For about 6 weeks now, there has been unrelenting advocacy for gun control in the main stream media news organizations, following the school shooting in Florida.
Massive news coverage of teenagers saying they are tired of being afraid of gun violence at schools.
In response, I am reminded of a song from many years ago entitled "Don't Fear the Reaper."
It doesn't say what I intend, but the title is appropriate.
The reaper, obviously, is the grim reaper -- death. Of which these kids are so tired of being afraid.
This is the shroud that clouds all of mankind - death and the fear of death. But I've noted elsewhere, nobody gets out alive. We are all going to die, and you can't live your life consumed with fear that "today may be the day."
My dad always told me you can't let fear control your actions. It is OK to be afraid, but don't let fear keep you from doing what's right.
St Paul tells us that whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
The greatest good is to be with Jesus, who died and rose from the dead. Which is what Holy Week and Easter are all about: Jesus' passion, death and resurrection. Those who die in Christ will rise with him to eternal life.
Now St John Paul II, throughout his pontificate, encouraged us always to "be not afraid." Don't be afraid to let Jesus into your life. Don't be afraid to follow Jesus in your vocation. Do not be afraid.
This is not just wishful thinking: just hoping that faith in Jesus will make a difference, or hoping that it will give us consolation. Faith in Jesus does console us in the face of death, and faith in Jesus gives us hope. But it does so because it is true.
Jesus, the living bread come down from heaven, the way, the truth and the life, the fullness of God's revelation of himself, and who reveals the fullness of man to man, tells us that it is his desire that we should be with him (where I am, they may also be).
He endures his passion and death so that we might be with him always.
In Christ, we live and move and have our being. Through Baptism we entered into the mystical body of Christ, as through a door. Where he has gone we hope to follow. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
So let us not be afraid of death, or gunmen at school. Christ is with us, and desires that we should be with him in this life and in the life to come.
May this Pascal time draw us ever closer to him.
