A tough week...

Life is full of ups and downs, and this has been a week when I recognized my own mortality. This past Thursday we were walking home from mass, and we saw our neighbors were all gathered around in a circle. As we approached we were met with the news and the sight of the body of Osman, a 22 year old that is on the Friar’s food list, and from a neighboring barrio that was shot and murdered and his body dropped on our road. There he was lying on the ground, and I was overwhelmed with such a weight and anger at the senseless violence that happens so often. I saw myself, I am 22 years old. I am just beginning to live my life… he was in front of me dead. It isn’t fair or right or just, and I realized how easy… and quick one life can end on this earth. It isn’t fair, and I was enraged as I stood by his sister who was wailing over her brother’s dead body. Lord Jesus take him home… May he rest in peace. We assume it was gang related as his brother was killed the same way two years before, but regardless another young life was taken in such a horrific and demeaning way. Fr. Gregorio who was with us prayed a telling and heartfelt prayer… in it he said “God is enraged at this injustice, he is angered that His children being so filled with anger and hatred take the lives of others… this is not OK! But the Lord also brings peace…healing and hope…go home and pray with your families that the violence stops here! Do not carry it on to the next generation! ” I am realizing that I can not make sense of so much of what I am experiencing. I can not make it OK…it is not OK… nor may it ever be on this side of Heaven. Experiencing the death of Osman, the readings of the past week at mass, and it having been Johnny’s baptismal day, I can not help but be reminded that I do not know the day nor the hour. What is my life worth? If I were to die tomorrow, what would my regrets be? And how can I start to fix them or begin to start working towards them today…NOW? It has been a sobering week. My heart is heavy with the grief this family carries, and all I can do it give it back to God, and trust that He will carry them in and through their grief. Please pray for the soul of Osman, and that each of us may be ready in each moment. Life is short, and from some taken without a moment’s notice… right your wrongs, and let the people you love know it. I know I am seeing life in a different way. Pray for me as I am always praying for each person who reads this.

May the souls of the faithfully departed rest in peace. Amen.