I Need Someone To Do Something About It!
December 8, 2021
Fr. John Riccardo
It’s been a traumatic and tragic week for us here in Michigan. Four high school students were killed by a classmate in a school shooting, seven others were injured, thousands of teens are traumatized, an equal number of parents are frightened, and an entire State is mourning. The young man in custody, and his parents, are facing serious charges.
It’s not unusual in horrific moments like these to hear people ask, “Why?” Why did he do it? Why didn’t the parents act to stop him? Why didn’t the school send him home that day? Why? Why? Why?
As important as it is to get to the roots of what happened, at the end of the day, it’s not really answers that we need. Answers to tough questions can’t bring people who have died back. And we don’t need pious platitudes either. When my father and brother died within a matter of weeks of each other, I didn’t want answers or comforting words. What I wanted, what I needed, was for someone to do something about “it.” And “it” is Death.
This is precisely what we are preparing to celebrate as we draw ever nearer to Christmas. The Collect for the first Saturday in Advent tells us that the Father sent His “Only Begotten Son into this world to free the human race from its ancient enslavement.” Enslavement to what? To the power of Death and the power of Sin. On our own, we as a race have no chance against these monstrous tyrannies. They are beyond us. The good old “can do spirit” we so often pride ourselves on is utterly impotent against the reign and dominion of Death.
Why is there salvation in no one else’s name other than Jesus? Because no one else can rescue our race from these powers that enslave us. But God can! And the eternal Son of God, the One through whom and for whom all things were made, has become a man to deliver us from our age old slavery to Sin and Death, to go to battle against our ancient foe the devil, and to reconcile us to the Father of us all.
Jesus has defeated Death. Please read that again. This is why, even in, no especially in, times like these here in Michigan, despite all the tears, all the hurt, all the anger, all the loss, we can grieve with hope. Death, the last enemy, has been defeated. Yes, it will still happen to me, and to all those I love, and to each one of us. But it has no power over our race any more, not if we believe in the One who is stronger than it, who has defeated it by His life, death and glorious resurrection.
Our region is rocked by the horror of the Oxford school shootings. This is a time to grieve with, sit in silence with, pray with, be with those who are mourning and aching immensely. Without in any way minimizing any of those things, it is also a time to proclaim the gospel: Jesus has conquered the power of Death. We will see those we now miss. God will gather us all together again.
“And he [God] will destroy on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.
“It will be said on that day, ‘Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation’” (Is 25:7-9).
This is a promise from God, the God who acts, who saves, who rescues, who gets His hands dirty - no, bloody. All for us. Such is His love and His power. This is what we are about to celebrate at Christmas.
Let us pray in these days for those who are grieving, wherever they may be. And let us ask the Lord to help us know like never before what He has done for us and what we are preparing to celebrate.
