“An eye for an eye, and the whole world would be blind.”
Kahlil
Gibran
____________________________
it comes so quickly
that desire to get even
to “stick it to” the “other”
and so it is an old pattern
woven into the fabric of our cultures
retribution
and eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth
a life for a life
we have institutionalized it
codified it
celebrated it
built monuments to it
retribution
and where has it gotten us?
we do not have to look far to see
it is there in the radiation fried bodies in Nagasaki and
Hiroshima
in the killing fields of Cambodia
in the years of death and destruction in Iraq and
Afghanistan
it is there is the rockets of Hamas, arching toward
residential neighborhoods in Israel
and in the brutal response of Israel in Gaza
it is there in the shattered bodies of Palestinian
children
Israeli children
Iraqi children
Kurdish children
but still we persist
putting exorbitant amounts of money into the machinery of
death
rather than into housing, and healthcare, bridges and
roads
still we persist
turning even a God who says “I am Love”
into a god of judgment and punishment
how can we forget that moment
so many years ago
when the incarnate One
beaten and bloodied
nailed to a tree
instead of releasing
death and destruction from heaven
instead of responding to the violence with violence
the abusive use of power with power
the hate with hate
said
“forgive them”
how can we forget that when God had the chance
to join in the dance of retribution
God refused
and said
“this stops here?”
it is not easy to stop
to be the one who bears witness to love
and yet
is that not our calling?
to join with people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr.
Nelson Mandela and so many others
who have said
stop!
stop killing
stop abusing
stop hating
to join with people like Etty Hillesum
whose last entry in her journal
before she was killed in the hell that was Auschwitz
“we must be willing to act as a balm for all wounds”
yes
we must
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