Shadows and Sunshine

The shooting in Aurora CO prompts reflection. What motivated the shooter? My theory: The killer's cold anger at the meaninglessness of existence. Why didn't he kill just himself? Because all living beings participate in this huge charade, which is more exposed when death overtakes more.

On my way home from work a day or so after the shootings I heard the host of a secular talk show speaking with a theologian. The mere fact of such a talk reveals what is missing in our world for so many: a sense of a positive meaning of life and of each person's place in it. Meaning is found, ultimately, only in religion, which makes an absolute claim, beyond opinion.

The Christian religion's claim to meaning is striking: that the dying universe is also a rising one, revealed by Christ's own salvific act of dying and rising. And the meaning of our lives is to participate in Christ's continuing mission of salvation, through our own relationship to God, how we live, and how we interact with others. The world we live in is NOT ultimately meaningless to a Christian worldview. We respond to the world not in angst and anger, but with thanks.

So this day I thank God for this world, for my life and the lives of those I know and care for. Life is a cause for joy, not sorrow, in the face of life's tragedies and shadows.