Another Day, Another Mass Shooting…

Another day, another mass shooting. Wow. As much as it upsets me, I wasn’t going to blog about it. As I was sitting at Mass, however, I felt the Holy Spirit urging me to share a few thoughts. Here goes…

1. God Is In Control

Don’t panic. It might not seem like it, but God is always in control. He gave us the gift of free will, which can be abused. People can do very bad things. To prevent that, God would have to take away our freedom. He won’t do that. I can’t tell you why he does what he does, but I can tell you that he can bring good out of evil. If you have any doubt, take a look at the crucifix.

2. No Quick Fix

When tragedies like this occur, we understandably want to come up with a quick fix. We need better gun control, we need less gun control, the Republicans are the problem, the Democrats are the problem, etc. The ultimate solution is that we need God as the center of our lives. There can be other contributing factors, but God is the ultimate answer. Getting him back into society will not happen overnight, but we need to get the ball rolling.

3. Pray For All Involved

In El Paso, 20 people died violent and sudden deaths. They didn’t expect to die and may not have been prepared for their day of judgment. We need to pray that God will have mercy on them. We should also pray for their families and all affected.

4. Hating The Killer Is Not The Answer

A popular pro-life, conservative blogger tweeted that the El Paso shooter was a “piece of s**t” and should be given the electric chair. He’s wrong. The shooter is a child of God who did something very evil. Jesus still loves him as much as he loves any of us. He loves us for who we are not for what we do or don’t do. Hating this man goes against everything Jesus said and did. While he was dying on the cross, Jesus forgave those who put him there. We might not feel like it, but he commands us to do the same.

5. There Is Something We Can Do

When we hear of horrific incidents like this, we often make the mistake of thinking there’s nothing we can do. I don’t have all the answers, but I can think of two things can we can do immediately. The first thing we can do is pray. The second thing we can do is listen to Jesus and love one another. It sounds so lame, but it really is the answer. I can’t control the behavior of anyone else, but I can control what I say and do. If we all did this, the world would be a better place.

That’s all I got. Hope it helped.