The Journey Must Continue

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,

he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem,

These two sentences say so much in just a few little words and it seems that these words can be words of comfort to us as we try to get our hands around the terrible event that happened in Las Vegas the other day.  Fifty-eight innocent party goers were slain by a madman armed with an automatic rifle of some sort.  He broke out the window of his hotel room and shot indiscriminately into the crowd gathered for a concert below and minutes later blood ran in the venue and dozens lay dead or dying.  These were innocent people, out for an evening of harmless fun at a country music concert.  Why did they have to die? What snapped in the mind of a man that had been described as a self-made millionaire, a man who had everything that the world had to offer?  We will never know the answer to this question. 

What we do know is that like Jesus, we must resolutely determine that we must continue our journey.  Along the way, there will be more moments of sorrow that will slow our travel and cause us to be stunned, to shake our heads and wonder why God has such patience with his awkward and disobedient children.  The journey for Jesus was to end in death, death on a cross, a death reserved for slaves in ancient Rome.  Jesus knew this and yet he fixed his eyes on the goal of arriving at Jerusalem where he would suffer and die for us and in doing so save us from all of our sins.  Our journey, while it sometimes goes through valleys of sadness, we do not despair for Jesus, the Lamb of God has achieved the victory for us.  Our journey, unlike His, will end in the joy of heaven. 

May the souls of those taken from us in this tragic event and all of the souls of the faithfully departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.  Amen. 

PLEASE REMEMBER TO PRAY FOR THE POOR SOULS IN PURGATORY, ESPECIALLY FOR THOSE WHO WERE THE VICTIM OF SUDDEN DEATH.  YOUR PRAYERS WILL GARNER THEIR THANKS.