Below is today's 'Irish Times' Thinking Anew column.
Michael Commane
Last Sunday RTE screened the last of a three-part series called ‘Generation War’. It was shown earlier in the year on German television where it was called ‘Our Mothers, Our Fathers’.
It is the gripping tale of five young people living in Berlin in 1941.
They get caught up in Hitler’s war. Two brothers are soldiers who see duty on the eastern front, one a nurse who works in a field hospital in the east. Viktor is a Berlin Jew and then there is the glamorous singer, Greta, who sings for the troops.
Anyone who has watched this mini- series will be appalled by what war does to ordinary decent people. The suffering, the violence, the brutality of war is really incomprehensible for those of us who have never had to go to war.
In tomorrow’s Gospel (Matthew 3: 1 – 12) we read how John the Baptist was offering baptism to people so that they would have a change of heart. In other words he was suggesting to people to turn away from their evil ways and live good lives. But he does tell his followers that while he baptises for a change of heart, the person who comes after him is far more powerful than he and will offer his followers the living gift of the Holy Spirit.
Baptism is always linked to a change of heart. If it is to have any meaning for us we have to see it as a gift from God that turns us away from all that is wrong and directs us towards the goodness of God.
‘Generation War’ describes in graphic detail the evil of what was World War II.
And that war came about as a result of economic ruin, selfish nationalism and political opportunism. The Nazis managed to convince the German people that Jews, homosexuals, Romas, Russians, almost everyone except the Germans were best dealt with in the gas chambers of the concentration camps. That war took the lives of 50 million people and left millions more maimed and broken.
The European Union was the brainchild of dedicated and far-seeing European statesmen. The primary vision of the Union was to ensure that another war could never again happen on European soil.
The European Union, with all its failings, is a political attempt at keeping the people of Europe living in peace and harmony, all the time respecting the different cultures and traditions.
Today the European Union is part of our lives. But like any institution the EU has failings. It needs constant policing.
If there is a democratic deficit in its running then the people of Europe need to counteract that and make sure that faceless bureaucrats and opportunistic politicians are never allowed control the reins.
In these economic harsh times there is a worrying trend towards a narrow type of nationalism, which tries to make out that one nation, one people is better or worse than another. The growth of totalitarian ideologies across Europe, in politics and church is a worrying trend.
Surely at the core of Christianity is the belief that we are all made in the image and likeness of God, and that we respect and cherish others. An ideology based on the notion that one people, one group is the ‘best’ ends in terrible suffering.
In tomorrow's Gospel John the Baptist asks his followers to turn away from their sins and to repent. ‘Generation War’ reminds the viewer about the savage deaths of 50 million people. Closed nationalism, all forms of fascist ideologies always end in the story of ‘Generation War’. We need the sense and the grace to keep alive the change of heart that is required to avoid the evils of war.
War does not work. People flourish under God's protection in a peaceful, open and tolerant society.
The repentance John the Baptism preaches is not a static event, rather a life-long process that enables us to keep turning to God, and then living out His reality with our fellow sisters and brothers irrespective of their creed, colour, class, nationality.
War may appear ‘easier’ than diplomacy but peace building, seeing God in the other person, is the Christian vocation.
No comments:
Post a Comment