ReasonForOurHope

Friday, May 27, 2022

A Time to Grieve

 

A few days ago, an act of evil was perpetrated at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

I'm sure we all join in prayer for the victims and their families.  I will be completely honest, I've tried to read more details about what happened, but I find it incredibly difficult.  I opened one article that had family photos of the children who were killed.  My heart cracked down the middle.  Who could see these beautiful, innocent faces and even dare to think of doing them violence?  It is an unfathomable abyss of evil that terrifies me to even contemplate.

I have nieces and nephews the age of the victims.  When I think that someone could see them and do them harm in a similar way, my mind forces my thoughts away to something else.

This is my experience as someone so far removed from these events.  I cannot imagine what the families are enduring right now.  Moments like these remind us how awful and fallen this world is.

I have nothing horribly original or insightful to say.  Like most of us, I am still trying to wrap my mind around this level of malevolence.  All I can say is that this is a time to grieve.  There is so much pain and fear caused by this crime.  People are going to process this in many different ways.  In the age of social media, there is a pressure for everyone to comment.  You could argue that this is what I am doing now.  But all I want to do is offer my prayers and support.  

Our Lord is walking with us in these dark times.  As Herod slaughtered the holy innocents, the shooting in Uvalde is an outrage before the Lord.  Times like this remind us that we do live in a Vale of Tears.  But even if we aren't ready to fully embrace it, we must remember the words of hope from Our Lord:

 "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn... you will grieve, but your grief will become joy." John 16:20

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.  May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.  Amen.



2 comments:

  1. A thoughtful reflection on this senseless tragedy. I have nieces and nephews who go to school, too and I'm afraid for them every time one of these mass shootings happens. But I'm afraid because I go to school, too when these shootings happen. I feel as if I'm gambling with my life after every one of these shootings. It's sick!

    And Tom Hoopes, a Catholic columnist for Aleteia and Benedictine College, did an article on movie mistakes. One of the mistakes he listed was glorification of violence.

    He writes, "We are all more numbed to killing than is good for us."

    Really? If I'm more numbed to killing than is good for me, then why do I feel scared for my own life and those of my niece and nephews after one of these horrific mass shootings?

    This is one of those instances where people should stick to speaking for themselves only.

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  2. And for the record, I'm the one in my family saying there should be more gun control legislation every time one of these senseless tragedies occurs.
    I'm the one in my stating that I want so badly these dumb shootings to stop happening every single time one happens. There's an enormous difference between how one reacts to an act of violence in a work of fiction and how one reacts to an act of violence in real-life.

    Anyway, sorry for the rant. Young Catholic woman with autism, anxiety disorders, and OCD tendencies here.

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