JMJ. Well, the good guys got the bad guy. The REALLY bad guy--Osama bin Laden. The headlines in the Cleveland "Plain Dealer" fairly crowed in triumph that "the wicked witch is dead." I admit to having very mixed emotions.
When I was younger the world was far more black and white than it is now. The shades of grey on almost all ethical questions seem to outnumber the sands by the seas. I know I haven't changed; where have they come from? I once whole-heartedly supported the death penalty. Not anymore. Why, you ask? Good question. Here's the only answer I've been able to come up with in my heart.
I was raised Presbyterian. Most of my adult life, though, was spent as a pagan searching for the truth. Truth with a capital T. So I was not always the paragon of virtue I am today. And there's the rub. For years I danced blindly at the edge of a deep precipice, totally unaware of the mortal danger I was in. Some wonderful soul prayed for my conversion, I'm sure. The Blessed Mother nudged me in the ribs, and I realised that Her Son had been knocking at the door of my heart for years.
Not only have I embraced His Church--HIS Church, mind you--but I've embraced the entire concommitant culture of life that goes along with it. I even went so far as to have a Mass said for Bin-Laden's conversion, having heard on a Catholic CD that Christ told us to pray for our enemies. So, am I happy that the leader of the enemy bent on our destruction has been eliminated? Of course. Hopefully, his death will result in the saving of many. But I can't help but think that at some point he might have repented and his soul might be saved. It's really tough to rejoice over the death of someone you've had a Mass offered for, let me tell you.
Maybe his soul is safe, I don't know; only God knows for sure. After all, much stranger things have happened. I'm the proof of that!
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