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| Source: blogger.com |
Another sickening and horrifying event occurred today: A school shooting at the Roman Catholic School of the Annunciation in Minneapolis, MN. An eight year old and ten year old are both dead. As is often the case, the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I believe that another seventeen persons - thirteen of which are children - have also suffered gun shot wounds and are being treated in a local trauma center. I am hearing that some of these shooting victims are "critical." These school shootings are horrific events. Does the fact that these children and adults were shot while attending Mass and sitting in their pews on the second day of the school year make it any more horrific? As the mayor of Minneapolis very passionately said: Do not now speak about "thoughts and prayers" - these children were in church!
Apparently, God demands that human beings cooperate with Him in keeping our lives safe and secure, including the lives of innocent children. But there are far too many troubled and twisted members of society that choose not to cooperate with God. With gun in hand - and this shooter had three guns - these twisted shooters unleash death and destruction on the innocent.
Lives have been lost; and lives have been irrevocably changed with today's shootings. The level of loss and grief is clearly incomprehensible. Perhaps we can respond by never being complacent in our security. Life is a true gift from God and we should be committed to cherishing and protecting this vulnerable gift, simultaneously co-suffering with those whose lives are cut short by acts of violence. How and why things happen as they do, is a mystery known only to God.
