In the end the good and innocent will be vindicated

 ‘He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble..’ (Luke 1:52)

It was 15^th August 1998. I was in Lourdes in the South of France with my family. As in Ireland that day it was a warm sunny day. People were relaxed.

I did not know until the following day that something terrible had happened in Ireland.  The news was mentioned during one of the services. We were shocked. The world around us was shocked. In Omagh, Northern Ireland there was the biggest loss of life and injury since the recent ‘troubles’ had begun 30 years earlier.  That day, many people were taken soul and body as a result of one action of evil.  The suffering and maiming inflicted on over 300 people directly and 1,000s of others had left a mark as all such events do. The choice of timing may have been intentional only to the extent that people would be in Omagh town that day in large numbers for various reasons.  Those responsible for positioning the car bomb are likely to have been brought up in a religious tradition in which the 15^th August was a special day.

In today’s world we hear many stories of oppression, war, famine, torture. Always it is the innocent who suffer the most. Where is God in all of this? What significance has a day such as the 15^th August and the ‘Assumption of Mary’ or the Dormition (Koímēsis in the Greek orthodox tradition) as the term is used in Eastern Europe for anyone?

Whatever interpretation or precise formula used to explain the ‘falling asleep’ of Mary the Mother of Jesus it is certain that for those who have faith the resurrection of Christ who has gone ahead of us is the source of our hope and this in the struggle to make the world a better, fairer and safer place. It is possible to speak of this ‘falling asleep’ and taking up of Mary because Christ is risen from the dead and his grace is sufficient for all. We cannot add or take from that but we can draw inspiration from our sister, Mary, who faced huge difficulties and rejection but stood in faith to the end. That is why that no matter what happens we can be sure that God cares and watches over each one whether in the open concentration camp of Gaza or on a mountain in Northern Iraq. Everyone is precious to God even those who inflict evil because they too are in need of grace and all is possible in the fullness of time.