On Violence and the Infidel

I am sure we are united in prayer for the victims and those traumatized by Monday’s attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. I found out via two text messages that came in within a minute of each other, one from a good friend who sings here at St. Clement’s and the other from a good friend back home, 3,000 miles away. I was spending the beautiful Patriots’ Day at Josh’s parents’ home in the Worcester area, about an hour west of Boston, studying scripture most of the day.

We bounced around the various news outlets but as things settled, I recalled an observation that was made earlier in the day by Glenn Beck in response to standardized testing in New York (“Common Core”) that is driving curricular change in a bad direction (forcing educators to teach to the test, which indoctrinates progressive ideas and perspectives), and that whole dynamic is cascading through other states by adoption. The observation was a challenge to the assertion that individual rights correlate collective responsibilities. That seems to say that the burden of the exercise of individual rights (health, employment, personal security, personal property ownership, access to and discretion concerning education, etc.) falls on the collective as such. Beck challenged this, saying that the burden of individual rights should fall on the individual (individual responsibility) and that the burden of collective rights should fall on the collective.

As should be evident, the collective is composed of individuals, each exercising his own will. The common sense balance of rights and responsibilities may be shown in any number of cases: an individual person’s right to own property bears the responsibility that it not be used to the detriment of others. Should it be used in such a way, that person bears the responsibility (individually) via such sanctions as fines or imprisonment such that behavior is deterred which compromises the good for which that right was granted.

I would like to apply this logic to what we saw on Monday afternoon at the finish line near Copley Square.

Certainly violence was committed. Blood was shed, property was damaged, and hundreds of trained personnel descended upon the area to provide security and medical assistance, and to begin the investigation of what had taken place. Three have perished, and their loss is deeply felt nationwide. Almost two hundred others are maimed in various degrees, with a dozen in critical condition in some of the best hospitals in the world. Several others lost limbs.

Media outlets show people speculating on who did this, on how security can be increased to prevent this in the future, expressing wishes for violence against the perpetrators, or at least that they be found and “brought to justice.”

My feeling is this is a tragic reminder of the brokenness that exists in our world, and the need for us individually to take responsibility in showing virtue by our lives and fighting for others to be able and inspired to do the same. I was vividly reminded of God's own people’s chronic infidelity as I studied the book of Judges in the hours before chaos broke out just 3 blocks from the church where I live, though I was out of town at the time. Reading Pope Francis’ reaction and message is very similar to what we might expect of one whom God raises up to judge and reclaim His people at such a time.

“In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, His Holiness invokes God’s peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response. At this time of mourning the Holy Father prays that all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.” (Source: Vatican Radio)

The party responsible for the carnage receives his reward. We do not have to worry about that. As Obama said so well in his remarks yesterday, we respond to this evil “selflessly, compassionately, and unafraid.” We walk through the dark valley but fear no evil, for the Lord is at our side, with his rod and staff that guide us and give us courage. Christ has come into the world, the light shining in the darkness; and the darkness does not overcome it. Fr. Tom pointed out yesterday at our midday Mass and again at a special holy hour in the afternoon, that such evil cannot have an explanation; we will not “figure it out” or come to understand it in a way that resolves the issue. Rather, we respond with love and generosity to those affected, and, lest their lives, whether lost totally that day or partially in various ways, be given in vain, we must take this as an opportunity for personal conversion, turning from the little evils in our lives and embracing virtue courageously.

It is this infidelity in ourselves that these moments should expose; it is these violences that we inflict upon ourselves and that bleed over to those around us from which we must repent. Yet what can we do but open ourselves to the saving grace of the One who loved us into being and calls us to Himself?


Love the Immaculata!
Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca