Over the past week we have witnessed
another violent and heartbreaking shooting—this time in the Tree of Life
Synagogue. During Shabbat morning services eleven members of the Jewish
community were killed and seven injured. The event, like others in the recent
past leaves me stunned and once again saying “why.” Death is a hard and certain
reality. Words often seem trite in the face of its mystery.
I share the words of the Greek dramatist,
Aeschylus, with you. They have been a source of consolation, not an
explanation, more than once for me.
“Even in our sleep, pain which
cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.”
Aeschylus
Sr. Mary Catherine Wenstrup, OSB
The Pittsburgh synagogue shooting was a mass
shooting that occurred at Tree of Life –
Or L'Simcha Congregation[a] in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October
27, 2018, while Shabbat morning services and
a bris were
being held. Eleven people were killed, and seven were injured. The sole
suspect, 46-year-old Robert Gregory Bowers,[4][5] was arrested and
charged with 29 federal crimes and 36 state crimes.[4][6] The shooting was the
deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the
United States.[7][8] The event was one of
three far-right public attacks that took place in the United States the same
week, along with the a series of mail bombing attempts and the Jeffersontown Kroger
shooting.[9]
Tragedy of this level, [the synagogue shooting] a violation of the best hope of the United States, peaceful coexistence for ethnic minorities, freedom to worship in peace, prompts me to cry: I am a Christian but if they do that to you, I am a Jew, and would reverse these crucifixions of 2000 years not to put Jesus to death again and again, in so many ways and times and places. I will say the same for the Muslim and Hindu and others -- may we protect one another and declare our love for one another more truly. God bless OSB amen.
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