Before sending the tweet earlier today, I just had to double-check one more time.

I did.  And there was next to nothing out there on the internet that was asking the question – did demonic possession/obsession have anything to do with Adam Lanza’s heinous decision to indiscriminately kill school children?

And so, I queried from my own personal Twitter account.  That was at approximately 11 am ET.

At around 8 pm, my heart sunk and I was gripped with a nauseous feeling that only a truly disturbing story can induce.

I read the Daily Mail headline aloud to my wife – “‘I am the devil’: Former classmate reveals school gunman had ‘online devil worshiping page’.  The story was posted just a couple of hours after I had sent my tweet.  To be completely honest, since first learning of the epic tragedy, I had been wondering about a deeper spiritual horror that might have been plaguing Lanza.  But I kept mum on it, instead partaking in the usual discussions that emanate from such sorrowful circumstances.  Besides, very few in this day and age are ready for the “satan card” to be slammed on the table.

But it’s out there now.

So much has been written about guns.  About mental illness.  About divorce, and violent video games, and even abortion.  Some have even had the temerity to ask, “Where was God?”

Where was God?  He was right there, amidst the carnage.  I can’t help but believe that He was right there… as Lanza succumbed to the demon within.

That Daily Mail story came across the wire a couple of hours after I had sent my tweet.  It gave me chills.  The same chills I had when reading of the midnight massacre in Aurora in July; hours after uploading a YouTube video bemoaning the corruption of family, and a culture misappropriating its ills on so-called “gun violence”.  The same chills I experienced just last week when, while crafting a blog post on St. John of the Cross’s “Dark Night of the Soul”, a near incomprehensible darkness was befalling a community  in Newtown, Connecticut… on a bright, Friday morning.

I’ve been saying this for quite some time – we are living in some very strange, very dark times.  We had better wake up.  And fast.