IN THEORY:Confronting suffering

When a horrific rampage, such as the one at Virginia Tech this week, happens, how do you help your flock make sense of it from a religious perspective?

No matter how we try to shed light on the tragedy at Virginia Tech, we would still be falling short of rationalizing any part of it. For any rational person, such an act cannot make any sense. It was a senseless act, and certainly God had no part in it. This was done by a callous, vindictive and deranged person. All that we can do is to pray that God gives us much patience as we all endure the pain of loss.

IMAM SAYED MOUSTAFA AL-QAZWINI

Islamic Educational Center

of Orange County

Costa Mesa

The 12th word of Genesis reveals that darkness is the natural state of existence. Only later does light appear. Today, too, a darkness hovers over the face of the deep from which we try to extract illumination.

Our world appears to distribute its beneficence and sufferings so unequally. A primary component of this condition is that in our free will we are both blessed and cursed. We are free to make our next moral choice and ethical decision. Some use their free will for weal while some abuse it for woe. Since God affirms free will, he does not prevent bad things from happening to good people, and he does not ensure that good things happen to good people. Countless, therefore, are the upright across the ages who have succumbed to the evil designs of those who made common cause with the Angel of Death. Evildoers will always slink among us. Since Cain rose up to slay his blameless brother, Abel, the innocent have been pitilessly attacked.

But when the darkness descends, as it inevitably does, we push against it with all our might. We seek some redemptive aspect in the devastation. Amid the millions of active perpetrators of the Holocaust and the millions of acquiescent bystanders who applauded from the sidelines or maintained a studied indifference, we search for the light exemplified by heroic rescuers who risked everything to protect strangers.

When terrorists blow up innocent Israelis at cafes, malls, clubs and religious ceremonies, we are grateful for those whose fellow-feeling impels them to rush to care for the wounded.

When planes strike the World Trade Center, we are uplifted by the chronicles of courage and lessons in loving kindness that demonstrated the nobility of man.

In the massacre at Virginia Tech, we find the light in a professor who sacrificed his life that his students might live and in the students who placed themselves in harm’s way that many could survive.

The comfort we draw — though it is hardly a match for the grief and outrage we feel — is that evil is not ultimately triumphant. It does not extinguish the capacity for heroism, sacrifice and perseverance evidenced by the good among us. It does not deter us from striving to build a better world. It does not drive us to our knees in despair nor force us to the table of surrender. We cannot interdict all malevolent schemes to inflict anguish and loss on the human community. But we can defiantly proclaim through our lives that we will seek out the light by drawing inspiration from those who modeled the finest and highest of the human spirit.

Our reservoir of strength will never be drained by those who espouse demonic hate. As we take these precious dead into our hearts, along with the cherished memories of our own loved ones, our will is more resolute, our faith is more steadfast, and our hope is more confident because their souls are now bound up with ours.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yahm

Newport Beach

Any time some of our best and youngest are struck down pointlessly, needlessly, senselessly — whether a total of 32 on a campus in Virginia, caused by a deranged individual with a sick mind, or exceeding 3,000 in Iraq as a result of bad decisions made in Washington, D.C., based on distortions and lies — it is clearly an overwhelming tragedy for our country and for all of us.

It is now time for us to come together and try to figure out what can be done to help prevent such tragedies in the future.

JERRY PARKS

Member

Humanist Assn.

of Orange County

“When you suffer a calamity, then be it so: Now is the time of calamity.” The Zen monk Ryokan said this in the early 1800s after an earthquake that killed thousands. Being “in the moment” does not just apply to the good times like a walk on the beach, catching up with a friend or concentrating on an interesting project. It includes experiencing the bad times — sharing grief.

We may do this in a variety of ways: by being present to families who have lost loved ones, by offering whatever help we can, by attending memorial services or by taking action (for example, on gun-control laws). It is natural to ask why, but superficial explanations will not penetrate the mystery of suffering. Someone is hurt, and we reach out just as naturally as we would pull our own hand from a fire. We hear and experience their pain as our own. We suffer the calamity.

A popular misconception about Zen is that it results in a nothing-bothers-me attitude or a blessed-out state of mind. The simple, genuine human response is what Zen training cultivates. Well-established psychological and pastoral resources on grief coincide with Zen in encouraging us to fully experience the entire range of our emotions, whether anger, confusion, guilt or hatred — without taking action until some time has passed and we have had regained some equanimity.

