Love Will Never Be Extinguished

Last night I attended an inter-faith community vigil for the 11 Jewish people who were shot in a Pittsburgh synagogue on the weekend.  Memorials were carried out across Canada.  The CBC covered those in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.  The one that I attended in Barrie wasn’t covered so I imagine there were many others that I don’t know about. It was only a few years ago that a similar event happened but this time for the shooting of Muslims in a mosque in Quebec.

The rotunda in Barrie’s City Hall was filled when I arrived.  There were between two and three hundred people who had come out to support the people in Pittsburgh who had lost their loved ones and the community that has been so devastated by this hate crime.  There were people from many faiths and backgrounds present.  Audrey Koffman, Spiritual Advisor for Am Shalom Synagogue in Barrie led the vigil.  Spiritual leaders from churches and mosques joined the Jewish leaders in the service.

The question was asked over and over again: What is our response?  Of course people are angry and horrified, but once those emotions have calmed down, how do we as individuals and as a community want to respond?  Over and over came the answer: Our response is love.  Our response is to build communities where we learn about each other, respect each other and stand together.

We got an opportunity to stand together during the vigil.  I was standing just behind a young Muslim couple and their little boy.  Like any child, he soon grew bored with this adult stuff and started to peek out at me from behind his mother’s skirt.  I smiled at him and he grinned back.  Then he peeked out from the other side of her skirt.  He was lovely and I couldn’t help but remember that we have a responsibility to make this world more loving and safe for the children who are going to inherit the world that we are creating.  That is quite the responsibility.

The choir from the synagogue sang beautifully, as did the Jewish Spiritual Advisor and the Imam.  Haunting tunes of sadness and strength wafted over us.  We were invited to hum the tunes even if we didn’t know the words.  Eleven candles were lit for the eleven lost ones and suddenly it was as if they were there with us, people we didn’t know, people we were honouring.  I imagined that each person present had such a light in them.  If those lights were visible to the ordinary naked human eye, then that room would be bright indeed.  I imagined that brightness for a moment.

Many speakers spoke about building tolerant communities and for that hour, we were a community that came together to share our concern, our support, our love.  My friend was there, even though I couldn’t see her.  One of the people that lit a candle was the retired minister of the church my parents attended in Brampton.  One of my clients goes to synagogue with one of the victim’s brothers.  In a crowd of “strangers” I was connected by my own life.  But more than that, I was connected by intent to these people.  We were all trying to do something good in the face of hate.  Ms. Koffman remarked that our presence was evidence that love is more powerful and prevalent than hate.  I could feel that power.

What does standing together, praying together, listening to each other, being entrained by the same music do to us?  I wondered how coming together changes each of us, how knowing that we are not alone, that there are others who are willing to be counted changes us.  I thought of the one gunman who acted out his hatred and will likely lose his own life now and he seemed so tiny, so alone in comparison with the people who were standing together non-violently, building a community of compassion.  I was grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of such a gathering.

We were invited to sign a book of condolence that would be sent to the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.  Such a small thing but perhaps important to people that have come under attack.  Suddenly they have new friends.  Hate crimes are meant to create fear and only love conquers fear.

 “Love will never be extinguished,” said one of the speakers.  And I believe him. We are not diminished by acts of fear and hate if we choose to stand together, offer our love, our understanding and come to know that we are more alike than we know. We have to decide what kind of a world we live in.  We have to create that world.  It’s up to us.  It’s our story after all.