Reflections on Newtown, CT, Dec. 14, 2012

Reflections on Newtown, CT, Dec. 14, 2012

The Coventry Carol from 16th Century England is an eerily appropriate reflection of last Fridays unspeakable tragedy, where 26 persons — 20 of whom were six and seven year olds – were senselessly shot to death by an armed intruder as they went about their morning routines as teachers and pupils at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. The subject of the Carol — popular to this day at Christmas — is the Lament of the Holy Innocents, where, according to Matthews Gospel (2:1-4, 7, 16), Herod the Great, king of Judea, became so enraged upon learning from the Magi that the king of the Jews had been born in Bethlehem that he sent soldiers to the town with orders to kill all male children, two years of age and younger. The haunting lyrics of the Carol are the lamenting of a heartsick mother for the fate of her doomed child at the hands of Herods henchmen:

Then woe is me, poor Child, for Thee,

And ever mourn and say;

For Thy parting, nor say nor sing

By, by, lully, lullay

To hear the five verses of the Coventry Carol performed, click here.

In remarks to the grief stricken of Newtown at a prayer vigil there last night, Dec. 16, President Obama had this to say: We come to realize that we (all) bear responsibility for every child, because were counting on everybody else to help look after ours; that in the end, were all parents and they are all our children