via Dolorosa

Revisiting that tragic day in Uvalde, Texas when 19 students and 2 teachers were killed and the scores of young lives cut short by violence in the 2 years since!

I am tired!  Tired of non-stop newscasts with endless stories of violence and bloodshed!  Tired of hearing gunshots in the middle of the night!  Tired of seeing processions of families and friends  on their way to lay a loved one to rest! Tired of lighting candles for young lives cut short by violence when we should be celebrating and cherishing the living!  Just tired!  How many young lives have to be lost to violence, how many families torn apart by unfathomable grief, before we all agree that this is wrong!

Jesus talks about ‘a little while’ in today’s Gospel.  A little while and you will not see Me and again a little while and you will see Me.  As parents, we know from experience that our adult definition of “a little while” is way longer than that of a child’s. Play with me, mommy!  Give me a piggy-back ride, daddy!   Too often we say ‘in a little while.’  And then we forget and the moment is lost!

What are we waiting for?  What else can be more important than the life of a child?  What price can we possibly put on a child’s life?  How many young lives have to be cut short before we say enough, before we do something, anything to ensure that they grow up loved and protected, guided and nurtured?  Wouldn’t we pay any price, endure any inconvenience, just to keep them happy and alive?

What would you do for your kids to keep them safe?  To see them grow up?  For them to feel loved and protected?  So let’s do something, anything!  If not now, then when?  If not us, then who?  What are we waiting for?  I don’t care if it’s uncomfortable!  I don’t care if it’s politically incorrect!  Do something!  Protect our children! 

Hold your kids and grandkids a little closer today.  Hug them a little tighter.  Tell them you love them!  Show them you love them!  Take their hand and squeeze it just a bit more firmly!  And light a candle, say a prayer of comfort and support for those families in Uvalde!

A Navaho Prayer for the day!

Farewell, my younger brother!
From the holy places the gods come for me.
You will never see me again; but when the showers pass and
the thunders peal,
"There," you will say, "is the voice of my elder brother."
And when the harvest comes, of the beautiful birds and
grasshoppers you will say,
"There is the ordering of my elder brother!"

There is the track of his soul

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