Poignant pain
The Amish community that speaks so little but so poignantly expressed forgiveness for the killer who struck down their children taught us all a powerful lesson about mercy personified. They asked us all to pray for the killer’s family. That lesson of shared pain and healing mercy is coming freshly to mind now in the Virginia Tech aftermath, as the families’ lives so impacted by the killings intersect.
The family of Seung-Hui Cho has written a heartwrenching apology.
The statement by Sun-Kyung Cho, sister of Seung-Hui Cho, on behalf of herself and her family:
On behalf of our family, we are so deeply sorry for the devastation my brother has caused. No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives this week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy. We are heartbroken.
We grieve alongside the families, the Virginia Tech community, our State of Virginia, and the rest of the nation. And, the world.
Every day since April 16, my father, mother and I pray for students…
and they name each and every one of the 32 students whose lives were taken.
We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.
Each of these people had so much love, talent and gifts to offer, and their lives were cut short by a horrible and senseless act.
We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn’t know this person.
We have always been a close, peaceful and loving family. My brother was quiet and reserved, yet struggled to fit in. We never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence.
He has made the world weep. We are living a nightmare.
There is much justified anger and disbelief at what my brother did, and a lot of questions are left unanswered. Our family will continue to cooperate fully and do whatever we can to help authorities understand why these senseless acts happened. We have many unanswered questions as well.
Our family is so very sorry for my brother’s unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us.
We cannot fail to see the pain in this eloquent expression of remorse and compassion. It speaks to us all in this shared grief and search for meaning.
In fact, expression of our shared humanity is the subject of this article in MercatorNet just out, and I thank Michael Cook for the opportunity to do it.
