First Sunday of Lent reflection
A Reflection on Gun Violence, Trauma and the Call to Peace
By Phil Andrew
Lent is a season that invites us to sit honestly with ourselves and the world—not to turn away from it, allow it to convert us—compassionately. My own experience being shot in one of America’s first school gun violence attacks in 1988 as a young man during my college years, shaped me in ways that immediately shattered safety but also deeper consequences—the ones that linger—emerged quietly: vigilance replacing ease, memories intruding on ordinary moments, and the realization that violence reshapes not only bodies, but souls.
I was raised Catholic, formed in a tradition that understands suffering not as spectacle, but as something to be accompanied. My early education—rooted in Ignatian principles of reflection, service, and discernment—gave me language for what I had experienced but could not yet name: trauma does not end when the danger passes. It settles into the nervous system. It influences how we see the world, how we trust, how we love.
This is why responses to gun violence must be trauma-informed—attentive to the invisible injuries that spread quietly through families, neighborhoods, classrooms, and congregations. Trauma is contagious. So is fear. When violence becomes normalized, it erodes our shared moral imagination. We begin to expect less peace, less safety, less dignity for one another.
The mission of women religious—rooted in compassion, service to the vulnerable, and care for the whole person—speaks directly to this moment. Saint Francis, whose spirit animates religious life, reminds us that peace is not abstract. It is built through presence, humility, and courageous love. Our shared witness and action against gun violence reflects a deep understanding: systems of harm persist when suffering is ignored and misunderstood.
Our work at PAX Group embraces the PEACE Model —Prepare, Empathize, Active Listening, Courage and Compassion, Engage—that emerged not from theory alone, but from lived experience and Catholic social teaching, psychology, and human performance. It mirrors Ignatian discernment and the Catholic commitment to action grounded in love. To prepare is to take suffering seriously. To empathize is to honor the dignity of those wounded. To listen is to resist easy answers. To act with courage and compassion is to choose relationship over indifference. To engage is to remain present long after the headlines fade.
Gun violence is not only a policy issue. It is a spiritual crisis. It challenges our belief that every life is sacred and that community is stronger than fear. We cannot be at peace while our neighbors live in terror.
My hope is that reflections like these help us move beyond outrage—toward responses that heal rather than harden. Peace is not passive. It is practiced. And it begins, as your mission has long shown, by refusing to look away.
About Phil Andrew
Phil Andrew is a survivor of the 1988 Winnetka school attack, a former FBI agent and hostage negotiator and founder and principal of PAX Group, a global crisis management firm, guided by the knowledge that Safe People Thrive TM and partners with organizations to build cultures of safety and resilience.
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