Tuesday, February 22, 2011

In the Line of Duty

Today for the second time in less than a month a police officer has been killed in the line of duty in the city of St. Petersburg. All three deaths were brutal and unexpected. All three have left a gaping wound in a community that extends far beyond just one city but instead to a community comprised of men and women who live their lives protecting others.

Seeing this tragedy made me reflect on a key question. I've often asked my students to place themselves in the shoes of people who have had to make difficulty decisions or sacrifices. I've asked them to state how they would respond. My question is not if I would engage in a conflict with criminals in an effort to protect citizens from physical harm. Rather, my question has been brewing since the last All Saints Day.

On that day armed gunmen killed two priests in a Catholic Church in Iraq, along with many parishioners in a despicable act of violence and persecution. Those priests were willing to be martyrs for their faith in a part of the world where the term "Christian" goes hand in hand with threat of death. As an individual who is striving to the priesthood, to enter into that brotherhood of men and women across the world whose goal is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to bring God's love, mercy, and forgiveness while always striving to help souls, the question is if I would do the same.

The truth is that there is no way to know what we will do. Christ even tells us not to prepare beforehand what we will say. We are to trust in the Holy Spirit given to us by Christ. We are to depend on God in our moments of deepest despair and distress. It is when we look to other motivations and other sources of strength that we find our strength failing.

There are brave men and women in all manner of vocations who will gladly trade their lives for ours, who would put themselves in physical or spiritual harms way. Let us always honor them and their sacrifice.

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