Some Celebrate God's Sadness

On the way home from mass last Sunday, I heard the story of Meghan Salter on the radio.  Doctors told her parents not to let Meghan be born, but she was, and is today.  Meghan has an undiagnosed illness which makes her life totally dependent on love.  She cannot breathe, eat or move on her own.  She has never spoken, never walked, never touched, yet she hears, feels, and smiles --- and was baptized and received her first Communion from Fr. John Riccardo.  She has brought her family together, her church together, and brought about more conversions than most evangelizers.  She is God’s gift of love to the world.  I had the radio station make copies of the talk by her parents for my friends, especially those suffering and asking the question: Why?

Tonight, on the eve of the anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, I lit a candle on my front porch, to be a small light in the darkness at the midnight hour.  But I was on my way to chapel as that hour approached, and I listened again to Meghan’s story of the power of life, and of love.  It was extremely foggy as I drove.  The oncoming traffic looked like two little fuzz-balls of light approaching in the hazy darkness, and the traffic lines were nearly invisible.  But God got me safely to the chapel.

As the midnight hour struck, I was again reminded of the day’s memorial.  Suddenly I recalled another day a few months back, when my soul was opened to the heart of God, and I deeply felt His sadness with the world.  The trigger for that sadness was meditations about the priestly pedophilia scandal, and how it was only a reflection of the entire world’s turning from God in the ‘60’s “to do its own thing.”  I recalled my sad feelings then, and I shuddered anew in the chapel.  (I wrote about those feelings in the post “And When I Awoke, The World Had Changed” --- and it was a trigger for my prayers and fasting for our country and the upcoming election.)  And tonight I realized that my prior reflections on our country were incomplete.  Back then, when I deeply felt God’s sadness with the world, I thought of how the world had turned its focus from God’s will to “my will”, but I didn’t really reflect much on the biggest turning away from God of all:  as a country we decided that we, not God, would decide when a life was worth living, not just living our own as we (not God) chose, but even to the killing of a life we did not find convenient:  abortion.

Yes, in the ‘60’s the world chose to do its own thing, versus God’s will, but it also said:  “You are not the author of life; I am.”

As I approached the chapel and the anniversary of man’s great affront of God, I could not see through the haze, even as the world today cannot see its great sin, and God’s sadness ---- or does and doesn’t care.

It wasn’t chance that I chose to reflect on the Luminous Mysteries as I prayed my rosary tonight; we need to pray to see the light.  Yesterday in Washington many marched to demand abortion remain legal, and today many march there for life.  Some celebrate God’s sadness; some, like Meghan’s family, celebrate His gift of life, and light for the world.

I don’t have time for marching, but I WILL take time for prayer, for our country, and for all the Meghan’s of this world and God’s gift of life, here and in eternity --- where I will celebrate His happiness, not His sadness.