"How Could This Happen?"

I’m increasingly frustrated with these pretentious sentiments: “How could this happen?” Or worse: “There’s no logical explanation for this tragedy.”

What are these people talking about? Is there not ample evidence that demonstrates, that screams, the reason? Quite to the contrary, it's perfectly logical, and I think Patrick Buchanan put it very well when he wrote:

Not long ago, there existed in our hearts 'a fear of God.' How, we would ask ourselves, if we commit an evil act like murder, will we answer at God’s judgment seat? For He will decide if we enter what the president called in Newtown, God’s ‘eternal house in heaven.’ But if God is dead, not to worry. Just put the gun to your head and pull the trigger, and it’s over. No trial. No disgrace. No prison. Nothing to worry about anymore. No voice of conscience told Adam: Do not do this evil thing! Now he is no longer a nobody, a nerd, a recluse. He is famous. Everybody is talking about him, and ruminating on what might have motivated him. Adam wanted to be somebody. And now he is. And out there others like him are thinking: That could be me.

If you deny that people like this aren't acting according to the logic of our modern world, then all you are doing is sitting around waiting for the next tragedy, all the while playing into the media hype and phony crocodile tears. Is not the tragic death of these children enough of a burden for the families they left behind without your hysteria? Do those of you leaving ridiculously inane and silly posts on Facebook, Twitter, and everywhere else really think you are doing any good? Does such impotent sentimentality assuage a single anguished tear from those closest to the victims in this newest admission of all that is nauseating and perverse in our modern western society? Tenacious sentimentality serves only to excuse the guilt of the bearer, and why are so many people feeling guilty?

The painful logic that directed these actions is one that surfaces in the absence of the fear of God. Without thought to the eternal implications of one’s actions, there is no such thing as a meaningful morality, no standards for social behavior beyond fear of legal repercussions, and, finally, no limit to the barbarity of those who adore death dealing and suicide as a means to notoriety because suicide contravenes all repercussions. Our culture is replete with a love for death (look at the fashions, decked out in skulls!), a hatred of humanity (look at popular movies like Avatar!), and if not out-and-out atheism, a practical atheism, which is marked by irreligion, an embarrassment and hatred for religion. Heinous and Satanic acts of violence such as these are the fruits of atheism and a hatred for religion (specifically the true religion of Jesus Christ).

Therefore, we are called to do something, something far more practical and courageous than the expressions of inane and childish sentimentalism on social networking sites. We have to pray! We have to live as though there is a God. We have to tell the truth that there is a God Who gave us a Law, and a God Who gives us the grace necessary to fulfill the dictates of that Law, IF only we cooperate. Courageously pray! Courageously proclaim the truth! Courageously be Catholic! And leave the sentimentality for the effeminate.