In Tragedy We Turn to God

Photo Credit: Annunciation Catholic Church

(I originally planned a different topic to write about this week but before I settled with my laptop I caught the news about another school shooting. I had to change the topic. I simply had to.)

I was assigned to teach in an elementary school for only three of my forty years in education, but they were exciting and delightful years, two as a first grade teacher, one as a fourth grade teacher. There were 50 children in each class. I could not wait for each day to begin. I tried to have fresh lesson plans, and I scoured education magazines for creative ideas in teaching different subjects. I listened to the advice of my more seasoned colleagues who had taught for years and still enjoyed polishing the lustre of a new class each year, of getting to know a new batch of students every September. I could not believe I had the privilege of teaching children to read! When the Mother Superior made her annual visit to our faculty, she asked me how I liked teaching young children. “Oh, please Mother,” I pleaded, “please never change me. I want to be with little children all my life. I love teaching them!” In brief, however, I was changed after the third year and taught high school for ten years and then after completing the required terminal degree, I was teaching college for the remaining of a forty year career. Though the age of the students changed, as well as their unique educational needs as my assignments advanced, I never changed my attitude about my ministry. I absolutely loved teaching.

My first and fourth graders came to mind today when I learned of the shooting taking the lives of children the age of my students so many years ago. I remember every child’s name from these classes beginning 68 years ago because I have kept a record of the members of each of my classes. For me, September was as golden as the golden rod, the fall flower and icon on all the composition books and tablets the children had to buy. The smell of bright leaves falling on the sidewalks and the playgrounds. Chalk dust mingling in warm air; the sound of children singing, of balls bouncing, jump ropes smacking the black top, these are the signs that the world has returned to the diurnal liveliness and eagerness and excitement that a new school year brings.

And yes. There is the opening Mass of the school year in Catholic schools. Everyone was in new uniforms some with neckties askew, all with dusty shoes. Everyone is squirming in the pews and giggling and nudging the neighbor. Hands, folded in prayer, become miniature pretzels stifling coughs, hiding contraband like pennies and candy. Suddenly when the priest appears, the whole school jumps to its feet creating tremors and noise that register on the Richter scale. And then we are quiet. “In the name of the Father and the Son,” and a chorus of hundreds of children would pray aloud aware that God is there. And they were loved. And they were safe. It’s the way school started, a tradition centuries old, at Annunciation School in Minneapolis this past week.

A question I keep hearing from a faith perspective is: Where is God in this tragic moment? And are our prayers really effective? 

Reflection

God is in every moment of every life. God is ubiquitous, unable to be contained, unleashed, as it were, and so God is in love with each of us and invades our beings and moves within us as flawlessly as our blood flows, but even deeper, as imperceptible but powerful as our spirits and brains move –  guiding us, moving us, inspiring us every moment of our lives. God is in conscience, affection, dreams, heart beats. God must dwell in each of us. But God also cannot control our wills. Oh no, that is up to us. This power is what makes us good, bad, empathetic, or not, generous, or selfish. Though we may have individual impairments in using it, our will power is not in God’s control. He would not be God if he controlled it. Thus, God could not control the shooter whose free will was active, but God did reside in the children he held close as they were killed. Elie Weisel witnessed a young man put on a mock cross in a Nazi death camp. The young man was tortured by the soldiers in front of his Jewish elders. When one of the elders shouted, “where is our God now?” Another shouted, “He is on the beam with that boy.” And that is where God was in Annunciation Church last Wednesday.

Are our prayers really answered? Yes, they are. When someone says, as did the Mayor of Minneapolis, that prayers and thoughts are not enough, he is right. The prayers we say must accompany what we need to do to confront the evil of killing innocent people. If we just pray and do not vote for leaders who challenge gun control, or join groups for advocacy in gun control, our prayers will not be effective. Theologian Gerhard Lohfink emphasizes the importance of community (communio) in prayers of petition at times of tragedy. It is this witness which the community in Minneapolis demonstrated so beautifully in gathering to pray for the victims and families of the shooting. But Lohfink goes further: “Our prayer for the (victims) must lead to action for them. Only then is it legitimate.”  He says, “Prayers of petition should confront us with the will of God and thereby make us aware that it is our own duty to act in the world.”  

This week, could we determine how we will pray and take action for the ambitious goal of telling our leaders to start discussing ways to control the gun industry and the availability of guns for nefarious purposes? We need to do both. Perhaps we can even join groups who advocate for better gun control. Make this all part of a prayer we know will then be heard. Let us save our children. Please let us save our children.

Lohfink, Gerhard: Prayer Takes Us Home: The Theology and Practice of Christian Prayer p. 73.

 Photo Credit: Pixabay.com