Our Lady of Lourdes Church and School

So far this year, in 2017 in the United States

 There have been 52,568 incidents involving guns.

13,205 people have been killed by gunfire.

27,047 people have been injured by gunfire.

621 children, 11 years old and younger have been killed or injured.

2,771 teens, between 12 and 18, have been killed or injured.

There have been 307 mass shootings so far this year, the last one having occurred in a Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs in rural Texas. (A mass shooting is considered to involve four or more victims)

I don’t know what the answer is to the absolute horrors that underlie these numbers. What I do know is that every number is a human being who has died or has had their life marked by tragedy.

There are more guns in civilian hands in the US than in any other country in the world. A 2007 report by the Swiss-based “Small Arms Survey” put the number of guns in civilian hands at more than 270million… more than enough to arm every adult in the United States.

While the US has 5% of the world’s population, it has 31% of the world’s mass shootings.

I raise my eyes toward the mountains.
From whence shall come my help?
My help comes from the LORD,
the maker of heaven and earth. (Ps 121)

I can only turn my eyes to the heavens with a choked cry in my throat as I wonder how I would react had I an 18-month old child killed in Church? Or if my pregnant wife was killed?  The reality is that violence such as this touches all of us, and still we have not managed to come up with a reasonable approach to address our concerns. We lock down our school campuses, we exercise constant and increased vigilance. We take security measures. We do all that we can conceivably do to keep our loved ones safe and secure. What more is there to be considered?

Our prayers for victims of such tragedy must be matched by our resolve to act to find and make a reasonable solution to such evil in our country. Not working toward securing a resolution is no longer an option for people of goodwill.

Perhaps the words of our first reading today might offer some encouragement:

Resplendent and unfading is wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her. She hastens to make herself known in anticipation of their desire; Whoever watches for her at dawn shall not be disappointed, for he shall find her sitting by his gate. For taking thought of wisdom is the perfection of prudence, and whoever for her sake keeps vigil shall quickly be free from care; because she makes her own rounds, seeking those worthy of her, and graciously appears to them in the ways, and meets them with all solicitude.