Heartbreaking

The king was stunned. Heartbroken he wept.

2 Samuel 18.33

The Bible tells us that King David had a heart after the heart of God.  The Bible also tells us that he wept openly on several occasions, notably the death of  Jonathan his best friend and Absalom his son.

There are certain situations that are simply heartbreaking, they break our hearts.  They break the heart of God.

The tragedy that has unfolded at an elementary school in Connecticut is surely such as situation.  It is unprecedented in its details.  Like David before his own tragedy, it is truly stunning to us. It is appalling and leaves us speechless. What can be said?

This weekend we will offer all our Masses for the victims and their families. We want to especially remember those families: for the parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters of the little children and for the families of the adult deceased, let us pray. We can definitely lift them up in prayer this entire weekend, and through our prayer, we can support them.  We should pray for the survivors too, whose childhood innocence has surely been shaken by the trauma of this experience.

Scripture tells us:

God is near to the brokenhearted,

he lifts up those who are crushed in spirit.

Psalm 34

May he be especially close to those who are broken and crushed by this tragedy. May they know his presence and his peace.