By Melodious Monk 

Sunday

The strong language of the Eucharistic prayer grabbed my attention last Sunday. “When Christ arose from death, the proud empire of Satan fell, the gates of the dead were broken down, the sentence due for our sins was revoked, and the terror of death brought to nothing. Christ has led us from slavery to freedom in the triumph of his glorious rising.”

At first, these declamatory, life-changing words roll past my ears, largely by rote, as I might as well have been hearing the daily box-score for the local teams. It takes me two or three times re-reading for the weight of these words to begin sinking in.  

Yesterday

I flipped on the nightly news and I’m heartbroken. A terrible fire took several lives in a nearby suburb, another tornado instantly shattered hundreds of people’s lives, and another young gunman has taken his own life after randomly shooting co-workers. Where do we find the path to the glorious freedom through all this debris? I don’t dare want to trivialize so many people’s pain, but I wonder if perhaps seeing our universal need, our universal capability of destruction – if this seeing makes God’s saving graces all the more amazing. I don’t know why there is so much suffering. I do believe Christ has acted on our behalf; and that He awaits for each of us at Eucharist, with a glorious destiny far beyond our understanding of love.