Shooting in Kenya

Victims flee from Westgate Mall

No Man Is An Island 

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
                                by: John Donne

Just one week ago, the Navy Yard news rocked us with the sudden slaughter of twelve people.  Now, what are we to say as the death toll rises to +60 in Kenya---and far from the psychotic episode of a deranged killer--now, we have militant Muslims murdering anyone who isn't Muslin in this mall.  Yet, I do not hear the leading Muslim leaders speak out and condemn it.  Exactly what does it take?  Can anything be farther away from whatever we mean by divinity and the sacredness of life?  Oh John Donne...prophet for every age, the bell tolls for us with every death...and we the human family are diminished.  Certainly from the Christian standpoint, we are diminished by every death, except for the death of Christ which opens to the Garden of resurrection. We break in this life with each death into the wholeness of new life in the risen Christ.  There's no formula for that--it is the way that good triumphs over evil, not by destroying it, but making it a part of the Body of Christ and raising it up.

Lord have mercy, 

Christ have mercy, 

Lord have mercy upon them all.