As individuals? As a society? As a community?

The assault Monday at Virginia Tech was more than a deadly, horrific assault on innocent students. It was an assault on the soul of America. It was an assault on all peoples, everywhere.

Where does such evil come from? What dark hole, completely bereft of light, conspires to hide the even deeper darkness that, at least momentarily, emerged from the heart of this one young man?

Many of us wonder if we could point a weapon at another human being with the intent to kill, even if our own survival was at stake. In fact, we have to spend countless dollars and endless amounts of energy training young people to do just that in defense of our nation.

Yet, here was this one man, according to early reports, who gunned down two people and then waited two hours more before continuing a slaughter that at its end would claim 32 lives as well as his own.

Where does this kind of darkness, this depth of evil, originate? And how is it sustained, to the point of ever increasing depravity, from one bloody crime scene to another? It is incomprehensible.

But we will do our best to comprehend it. Any number of possible explanations will fill the airwaves and print media as speculation about the source of such evil will continue until the next horrific act replaces this one. And there is always a next one.

Meanwhile, hearts weep. Parents, friends, teachers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, even children, all will weep at the meaningless loss that has come to consume them. And its appetite is voracious. Because no amount of tears will assuage their grief. Eventually, exhaustion may stem the flow, but those hearts are forever changed by one man's evil and selfish actions Monday.

Hearts cry "Why?" Hearts cry, "How?" Hearts cry "Justice!" Hearts demand, "Never again!"

But it will come again.

This world is broken. Broken at its deepest center. Evidence of its brokenness is revealed in this horror. Evidence of its brokenness is revealed in caustic comments against a basketball team. Evidence of its brokenness is found in empty stomachs and bare feet in winter snow. Evidence of its brokenness is found in cardboard shacks fashioned to shelter a veteran haunted by the images of war who seeks surcease in drug use and drunkenness. Evidence abounds.

We bandage the brokenness daily. We fill the shelves of food pantries, we donate coats, hats and mittens. We take in the homeless and provide them with a warm bed and seek to guide them to a place of healing. We educate. We warn about the dangers of illicit drug use, we give workshops and symposiums on tolerance and bullying. We condemn acts of bigotry, and trace our historic journey, hoping against hope that the supposed inherent goodness of man's heart will one day prevail and we will know peace.

We won't. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't try. We are responsible, each and every one of us, to be gentle and tenderhearted, to be found to be champions of right, and to stand for truth and justice. The Apostle Paul enjoins believers that "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." (Romans 12:18)

However, though we can and should and will fight each day, the brokenness is beyond our reach. It has been from the beginning. The first crack was the fatal crack. We cannot undo what was done in the garden at that first act of disobedience. We cannot go back to the beginning and choose differently. We can only see today the restoration offered to us today and choose today to obey.

Scripture promises us a new heaven and a new earth when the old has passed away. And when it passes so too will pass the brokenness that spawned the evil that possessed a young man, created in the image of God, to wantonly destroy his fellows, those innocents also created in the image of God.

"This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live..." Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV)

Things you won't see in heaven: Bitter tears