Chosen to be saints Ashley Beck
Editorial
PHOTO: JIM BONEWALD, UNSPLASH
When we see countless innocent women, men and children injured and traumatised in Ukraine as a result of war, or when we sit with a friend or loved one dying, it is hard to assert that they are chosen to be blessed or saints. If we are glib about this, we deserve to fail. When we are more aware than we might have been of the extent of human suffering, some the result of sin, some utterly inexplicable, most of us can only manage a humbled silence. I am writing this shortly after Ascension Day, which is not simply about the Lord returning to heaven,
but about weak human nature being united to God. God is not cut off from the sufferings of humanity or of the world, one of the most precious insights of Christianity. None of this makes the pain and suffering go away, but it does give us strength and a distinctive story to tell.
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1 Walke, B., Twenty Years at St Hilary, London: Anthony Mott, 1982, pp. 71–2.
July/August/September 2022 | Pastoral Review Vol. 18 Issue 3 | 5