Two years ago, I spoke with an 80-year-old man who started crying on the phone with me. What he shared with me he had not ever told another human being. When he was 10 years old he was raped by an adult whom he trusted. Not just once. Repeatedly, several times each week. Hundreds of times. It did not stop until he was 18 and left his home.
Was I surprised by his story? Not at all. Over 45% of the cases I handle in my law firm involve representing victims of childhood sex assault or trafficking. As I listened, he repeated probably 10 times in a ten-minute phone call, “How Could This Happen?”
I ask you: how do I respond to How Could This Happen? I listen and when given an opening say softly, “I am so sorry you endured this evil.” His unanswered question is the question we all should be asking, and we should NOT stop asking until we have the answer.
The simple and easy and inadequate answer is this: “[the rapist] said that if I ever tell anyone he will kill me and my parents and my siblings!” The worst was yet to come. When this sweet man, who had served a long career in our armed forces, was only 14 years old the rapist forced him to rape the rapist’s younger sister who was only 10 years old. The rapist watched this happen, and then he proceeded to rape each of them himself, forcing them to watch.
If you are ill at ease having read the above four paragraphs, then you have a soul and conscience which screams out How Could This Happen? My office motto at the bottom of my letterhead says Striving for Justice in an Imperfect World which was created by me largely in response to this and similar cases I have handled. The rapist was dead; he had never been arrested. Statistics from my expert witnesses indicate that this rapist likely assaulted upwards of 300+ victims over his seven decades of life. There could be no “legal justice” for this evildoer, at least none on earth.
Will the rapist receive justice ever? The classic Christian scenario has this rapist knocking on heaven’s door and being ushered into hell. If you believe the New Testament, especially the red letter words of Jesus, then you must agree that eternal punishment is awaiting this rapist if he has never repented and accepted the forgiveness that is offered through Jesus. When I preached a sermon on hell at my local church several people approached me with this question: “Steven, you don’t really believe that an actual hell exists do you?” To which I replied, “Yes, I cannot read and believe the New Testament without believing that eternal punishment exists.” Will it be a furnace burning eternally with fire? I do not know but I love this picture of hell: long banquet tables filled with scrumptious food, residents in hell seated across from each other tied into their chairs eternally, with forks and spoons each three feet long strapped to their arms. Got the picture? They starve to death since they cannot get the food into their mouths and their evil selfish spirits do not allow them to see how easy it would be for each person to feed the person across the table they are facing!
Read Matthew 25 and see how Jesus talks about “eternal fire” and “eternal punishment” for those who see hungry people and do nothing to feed them! How Could This Happen? Justice delayed, but eternal justice awaits unrepentant rapists, for sure! My clients and I get to see many unrepentant rapists led out of the courtroom and into prison. I often say to them words from Merton’s prayer, “The Lord was with you through your pain in the past and he will never leave you to face your future perils alone.” How Could This Happen? Because evil exists and has existed since the garden of Eden.
Leave a comment, if you wish, regarding this post or how you found The Merton Prayer and why it is important to you.
You will find The Merton Prayer and more at https://themertonprayer.com/
[NOTE: If your organization, church, or school would like a workshop/presentation on The Merton Prayer please use the contact tab and let me know! I can Zoom all over the world and have done 90-minute, 3-hour, 5-hour, weekend, or five-day workshops/retreats.]
The Merton Prayer 