Too Much Silence

Armodoxy for Today: Too Much Silence

Her name was Marie. Some called her Mary, once or twice, Maria. To me, she was grandma.

She was the oldest of six children. She was married and had two children herself before her life changed drastically. Her small family found refuge in the home of her parents, where they lived until they were exiled. Political unrest was all around her, and there was news coming in regularly of killings – individual and mass – in nearby villages and towns.

Marie was forcibly removed from her home, but only after her father and husband were seized and taken away, leaving the household with women and children only, an easy target for rape and physical brutality.

It became apparent to Marie that the government’s plan was much greater that singling out her family or her town. The government was executing a program of mass annihilation of an ethnic population, which later became defined as genocide, or for ease of understanding, “ethnic cleansing.” Marie didn’t understand why it was necessary to dumb-it-down to basic understanding. In fact, throughout her lifetime she had a hard time understanding why, people of seeming intelligence, upright moral character, people who would worship in churches, and praise God and proclaim the name of the Lord, why would these “nice” people allow such atrocities take place?

Marie died in 1985 in a bed in America, distanced by 70 years from the events that brought her to this country. Fortunately, she did not live to see, nor did she have the need to question the silence of the world over Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Sudan, Congo and now Gaza. It was enough that she lived through the quiet world over the rise of fascism in Nazi Germany and the antics of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia.

The great minister of the Gospel, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King said, “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.” It was addendum to his warning, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”

Inspired by Shnorhali’s 10^th hour, I offer this prayer today, All provident Lord, open my eyes to the hurt and pain in the world, so I may see the beauty of life in all. Open my ears so I may hear the cries of your children, open my mouth so I may speak against the evil in the world and promote peace, open my hands so I may work for justice, guide my feet to walk in the paths of righteousness, so that my faith comes alive in a life lived by your commandments. Amen.