Pascha VII

The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 97; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17:20-26

How many of us thought that with the murder of 26 people, 20 of which were children between 6 and 7 years old, at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT in 2012, that the issue of gun violence in our nation would finally be addressed? How wrong we were. We are now ten years hence and in Uvalde, Texas, 19 children were murdered by a young person just eight years their senior. It was also an eighteen year old who murdered 10 people in a Buffalo grocery store just two weeks ago.

So again we weep and soak in grief. Our airwaves are filled with pundits who offer predictable lamentations, thoughts and prayers. Our politicians will now make the required visits. And we will promise never to forget – but we do. How many of us can remember one name from the Columbine shooting? The Pulse Night Club? Sandy Hook? Buffalo just 2 weeks ago? How many of us even know the name of one murdered child from Robb Elementary?

I am numb. I am tired. And the media cycles lull us into the realm of forgetfulness.

We may have a haunting fear these events are not isolated and I do not believe they are. When elected officials say these events “are not us”. I counter. “They are us!” This is our present American culture where mass shootings have become a near-daily reality. We are a violent nation in which there are more guns in circulation than citizens. No other nation experiences mass shootings as we do. 950 school shooting have occurred since Sandy Hook including 27 so far this year [that over 1 school shooting a week] and there are 8 million AR-15s and its variations in circulation among the populace.

When you have created a Golden Calf out of guns thus making holy instruments of death, do not be surprised when death uses those instruments against us.

It angers me to hear people and leadership make excuses. Yes, we need to address mental illness, poverty and racism in our country. But the elephant in the room is the gun, a weapon of violence and death itself.  As Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville, Texas, tweeted “Don’t tell me that guns aren’t the problem”.

The Second Amendment of our Constitution did not descend from Sinai. The right to bear arms should never be more important than human life.

It angers me when politicians don’t move to do anything to carry out their moral duty to protect the people, our children, entrusted to them while a student at Robb Elementary marks herself in the blood of a fellow student and teacher to protect herself; the blood marking her so the shooter would pass over her and her life be saved. Passover did not just occur in Egypt 3,000 years ago!

Pharaoh of Egypt and Herod of Jerusalem are very much alive. They are us. And the voices of the Hebrew children massacred in Egypt and Bethlehem cry out to us. My anger is not at the shooters but at us, a people who are seemingly impotent to do anything in the face of such continual violence in our churches, grocery stores, schools, movie theatres, concert venues, subways and streets. No other nation is experiencing mass shootings as we do. Yet, do we ever ask ourselves, why?

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, said in a statement, “Each one of us has a responsibility to address the root causes of this kind of evil”. Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, stated, “The Catholic Church consistently calls for the protection of all life; and these mass shootings are a most pressing life issue on which all in society must act—elected leaders and citizens alike”.

This is not just a political issue, a blue vs red issue, a legitimate gun owner’s vs non–gun owners issue; it is a human, moral and spiritual issue. It demands deep self-reflection and a change of heart. Who are we as a nation if we do not act to protect our children, our people? What do we love more: our guns or life? “Human beings are not created for death,” stated the Catholic Bishops of Texas. “The killing of defenseless children and their teachers is evil and an offense against God and human beings.”

Today people stood by, including Saul of Tarsus who would become the apostle Paul, and watched Stephen stoned to death. Good people from the women of Galilee, to Simon of Cyrene, to a Roman centurion stood by as Jesus was crucified. Good people stood by two years ago and watched George Floyd murdered.

“Thoughts and prayers alone are no longer acceptable for people of faith and goodwill. We must act to bring an end to such senseless violence.” [Mary Haddad, R.S.M., the president and chief executive of the Catholic Health Association.]