Following the Light

St. John loves to play on the themes of light and darkness.  His Gospel is fraught with them from the prologue to the end.  In chapter 12: 45, he has Jesus explain, "I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness."  Simple and direct. We might teeter a bit on the idea of believing when tragedy after tragedy hits daily all around the globe.  We're still reeling from the Boston Bombings, the West Texas explosion, the North Korean threat, and today's sad news from Rwanda that one of the dormitories of the Byimana Science School went up in  flames yesterday fills our Marist world with shock.  Providentially, the students had just gone to class when flames erupted in the ceiling of the building and spread rapidly.  The students and staff had only buckets of water to fight the fire, and soon had to abandon them as the roof collapsed and caused all the beds and belongings of 260 students to burn to ashes.  Efforts were successful in preventing the flames from destroying an adjoining dormitory, whose contents were removed and placed away from the burning dorm.  Fire trucks from Kigali, the capital, arrived two hours later, after the fire had burned down to smoldering ashes.  No one was injured, but school has been suspended indefinitely.  Ironically, this disruption comes just after the week of the Genocide Memorial which annually marks the anniversary of the start of the Genocide, 19 years ago, when more than just classes were suspended throughout Rwanda. Having lived at that school for four years, taught its students and supervised that dorm, this fire really hits home.
We can do our best to support and sympathize with other victims of tragedies, but when they affect part of YOUR life, it's a different story. In these instances, we are called to deepen our faith, believe that the LIGHT of Christ, which we solemnly acclaimed at the Easter Vigil, will prevail and that some GOOD will evolve to overcome the darkness.
Bro. Rene