The one where Lent really breaks out

Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.


So this straight after the Earthquakes and the tsunami and the wind that hit the Vendee.  No shortage of irony there.  But very suitable for Lent 3 - just before the nice rose-bedecked break of Laetere Sunday.


Those people that the Haiti earthquake hit - were they worse than the rest of us?  No, of course they weren't. Some were innocent Catholics.  Some were innocent practitioners of Voodoo.  Some practised both.  But none of them were worse than the people living in England, or Florida, or Chile for example.


And the people that the Chile earthquake killed - and the ones who weap and mourn and bury their dead - were they worse than the rest of us?  Of course not.  Given they don't kick the carbon into the air, and they don't pollute the air and the sea the way  we do.  And they make it to Mass and pray more than we do.  And some of them live on the edge of existence like we don't.


And the poor people of the Vendée.  What it is about that place?  The armies of the French Revolution - that great triumph of Free Thinking and the Human Spirit - they massacred the people of the Vendée.  It's always slightly precarious - out on the edge where the marsh meets the ocean.  And yet are the people there any worse than we are?  No they're not.


Bad stuff happens to good people.  
Good things happen to good people.  
Bad stuff happens to bad people.  
Good things happen to bad people.  


The world is crap, and crap things happen, and crap things will happen until something really crap happens.  

The world is random, and random things happen, and random things will happen until something really random happens.

Yet the world is blessed, and blessings happen, and blessings will happen until something really blessed happens.  

  

And the other side of senseless suffering is unexpected joy:
Behind a storm cloud is a rainbow.
Before a man sweating blood in a garden stands a woman, astounded with happiness in another garden.
And the mother who held her broken son receives his living Spirit.


So pray for the innocents, of Haiti and Chile and France.

And pray for the guilty too, for we are all in this together.

Blessed are those who mourn,
and those who fight for justice
and those who give their money
and those who give their time
and those who bring aid
and those who hunger
and those who thirst
and those whose lives just ended
and those who just feel that way
and all those who stand and fight and cry on this beautiful, random, doomed, fertile world
from the day our parent-star exploded
until the day the earth dissolves in ashes.

And beyond all that - the challenge still rings
repent or you will perish
turn around and see the Rock
that stands though the world shall end.

The Cross stands while the world turns
and the Tomb stands open to the blasted skies.

And the One the Empire fell on - was he a worse offender than the rest of us
to receive the punishment of humiliation
the crown of thorns
the flowers of the lashes
the piercing of nails?

Or if not - then what?