Love thy neighbor, friend
Recently, I heard about an incident in western Russia that happened near the end of World War II. German soldiers had been captured in Russia. Russians had suffered greatly at the hands of the Germans who had invaded their country in their quest for a new world order and more territory. The bedraggled, starving German soldiers were paraded through town by their captors. A Russian babushka, or grandmother, pushed her way through the crowd and approached one of the soldiers. The town folk expected her to spit upon the man, kick him, or otherwise punish him. They were shocked to see the woman pull a crust of bread out of her shawl and hand it to the soldier, feeding him. She looked past the rags of an enemy soldier’s uniform and saw a suffering fellow human being.
This called to mind a story from the Bible of a man named Habakkuk who was angry with God for letting injustice prevail in the world, demanding that God do something about it. God’s response was, “I DID do something about it. I created YOU. Now YOU do something about it.”
Many things are happening around the world that feel unjust. We see or hear about them on the news, in newspapers or accounts we see on social media. We may empathize with one group or another in the events. We might be outraged at the invasion of Ukraine or perhaps we feel that Russia is justified. We may feel angry about the events in Israel and Palestinian territories, sympathizing with the Palestinians or the Israeli settlers, or both. We might be troubled by the political situation in Venezuela, wondering if stories of corruption in the election are true.
After having come through the big political conventions that took place recently for the Republicans and then the Democrats, we might feel excited about the plans of one group or upset about the plans for another. While we are asked to leave our judgment of people to a higher power, the courts, or both, we need to decide how we conduct our own lives and whether and how we interact with others around us.
When we are angry about something, even if that anger is justifiable, it is far too easy to forget that those who were on the “other” side are fellow human beings with hopes and dreams, trials and tribulations, experiences that may have led them to choose a path different from ours. Let us be like the grandmother in the first story, and have compassion for the suffering of others. Let us heed the advice in the second story, and do something to make the burdens a little lighter.
