“Why are you cast down my soul, why groan within me?” Psalm 42 expresses the nation’s grief at this sad moment, when 19 children and two adults have been killed in yet another disgusting violent tragedy. “Why are you cast down my soul?” Our souls are cast down because we see the destruction caused by human evil towards vulnerable children, and we grieve.
In the wake of yet another tragic school shooting and the country suffering from the heartbreak of tragic loss we hear about the need for more laws and regulations from both sides of the political aisle, yet again. Forgive me, but self-righteous political stump speeches are not the kinds of things the country needs at this moment. It sends the wrong message and fails to solve the problem.
A lesson from the 2008 Clint Eastwood film “Gran Torino,” might be more appropriate. (Spoiler alert). Eastwood’s character, Walt, a gruff and gritty old man in his elder years has watched his town become more ethnically diverse and far more violent. His neighbor’s son, Thao, a maturing adolescent, finds himself caught up in a gang. One scene has this young boy trying to steal Walt’s car, a Gran Torino.
Later in the story, Walt decides he wants to help the kid out, make him a stand-up citizen by teaching him a trade, getting him some work, and offering him some lessons in manhood, but the gang around the corner still has the kid in their claws. Violence erupts and Walt takes action. (This is the spoiler).
Walt goes to the gang member’s house and reaches into his pocket, and the gang members on the porch shoot him dead, thinking he is pulling out a weapon. Thao in turn receives the car, and never becomes the gangbanger.
Here’s the point: it’s not the strong man’s strength (Walt) that ends the violence. Walt ends the violence by changing his neighbor’s heart, by taking the bullet for him. This is how hearts and minds are changed, not by stronger laws, not by becoming the strongest person in the room and restricting the violent person’s actions. Change happens when the strongest in the room takes the bullet for the weaker one.
In the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, the server’s response to the priest’s question, “why are you cast down my soul,” is “Hope in God.” In moments like these, when our hearts are full of grief, our response should not be to turn to more controls or emotional speeches, we should turn to God. God conquered sin and death through His blood on the cross, His love is the only remedy for this grief, too.
Laws aren’t going to stop violence, love will. Only love can change hearts, only love can stop the violence. Political stump speeches won’t solve this nation’s problem. Turn to Jesus, ask Jesus to change your heart, to give you the courage to be the stronger one who is willing to take the bullet rather than shoot one. Ask God to transform your heart in love. Ask Jesus to be with the victims and their families as their consolation in grief. Ask Jesus to make our hearts grow in love and end this violence.
Father Nicholas T. Fleming, S.T.L, is the pastor of Saints John and James Parish and St. Mary Mission in West Warwick.
