Reading the first few paragraphs I'm struck by how the Passion is being played out in our world during Holy Week. The government Pontius Pilates washing their hands of the blood of an innocent Terri Schindler, the bloodthirsty crowds(some on FR who claim to be Christians) demanding her death, and the bystanders who try to comfort her with a towel or a drink to ease her suffering.
This isn't good murph. It isn't good at all.
Agree with you all the way. What is happening to Terri, I'm afraid is just a foretaste of persecutions and deaths that are to come.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
I agree with you too. And if they think the hurricane season was bad last year in Florida...
There's a couple unpopular things I'm wondering, though.
How many situations go unnoticed because they aren't picked up by the media, and consequently, how many souls go un-prayed for. As much limelight as the case may deserve, how many predicaments are people in all around the globe from minute to minute which have as much intrinsic urgency as this?
My hope is slightly different than others, perhaps. Looking to the fact that she doesn't seem likely to get out of this alive, I'm hoping that she has the grace to suffer well. I'm hoping that that suffering, in turn, in union with Christ's, would be effecacious for other souls. I'm hoping that with whatever awareness she has in her, that she lay down herself for her others and for their salvation.
It's a very different war than the casual observers witness, really. The real war will always be for the salvation of souls, and the real sufferings are always ordered to that end, in immitation of Christ. As heinous a crime as what she is being forced to endure, that crime could be quite lucrative if she is well disposed towards the grace to suffer well.
Maybe we should pray for that... that she knowingly and willingly suffers well and perseveres.
After all, most everyone flees from the Cross, but, at the same time, the Cross is necessary, and if they ultimately are to follow Christ, the Cross will revisit them before the end. Each one who will be successful, who will triumph, will not avoid it, ultimately. St. John didn't have a Cross like others because he'd handled his in advance, standing with Christ to the end. The other apostles who fled... they all got their Cross in the end, which was a Mercy forced upon them.
No one who makes it can avoid it though, ultimately.
I pray she suffers well, and that souls are converted as a result. In the ultimate economy, she'll corner the market.