How hard to believe that we are still in just the beginning stages of this tragedy... We're still trying to figure out what even happened - rumors are flying and people are still numb with shock. People close to me are still finding out for the first time that there was a school shooting at Virginia Tech. This is the “before”: Before the in-depth police reports have been issued. Before the South Korean-hate groups are started by people who want someone to blame. Before we feel comfortable admitting that in our very darkest moments, we too are violent and hateful and capable of murder.
It's painful to imagine what the “after” will look like: the time when the flowers left at the site of the shooting are all decayed and swept away, when this will be yet another reason for heightened airport security and tighter gun control. The days after songs are played on the radio about the lives of the students who died and how heroic they were, and after the committees are formed to revise their school's emergency plan in case other students decide to try the same stunt.... how long until the authors make their thousands of dollars writing bestsellers about what turned this unsuspecting student into a deranged maniac who locked his classmates in a building and brutally murdered thirty three of them, taking his own life in the process?
And what beyond that? Is it foolish to look forward to a time when news of a mass murder is no longer passé? Can we really expect that someday there will be triumph over the power of darkness that so adamantly tries to drown us in grief? Can we even dare to dream of a world beyond bloodshed and alienation?
Sometimes I wonder at myself for saying yes, that there is a Prince of Peace and he is coming again to restore Creation, yes he will judge the living and the dead, and yes his Kingdom will have no end. I am baffled by this fire in my bones that fiercely refuses to cave in to despair. What reason have I to respond to this tale of violence with a refusal to beget more violence? Why can I dream only of healing these wounds with love?
“And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Romans 5:5
The Return Of The Prodigal Son
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn
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