The tragic murder of the children and teachers in Connecticut fills us with horror. There is no explanation for the events in Connecticut that will answer the question why. It was an evil tragedy and no analysis can make it OK. There will be lots of attempts to explain in the coming months because human nature always tries to find a cause for the tragic. We hope that if we can find an explanation, then we can act in a way that will prevent such chaos from erupting in the future. Certainly there are things that we can do but nothing can guarantee a secure future. We live in a world that often reminds us that we are never entirely in control.
The tragedy reminds me of the slaughter of the infants in Matthew 2:16-18. Too often we slide over that passage quickly but we need to ponder it. At the time of the birth of Christ, God’s greatest gift to humanity, many a parent suffered greatly because of the loss of their child in a brutal massacre. No one is cruel enough to suggest that those children had to die so that Christ could be born. However, we do have to recognize that our faith is born and lived in a world that also has a tendency towards violence and cruelty. The good does not come into this world without a cost. Evil resists good and only because we believe that God, not evil, is finally Lord of history can we continue to live with hope.
Christians have much to offer their communities in the coming days. They should not deny the evil that exists in our world but they also have reason to have hope. Hope often begins in a fragile form, like a little child, and it takes time to nurture it to full growth, but it is always worth the effort. The parents in Bethlehem and Newtown Connecticut need our comfort and support. Their grief is real, like “Rachel weeping for her children (and refusing) to be consoled” with easy explanations. At the same time, the Christ is born and we have reason to have hope.
