Words of homicidal rage

“...they were enraged and wanted to kill them.”

These words end today’s first reading (Acts 5:27-33 – RSV translation).

These words resonate for many today, coming in the wake of the mass murder at Virginia Tech three days ago.

These words resonate even more nauseously because of a news network’s decision yesterday to disseminate broadly some of the murderous images and hate-filled rantings furnished to them by the deranged perpetrator of this evil and because of the energetic complicity of nearly every media outlet in this dissemination. (With all due respect, I fear that the media’s specious justifications are gainsaid by the prominence and the repetition they themselves give to these execrable words and images.)

This is not what we should be doing as a society: giving mega-celebrity to an evildoing fool while heaping salt in the wounds of mourners and frightening children.

It would be better for us to follow to path of the Lord as laid out for us in today’s Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 34:2, 9, 17-18, 29-20):

The LORD'S face is against evildoers
to wipe out their memory from the earth….

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted,
saves those whose spirit is crushed.

Save us, O Lord.

Be close to those who mourn.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.