3
3DOCTORS
Guest
Difficult, definitely. In Hesston, KS 4 are dead including the shooter. It’s not hard to pray for the repose of the souls of the 3 victims. It is harder to pray for the soul of the man who was firing an AK-47 at a cop armed with only his regular service gun who brought him down before he could kill anyone else. Even on the news a distinction is made when reporting the number of deceased in cases like this - “including the shooter.”
And yet Jesus died for the shooter too. So . . . we must pray for his soul on the off chance he was insane, damaged so badly that his conscience stood no chance of being properly formed, and he squeaked into Purgatory somehow?
I know, it’s a lot to wrap our minds around. It may even be futile for him, but only God knows.
I had a hard time. My prayer was more like a tentative surrender, acknowledging that God’s ways are not our ways. Acknowledging that to pray for someone capable of such horrendous evil does not preclude praying for the victims and their families, nor in any way diminish their suffering. Pondering about how this fellow came into the world an innocent baby and something went terribly wrong between then and now. Asking God if I could just pray that this never happens again and leave it go at that.
Somehow, just a prayer for a world in which death is swallowed up in victory as it was when Christ rose from the dead.
And yet Jesus died for the shooter too. So . . . we must pray for his soul on the off chance he was insane, damaged so badly that his conscience stood no chance of being properly formed, and he squeaked into Purgatory somehow?
I know, it’s a lot to wrap our minds around. It may even be futile for him, but only God knows.
I had a hard time. My prayer was more like a tentative surrender, acknowledging that God’s ways are not our ways. Acknowledging that to pray for someone capable of such horrendous evil does not preclude praying for the victims and their families, nor in any way diminish their suffering. Pondering about how this fellow came into the world an innocent baby and something went terribly wrong between then and now. Asking God if I could just pray that this never happens again and leave it go at that.
Somehow, just a prayer for a world in which death is swallowed up in victory as it was when Christ rose from the dead.