Closure is Not the End

"A scar fades, but it is always there."

The closure of Our Lady of Vilnius is relatively small potatoes in the spectrum of trauma and loss that people experience.  When something unimaginable, unfair and unjust happens, many times the afflicted say they seek "Closure".  Some seek Justice, which is possible, but maybe not easy, to obtain.

In advance of the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma bombing, WNYC aired a Storycorp item featuring a mother and her son:  son one of 6 children  out of 21 in daycare who survived.
The piece is titled ""Anniversary Of Oklahoma City Bombing Reopens Wounds For Survivors"  During the mutual interview between mother and son, the mom, Phuong Nguyen, said that, after 20 years, it left a scar.  That a scar fades, but it is always there.

As the canons rumble toward the closure of many churches and the dissolution of parish families, journalists are asking the veterans of the 2004-2007 realignment how they feel, are they still going to church, if so, where, and do they like it.  I myself struggle every day with the best answer to this question that was best answered today by Ms. Nguyen, whose 4-year old Phoenix was carried from the ashes and subsequently grew into a fine young man.

So we pray for all of those affected by the Oklahoma bombing, living and dead.  We pray for everyone, because we are all wounded and scarred.  We pray not for closure, but for healing and the slow and infinite fading of our scars, which will be always be there but may become reminders not of pain, but of love.