Virginia Tech Tragedy ~ Many Victims Crying Out

The tragic violence at Virginia Tech this week has generated an immense volume of sensational media coverage, genuine sorrow and a collective examination of the heart-rending events. Whether one looks at the precious faces and lives of the brutally murdered, the mysterious and tormented life of Seung-Hui Cho, the shame and remorse of his family or the families of all impacted we see in each and every person a victim crying out. The cries for mercy, hope, understanding and healing love resonate to the heart of God. But many would ask: "Where was God in all this?" God could well ask "Where were we when the cries for help came? Where are we when cries come yet again from those in anguish, rejected and tormented by the realities of mental afflictions, sorrow or hopelessness? God longs to reach out through you and I to comfort, help heal. We may wisely realize we have not the wisdom, the answers, the power to respond to such needs. Yet as we but pray and yield to God we experience the grace that St. Therese affirmed when she said: "Christ has no body, now on earth..but yours". As we yield our words, hands, feet to Christ we may well then pray with St. Francis:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Instead of afflicting and perpetuating the stigma that helped fuel Seung-Hui Cho's increasing isolation and ultimate terrors may we instead share the healing stigmata, the wounds of Christ where hope and healing can be found.