Sad endings revisited

Ever since I was young, I've hated sad endings, whether in real life or fiction. I would take every misunderstanding, every tragedy, every loss personally. To the point of intense sorrow and tears.

Why was Joan of Arc burned at the stake when she was only being truthful, obedient to God, brave and selfless?

Why did To Kill a Mockingbird's Tom Robinson, a good and kind man, get thrown into jail for a "crime" he did not commit, and later die so undeservedly, shot in the back 17 times?

Why did Sydney Carton love Lucie Manette who instead loved and married Charles Damay (I so hate love triangles, too!) and why did Sydney have to die by going to the guillotine in place of Charles in his act of sacrificial love for Lucie?

Why do bad things happen to good people? Why must disease, conflict, disaster, violence and death exist?

Why can't we go back to paradise, post-Fall, especially since Christ has already redeemed the world over 2,000 years ago?

Even today, as an adult, my sense of justice cries for answers when misfortune strikes the lives of people I love, people I know and those I do not know but share the bond of humanity with.

It's hard to retain hope when the world seems impossibly dark, beyond redemption, and the future unremittingly bleak.

My response has always been to fight to believe in better days to come and to try and right the wrong. Or agonize incessantly over the situation and walk around with the weight of the world on my shoulders.

It's only in the past decade that I have learned to let go and let God take over.

After all, I am not the Messiah who has already accomplished His mission. And even though I cannot be in paradise today, I know I will get there when I die (with God's grace, of course).
 
One other notable difference that comes from my renewed faith is that I know that the kingdom of God can be experienced today, and, I can play a part in bringing life to this kingdom. How?

By "renouncing myself" and "taking up my cross". It all made perfect sense to me when Fr. Arro said last Sunday that the act of renouncing was to rid myself of anger, bitterness and hatred, and that of taking up my cross was to love unto death, even when continually and widely rejected and persecuted.

Love translated into acts of compassion, forgiveness, mercy, optimistic hope, radiating joy, tranquility and a deep, steadfast Marian faith.

For what is faith if not a light of love, flickering with hope, in the dark night of suffering?

I can now accept that situations that cause suffering and grief will always be part of life and it is in my loving response that I can make a difference.  

In instances where the situation is beyond my influence, I can pray for grace. I can pray knowing full well that while God did not cause the suffering, He can, like an alchemist, transform affected lives.

Miracles and blessings can emerge just as a desert is carpeted in a glory of brightly hued  petals after the rain.

Sad endings can become triumphs of the human spirit.

Sad endings can be conduits for prodigious change.

Like death on the cross to resurrection, to ascension and a Pentecostal revolution.

I suppose I could be persuaded to see the good in sad endings.


NB: This entry is dedicated to K, may you find the 'bow in the sky in time to come. Hugs.



Mother & child living in a village outside Phnom Penh, rebuilding life after the horrific genocide that swept the capital of Cambodia in the 70s.