Memorial to the innocents killed at Sandy Hook elementary. Photo by author.

My wife and I recently visited the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, Mass.  At the shrine, there’s a simple, moving, memorial to the Sandy Hook children (see photo above).  Rarely has the Biblical phrase, “Jesus wept,” been sadder or more appropriate.

And the people said, See how much He loved them.

Message?  I don’t know.  But I think these children are martyrs to a society that’s saturated in violence.  A society that claims to put its trust in God, even as it resolutely ignores His teachings.

Jesus said: Suffer the children to come unto me.  Of these are the kingdom of heaven.

Somehow we have to do a better job of protecting our children from humanity’s all-too-violent tendencies.  The agony of more lost innocents is too much to bear.

W.J. Astore