tvc.dsj.org | September 10, 2019
COMMUNITY
5
Where is God?
Diary of a City Priest
July 28, 2019
Finally I had some quiet time for
myself, to relax at the end of a typical
Sunday in a parish. It’s a nice sum-
mer evening in the Bay Area, warm
but bearable. Suddenly the telephone
rang at 8:58 p.m. Who is it? Is it an
emergency call?
There’s a mass shooting in Gilroy,
at the Garlic Festival, the caller told
me. My God! Not again! Not here in
Gilroy, in our diocese! I turned on
the TV, and was horrified by what I
watched. It’s so close to home. Three
were dead, two youths and one young
adult. Dozens were wounded. Count-
less other people could not sleep well
that night.
July 29, 2019
I woke up to another terrible news
on the radio: there’s another mass
shooting on Saturday, July 27, at a
music festival in Brooklyn. We were
still reeling from what happened in
Gilroy. My prayer expanded from
Gilroy to Brooklyn. Lord, have mercy.
The prayer service this evening at
Saint Mary’s in Gilroy was timely. The
assuring words from the Scriptures
and the prayerful songs helped lift up
hearts and minds. Two young girls,
who were wounded by the shoot-
ing, were there with the community.
Father Michael Hendrickson, pastor,
led the prayer. Last night he was
ministering for hours to the victims
at Saint Louise Regional Hospital in
Gilroy as soon as he got the emer-
gency call. Being a former military
chaplain, he was done with this kind
of ministry seven years ago, or so he
thought. Prayer for peace is always
needed, especially now, when peace
is not only disrupted by a war in a
distant country, but by violence and
injustice right here where we live.
August 1, 2019
Children will be back to school soon.
What will be on their mind? Summer
was too short! For some of them, life
itself was too short; a gunman took that
life from them. They were only 6 and 13
years old, who were supposed to have
fun at a garlic festival. And a young man
in his 20s was also gone.
What can parents or teachers tell
children about what happened in Gil-
roy? Psychologists tell us that there is
no one way to help, because it depends
on their age and their temperament. At
least there are a few things parents or
educators can do: First, process your
own emotional response. Second, listen
to them; let what they say be your guide
as to what you’re going to say. Third,
reassure them that they are safe.
August 2, 2019
What about the role of ministers in
the wake of a tragedy? What can we
say to people, especially the young, in
a community of faith? Many leaders,
religious or civil, voiced their frustra-
tion and anger, offered comfort and
prayer, or called for action. People of
faith, especially children, also need to
hear: Continue to show kindness, even
in the midst of violence.
In the wake of a tragedy, a group
of college students approached a wise
rabbi, asking, “Where is God in this
tragedy? Why does God allow so much
evil and suffering in this world?”
The rabbi paused for a moment
then said, “I don’t know the answer,
but I know God weeps with those who
suffer.”
August 3-4, 2019
I couldn’t believe what I heard: two
more mass shootings took place within a
span of 14 hours this weekend, one in El
Paso at a shopping center, then another
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at a Dayton bar. It’s as if two tragedies
last weekend were not enough. What
have we become? What else can we say
in the aftermath of four mass killings,
not to mention about 250 other firearm-
related tragedies that hurt multiple vic-
tims in 2019 by now? We have earnestly
prayed for shooting victims in Gilroy
and Brooklyn. Now the intercession at
Sunday Mass is longer, listing the names
of four cities. We are now on edge. It
may happen anywhere, anytime. Many
have said that words and thoughts and
prayers are not enough; we have to do
something about gun violence.
August 17, 2019
Some churches have actually done
something. As Time Magazine today
reported, “the anxiety of one mass
shooting after another has led some
churches to start training and arming
their worshippers with guns.” Gun
smoke billowed from the entrance of a
church in Haslet, Texas. It’s not another
rampant shooting, but a simulated gun-
fight with the participation of several
church volunteers wearing heavy vests
and carrying guns loaded with blanks.
The focus was on someone playing the
bad guy with an AR-15. They learned
the techniques from law enforcement.
August 18, 2019
“O God, who have prepared for those
who love you good things which no eye can
see…” This was part of today’s Sunday
Mass collect (opening prayer). I said the
prayer, being deeply mindful of the vic-
tims of violence, whose eyes just saw not
good, but bad things, whose bodies and
souls are still suffering many wounds.
I hoped they also experienced God’s
goodness which the eye might not see.
The next part of the prayer was more
comforting: “Fill our hearts, we pray, with
the warmth of your love.” That’s what mat-
ters when one suffers. To have someone
you love and someone who loves you is
the most important thing, even if you
still suffer.
August 20, 2019
The Mass, the Eucharist is also real-
istic. After reciting the Lord’s prayer, the
symbolism reminds us of the daily real-
ity in this world after we beg for daily
bread: “Deliver us from every evil…
graciously grant peace in our days…
that, by the help of your mercy, we may
be… safe from all distress…”
From time to time, my attention was
more on the last part of this prayer: “as
we await the blessed hope and the coming
of our Savior, Jesus Christ” Come, Lord,
and get rid of all those who do harm to
us, make this world right again, show
humanity your power by bringing your
reign to fulfillment. We are sick and
tired of what’s going on in this world,
even of certain things in our Church that
don’t look like what you started!
But then I realized that I was not
alone in my journey with a pilgrim
people, with God as a faithful com-
panion. Didn’t Jesus have another
name that speaks of this reality: Em-
manuel - God with us? That wise rabbi is
right. As long as we live here on earth,
an imperfect world, we are not free
from suffering and pain. But we are
not home alone or on a journey alone.
We have with us the God who weeps
with us, and often reaches out to us
through our families, our friends, our
community. Isn’t that why our faith is
personal but not private? Isn’t that why
we gather as a community to pray, to
be fed together at the table of the word
and sacrament? Isn’t that why we are
in communion with the Lord and with
one another?
Now I know the answer to the ques-
tion “Where is God?”
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