School-shooting incidents seem to come in threes for some reason, and a tragic week in late September/early October saw that deadly triumvirate rear its ugly head once again at schools in Colorado, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Amid the ugliness of bloodshed and fear, as always, the bright lines of faithful witness seem to stand out all the more brilliantly. At Columbine in 1999, there were reports of shared prayer under fire and a high school girl's refusal to renounce her faith at gunpoint.
More recently, after a gunman killed several girls and himself in a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Bart Township, Pa., it was the simple yet resilient faith of the Amish community in the face of unspeakable tragedy.
A message of hope and forgiveness emanated throughout the community. The grandfather of one victim was quoted as telling young relatives that "we must not think evil of this man." An Amish woodworker said the incident was God's plan, and that the deceased children are "better off than their survivors" because "we believe in the hereafter." An area resident noted how the Amish would reach out to the suffering, even the killer's own family. That outreach was evident when some 75 Amish attended the man's funeral at a nearby Methodist church.
This is the kind of radical love and forgiveness to which Christ calls us in the gospels. It also reflects the supernatural perspective that tells us we were made not for this world, but for the next life. That said, even the most devout of Christians may struggle to respond in a Gospel way when violence strikes so close to home.
The Amish response to this tragedy challenges us to re-examine our own willingness to forgive others, especially those whom we find the hardest to forgive.