Refusing To Be Comforted: A Meditation on Psalm 77 after Uvalde
Weeping Naked by Edward Munch The horrific murder of 19 elementary school students and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas by an 18-year-old with an AR-15 has brought us once again to grief, pain, fear, and anger. Maybe you feel some of those and not others. Certainly, those most impacted by this massacre (family, friends, the local Uvalde community) are affected in ways that are difficult for us to comprehend. Often after tragedies like these (and they are often and too many) we find rituals of comfort to help us through: prayer, lighting candles, naming names, holding silence, etc. These are appropriate responses and can be helpful. But it seems to me at this point, whatever rituals and prayers we offer should not aim to comfort us. They should bring us deeper into the pain and anguish of these unspeakable acts of violence, because we know there are laws and social expectations around guns that can be changed to make these events less likely to happen. Comforting ourselves too quickly k
