Saint Monica's Episcopal Church
Messenger
October 2017
From the Rector’s desk by Rev. Anthony MacWhinnie, II It’s a topsy-turvy world of uncertainty in which we live. If I had written this piece yesterday I might have talked about the weather changing, about how fall is here, about how we’re coming to the end of our liturgical year. What does that mean for us in the church? Maybe I’d talk about endings and new beginnings, death and resurrection, that sort of thing. But this morning we all awoke to the news that there was a mass shooting in Las Vegas, yet another in a seemingly unending line of murderous events that plague our nation and world. There is no word yet on motivation for this killer. And we always seek that don’t we? I know I always do. As if knowing why he did this heinous thing will somehow make it make sense in the larger scheme. If somehow we can put him in a box then we can target our disdain. “Oh well, he’s one of those…” And then we can stop thinking about it, because somehow we understand it. It’s in our control. Except for that it’s not. It’s not in our control or our understanding. But what happens next is what always happens, this political side will use this as a wedge to boost its views on the world, and that political side will do the same. We will couch it in terms that make them look the same ole stupid as always, and they will do the same to us. We’ll move beyond the incident onto how it infringes upon our rights. We’ll move beyond the tragedy onto how we must shore up our own defenses of our own agendas, of our own “rightness.” We will move beyond the horror of the loss of innocent life and instead start blaming other people and calling them out for their views. We will allow this to further divide us. Well, we will if we aren’t conscious of this temptation. I urge to stay in contact with the humanity, with, dare I say it, the holiness of the other side. They are people, just like
Our Staff & Vestry Rev, Anthony MacWhinnie, II, Rector Vestry: Chuck Barnett - Senior Warden Jim Warner- Junior Warden Beth Woods, Susan Early, Ann Philen & John Velaski Twinette McDonald - Music Director Sally Putters - Parish Nurse
you. When we isolate ourselves from the other side and begin to place blame and shore up our defenses, the eventual road that leads down ends in a high rise hotel room on the Las Vegas strip. Alone. Murderous. Monsterous. Hopeless. Don’t harden your shell. Let this thing hurt you. And you know why? Because this thing SHOULD hurt you. This thing should not be easy and it should not just be a bump in the road of the day or of the week. We should be appalled. And then, we should reach out. We should get to know someone we don’t already know. We should talk to that neighbor we’ve never talked to. We should have conversations, civil conversations, with people from differing viewpoints. We should pray with people that are not of our faith. We should engage with people of no faith at all. And you know why? Because that’s how we stop these things from happening. You can’t legislate these things away. You can’t build walls high enough to keep the evil away. The only way to do it is to love it away. Love it away.