Night trip

I SIMPLY love to travel. It gives me that kind of kick that nothing else can. But this one particular journey is different since it’s my first long night trip alone. So it’s kinda creepy and uncertain, because anything can happen when one’s travelling at night when the rest of the world are snugly sleeping under their warm sheets while others are tightly embracing their bed-mates.

Add to this is the scary TV program I saw just before leaving home about an investigation on the death of a child who was later found to have been sexually abused by crazed youth in their 20s. It was so abhorrent that I could not help but be revolted and so angered that it almost ruined my adventure journey.

The scenes portrayed on the boob tube was so daunting that it stuck to my mind and disturbed the relative peace I wanted to preserve as I travel alone. How could those people do something like that to a helpless child? Are they not human enough to feel pity for the whimper of the little girl who could have undergone an unspeakable suffering when those males repeatedly abused her?

I just could not imagine how could they have done it without seeing their female relatives in her? There’s only one reason why they could have lost all human feelings ordinary human beings naturally have. They could have been under the influence of drugs.

My heart shouted with the family of the child for justice! Spare no one, let justice punish the wicked men! There simply is no excuse to such behaviour! Nothing at all...!

And then, my mind shifted to the new Roman Catholic leader in Pope Francis. I have been teaching my students the prayer of St. Francis on Peace, and how it is to nurture peace in the hearts of the youth. I know the new Jesuit Pope would be very sad to hear about the ordeal of the sexually abused little girl, as I guess, he could have been saddened by the reality of several cases of child abuse that has been committed by his followers.

I could imagine the new Pope would have expressed the same utterances that Jesus involuntarily said in the garden of Gethsemane: “Why me, Father?” Though Pope Francis’ responsibility now is to guide his flock to a road less travelled his Imminence could have wished that the “cup be taken away from him.”

Habemus Papam, but such a heavy burden for the new Pope. But as the saying goes, God does not give any challenge that we cannot bear. This is a wishful thinking, but then, we never know what God has in store for Pope Francis 1. The task is great at hand, but then everything has a purpose under the heavens.

As a “practical” Monsignor who shuns earthly comforts as a pontiff and chose to live simply like any other human being, a great reward may be waiting for him, but only if he addresses the glaring issues at hand. God will be there when it unfolds...