DIGNITY AMID SUCH SORROW IS INSPIRING
Dignity amid such sorrow is inspiring
Canon Charles Leeke, who has been ministering at St Columba's Church of Ireland for the past two years
"THE old adage, Time heals all wounds, is only true if there is no suppuration within.
To be bitter, to lament unceasingly, 'Why did this have to happen to him?' makes the wound fester; the mind, renewing the stab, causes the wound to bleed afresh.
It is hard, very hard not to be bitter in the early days, not to blame... The first instinct is to seek revenge (upon those) who caused the disaster. Yet this is no answer to grief. All anger, all reproach, turns inward upon itself.
The infection spreads, pervading the mind and the body." (from Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook).
Omagh is coping; the bereaved are coping; the injured are coping; neighbours are coping; all in different ways.
Some are positive; some are totally negative and are suffering still in the nightmare of that silent moment when for them the world stopped and blackness deeper than eclipse filled their soul. They are that way even yet.
These want no anniversary service, nor press attention, nor trauma team help - they are not ready. God knows when, if ever, they will be ready, to move on.
What utter devastation they have wrought, the killers of the very souls of Omagh people!
How can I, as a minister of God's word, bring anything into the life of such a person who sees even God as an ogre?
I and most people have hope.
Little by little the injured will develop new balance; the bereaved will find new strength; the people will find new vision; the youth, especially, will find new purpose, and my hope is that those of us who can will help to build a new community, truly integrated, building on the courage that is so evident and the dignity that is the character of Tyrone people who have in history helped to build new nations.
Canon Charles Leeke, who has been ministering at St Columba's Church of Ireland for the past two years
"THE old adage, Time heals all wounds, is only true if there is no suppuration within.
To be bitter, to lament unceasingly, 'Why did this have to happen to him?' makes the wound fester; the mind, renewing the stab, causes the wound to bleed afresh.
It is hard, very hard not to be bitter in the early days, not to blame... The first instinct is to seek revenge (upon those) who caused the disaster. Yet this is no answer to grief. All anger, all reproach, turns inward upon itself.
The infection spreads, pervading the mind and the body." (from Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook).
Omagh is coping; the bereaved are coping; the injured are coping; neighbours are coping; all in different ways.
Some are positive; some are totally negative and are suffering still in the nightmare of that silent moment when for them the world stopped and blackness deeper than eclipse filled their soul. They are that way even yet.
These want no anniversary service, nor press attention, nor trauma team help - they are not ready. God knows when, if ever, they will be ready, to move on.
What utter devastation they have wrought, the killers of the very souls of Omagh people!
How can I, as a minister of God's word, bring anything into the life of such a person who sees even God as an ogre?
I and most people have hope.
Little by little the injured will develop new balance; the bereaved will find new strength; the people will find new vision; the youth, especially, will find new purpose, and my hope is that those of us who can will help to build a new community, truly integrated, building on the courage that is so evident and the dignity that is the character of Tyrone people who have in history helped to build new nations.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0309
Published Date: 14-Aug-99
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