Bomb Physically and Spiritually No Good

The Huffington Post reports that a homemade bomb was found at a shrine where Pope Francis was scheduled to visit on Wednesday, in Brazil.

Visit: Pope Bomb Scare at Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida; Explosive Device Found Where Francis Is Scheduled to Visit on Wednesday

Now this is a really sad bit of news. The Pope came back to South America so soon after his election and happily greeted crowds on his first outings there.

I have to ask, aren't there people we can agree to disagree with? Sure, very, very often, I gnash my teeth at some of the miserable things people say about various topics. The bigots and racists make me want to throw bombs myself. But something always stops me. Not just laziness or whatever. . . .I mean it's pretty bad karma to throw bombs around.

What IF somebody got killed that had nothing to do with any of the issues that made me angry? What IF it was a person who was loving and had a family who would be in terrible need? What IF the nasty person who said the rotten thing was eventually going to see the Light and change his or her ideas? And how exactly would G-d view me if I became a killer? I don't like the answers my conscience gives me regarding these questions. Visions of prisons and hells and terrible lifetimes in the future are enough to keep my momentary rages well in check.

I can go out and protest or write nasty things online about the rotten things people do and say. I can discuss these things with my friends and family. I can even decide to pray about the problem. And, one way or another, surely, my eyes are opened about the source of the rottenness. One way or another, I learn that there is a backstory. It doesn't excuse the badness but it does explain it.

G-d knows—and anybody who has been following this blog knows—I have my areas of disagreement with Pope Francis. Yet, I still perceive that he is a well-meaning person who is just trying to live according to what he has learned. I feel that he doesn't place himself above anybody else. I see that he tries to teach by example. He is not a bad man and he would not see me as a bad woman. I can learn from him. And maybe he will learn from people like me as well.

Bombs and guns we don't need. That is one thing that the Catholic Church has been saying for centuries and it's an area where I totally agree with the Church.

If somebody hates the Pope, then that person has a right to speak out and tell people why. But NO ETHICAL person—believer, agnostic, or atheist—has the right to kill the Pope or anybody else.

All I can say is THANK G-d the bomb was found before Pope Francis got there. G-d was looking after one representative on Earth.