I join them this day in remembering the horror of April 16, 2007 - the murder of 32 students at Virginia Tech University.
I remember those who lost their lives (including those who sacrificed themselves to protect others). And I remember their loved ones and friends whose personal wounds remain, who have learned to walk with their grief (some of whom I know: my heart goes out especially to you, dear friends).
Today many of us also remember and honor a University community that has carried on in these years with dignity and magnanimity and courage, flourishing in new ways while also insuring that we never forget this tragedy, and that we keep asking ourselves the questions it raises about the violence in our society, the absence of meaning that generates it, and the longing for an 'answer' to why such incomprehensible things happen in this world.
Let us continue to work in constructive ways against violence, and for a society of wisdom, justice, and mutual love - even while we carry the pain of that "Why?" within us, suffering the need for a "resolution" that this world cannot achieve, but which we continue to hope for.
We continue to hope that we might receive as a gift what we cannot manufacture by our own power.