Holy Innocents

Holy Innocents

*On Sunday, Jan. 5 1991, a friend’s daughter got on a school bus with her New Bedford High School basketball team for a game in Falmouth. On their way, a sniper’s bullet shot from the woods of the mid-Cape Highway hit fourteen-year-old Robyn Dabrowski in the chest and killed her. Her mother as Jo-Ann was on the bus. She died. Robyn's mother, Jo-Ann, was on the bus. Another 14 year old girl suffered grazing by the same bullet that killed Robyn. The snipers turned out to be young boys taking pot shots at mid-Cape highway traffic.

*On April 15, 1993 a 42-year-old man shot and killed an elementary school nurse yesterday in Acushnet, MA. Carole A. Day, 51, was shot in the back by David Taber of Acushnet after he took her, the principal and the school librarian hostage. Carole died at the school.

*On March 13, 1996, a 43 year old man walked into Dunblane Primary School Dunblane, Scotland. Equipped with four handguns, he shot and killed sixteen children and one teacher, after which he took his own life.

On the heels of this heinous act and similar events in the 20th century history of the United Kingdom, public debate centered on gun control and subsequent laws to protect the public from more horrific incidents. The media pelted Parliament for change. Public petitions, vigils and demonstrations by the people of the UK called for a ban on private ownership of handguns and prompted official inquiry into a resolution for the common good. As a result, the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 and the Firearms (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 1997 became law, effectively making private ownership of handguns illegal in the United Kingdom.

After the heinous crime at Sandy Hook School that occurred on Friday, December 14, 2012, the people of the United States watched their president react to the horrific incident ‘not as a president, but as a parent.’ While I completely understand and very much appreciate the depth of the President Obama’s emotional response, that just isn’t enough. Not anymore. Enough is enough. We need our leader to lead.

The president needs to send a new bill to Congress to repeal private ownership of handguns. The Second Amendment was written in colonial times; there were good reasons to bear arms when no law enforcement existed in this country. Things have changed; we need to change too. A magnum opus of power seems to be playing government’s orchestra. Lawmakers reluctantly reply to questions on gun control. The Hill appears to not comprehend that we cannot control violence without removing the weapons that cause the violence. And this only addresses part of an enormous cultural problem and spiritual void in our country.  But let’s face it: we have to begin somewhere. Gun control would be a good place to begin.

As I usually do when I need to think, I turn to my books for answers. I came upon a passage in Gaudium et Spes in a section called ‘The Arms Race’ that hit the nail on the proverbial head:

“As long as extravagant sums of money are poured into the development of new weapons, it is impossible to devote adequate aid in tackling the misery which prevails at the present day in the world. Instead of eradicating international conflict once and for all, the contagion is spreading to other parts of the world. New approaches, based on reformed attitudes, will have to be made in order to remove this stumbling block, to free the earth from its pressing anxieties, and give back the world a genuine peace.” GS 81

Spot on, Vatican II. Prophetic writing 50 years ago. The contagion has invaded us. The septicity is no longer ‘out there’ in some distant place that cannot reach us. The poison of violence continues to seep its toxic waste into every corner and pocket of the earth. I don’t care how many gated communities we build: the venom lies much deeper and infects the Town of Perfect, USA. We live with the anxiety, the fear that Sandy Hook can be anywhere, at any time to anyone. Who will be next? A hospital full of sick patients? A parish church on a Sunday morning? A business in the middle of town? How will we reform our lives so that Sandy Hook will never occur again? Gun violence isn’t the only killer out there. Negativity, self-absorption, indulgence –  we know where we need work. This is bigger than gun control, although that is a necessary beginning. John the Baptist was right: we need to change who we are as a people.

On Friday, we saw the poison of that contagion strike at the most defenseless people among us – innocent children, holy innocents whose lives only just began. The adults who died no doubt died in the attempt to save children. But innocence died too as children who lived watched their holy innocent friends lose to a gunman’s war with God knows what on his poor sick mind. And innocent dies every day that we stay silent, do nothing and care about nothing beyond what makes us ‘happy.’ As the old folk song goes, “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?”

In response to the cruel act of violence that occurred in Dunblane, Scotland, John L. Bell and Graham Maule composed There is a Place that can be found on the collection The Last Journey and published by GIA Publications. Click the link to go directly to the site: http://www.giamusic.com/product_search.cfm?criteria=there+is+a+place&search_button.x=0&search_button.y=0&search_button=submit

The music and words from this poignant piece may offer some consolation in the wake of Friday’s tragedy. The entire collection of music and a beautiful book of accompanying prayers deserve notice by those who minister to communities of faith. I post the lyrics of There is a Place here as a prayer of consolation that Christ can be found weeping with the rest of us as we pray and remember the people in Sandy Hook this weekend.

There is a Place

Words by John L. Bell and Graham Maule

Tune: Dunblane Primary (JLB)

There is a place prepared for little children,

those we once lived for, those we deeply mourn,

those who from play, from learning and from laughter

cruelly were torn.

There is a place where hands which held ours tightly

now are released beyond all hurt and fear,

healed by that love which also feels our sorrow

tear after tear.

There is a place where all the lost potential

yields its full promise, finds its true intent;

silenced no more, young voices echo freely

as they were meant.

There is a place where God will hear our question,

suffer our anger, share our speechless grief,

gently repair the innocent of loving

and of belief.

Jesus, who bids us be like little children,

shields those our arms are yearning to embrace.

God will ensure that all are reunited:

there is a place.