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It's absolutely sickening. On the night of Dec. 26th at least two "men" opened fire on Toronto's Yonge St., a bustling downtown stretch crowded with Boxing Day shoppers. A shootout in an urban war. Six innocents were wounded; they crawled bleeding across the sidewalks, trying to reach safety in doorways and behind cars. A 15 year old woman was killed, shot in the face. I look at my Christmas Eve sermon, my assertion that the evils of the world can be overcome by God's love, and at this moment I don't really believe it. Maybe there is no healing us. Maybe we are a disgusting species that doesn't deserve salvation. Despair is a sin, and here I am...a desperate sinner. Then again, after the bullets stopped flying - even as they flew - people came to the rescue of one another. People who were spared, who could have fled for their lives, fled to avoid the horrible sights, instead helped the injured to safety, administered first aid, comforted one another. In the middle of man-made hell, angels emerged. I am sick to my stomach, just from reading an account of this crime. I'm finding it very difficult to see the light right now. It's very tempting to let anger engulf me, to rage against people who are acting worse than animals. I desperately want, need, to hate these swine, participants in a culture of violence that destroys lives and erodes the social fabric. It is so easy to hate them, even without names or faces to hate. But hate leads nowhere...it only leads to more death. Hate is the tool of Satan, the tool of destruction and death and rot. God asks us, commands us, to put hate aside. Christ taught, lived, died and rose again with a message of love. He gave us a love that overcomes hatred, that heals the wounded and reaches out to even to the killer. Even at a safe emotional distance I'm having a lot of trouble mustering that love. If someone I loved lay among the wounded or was the one killed, I know that love for my enemy would be impossible. I'm not that good. Christ is a tough king to follow. Maybe I'll do a better job of following him tomorrow. For now, please pray for the wounded, for the soul of the young woman killed, for the people who had to witness such savagery and for the whole city of Toronto. And if you're able, as I am currently not, pray for the lost individuals who wielded the guns. They need it more than anyone. |
