What We Lost Last Week

It has been coming for quite a while, but we have not recognized it for what it is as I believe that we should.

We lost precious children and teachers in a horrific event this week.  We also lost a parent and her troubled child.

But, as bad as this may sound to you, I believe that we lost even more!

We lost our ability to respond to the pain of those who are maimed or killed as a result of someone’s act of violence with a sense of compassion.  This act, like others which preceeded it, became sensational news.  Caught up in the events, we became numb to the scenes before us, and tried to escape anyway we could - to CD's and other distractions.

As those of us who believe that God, God’s self, became Incarnate for the salvation of the world, this is particularly demonic.  If I believe that God became Incarnate only to free me from my pain and lostness, God’s gift becomes only my own personal relationship with God - important, but far less than God intended.   We can go along feeling sorry for others, but not really feeling compassion.  Translation:  It didn’t happen in my neighborhood or to my family.

But, God came to save all of creation in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Doesn’t that call us to accept our shared humanity with all of its brokenness?  To do so would open in each of us avenues for the pain of others to be felt.  By acknowledging and feeling the pain of others, can we can begin to respond with compassion.  After all, the word “compassion” means “with passion.”  Compassion is not regret.  Regret forgets until the next time.  Compassion is active involvement in the healing process.

If you’ve never experienced the loss of a child under your care, if you’ve never been huddled with others listening as gunshots ring out in a public place, if you’ve never experienced the fear of a forced evacuation because of a threat, if you’ve never seen the dark vacuum in the eyes of someone who intends to kill you, then I pray that you never will.  I do pray, however, that we will be more sensitive to those pains and fears shown on our TV screens – whether in our own country or in other lands being destroyed by war.

There are no easy answers to the violence that surrounds us. 

There is, however, hope.  Hope that comes in the form of an innocent child

• exposed to the elements,
• the neglect of the community,
• and the retaliatory fear of both religious and secular leadership. 

May the fragile Christ Child bring you the gift of hope this season as we all experience the saddness over the loss of not only the innocents, but the loss of our own innocence as well.

Brother Simeon, expecting the gift of hope from God - the only reliable source