Evil

Late last night a man from the neighborhood was gunned down. I don't know all the details like where, exactly when, or why. But I do know one thing, the neighborhood is mourning. In experiencing something like this for the first time personally I have had the opportunity to look around at how a community such as this responds to evil such as that. I am thoroughly impressed.

Honor killings seem to be the name of the game around here. Honor in killing? Surely we have heard of those who lay down their lives or who go into harms danger knowing that could very well be their fate. But how many people do we laud and magnify for actually carrying out the act of killing. Murder is such a troublesome thing that even when honoring soldiers we talk about their sacrifices, and not the actuality that they too may have had to end the life of another human being.

What we need to get across is there is another way. This cannot and will not happen over night. Evil is a vicious force in the world that seeks out any and all to destroy. It is true evil manifests itself in ways different from maybe one may be used to in suburbia opposed to the city. But evil is evil no matter where it is. Satan, the accuser, and his minions seek out humanity to destroy it and bring it down. And in this place not even Christians are immune from the temptation to do evil and to perform acts of great sin.

Yet the Christian can and does fight on. The Christian meets evil eye to eye and responds in a way that evil does not want it to and cannot take it responding: In Love. In Love I saw Christians from the neighborhood gathering around the altar of our Lord Jesus Christ to take part in His Holy Sacrament and to comfort those who are grieving. In Love Christians from the neighborhood visit the projects block where this young man lived and where his grieving mother still lives. In Love the 32 year old pastor of St. John's went carrying the comfort of the Gospel of Hope to the projects to deliver the promise of forgiveness of sins.

Love will overcome. And it will take people responding in this manner so that evil will see it has no stand here amongst the very people of God. Evil is a very present reality. But ever more present and real is Jesus Christ. Who conquered sin, death, and the grave. Evil has no hold, try as it might.

Thanks be to God.