In the Face of the Terrorist Attachs in Madrid a Certain Hope

The criminal acts perpetrated in Madrid are impressed on our consciousness like an open wound. The facts are so grave that we can’t avoid facing the questions they raise.

Is it possible that a man like you, like me, can slaughter innocent women, men, and children with such destructive rage? Man’s heart is at times an abyss from which spring up atrocities that make us tremble. Truly, the mystery of evil exists, and it demands from us a response equal to the challenge.

We all feel a need for justice, but can man, with his own efforts, break the chain of evil? Each of us, believer or not, must respond to these questions or fall prey to desperation, resignation or greater violence. Censure of these questions only increases the violence we have already suffered.

We all have sought to respond to these questions that continually return to our minds. And each of us can attest to his inability to give a satisfactory response. No political position is sufficient to face what has happened, and psychological help is not enough to overcome it. The immensity of the challenge makes us feel how limited we are. How many times these days have we been left speechless?

In the face of the terrible injustice of the violent death of the innocent, and the intent to destroy a people, the Cross of Christ stands forth as a possibility for liberation from the anguish of evil. In the midst of tragedy, only the certainty of a good destiny, assured us by the Resurrection, can restore our faith in ourselves, in men, and in life.

Words like these are not easy to understand, neither for us Christians, nor for the Spanish people. It is only possible to say them, and to live in the peace of this certainty, through a human embrace experienced in one’s own life. Christ embraces us and educates us in the Christian community, teaching us always to affirm the infinite dignity of all human life and the positivity of reality.

We are building the common weal in Spain within a history of dialogue that has generated the common good that is our nation. In order for this shared life to develop freely, we need men who, in their daily work and their public initiatives, allow us to recognize that life is sacred, and that reason and liberty are not in harmony until they meet the good Mystery, present and near to each of us. Being able to walk together with men like this is our hope and our first contribution to the common good.

Communion and Liberation
Madrid, March 12, 2004