Death On The Installment Plan

Death Penalty. War. Abortion. None should occur. We have the right to commit them, but the right should lay unused. Since they are used, when we have done these things, there must exist in society a way to return the world to goodness. Killing upsets the balance. Look at us. We fought a "good war" in World War II, and we haven't been able to stop since. We keep seeking a victorious war. Even if Iraq turns out all right, I not sure our minds consider it a victory. We need to return to a correct balance. If we kill, we must admit that we have done something we should not have done, but could not avoid. The necessity of our act does not make the act good or acceptable. So we must create a state of mind - a state of being - where we admit to the act and seek to restore wholeness in the world of God's creation. Penance is individual and for the entire society. We do not usually sin in isolation. We are taught, we are led, we are forced by other forces as well as our own urgings. Penance need not be scourging and whips, but Penance is the Religion: the re-ligio, the re-tieing of the bonds that connect the universe.