The images from Bucha, Ukraine, are even more horrendous than those of Mariupol, if that’s possible. Bodies are strewn everywhere, and it’s clear that many were not killed in battle but that the dead had been executed. Hands tied behind their backs, they were hot in the head. The retreating Russians had murdered their victims in cold blood.
What is it that drives people to such violence? How do we dehumanize the other? This was up close and personal, the same way Jews were shot in World War 2 or the same way the Myanmar government went after the Rohingya. How many other small towns in Ukraine have faced the same?
How does such hatred get created? What evil lurks in us that such unspeakable acts are committed? How can the killers be forgiven, and who has the right or duty to forgive? Bucha is indeed a horror from another time. Lent is supposed to be a time for reflection, repentance, and reconciliation, but how can such acts be forgiven without repentance?
Prayer for the Day
Shaken by images of murder we cannot fathom, O God,
We wonder how it is possible for such acts to be forgiven;
Trembling at images we do not want to see, but look we must,
For we need to be reminded of the depths of evil.
Help us, O Lord, not to be driven to despair but to believe
The life will win over death and light over darkness.
In the name of the One who is our hope,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
- Voltaire, French satirist and writer (1694-1778)
When we allow violence against some, we enable violence against all.
- DaShanne Stokes, sociologist
Shall one who hates justice govern? Will you condemn one righteous and mighty
Who says to a king, “You scoundrel!” and to princes, “you wicked men!”
Who shows no partiality to nobles, or regards the rich more than the poor,
For they are all the work of God’s hands?
In a moment they die; at midnight the people ere shaken and pass away,
And the mighty are taken away by no human hand.
Job 34: 17-19