Bound by Sacrifice
Today’s New York Times has a moving account of the ten aid workers murdered in Afghanistan:
Their devotion was perhaps most evident in what they gave up to carry out their mission: Dr. Thomas L. Grams, 51, left a thriving dental practice; Dr. Karen Woo, 36, walked away from a surgeon’s salary; Cheryl Beckett, 32, had no time for courtship or marriage. Most of all, the 10 medical workers massacred in northern Afghanistan last week — six Americans, one German, one Briton and two Afghans — sacrificed their own safety, in a calculated gamble that weighed the risk against the distribution of eyeglasses and toothbrushes, pain relief and prenatal care to remote villages they reached on foot.
The article concludes:
One of two Afghans killed, Ahmed Jawed, 24, a cook, had been excitedly considering what to do with the $20 a day in overtime he would earn on the trip. Mr. Jawed was the main breadwinner for his wife, three children and extended family, and was known in his neighborhood for the collection of 500 audiotapes he would break out for weddings or parties. The second Afghan victim, Mahram Ali, 51, supported two disabled sons on his salary of $150 a month.
Mr. Jawed’s brother Abdul Bagin said of the killers: “They were infidels; not human, not Muslims. They killed my brother without any judgment, without any trial, without talking to him.”
Mr. Bagin saw the body in the morgue in Kabul and said there was a single bullet wound, which forensic personnel told him was fired at close range, through the heart.
The rest is here.
May the voice of angel chorus lift your soul to God’s embrace,
May the martyrs come to welcome you and saints prepare a place
where all sorrows and all burdens melt before the tender
face of Christ’s love who bestowed the cross of love.
May your loved ones bid you blessing,
As you welcome sister death.
May our Christ redeemer grace you with untold happiness,
In Jerusalem eternal, holy city of sweet rest,
You’ll find love and unfold the cross of love.
(Attributed to Faure’s “In Paradisium”)
They have shown us the nobility of being truly human and why God cares so much for us.
I am thinking of the time when each of these martyrs was enlightened to participate in this act of love and their subsequent glorious experience of joy and truth in serving others. May they have eternal joy in the presence of the Truth.
I brought my thoughts from this blog with me to the Eucharistic celebration of St. Lawrence today and I was not disappointed.
The first reading (2COR 9:6-10) reveals “he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully”. Also, “he scattered ABROAD and gave to the poor, his justice endures forever.” And even the communion antiphon : ” He who serves Me, follows Me; where I am, there will my servant be.
Even “This is my Body” became this “This is Life”. It is there for us all to partake: the Eucharist, “bread for the eater… in abundance.”