Ten days ago, I experienced one of those moments that will forever be burned into my memory. I was running errands when I received a text from an out-of-state friend asking whether my grandsons were OK, as she had heard there was a school shooting in Minneapolis.

I went home and began to read the news reports: two students killed, 18 children and three adults injured.  The shooter dead by suicide.

I don’t personally know any of the people who were directly affected, but everything about this shooting felt personal to me. Having lived in South Minneapolis years ago, I knew exactly where the church is. I could picture the school kids in their uniforms, packed into pews with their classmates, the teachers strategically positioned to keep an eye on their students. I could picture the elderly parishioners scattered among the pews attending weekday Mass along with the children, just as my mother did in her later years.

My heart was reeling as I prayed for the families of the murdered children, for those who were injured and those caring for them. I prayed for the children and adults who had been traumatized by witnessing the violence.  I prayed for the parents of the shooter, who had also lost their child, and who would be forever haunted by this horrific act of violence in a different way than the families of the innocent victims.  Unexpectedly, I was filled with compassion for the shooter. I can’t imagine the years of mental torment they must have endured to end up in this place.  

For the next few days I continued to grieve and to pray. Then, inevitably, the blaming and finger-pointing and name-calling began.  People lined up along too-familiar battle lines, seemingly using the tragedy to advance their agendas. May God forgive me for the times when I have, in my mind at least, jumped on one of those bandwagons.

Jesus never condoned condemning those with whom we disagree.  God is not served by choosing sides or slinging invective.  He has shown us what he requires: to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly in His presence. (Micah 6:8)

As a child attending Catholic school, I learned the prayer of St Francis in the words of a hymn, but today I am praying it from my heart.  Will you join me?

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.