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FROM AP: Friday's Time Schedule
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FROM AP: Correction: Mozambique-UN story
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
How do you keep trusting? How do you keep any kind of happy, rejoicing faith when so much of life is, frankly, disappointing, tragic, absurd, evil, wrong? The heart just keeps being assaulted.
In the wake of this terrible tragedy, may those of us who have watched in horror at the pain of those families and the loss of those children have the strength not to seek comfort but to embrace challenge.
Having spent this week celebrating light during this Season of Light, we now are called upon to be face to face with a darkness that also runs deep. We are beset with the lingering fears and heartbreak that will be imprinted by this terror. How can we turn once more to the light?
Parents, children and teachers woke up last week in Newtown, Conn., and had no idea that life as they knew it was over. But what I must say this morning is this: Darkness does not win. Jesus was born, lived and died so that darkness does not win.
We are horrified by the tragic mass murder in Connecticut, a tragedy we can scarcely fathom. Even though our revelry is dampened by the sadness, we will not let our celebration be swallowed up.
Today, we must find the dreamers and the actors in our time. We must speak out. We must speak up, and we must do so today. It is the time to talk about gun control. It is time to help those who have mental illness.
The effort of remembering our shared humanity assures us that we are embraced by a wider community, not forsaken as isolated individuals. This daily practice can enhance our appreciation for life. It can also make us more able to face death like a Buddha.
The answer to the Problem of Evil is simple: It is up to us to use whatever influence we can, whether secular or divine, to promote peace, justice and good will in the world.
What comforts me is the biblical teaching that God is available to us to hear our pain and absorb our anger. God's availability provides us with comfort and strength. It does not comfort me to think that God is the cause of the pain, nor that God wills the death of innocents.
The world cried "God Bless America" / As the walls came tumbling down. / But how could He bless what had happened / Unless He didn't care. / And if He didn't care / Why cry for His protection at all?
By the time this week has ended, some 47 siblings will have buried their 26 beloved brothers and sisters. Most of those siblings are children themselves.
Not every evil act implies guilt beyond the perpetrator. Is God guilty for the wayward action of one of God's creations?
There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to take the life of the most innocent of the Lord's creations: our children. The recent massacre in Newtown is a blatant act of terror, even when such qualification is absent from the mainstream media.
If you are a responsible gun owner and an NRA member, now is your time to lead. It's time to publicly renounce the NRA. Responsible gun owners don't need the NRA. They need strong and reasonable gun safety laws -- what the NRA used to advocate on and has abandoned.
Focus on the things we can change. Start with ourselves. Maybe I won't read the details of this killer's life, or the next one's life. Maybe I'll support the political movement to reform our gun laws. It's not much, but it's something. And it maybe it keeps the darkness at bay.
How awful that of all the things people could be blaming for this tragedy, whether it be lax gun control laws, poor mental health services or a failure of serious attention paid to troubled youth, this was where the fault fell.
