LITTLETON, Colo. - She walked into Columbine High School on Tuesday morning,a promising student. She was carried out more than 24 hours later a Christian martyr.
 

Her story is being told and retold in the church basements, rec rooms, and parish halls where so  many of the young survivors of the Columbine massacre have spent the last few days clinging to one another and to their deep religious faith.

In her death, Cassie has become both symbol and prophet, her martyrdom seemingly foretold in a  poem written after church services last Sunday. It was discovered on her desk by her younger  brother, Chris, Tuesday night when it became clear that she would not be coming home.

Now I have given up on everything else - I have found it  to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to die with him. So, whatever it takes I will be one who lives in the fresh newness of life of those who are alive from the dead.

More than any other image from this scene of carnage - more than the flowers deep as the snow in  Clement Park, more than the blue and silver ribbons on every lapel - the most affecting is the sight  of strapping young men and gracious young women on their knees in prayer everywhere one looks in this prairie suburb at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains.

''We loved Cassie and we will miss her, but we know she is in a better place,'' said Ryan Long,  who belongs to the youth group at West Bolles Community Church, where Cassie Bernall was an  active member. ''She died for her faith.''

It was Cassie's grandmother who first called the camera-shy high school junior a martyr, recalled  Dave McPherson, the youth group director. ''I was with the family Tuesday. They waited all night,  praying that she was hiding in a closet. When we first heard from Crystal about Cassie's last words, her grandmother said: `My God, my granddaughter was a martyr.'''

Crystal is Crystal Woodman, a youth group member who, with Cassie, did outreach work among  Denver's homeless population. She was hiding with Cassie in the library during the rampage that  claimed the lives of 12 students, one teacher, and the two presumed killers, Eric Harris, 18, and  Dylan Klebold, 17, both Columbine students. When she heard the exchange between the gunman and Cassie, Crystal was certain of what she was witnessing: Her friend was laying down her life for Jesus.

Of the 200 members of the youth group at West Bolles Community Church, 40 attended Columbine. Among them is a shared certainty that God is using the victims as a vehicle to spread a message of faith. To that end, the teenagers are eager to speak about the circumstances of Cassie's death in hopes of bombarding the secular - some might say godless - media with a religious interpretation of this week's tragic events. Some have even appeared on MTV, which McPherson puts among the  corosive cultural influences that contribute to the hardening of the hearts of so many young people.

The spiritual life of so many of Columbine High's teenagers is evident in the crosses they wear around their necks and the bracelets asking WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) that they wear on their wrists. Theirs is the largest school-based Bible club in the school district.

But it is not only the children who are finding solace in religion.  Cassie's parents, Misty and Brad Bernall, issued a statement last night celebrating their daughter's spiritual courage. ''Cassie's response does not surprise us. Cassie's life was rightly centered on Jesus Christ.'' The Bernalls appealed to parents to become more involved in the lives of their children. They urged teenagers to find their way to church. ''Don't let my daughter's death be for nothing. Make your stand. If you are not in a local church group, try it.''

There is nothing sanctimonious about the faith of these teenagers.  They are actively engaged in the world around them. Cassie had told friends recently that she intended to cut her long blond hair so that her silky locks could be made into wigs for children undergoing chemotherapy. At Cassie's funeral on Monday, several pews will be filled with members of Victory Outreach, an inner city storefront church in one of Denver's roughest neighborhoods. Cassie and her friends shared dinner every few weeks with the prostitutes and drug addicts who make up that congregation.

John and Stephen Cohen, brothers who also are members of the youth group,will sing a song for Cassie and the other fallen students at her funeral.The boys said they had completed the guitar music some time ago but had been waiting for inspiration for the lyrics. They found it this week. The song is called: ''Columbine, Friend of Mine.''

Chris Duran, pastor of Victory Outreach, said that when he heard Cassie had been slain, he told McPherson, ''She graduated, but we still have assignments to complete.''

The last assignment Cassie completed on this earth was a reading that was to have been discussed at a youth group meeting the night she died. The book is called ''Seeking Peace.'' In a chapter entitled ''No Life Without Death,'' the author quotes the Gospel of John: ''Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But when it dies, it produces many seeds.''

This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 04/24/99.  Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.
 

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