I recently engaged with someone on Facebook about the men who have been deported from the US to a notorious prison in El Salvador, known for its horrific treatment of prisoners, including torture, despite that a recent Bloomberg report indicated that some 90% of the men we’ve sent there have no criminal record, and did not receive due process – a right guaranteed by the Constitution, not just for “citizens,” but for “people” in our country.
The man I was talking to was not concerned about the situation. “They broke the law by coming here, and there are consequences for breaking the law,” he said. “They are terrorists – I don’t want them here anyway.” I responded that, first of all, without due process, we don’t actually know if they are terrorists. But furthermore, I don’t care what someone has done, no human being that is made in God’s image deserves such inhumane treatment. Lock them up humanely or deport them, I said, if due process has determined that to be necessary. But if I wish torture on another human being because I think they “deserve it,” then I am no better than they are. The man responded, “I’m not wishing for their harm. I’m saying I don’t care what happens to them. I’m indifferent.”
In April of 1999, Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel delivered a speech to a joint session of the U.S. Congress entitled, “The Perils of Indifference.” He said, “In a way, to be indifferent to suffering is what makes the human being inhuman…. Indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor -- never his victim.”
On Maundy Thursday, we heard again Jesus’ “new commandment, to love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34-35). He said this right after he had washed the feet of his betrayer, and right before his closest friends would abandon him. Later, as Jesus was mocked and beaten, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And on the cross, he promised to the criminal who hung beside him, "Soon you will be with me in paradise." Christ has shown us the cost of loving our neighbor.
Indifference is not love of neighbor, for as Wiesel says, indifference “benefits the aggressor – never his victim.” Love of neighbor is active, and it extends even to the betrayer, the criminal, the one wielding the whip. Love of neighbor steps in to stop suffering, in whatever way is possible – prayer, certainly, but also making phone calls, donating money or goods, writing letters, going to rallies in support of the vulnerable, having difficult conversations with loved ones, and more. Love of neighbor means not looking away, but striving to learn and understand, so we have a fuller picture of the issue. However it looks, love of neighbor is not indifference. It is action.
St. Paul writes that when one member of the body suffers, we all suffer (1 Cor. 12:26). We witnessed Christ’s suffering on Good Friday; but we are Easter people – people who live, not into the suffering of this world, but into the hope of the resurrection. And as Easter people, we are called to participate in God’s work of redemption.
I know, it is impossible to ease all the world’s suffering, and I’m as guilty of indifference as the next person; we can only bear so much. But as believers in Christ’s resurrection, and the life and freedom that it promises, we can and must do something. In this Easter season of new life, to what suffering will we refuse to be indifferent? Let us all be so courageous as to participate in God’s work of redemption on behalf of those who suffer.
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