Homily for 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time ’Love Your Neighbour as Yourself’

Homily for 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

19th February 2023

Over the last week, I have had the opportunity to chat with many people. Each with a different perspective on world events and different philosophies. I have atheists friends who often start up conversations on Christianity knowing I am a believer. From my standpoint, I try to show how loving God is, even if it seems to be that there are horrible things going on in the world. I am asked, at times, “How can a loving God allow small children to die or be abused.” The thought horrifies me, especially as I am a father and grandfather. But is the answer so black and white? We don't often have the full story, we only know the headlines. Designed to be emotive and get us angry. Our blood boils and we can see nothing else but a horrible statement.

Imagine standing around a warm fire near the city wall on a cold night. There have been rumours that a rebel leader has been arrested, a blasphemer corrupting the minds of many simple folks, the foolish ones, filling their heads with strange ideas. Thankfully the Pharisees have had him arrested and he’ll get his just reward by being crucified by the Romans.

Imagine another fire burning near the side of a bombed building, once homes to thirty families, uncertain where food is coming from and where to escape. The roads are cut off by invading forces and the women are scared of how the enemy soldiers will treat them. The barbarians are mindless beasts. Subhuman according to the authorities. And that those coming from the East. On the Western side, the Allies bomb our cities and the SS pulled out leaving us the defend ourselves. My friend died in the air raids last night and I feel as though I am going out of my mind.

Sadly, these were the thoughts of a young German girl, aged about 15 at the time. Let’s call her Ingrid, not her real name. It is 1945. Her brother died in his Messerschmitt fighter shot down by an RAF Spitfire over Holland. Her father was threatened by the Gestapo for helping Jews and has told his family would suffer if he continues. Then he was sent far away from his family as a Luftwaffe Major. Ingrid, like her friends, was forced into the Hitler youth. Some of her friends disappeared or were sent to concentration camps because, in their family genealogy, there was a trace of Jewish ancestry.

Ingrid was scared, given a rifle and told to defend the town. She wanted to scream and run away.

We are told to love our enemies, not to resist them, but to pray for them. If asked for something, we should give. If told to go one mile, we should go two. If someone needs our coat, we should give them out sweater as well. Those who wish to destroy the temple will be destroyed by God. For each one of us is the temple of the Holy Spirit. God knows our every thought, our every intention. Leviticus tells us that we must not bear hatred towards our brothers or sisters but tell them of their offence, or else we are just as guilty as they are. We are told to love our neighbour as we love ourselves.

Ingrid did run away. She tried to commit suicide because of her friend's death. Yet, friends brought her back to her family. Their town was captured by the Allies. Ingrid and her family were put out of their home. Their clothes piled up in the street for the Jews who had been liberated from the concentration camps. Ingrid told me she was glad they got her clothes. She was left with next to nothing but found a great use for the Swastika flag each family was forced to have. She turned her family’s one into underwear and use curtains to produce outer clothes.

After the war, Ingrid went on to become a nurse. Found herself working in England and came across the pilot who had shot down her brother. She forgave him. She met her husband, also an RAF pilot, and forgave him. In the late 1970s, Ingrid and her husband moved to Northern Ireland, where she continued to work as a nurse but also volunteered for the Samaritans, until she died at the age of 89. She told me her story in an interview, shortly before she died.

Ingrid gets phone calls from people who refused to talk to her because of her German accent. She understood, was forgiving, and never passed judgment. She continued to treat everyone as her neighbour and showed them her love.

Sources

https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/778514 Bevrijdingsbeelden Amsterdam-120155.webm

https://www.openbeelden.nl/media/778580 - Bevrijding Enschede en Hengelo-49922.webm

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Disney_Bomb_1945.ogv – - US Army, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Nederlands: Polygoon-Profilti (producent) / Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid (beheerder), CC BY-SA 3.0 NL , via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bevrijding_Enschede_en_Hengelo-49922.webm

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Bomb-damaged_Nuremberg_and_Darmstadt.webm - Attribution - Rita Mack, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Pixabay and Pexels

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