Tony Bates is the founder of Headstrong. It is an organisation that promotes positive mental health among young people. I once had him sit with a group of people who were facing a very difficult situation. They were in the midst of the most horrendous tragedy; their worlds were falling apart. He discussed their situation in a very open, honest and one might say raw manner. He alluded to aspects of the situation that anyone else would have ducked and dived. I’ll never forget one thing he said, ‘You haven’t prepared your children for this’ the parents looked rather shocked, nearly angry with him. He then went on to say that ‘neither are you prepared for this’ at which they then looked absolutely confused. He then concluded with the words, ‘neither should you be!’
They instantly got his point. We cannot spend our lives thinking that every bus we see has the potential to knock us down, that every car the ability to mount the pavement and impact us or every concert has the potential for a bombing. If this was the case, and if we adopted this attitude, our lives would go unlived. Of course we have to exercise caution and be diligent, but we have to embrace the gift we call life and try to live it to the full. Indeed, the Christian community remembers that every child is anointed on his or her heart at Baptism, asking that they will have the strength to withstand evil and dwell in goodness.
Acts of destruction are never impersonal, abstract or merely material. They always have a face, a concrete story, names. – Pope Francis