This morning, I ran across an article about the Nashville shooting that included a video in it. The footage was from a camera on one of the police's uniform. You could hear both the fear and anger in the police's voices as they frantically searched for the active shooter. You could the desperate cries of children, and earsplitting gun shots. At the end of the video, you could hear one police say, "shooter is... down."
How?
How did the shooter's mind become so twisted, so depraved?
Why was Audrey Hale's soul in such a dark place?
These are the questions we should be asking ourselves.
This school shooter, this woman, is a result of the worst of our society.
Audrey is the product of
- A country that promotes perversion of sex (pornography, birth control, abortion, etc.)
- Teenagers who don't stand for their Faith
- Catholics who neglect the Sacraments (Holy Eucharist, Confession, etc.)
- Weak preaching
- Lukewarm Christians
- Selfish spouses and single people
The list goes on; the ways we deny God.
While it is not good to dwell on evil for too long, we should let this, as well as the other atrocities of our world, break our hearts.
We should let this break our hearts.
After doing so, we then have two choices. We can quietly resume our lives of hazy comfort. Or we can use this as an opportunity for examination of conscience.
Every one of us, no matter our age or stage in life, have a beautiful role in this world. Roles that protect people like Audrey from such dark places; roles that can prevent the murder of innocent children. These include being faithful spouses, courageous youth, strong friends, sacrificial priests, and devoted siblings.
While this is another extremely sickening display of evil in our world, we can use it as inspiration. We should use it as motivation to become fully Christian- to be witnesses to the world around us of the truth and of love. In order to fight evil such as this shooting, it is going to take each of us practicing virtue, daily.
Let's use this horrible event as a reminder of our responsibility to live holy lives.
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