Life is full of many what ifs. Tragedy is something that we never want to experience and never wish it upon anyone. On the evening of July 19, 2012, many people across the country set out to watch the midnight premier of The Dark Knight Rises. Many of us have been excited for this release for months, or even since the release of the last Batman movie. We were all expecting news of new records of viewers, not news of senseless murders.
Photo Credit – appleswitch – Flickr
Suffering always brings up many questions. As with most midnight premiers, the majority of those in the theater were under 40. Many family members and friends will never see their loved ones in this life again. How could God allow one man to do such a horrible sin against people he didn’t even know?
It’s somewhat sad that we have to feel it close to really recognize pain, while so many parts of the world endure war zone conditions frequently. I lived in Colorado for a few years before moving here to Austin. I lived in East Denver for a while, near Aurora, and went to that very theater on a few occasions.
There is such pain and sadness in the world, but God doesn’t cause evil. God is all good, but allows evil. I think that this older video from Fr Robert Barron explains the problem of evil much better than I ever could.
If you haven’t, I ask you to join us in prayer for everyone involved.
Pray not only for the families and loved ones, but especially for those that were killed. One thing that separates Catholic Christians from Protestant Christians is that we believe in praying for the dead. They may have left this world, but their soul is still alive, and it could need prayer through purgatory.
I don’t know about you, but this reminds me of my urgency to go to confession. Our death could happen at any moment, but we may not necessarily be in a great state to be well prepared for it. #YOLO (You only live once) as proclaimed by Lil Wayne, shouldn’t encourage us to embrace sin, but rather a life of virtue, especially for those of us that know Him.
Our God is merciful. We pray that the Sacred Heart of Jesus will show His inexhaustible Divine Mercy upon all those that died, and those left here to suffer.
The last thing is that we cannot forget to pray for the man that did the mass shooting. It’s easy to be angry and feel hate, but we are called to more than that. We are called to forgive him and pray for him. May God have mercy on his soul and we pray he finds repentance.
Colorado has endured a lot of tragedy, including the wildfires that seemed to be burning down the state a few weeks ago. The Rocky Mountain state can be assured of our prayers from Austin.
May our guardian angels protect us, and I pray that Mary’s loving care will lead those that are lost and confused by this tragedy to the love of her Son.
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