April 15, 2013 – the running of the one hundred and sixteenth Boston Marathon. A day for celebrating the tenacity of human nature to push itself beyond all limitations and achieve extraordinary goals turned deadly when two bombs detonated near the finish line. Three lives taken before their time; one hundred seventy-six others left broken and bloodied; lives forever scarred.
Added to the growing list of senseless massacres in this country, Americans from coast to coast are seeking answers, struggling to make sense of such meaningless carnage. No gun control laws could have protected the lives of those commemorating this historic event.
The youngest casualty, Martin Richard, had only eight tender years in this life. Cheering their friends as they crossed the finish line, his mother, Denise, suffered a traumatic brain injury and his six-year old sister lost a leg.
Once considered a rarity, acts of violence in America are becoming more commonplace. But violence is only a symptom of a much deeper rooted problem: our world suffers from an extreme lack of moral integrity. Society has been poisoned by greed, self-righteousness, entitlement, and vengeance. Where decency, compassion and kindness once defined our civilization, we have recreated ourselves as bigoted, arrogant, callous, and hateful. We have turned our backs on God and declared we have a right to live as we please, liberated from any jurisdiction that restricts our freedom. God’s Laws to “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “You shall not kill” are obsolete and have been rewritten to justify living selfishly. Revising the word killing by using terms such as “terminating a pregnancy” or “death with dignity” is a clever attempt to conceal murder. “You shall not kill.” Period. End of sentence. There is no “with the following exceptions” list. A rose by any other name…
The world continually violates Divine Law and then we’re shocked when horrific events such as this occur. Some people are even offended by the mere mention of the Almighty’s name. God is not permitted in our schools, ball fields, and government buildings. It is no longer politically correct to wish someone a Merry Christmas, decorate a “Christmas” tree, or assign the Easter egg hunt any religious connotation at all. When you take “Love” (God) out of the equation what remains is apathy towards His children.
We glorify anger, violence, rudeness, and the infliction of pain on others as a form of entertainment. We seek revenge on others who have wronged us and brag to others of how we “got even.
We judge and label those who are different, those who are struggling with personal demons, those who do not live up to our personal standard of excellence. And we are oblivious and indifferent to the suffering we cause others with our hurtful words, labels, exclusions, and intimidations .
We have devalued human life by assigning individual importance to one another rather than viewing each person as they are: a sacred child of God, precious in His eyes and loved beyond measure. Only when we learn to respect and value all human life as equal and sacred and vow to treat each as such, will we even begin to see an end to these horrific acts of violence that desecrate our loved ones.
On the stoop of the Richard’s home, someone placed a few bouquets of flowers and a small stuffed bear. One solitary word was written in chalk on the sidewalk: “Peace.” The only path to peace is by putting God (Love) back in our hearts and our world.
“We cannot be a world at peace until we are first a people of peace.”
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