LONG IN ADVANCE

A Catholic priest in Eureka, California was found murdered in the rectory of his church on New Year’s Day of this year, 2014.  The news of this affected me considerably, as does, for that matter, the news, good or bad, of any priest or monk of any faith, for they are my own kind.

My question then and now is, how is it possible for a priest to be murdered in his church or, for that matter, anywhere else?  He is one of God’s own.  Why didn’t God protect him?

What befalls us is God’s will, some religions have it, and “God works in mysterious ways.”  Vedanta approaches it from the standpoint of karma.

Swami Prabhavananda explained that the doctrine of karma is a doctrine of absolute, automatic justice. The circumstances of our lives, our pleasures and our pains, our fortunes and our misfortunes, are all the result of our past actions in this life and in the countless previous lives we’ve lived, from a beginningless time.

Viewed from a relative standpoint, karma is quite pitiless.  We get exactly what we earn, no more, no less.  To, for example, be born a beggar, a king, an athlete, or a helpless cripple is simply the composite consequence of the deeds of the many lives we've lived.  We have  no one to thank or to blame but ourselves.

I cannot know the karmic baggage that the priest in Eureka, California carried with him, or, as far as that goes, that I carry myself.  How Rev. Freed explained to himself, in the moment of his death, what had happened to him, only he knows.  I suspect he had it explained long in advance.