A Heart in Mourning: Faith, Grief, and Hope After Annunciation

A Heart in Mourning: Faith, Grief, and Hope After Annunciation

“A HEART IN MOURNING”

Imagine the hush of morning prayers. Children gathered with innocent faith. Teachers and parishioners lifting hearts to God. Then imagine the peace of that sanctuary shattered by gunfire. On August 27, 2025, at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, that unimaginable horror became reality.

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Two children, only eight and ten years old were taken. Seventeen more were injured, along with three elderly parishioners. The sanctuary that should have echoed with hymns and Scripture became a place of screams and sorrow.

The demonic, prejudice, and hate-filled murderer; Robert "Robin" Westman, cowardly ended his own life. And a faith community was left with wounds deeper than bullets.  The Trans (Gender Dysphoric) MUST have serious conversations with actual NON-"Gender Affirming" physicians and psychologists about their dysphoria and the deadly implications of the dangerous doctor-encouraged and administered pharmacological time bombs they are on...  WE must have serious conversations that have real impact on the insane violence coming from this community in ever increasing regularity.  It isn't about bigotry or hatred toward any community, it is about protecting our community from death and destruction from drug addled gender dysphoric people.

The mayor said only one thing well: “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers… These were kids that should be learning with their friends.”  Yes, this is true...  As is CRAZY and ABUSIVE the statement from a parent or doctor that a child or teenager; "should 'change their sex' because they are in danger of suicide if they are forced to remain their 'birth assigned sex.'"

• Covenant School (Nashville, 2023): The shooter, Aiden Hale (born Audrey Elizabeth Hale), a transgender man, killed six people (three children and three adults) at a Presbyterian church-affiliated school Everytown Research & Policy+15Wikipedia+15New York Post+15.

• STEM School Highlands Ranch (Colorado, 2019): One of the two shooters, Alec McKinney, a transgender boy (assigned female at birth), participated in a school shooting that resulted in one death and eight injuries Wikipedia.

• Annunciation Catholic Church & School (Minneapolis, 2025): The attacker, Robert "Robin" Westman, a transgender woman, carried out a shooting at a Catholic school during Mass, killing two children and injuring eighteen others before committing suicide

There are more, MANY MORE examples....  Yet....

The God Who Draws Near

In our grief, we remember the promise of Psalm 34:18:

“Adonai is close to the brokenhearted and saves those crushed in spirit.”

We do not serve a God who stands far away from tragedy. Emmanuel, God with us, steps into our pain. As Dr. Michael Heiser often reminded, the biblical story is one of God dwelling with His people, even in suffering. Dr. Skip Moen writes that lament is not faithlessness but the very language of covenant intimacy. We cry out not because God is absent, but because He is near enough to hear.

Mourning Together as Covenant People

In the Ancient Near Eastern world, grief was communal. Families and neighbors mourned together; tearing garments, raising lament, sharing meals of sorrow. Job’s friends sat with him in silence for seven days before speaking (Job 2:11–13). We too must return to that covenant posture: weeping with those who weep, refusing to let grieving families mourn alone.

The Bible reminds us: grief expressed before God is not weakness. It is faith in motion. Like David’s psalms of lament, our tears become prayers.

Glimpses of Heroic Love

Even in the terror, love broke through. One child, Weston, recounted how his 10-year-old friend Victor shielded him from bullets. In a moment of chaos, a boy’s selfless act became a living parable of John 15:13:

“Greater love has no one than this: that he lay down his life for his friends.”

A Call to Grieve, A Call to Hope

The question before us is not whether to grieve, because we must. The question is whether grief will harden us or soften us. Whether we will turn inward or lean into community. Whether we will allow God’s Spirit to turn tears into rivers of mercy.

This is not about offering shallow platitudes. It is about drawing near; to God and to one another. To sit in silence with a grieving mother. To hold the hand of an injured child. To let our prayers carry feet and hands, offering care, meals, presence, and love.

The Challenge and the Choice

Beloved, in the echo of gunfire, the silence of grief is deafening. Yet in that silence, Christ still whispers hope. The challenge: Will you choose to see this as “someone else’s tragedy,” or will you let their grief touch your own?

The choice: Will you let mourning drive you deeper into covenant love, or will you look away and move on?

Let us rise together—not with hollow words, but with faithful presence. Let us carry burdens that others cannot bear alone. And let us hold tightly to the hope that one day, every tear will be wiped away by the hand of the One who conquered death.

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore” (Revelation 21:4).

Shalom b’Shem Yeshua.

© 2025 Dr. Shawn M. Greener. All rights reserved.