Good Friday 2015

Sorrow descended on Garissa, Kenya yesterday just as we Christians around the world prepared to celebrate the Lord's gift of Eucharist, the priesthood and Christian love. Many families in Kenya mourn today as they they drink a chalice of terrible sorrow. As Mary mourned her Son's death, how many mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters ache at the loss of a loved one wrenched from their midst by violence. Amid all the wailing, the tears and the gruesome work of finding and burying the dead, people may cry out, as Jesus did, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Mary stood at the foot of the cross and heard her Jesus say, "Father, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing!" We pray for the repose of the souls of the scores of victims. We pray too for the conversion of mind and heart for the perpetrators. Let us pray that the hope Jesus brings through his resurrection will console all who mourn. Prayer is the power that you and I possess that penetrates every wall, crosses every sea, climbs every mountain. Because we are addressing God who is all powerful and everywhere, my prayer here in Boston can touch the lives of a person in Kenya, or in the Sudan, or the Sister right next to me. As we who are able to spend this Good Friday in prayer and reflection on what Jesus suffered for each and all of us, may we pray for those in Africa, those in our inner cities, those in prison who suffer today.