Ted Kennedy

Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy, the last of the political dynasty from Boston, has died at 77 after a year long battle with cancer. It is right and fitting that we should pray for him and his family at this time, that his soul be saved and that God's comfort be upon those he left behind.

It would be easy to be critical of the man, something I am fighting to avoid as I write this note. He certainly was not without his flaws, the human failings with which we are all afflicted. But death does not seem the time for concern with such things. The critical issue now is the state of his soul, and for that we must pray. We are called to do that when one of our brethren falls. We must do that for Senator Kennedy.

History shall tend to his legacy and we may in time say our piece about that. Yet today that is not important. We do our creed a disservice to make that judgment at this hour. We do the late public official no good to lament errors he may have made at this point. This morning our obligation to him is born of a much higher source, a much more significant calling: the proper concern for his eternal fate.

Ted Kennedy, rest in peace, and may God be with you.