Those words echo in my head while watching news about the shooting at the Naval Yard in Washington DC.  A law enforcement expert was interviewed and essentially said that these type shootings are a part of the “new normal”.

My heart goes out to those who were hurt and to their loved ones.  My heart breaks every time one of these incidents happens – and they seem to be happening more frequently. People get angry and upset and the “new normal” says to shoot.

Of course the national debate over new gun laws will occur – with the same predictable results.  Advocates of new laws will make their impassioned pleas while those against new laws will make their rebuttals.  But in the end, people have been hurt and killed.  Families will live without loved ones.  Lives will be irreparably harmed.  And we scratch our heads and say “what is going on in this world?”

We live in a world of amorality.  Nothing matters anymore.  Rules only count if we like them, we can live any way we want without concern for others and nobody is allowed to declare a specific truth.  This is the “new normal”.  And it is wrong.  God is the ultimate truth and he has spoken with some basic rules for us.

Mark 12:28-31

²⁸ And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰ And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹ The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.

Love does not mean “anything goes”.  Love does not mean “who cares how you live your life as long as it doesn’t affect me.”  Love is about serving one another and caring for one another.  In these difficult days of the “new normal”, let us not forget what our Lord teaches us.  Let us instead live out our lives everyday with love guiding us.  And if someone is showing signs of anger, or their lives are going out of control, step in with love.  Maybe you are called to change the “new normal.”

May God bless us and keep us.