When tragedy strikes, are you prepared? Do you have all of the things you need to deal with tragedy? What do you need when tragedy hits you or your family? What is it that you need?

These past few weeks have shown us a lot of tragedy. First we had a bridge collapse after which they still haven’t found all of the people who were on the bridge. Then we had a mine collapse, and again, as I write this a week later, they still haven’t found the people trapped in the mine. Then, after that, two sweet little kids drown in a pool. Today there were hundreds killed in car bombs and roadside bombs in Afghanistan and Iraq. I just visited a family at Cardinal Glennon whose first baby died from SIDS, whose second baby developed an illness and almost died, and whose newest child was recovering from viral meningitis. I could go on and on, and the longer I live, the more tragedy I see. It never goes away and it never becomes less.

So, I go back to the question, what do you need to deal with tragedy? Well, I can answer that question with one word. I bet you already know the answer. It is JESUS.

When it all comes down to it, the only real, true, and lasting hope comes from Jesus. And I’m not talking about the hope that you can be like Jesus some day, or the hope that if you are as good as Jesus was and, “obey the Gospel” like Jesus did, that you can be saved. What I’m talking about is the never failing, all availing, grace of God that comes through and because of the suffering, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.

How many times have you failed today? If you were to put your trust in yourself, don’t you suppose that you would eventually let yourself down so much that you would run out of trust and hope? Just because you tell yourself over and over again that you are a good person, doesn’t mean that you are. Even if you are a Christian, you still aren’t perfect! Where’s the hope in that?

There is someone who was perfect. There is someone who has kept all the law and the prophets. There is someone who has fulfilled all his promises. There is someone who will never leave you or forsake you. When you fail yourself and all of those around you, the Lord Jesus Christ doesn’t fail you!

He said he would suffer and die for you, and he did. He said he would rise again, and he did. He said he would ascend into heaven, and he did. In fact, everything that he said he would do, he did! Can you say that? Can you promise that? When tragedy strikes can you find peace within yourself? Can you find peace in anything in this world?

Let me ask you this question; why does tragedy strike in the first place? It strikes because this is an imperfect world. If it was perfect everything would always go right. Tragedies happen because of sin. Our Lord tells us that the wages of sin is DEATH. In the same passage, actually the very next verse, it says that “the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

The best example of this is Job, whose hope was not in his things, his family, or his own life. His hope was solely situated in the Lord God. His famous saying, which we use time and time again is very clear. “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord!”

There is so much more that I could say about this. The main thing I want you all to understand is that the only hope for this world is Jesus! There is no other real hope! Trust in him, believe in him, have faith in him, live in him, and have eternal life in him!