I couldn't help but weep. It grieves me that people can feel so much rage and hatred that they want to maim and kill. The world seems so full of violence, it's almost unbearable.
How can people be so convinced that some deity wants them to murder their enemies?
The Charlie Hebdo shooters were abandoned as children; the youngest went to prison twice. I don't mean to excuse them in any way, but I don't think people who are at peace with God, themselves and the world become terrorists. Western cities are rife with second or third generation immigrants from the Middle East or further, people who feel torn between two identities and cultures. People who can experience a sense of rejection because of their origins, all the more after terrorist acts. It's only too easy for them to be manipulated into becoming monsters, under the promise of paradise as a reward. Besides, violence and cruelty are one of the facets of human nature, and just like qualities, such dark dispositions can be nurtured to grow and take over someone's heart.
I wish we could talk some peace and love into them, yet it seems we can't. I believe in "loving your enemies", but if your enemy threatens to destroy again and again and again, and if countless lives are at stake, what do you do? I read a commentator who said that the only thing we can do to stop terrorist attacks is to kill as many terrorists as we can, kill them in the Middle East where they train. Is that really the only answer? Each terrorist is someone's son, someone's brother, someone's friend. Think about that. Those left behind, if they cannot let go and forgive (and how hard is that: forgiving your enemy for killing those you love?), will want to avenge them, and destroy and kill. It never ends.
The cycle of violence grieves me and hurts me.
In The Green Mile, John Coffey, the black prisoner sentenced to death who has the power to heal others, says, "I'm tired of people being ugly to each other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's too much of it. It's like pieces of glass in my head all the time."
These words resonate with me. Indeed, hatred and hurt and pain feel like shards of glass in my heart.
Sometimes, though, wee see tings that give us hope; like the "I'll walk with you" hashtag, or parents of murdered Israeli and Palestinians comforting one another despite being supposedly from opposite camps. I cling to news like this because I need to believe in hope. I believe in a God who gave his life for humanity's redemption. This, to me, is the cornerstone of hope in a better world. And I believe we are to take part in the healing of the world, each in our own way, no matter how small. I believe that somehow, all hurt will be healed and all tears wiped away. But how about those who refuse reconciliation and forgiveness? Are some people beyond healing, unredeemable? This is what makes me weep.
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