It is finished. The sorrowful passion and death of Terri Schiavo that we all experienced this Lenten season and Eastertide is over.
Although shocked and appalled at this tragedy, we are not truly surprised for human nature has not changed in these 2000 years. An echo of "Crucify! Crucify!, rings through the ages. Once again we whisper "Father forgive them they know not what they do."
But for those who believe in the One whose death and resurrection to new life we have just celebrated, there is hope. We have been taught: fear not those who can kill the body but fear and pray to be delivered from those who can kill the soul.
We journey on this pilgrimage of a lifetime, making our choices, choosing our path, hastening to our own mortality. We must all travel through that dark valley, for those who trust and obey a gentle voice will beckon, "Fear not for I am with you."
We pause to hear the solemn knell of the church bells. A haunting phrase plays through our minds, "No man is an island ... Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls -- it tolls for thee." -- John Donne.
Rest in peace Terri Schiavo, along with the other 40 million plus innocent victims of wrongful death committed in our nation.
Lucinda Vinoski
Vanderbilt
