By Kelly Meraw for the BUILD THE FAITH BLOG
This reflection is being penned the day after another horrific mass shooting; innocent people murdered and wounded, parents left reeling, and students left with a life-long trauma that no surgeon could bind up. Yet another atrocity in a country so accustomed to gun violence that we have settled for it as an unchangeable reality. It’s unlikely this event will persevere in the headlines past the obligatory 72-hour news cycle. Our level of grief and outrage can simply not be sustained now that we’ve collectively resigned ourselves to living like this, deciding meaningful reform is unachievable.
A friend shared with me recently that any attempt to enact effective strictures on the market of assault weapons in the United States would be as futile as trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. Even so, for those of us with children (who seem to be the most attractive targets of these horrific acts of terror), this mom has to ask: “Why aren’t we trying?”
While that question may be received as naive, for Christians entrusted with the task of both praying for and building up an earth as it is in heaven, the question is evidence of our commitment to our bond of love… the bond of perfection in Christ Jesus, as One body– One human family.
It appears, though, that we’ve lost the thread. It seems that we no longer look into the eyes of these innocent children and see our own families.
We see this detachment evidenced in our collective response. Our level of grief seems commensurate to our physical proximity to the tragedy. For those of us in the Northeast, for example, Newtown, Connecticut and Brown University feel like they “could easily have been us….” As if the slaughtered school children in Minneapolis or Uvalde, Texas don’t resemble our own families and, as such, demand fewer tears….as if we could run out of salty reserves, our tears as limited as our hearts, restricted to the places we call home.
Today’s Feast of the Holy Family provides more than just an invitation to peace in our individual homes. It’s bigger than that. It is an urging to reconfigure our hearts to deliberate care for all – honoring our sisters, revering our brothers, taking care of our mothers and fathers, and raising justice for our children. This Feast calls us, in one body, to the peace of Christ as one beloved family. . .
TO READ THE FULL REFLECTION PLEASE VISIT: buildthefaith.org/one-body-one-family
Kelly Meraw, Director of Pastoral Care and Liturgy
St. John-St. Paul Collaborative