Scott's Weekly Greeting, March 23, 2021

Author: Rev. Scott W. Cousineau
March 23, 2021

Scott's Weekly Greeting, March 23, 2021 ...

Like many people across the country, I spent much of yesterday evening glued to the news waiting to learn more about the tragic events in Boulder, Colorado. And like most people, I was shocked and heartbroken to learn that ten people had lost their lives in yet another senseless mass shooting. Ten people going about their days ... shopping, running errands, working as a patrol officer ... until their lives were violently and suddenly stolen from them.

I, like you, was shocked and horrified, but I was not surprised. Mass killings have become part of our ordinary lives. We can be fairly certain that there will tragically be another one sometime soon, and then another one after that, and another one after that. There does not seem to be an end to the wanton pain and death that the citizens of this nation are willing to inflict upon one another.

These are pretty grim words to pen as we begin the season of spring, the season in which the world emerges from the gloom of winter to bud and blossom with the promise of new life. These are hard words to type as we prepare for the celebration of Palm Sunday and Easter. But the events of the last few days, two mass killing events in less than a week, make the message of Holy Week even more important.

Our world has always known the reality of pain and death. Our world has been no stranger to vile and evil acts of violence and murder. Atrocities have been committed across the generations in the name of power, greed, avarice, fear and hatred. But, there has always been another way.

We can choose to follow the way of violence, or we can choose the other way.

We can choose to follow the way of selfishness and greed, or we can choose to follow the other way.

We can choose to follow the way of hatred and fear, we can choose to follow the way of oppression in the pursuit of power, we can choose the way of getting ahead by any method no matter the cost or who suffers, or we can choose to follow the other way.

Choose the other way. Choose the way of peace. Choose the way of generosity. Choose the way of compassion. Choose the way of justice, and fairness, and inclusivity. Choose the way of love.

Every day the choice is ours. Let us choose the other way ... the Way of God.

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