Into the Light
His father described him as the type of boy who would not complain if he was in pain.
He suffered with asthma and would need to be checked on often to see that he was all right. Anthony Delgado was only 16 months old when he died at the hands of a sadistic babysitter.
For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!' - Mark 4:22-23
The story came to light yesterday. Parents and family members heard for the first time what the babysitter and her boyfriend put little Anthony through on the last days of his life.
The baby's great aunt said, "“I’m trying not to be angry. The only way I’m getting through it is through faith.”
Torture and death lie at the heart of our faith. This Lent we remember the brutal ordeal our Lord and Savior endured before death on the cross and we like to believe that such cruelty and abuse do not exist in the world today, but we are wrong.
There will be accusations and calls for action. People will need someone to get angry with and to point fingers at over this horrible torture. They will look to the multiple arrests of the babysitter and her friend and say they should not have been in the community.
They will point fingers at the mother and father, at all the family members living in the building.
They will light candles and build a shrine in the street.
But there will be no resolution to the problem. There will be no understanding of where the problem lies or what it truly is.
As the great aunt said, there is no other way to deal with this than through our faith. Yet, even in faith, we have no examples of this type of situation to draw upon. The Gospel stories never recorded an event like this so we do not know if Jesus ever encountered such a demon or if he would have been able to free this woman from it.
It is hard to talk about her as a victim of demons, and yet some have. I won't talk about the details of the child's ordeal. The news reports have brought it all into the light for us, and still it is hard to talk about.
The true test of our faith is to be able to move on, believing that Anthony is now in God's hands. That doesn't erase the pain or undo anything. The wound runs deep. The anger and hatred are real.
But we need to look at this in the light and pray for God's help in dealing with it.
He sees and feels the pain of all who are abused and tortured. Somehow He manages to allow us to continue to exist, despite the evil we do. I wonder if that is a good thing.
More to come...