Commentary: Reflections on the Virginia Tech tragedy
Aug. 16, 2007
NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.
By the Rev. Glenn Tyndall*
BLACKSBURG, Va. (UMNS) - "Cut it down, it grows back stronger."
Translated from the Latin phrase "succisa virescit," this mantra became a unifying slogan this past year for the embattled lacrosse team at my alma mater, Duke University. But before the events of April 16 at Virginia Tech, where I have served as campus minister of the Wesley Foundation for 33 years, I didn't realize how appropriate this message would become for our own university and our students, our town, this campus ministry, and even for me personally.
As classes at Virginia Tech resume Aug. 20 - more than four months after a campus tragedy that left 33 people dead - evidence of this renewed strength is everywhere.
"Cut it down, it grows back stronger."
Hours of terror
We were cut down on a gray April Monday when a student went on a deadly shooting rampage, forever changing my life, along with the lives of everyone else who ever heard the word "Hokie." When news of this awful tragedy arrived via e-mail, I locked the doors of our Wesley center, which is adjacent to campus, since the shooter or shooters had not yet been caught. We knew classes would be canceled; we wondered if the rest of the semester would be canceled as well.
The first task was to account for all of our active students at Wesley. Students I knew and some I had never met began arriving at our building seeking safety, warmth and comfort. We hugged, cried, offered food, shelter and counseling. We served as broker with parents and pastors seeking news of their loved ones and members. We did our best to keep our hundreds of Wesley alumni in the loop. The Virginia Tech Web site was overloaded, many cell phones wouldn't work and there was a sense of terror and disbelief as groups huddled together to watch the local CBS affiliate and CNN. The news grew grimmer as authorities expanded their list of fatalities.
In the early evening hours, we fed all who came. We hosted a debriefing session and prayer vigil, then continued to watch the news. Though none of our Wesley students were killed or wounded, some were in or near Norris Hall at the time of the shooting. By the end of the day, as victims' names were released, many of our students realized they knew one or more students or a professor killed. More than 20 students stayed overnight in our center, afraid to return to their dorms.
By this time, the media had invaded our quiet, hurting town. They tried to turn students into news stories, prodding them to blame the university for this tragedy. Known for their Hokie pride, the students would have none of it. The entire community pulled together as one, buoyed by the compassion and love extended to all of us by friends, families, colleagues and other students across the globe. You probably saw the cartoon with all the mascots around our state crying with our Hokie bird and saying, "Today we are all Hokies."
The outpouring of prayer that we experienced from throughout the United States and across the United Methodist connection was extraordinary. I cannot begin to express how much it meant to have campus ministers or other clergy from somewhere faraway call and say: "Tonight, we have a prayer service, and we will pray for you personally, and for your campus ministry, and for your university." The outpouring of support was received gratefully and became an incredible part of our experience during those trying days, and it happened over and over again. It was an awesome witness to the power of the United Methodist connection and the Christian community.
God will prevail
For me personally, I am moved and honored to have been associated with this generation of Hokie students at the Wesley Foundation. They gave new meaning to the biblical admonition to "bear one another's burdens." They were strong and mature, even in the face of the loss of friends and faculty whom they knew. Together with me and my wife, they had helped create a Christian community on campus that served as a rock in the midst of a terrible storm. Had I been a parent back home wondering about my United Methodist student, I would have been happy to know that my church had a presence on this campus, just as it does on campuses throughout the nation. It has made me grow stronger as I prepare to help students for another school year.
"We are Virginia Tech. We WILL prevail."
This mantra now defines our community's faith and response to tragedy. That spirit is reflected throughout Blacksburg, even as we attempt to return to some semblance of normalcy. It is a message that we needed to hear and to proclaim during the week of April 16. But as people of faith, we must remind ourselves that ultimately it is not WE who prevail, but God. God cried along with us in this horrific event and its aftermath. And God is the One who has enabled us to be strong, and to grow back stronger than ever.
That Monday morning, it was cold - 45 degrees with snow flurries and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour. It was a day of hurt, and despair, and questioning. By the end of the week, spring had arrived. The sun shone brightly on our campus, a symbol of hope, of resurrection, if you will. Reflecting on this experience of moving from darkness into light, II Corinthians 4:8-9 takes on new meaning. "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed." And later, Paul says in verse 12: "So death is at work in us, but life in you."
Looking back at the darkness that marked April 16, just a week after Easter, we know the meaning of hope and resurrection. "We are Virginia Tech. We will prevail." But more importantly, "We are Virginia Tech. God will prevail."
"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
*Tyndall is beginning his 34th year as campus minister of the Wesley Foundation at Virginia Tech.
News media contact: Marta Aldrich, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org
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