Loved Til The End

Early this morning I was thinking about the people of Newtown and the tragedy they are living through. And the question we will continue to ask is why Adam Lanza would do such a thing. I have thought much about how a person could conceive of the idea of shooting children. Nothing about that idea is even comprehensible to me. Was it mental illness? Was it evil? Was it both? Perhaps so.
And yet in the face of unspeakable evil was unbelievable good. When evil came against those children, look at what happened. Six adults stood in the way and defended them. People like Dawn Hochsprung rushed toward evil and said, “No, you will not do this without a fight.” People like Ann Marie Murphy tried to protect her students from the gunman. Authorities told her father that her body was found covering a group of children’s bodies as if to shield them.
And the thought hit me – the worst of humanity called forth the best of humanity. When someone was attempting to inflict harm, someone else stood up in an effort to stop it.  Cardinal Timothy Dolan who spoke at Mrs. Murphy’s funeral quoted Jesus who said, “Greater love has no man than this: to lay down his life for his friends.” And so it was that we witnessed this truth lived out. Those teachers loved their children sacrificially. When evil rose up, so did good. "Like Jesus, Annie laid down her life for her friends," Dolan said. "Like Jesus, Annie's life and death brings light, truth, goodness and love to a world often shrouded in darkness, evil, selfishness and death."
While we grieve with the families and residents of Newtown who are watching a seemingly endless procession of funerals these days, we also give thanks for people like Dawn, Ann Marie, Lauren Russeau, Mary Sherlach, Victoria Soto and Rachel Davino. They have given us a picture of what it means to love and I hope we will live in its shadow for a long time. Let’s remember Newtown, not as a place of death, but as a moment when love was shown by the sacrificial laying down of lives for the sake of others. While I cannot imagine the fear those children felt during those moments, one thing is certain – they were loved until their final moment on earth.