Heaven and Hell

Dear Eugene,

This morning: "The bodies of 26 teenage women and girls have been found in the Mediterranean, Italian police said."

Were they tortured, sexually abused?
  Does it still matter, now that they are no more?
  Who is going to make such non-matter matter again?
  Who is going to speak a word for them now that they are silenced?

When did it happen?
  When I was holding up my pious hands singing songs in church?
  When I was articulating my sound theology out of my pizza breath on Saturday night?
  When I was watching some Chinese Rocky movie for the umpteenth time with my family on Sunday night, followed right after by some ultra-HD nature "documentary" that tells of the same story of survival-of-the-fittest, over-eaten, over-talked, over a hill that I knew not the purpose to climb but did it anyway?

The 26 teenage girls did not survive; I did.
  I guess that's the story.
  I guess I should be happy I came out on the winning side.

You see,
  both the plot of the Chinese Rocky movie and nature show are artificially framed, much more so with the latter.
  Rocky restores the hope of a nation with his fists; people now have the courage to fight for their own salvation.
  One lizard got away from a den of snakes, every other lizard of the same family killed, strangled, lost breath; he who is swift on his feet and quick in his head deserves survival, is fit to win.

We cheer the winner.
  There is no movie if Rocky loses at the end.
  What is the point of looking at every single lizard getting killed one after another, to remind ourselves of the reality that we tried to escape from by watching such make-believe?
  We love our paper moon.
  If the moon starts to weep it will break and be of no good.

Jesus wept and He was broken.
  “You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule," He said.
  The good is in the breaking,
  in the weeping,
  in the losing.

Did any of the girls cry out to Jesus, I wondered.
  Were they "blessed"?
  They were "in hell," we say.
  Jesus was there with them.

What is Hell but a state of being totally cut off from God,
  losing His presence,
  missing Jesus?

We who build heaven on earth with our own hands are bound to miss Jesus and His Kingdom.

Yours, Alex

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