A Buddhist practice I use is to first encourage myself to feel the pain of a difficult emotion. Our usual response may be to avoid, minimize or medicate. Next, I imagine myself accepting and embracing the emotion the way I would comfort a small child. Finally, I dedicate and unite my experience to the suffering of others all around the world. We might worry that this will only create more suffering, but in practice it actually invites us to a deeper experience of life, which brings a quiet satisfaction.

This is life, and I am part of it — indeed, I am it.

Random violence, a natural disaster, awaiting lab test results or a traffic accident remind us that death awaits us all. Now is the time to explore the meaning of our lives.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center

of Orange County

Costa Mesa

Judaism teaches us to pick up the broken pieces of a shattered world when death occurs. I write this on Yom Hashoa, a day of the year dedicated to the memory of the Holocaust of the destruction of European Jewry at the hands of the Nazis in World War II. Somehow Judaism survived that period of “the night of broken glass.” We Jews simply pick up the pieces and rebuild. A groom breaks a piece of glass at the end of a wedding celebration and remembers the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, not once, but twice in ancient times.

Every so often when I am performing a funeral, I imagine a family member saying to me with anger, “What do you have to say about this passing, and where is your God now, Rabbi?” In response to this, there is a blessing in our faith that begins the funeral with the phrase, “Blessed are you, O Lord, our God, righteous judge; the Lord has given and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of God.”

No matter how hard we try to recover from a hurt, no matter how much time has passed, there will always be pieces of broken glass. We may search for ways to erase all traces of our painful past, but we never succeed. Our wounds may heal, but the scars that are left behind forever remain.

In our humanity we just go on and serve God and humanity.

That’s why we are human and God is God. That’s where the expression “God knows” comes from — events like Blacksburg. These are just the words of a rabbi who teaches his flock how to respond appropriately and leaves the answers to “Why?” to a loving, compassionate and just God.

RABBI MARC RUBENSTEIN

Temple Isaiah

Newport Beach

We give to God in prayer the students, faculty and staff of that institution of higher education and the Blacksburg community, their families and all affected by Monday’s tragic events. As we confront this senseless loss, we will continue to pray for and hold in our hearts all who grieve and search for understanding.

I reflected on this campus shooting spree at both of our weekday worship services and will do so again during worship here tomorrow morning. Resources will be available. One website has many faith-based (Jewish, Christian, Muslim and an atheist’s) responses to the tragedy at Virginia Tech: newsweek.washingtonpost.com/ onfaith/2007/04/virginia_ tech/all.html.

There are perspectives from other Episcopalians sharing wisdom with which I agree, such as the following:

“The creator God is with us in the middle of he horror, sharing and bearing the pain and the burden.”

“We live in a world under the sway of powers that lead us away from God and God’s passion for life on earth. Does God as an interventionist protect us? No. Does God provide a means of support in the midst of our tragedies? Yes.”

“We send our deepest sympathies to all who have been bereaved and to those who have been injured; and we pray, too, for the perpetrator.”

“God is strong enough and loving enough to take all of our fury, rage, pain and despair.”

“The word of promise that Christianity offers is God’s assurance that such brokenness is not life’s final word.”

“God cares and God loves. Life is pure gift. In our radical contingency and vulnerability, we choose.”

Another resource available here tomorrow will be a poem by a priest colleague titled “April Gun Metal Morning (Dedicated to the Virginia Tech Hokie Nation).”

As we reflect and mourn, we pray.

(THE VERY REV’D CANON) PETER D. HAYNES

Saint Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

There is no way to explain this kind of violence. It hooks our attention, and we are forced to monitor our own sense of rage and decide if we’re safe or at risk. If we feel a sense of injustice it’s easy to become angry and forget about those who lost their lives.

Thus, I urge my congregants to find out as much as they can about each person who was a victim — their talents, contributions and persona — and then thank God for each of them and all the many gifts they gave to their families, friends and neighbors.

I also urge my congregants to pray in the following fashion. God’s love is universal and constantly giving itself to the world. I am a part of the world God loves and a part of the love God infinitely creates through all of life. Today I see God in all of those killed, injured or affected at Virginia Tech. I know their lives were meaningful expressions of God’s creative intelligence and that each, in their own way, significantly contributed to their friends, family, and the world. I honor their lives and grieve their passing. I affirm for each of their friends and family a healing of the heart and blessing in their memories remembering all the love and joy expressed.

I forgive myself for any thoughts of revenge or hatred and affirm that the power of peace in my heart now guides and directs my words, behavior and actions. Thank you God for the blessings you give to all of us. I release this word into Spirit and know that all is well, all is healed, and all is God expressing.

PASTOR JIM TURRELL

Center for Spiritual Discovery

Costa Mesa