By M. Theresa Basile The season of Lent: in many of the places we live, natural light dims in this time of year, and that fits this liturgical season well. It is traditionally a time of fasting and a season for silence and introspection.
In this Lenten season of 2024, the darkness and the silence seem more poignant, particularly when our minds turn to Palestine/Israel, as news reports ensure they will. There is the terrible silence from tens of thousands killed who can no longer call out to us and the laughter we will never hear again from 12,000 children. Twelve thousand children. And rising.
There should also be cries and screams breaking into our Lenten contemplation, from the traumatized and terrified, begging for the world to hear them and see them, find them worthy to live, worthy of our notice, our love, our protection.
The reports from Gaza are repugnant and mind-numbing: unthinkable denial of water and food, of medicine and of fuel, resulting in mass starvation, widespread disease, surgery on adults and children without anesthesia, and no medical care for most. Wanton bombing of hospitals, homes, schools, and every place desperate people are seeking refuge. Death by carpet bombing and death by smart bombs, death by drones and death by machine guns.
As the head of the World Health Organization said, "Gaza has become a death zone."
While the world's eyes are focused on that death zone, the ethnic cleansing spreads to the West Bank, where Israeli settlers go on rampages, soldiers kill with impunity, hundreds of Palestinians are dead, hundreds more forced from their homes, and communities are destroyed.
But the United States and other world powers will not acknowledge the reality of genocide we are seeing daily, let alone try to protect the victims. They issue feeble words of caution or make shocking justifications and denials and then send weapons and money to replenish genocidal stockpiles and coffers.
A dark night of the soul for the world. "Never again" has been forgotten.
As during Jesus' dark night in Gethsemane, we, his disciples, must stay alert today. God help us if we turn away or seek to sleep through this nightmare. We also dare not succumb to despair and apathy. This dark night requires our courage and strength, the courage to see the overwhelming reality and not turn away, the strength to reject hopelessness and the paralysis it brings.
Rather, we urgently seek the hope of resurrection, the culmination of this Lenten season and the essence of our Christian faith. We hope for things unseen and remain faithful – even when we’re filled with anger, fear, and confusion. Even when faced with so much death and destruction, we must grasp that hope and not let go, knowing that resurrection can take many forms and we cannot yet see what Palestine's resurrection will look like.
Our embrace of hope does not deny or minimize the horrible reality in Palestine/Israel now, but it is necessary to know that we are not powerless to help. With the hope of resurrection firmly planted in our hearts, we can believe our actions will make a difference, and we live into that hope with every action we take. When we see the devastation being wrought today in the Holy Land and want to do something - anything! - to help, we are called to both prayer and action; indeed our actions can be our prayers in motion. We can be praying with our feet as we march, praying with our fingers and keyboards as we write, praying with our wealth as we give, and always praying in our hearts.
Responding to the suffering of this moment, we understandably seek immediate remedies and those are certainly needed: calling for a permanent ceasefire, demanding all governments stop arming Israel, donating for humanitarian aid, and calling for the renewed funding for UNRWA. At the same time, the root causes of this current horror demand our attention more than ever, and our united action for long-term solutions is needed more than ever.
Not long after this Easter Sunday, United Methodists will begin our first General Conference in eight years. At that conference, our church will have several opportunities to take meaningful steps to support justice in Israel/Palestine. Those include renewing our longstanding opposition to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and putting that position into action by rejecting financial investment in the bonds of governments that maintain such abusive and illegal occupations.
Our church has the power to effect change, when our decisions become a catalyst for yet more actions globally, until a point is reached when the tide will not be turned back. We know such united actions have worked before to achieve more than one people’s liberation, and we have faith that, with God’s help, this can and will happen again.
When justice and freedom become a reality for all Palestinians and Israelis, then our hope of resurrection in this land we call "holy" can be realized.
“Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.” Isaiah 58:12 See and endorse the legislation that United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR) is supporting for General Conference 2024. https://www.kairosresponse.org/gc2020_resolutions_resources.html See UMKR's response to the war in Gaza and what we can do to respond: political advocacy, humanitarian aid, prayers, public actions, and more. https://www.kairosresponse.org/war2023_palestine-israel.html You make our collective work possible by your witness for justice every day in your church, community, and Annual Conference. MFSA does not receive any financial support from the United Methodist Church's giving channels. 100% of our budget is funded through your membership dues and your generosity in giving. |
