Just as we are embracing the warm freedom of summer, just as we are honoring our fathers, and just as we are trying to unify as God’s children—a horrendous act of targeted hatred and terror cuts deeply into our world experience, taking the lives of 49 people and drastically changing the lives of countless other shooting victims and their families. The event took place in an Orlando nightclub, but its wake spreads far and wide. I know that I speak for our Holy Family Catholic Community in offering our prayers and condolences to the many victims, those deceased, those maimed, and those shaken by such a violent act against humanity. As we are continuing to learn more about motive and intent it seems clear that this senseless act of violence and terror was well planned and targeted members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. I offer my personal prayers and offer support to any LGBT neighbors, parishioners, their family members and friends who feel particularly threatened as a result of this horrific crime. Our One in Love ministry may be of particular importance as it gathers with family, friends and in advocacy for the LGBT community. This ministering community gathers to be allies, to serve and educate anyone. Our One in Love ministry gathers on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00am. As I have already said, we suffer with those who are victims in Orlando and beyond, and we also love with them. Let us pray for divinely inspired wisdom for our entire human family because such acts that take and maim the life that God has given us have no place in a civilized society.
Like you I am sure, I have watched and read accounts of the Orlando night club shooting and I wonder how and why a single human being can so profoundly shatter the lives of so many. I am moved to tears as I hear the cries of grief and outrage and the ongoing debates about how such terror can be avoided. As is so often the case, our scripture readings for this coming weekend reflect how so many of us are feeling. Our first reading this weekend is from Zechariah who prophesied after the fall of Jerusalem and during a period of time when Jewish people were divided and many of them forced to leave their homeland under the rule of pagan kings. In this passage from the 12th chapter of Zechariah we hear, “…they shall look upon him…and mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and they shall grieve over him as one grieves over a firstborn.” This is obviously a foreshadowing of the grief that humanity will eventually feel at the time of the death of Jesus Christ. I can’t imagine the pain, grief, loss and sorrow that parents feel when they lose a child, and again let us hold very near to our hearts the parents who lost children in the shooting in Orlando.
Zechariah wrote during a particularly dark and challenging time for the people of Israel whose faith was challenged by people outside their realm of belief. He prophesied during a time when people looked at God differently and yet, through it all ,the love of one God led them to reconcile and rebuild.
In our Gospel this week according to Luke, Jesus asks two profound questions, “Who do people say that I am?” and “Who do you say that I am?” Peter’s answer that Jesus is the Christ (anointed) of God leads to Jesus’ explanation that he must suffer, die and rise on the third day, and that if any one of them (or us) is to follow him, that following entails picking up the cross of suffering and losing ourselves for the sake of Jesus Christ in order to be saved. In other Gospels, Jesus responds to Peter’s statement that he is the Christ by naming Peter as the first pope, but here in Luke we hear a different challenge, perhaps one that resonates with the awful events recently in Orlando.
We must once again pick up a cross of grief and suffering, as a nation and world, in the face of gun violence, mental illness, hatred, individual isolation and perhaps other factors that we don’t even know yet. We seem to hear over and over that losing life will somehow lead to saving life, but the pattern seems to be the same—a horrific crime shatters the life of so many, sparks grief, anguish, concern, debate and even the enactment of some laws, but then the intensity of those feelings fade only to be sparked by the next senseless incident. I don’t know about you, but I am growing weary in the midst of this pattern, and that is why I turn to and seek divine wisdom more than ever. May the divine lift us up in love and bring the entire human family to greater respect and unity. That belief is articulated in the outpouring of grace proclaimed in our first reading, faith in Jesus Christ in our second reading, and the rising of Jesus Christ after death in our Gospel.
But the response from the LGBT community has also brought a ray of hope. Their response leading to inspire all of us is that love will win out over hate. The intensity of this message somehow distinguishes this tragedy from others, and brings a hope of real reconciliation that I believe we all yearn for.
On a somewhat lighter note, we honor our fathers this weekend. Our dads – living, deceased, present, absent, never perfect but influential, young, elderly, fragile, strong … whatever our experience of our own biological father– let us take time to remember, pray for, reconcile with, gather with and thank them. In a special way, let us pray for fathers who have lost a child and be sensitive to the unique challenge that this may bring to their role as father. Our God lost a child to suffering and death, but gained the hope he desired for all humanity through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.