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<\/a><\/div>\nTyler Clementi\u2019s apparent suicide has become worldwide news. The 18-year-old\u2019s body was found in the Hudson River this week, after he jumped off the George Washington Bridge, which is several miles from his northern New Jersey home. The allegation is his Rutgers roomate had recorded the teenager\u2019s sexual encounter with a young man and transmitted it on the internet.<\/p>\n
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.<\/i><\/p>\n
My family lives a stone\u2019s throw from the Rutgers campus, where Tyler had begun his studies weeks before. This morning, my parish priest took the unusual step of talking about a topical issue. Generally, he hews closely to the Gospel reading and speaks in general terms about how the words apply to our lives. When God commands us: \u201cThou Shalt Not Kill,\u201d He isn\u2019t just talking about the taking of a human life through murder. We humans are capable every day of inflicting another kind of death : the death of a person\u2019s soul through creating scandal and by holding others up to ridicule. Idle talk and vicious actions can kill a person\u2019s spirit. The alleged perpetrators did not push this young man off the bridge. Whoever violated Tyler\u2019s privacy in his dorm room, whoever stood by watching and laughing, stole his dignity and his personhood. <\/p>\n Today\u2019s Gospel reading lets us know the Catholic vision of faith: It is both something God offers us and something we humans, through our own free will, accept. I pray we all increase our faith and live it out through loving our neighbors as ourselves. Our journeys need to last all our days, acted out in the encounters with every soul God places in our paths.<\/p>\n The apostles said to the Lord, \u201cIncrease our faith.\u201d
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I\u2019ve been praying for Tyler, a talented violinist who apparently was struggling with his sexual identity, and for the souls of all children, who are growing up at a time when the Internet, along with the fraying of social structures, have eliminated line between public and private realms. I\u2019ve been praying for his parents, his family and all who loved him. What my pastor said this morning resonated with what I have been praying about all week. And so my ideas are inspired by his.<\/p>\n
The Lord replied, \u201cIf you have faith the size of a mustard seed,
you would say to this mulberry tree,
\u2018Be uprooted and planted in the sea,\u2019 and it would obey you.<\/p>\n