Newtown candle light vigil 12/16/2012

Thank you all for being here this evening. Welcome to those from our various faith communities. Welcome to those from the wider Newtown community. Welcome.

For many of us this time of year holds the theme of light shining in the darkness. In my tradition we hear the ancient words: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.

It isn’t always easy to accept this. It is sometimes easier to believe darkness is stronger than light. Our ancestors in the Northern Hemisphere struggled with this belief, this fear that darkness would overwhelm light.

They held this fear in a very real and physical way as the winter solstice brought an ever encroaching darkness into the world of nature. People who observed nature from the perspective of reason and faith asserted that darkness of the winter solstice will always yield to the light. They devised religious rituals to reassure the people of their time that there is a balance in the natural world. Darkness has not and will not overwhelm light.

That is why many of us in the northern hemisphere light candles or display lights at this time of year.

There is another form of darkness in the world. We are here tonight to ponder the mystery of that darkness. It is the darkness of separation. It is the darkness of violence. It is the darkness of sudden unforeseen tragic death.

People have been asking two basic questions about this darkness. Why and What. Why did this happen? What can we do to prevent it from happening again?

These are good questions. They are also difficult questions. In the world we have created for ourselves there are no easy answers to these questions.

There is another more basic question we might ask. How? How could one solitary individual inflict so much pain, suffering and death in so short a period of time?

The answer to that question is easy to answer but difficult to hear. The answer to the “how” question is one semi-automatic weapon of mass destruction. The answer is a weapon specifically designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest possible time. The deeper question is should we even make such weapons of mass destruction?

I remember an old song. It is called “Stop in the Name of Love.”

At the risk of offending your beliefs I have to repeat the refrain of that old song as I ponder the reality of the mass murder in Newtown, CT by a solitary individual wielding one of these perfectly legal and easily accessible weapons of mass destruction.

To those manufacture these weapons I say: Stop. Stop in the name of love. Stop. Think. Consider the cost in suffering, death and despair. Make a different choice. Choose love.

To those who sell these weapons I say: Stop. Stop in the name of love. Stop. Think. Consider the cost in suffering, death and despair. Make a different choice. Choose love.

To those who possess these weapons I say: Stop. Stop in the name of love. Stop. Think. Consider the cost in suffering, death and despair. Make a different choice. Choose love.

I appeal to choice and I appeal to love because it is clear that I cannot appeal to law.

As a Christian priest I remember how a teen ager named John became Jesus’ best friend. I remember how Jesus, as he was dying on the cross, asked his mother Mary to complete John’s spiritual formation. He asked his mother to do this because he knew she lived and moved and had her being from the place of Love. He specifically committed that one teen to her because he knew that teen wanted to live and move and have his being from the place of love.

Jesus did this because he knew how one person can change the world.

John would later share with the world what he learned from his best friend, Jesus, and from Holy Mother Mary. John wrote: God is love. God just doesn’t have love. God is love.

God is love. He who loves is born of God. By this do we know we are of God: that we love one another.

As a priest of the living Lord of Love I appeal to all of us here tonight to choose love.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way. Love transforms fear into faith, anger into hope, pride into humility. Love is the missing term in the unbalanced equation of individual rights and social responsibility.

It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. Light the candle of love. Love is the one thing in our midst that is infinite and eternal. It may seem counter intuitive to say that. It is as counter intuitive as the statement: the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it.

Light the light of love here and now tonight. Guard that light. Nourish that light. Cherish that light.

Every new morning affirm: I choose the light of love in my thoughts, words and deeds.

I choose love. I choose life.

With all respect to our elected officials, they can only work with law. It is clear the solution to darkness is not more law. The solution to darkness is more light. The solution is our personal choice to live and move and have our being in the light of love.

Moses once said: behold I place before you the way of life and the way of death. Therefore, choose life.  Jesus’ best friend, John, extended the words of Moses under the instruction of Holy Mother Mary and said: Choose the light of life by choosing love.

The message I want to bring to you tonight is love. Love alone will enable us to find the courage to move through this tragedy into a new way of living.

If we choose love we choose God. If we choose love we choose patience, courage and kindness. If we choose love we gain everything in the midst of loss.

Light and only light shines in the darkness. That light tonight, tomorrow and always is love.