REFLECTING ON THE SANDY HOOK TRAGEDY
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, Dec 19, 2012
Kanwal Prakash “KP” Singh
I saw the accounts of the massacre of innocent young children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on the CBS Evening News, online newspapers, and in a communication from St. Luke's United Methodist Church:
My heart and spirit is saddened with deep sorrow over the shooting and loss of so many lives, most of them children. We cannot possibly fathom the grief of the parents and families who lost children in this morning's senseless massacre.
Our hearts and spirits are full with an incredible sense of loss of young children in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy, and we cannot help but feel that we are an extended part of their families. So the tragedy takes on a mantle of personal grief and loss for the entire Nation.
We join all Americans with our prayers for the families and for this Nation that has already witnessed too many tragedies where our sacred spaces: schools, playgrounds, theaters, shopping malls, and places of worship have been the scenes of violence and deaths of innocents. It is disconcerting that these tragic events are happening all too frequently and more and more deadly. This should be a cause of great concern.
We pray for a day when we would no more be plunged into darkness and devastation of such experiences that are too hard to imagine and harder still to accept. We all wonder, how do the parents and families who lost innocent children recover from and reconcile in the face of such horrific grief at a moment like this, at a time of approaching Christmas and season of joyful celebrations and thanksgiving? These families will have a dark hole for a long long time; their world has been shattered.
Yet as a community of faiths, we know that we must turn to God in this hour of sadness for comfort for the families of victims, pray for God's Light and reassurance in the immense darkness of the moment; and extend our love and prayer to those who lost so much so suddenly, so tragically. That is what my faith teaches
me: turn to God who knows the innermost concerns of each living being and promises to bring healing in time, through prayer, reflection, and lots of help from good souls around us. All other faiths affirm that lesson and testify that God is All Love, always Compassionate, and eternally Benevolent to all His Creation.
There will be a lot of time to soul search, analyze, advance and enact on what we can do together to prevent such tragedies from recurring in the future.
We offer our prayers and blessings for all the families affected by this tragedy and for our Nation this night. May tomorrows bring hope, and peace, goodwill and understanding that how could violence be an answer to our personal problems, struggles, and conflicts. We must find ways to prevent such tragedies that are devastating our fellow Americans and our sense of cherished safety and peace.
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