When the president of Russia invaded the Ukraine on February 24, 2022, we were jolted into the reality of evil. This was launching an unprovoked war of destruction and death on an innocent population. It also inflicted death and suffering on many Russian soldiers and their families.
And then we had the mass shotting of ten people in Buffalo, New York. The crime was racially motivated. How could anyone want to shoot people because they were black people?
There are a few religious people that attribute this to the ‘evil one.’ No one can conclude that these evils happen at the instigation of the devil, the evil one! That is dishonest thinking.
These evils (and all evil) are carried out by the evil willed by human beings. It is a human being who ordered the war! It is a human being who pulled the trigger of gun!
Every human being must try to cope with evil in order to make sense of life. Why would one human being hurt, injure or kill another human being? What is there in the heart of a human being that they could inflict such evil on another?
We have always tried out make some sense out of this. Our ancestors told the story of Cain and Abel. One brother killed the other brother. When God confronts the murderer, he asks, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4, 9)
Evil fermenting in the human heart has been with us from the beginning.
Every time a human being inflicts evil on another they become less of a human being. Their cold, heartless calculating makes us cringe that one human being could go so low.
Religion tries to make some sense out of evil, but all explanations always fail. What could be in any human heart that a man would beat up his woman? Anyone sexually moleste a child? Be so uncaring as to leave poor people starve to death during a famine?
In the face of evil we have the promise and the power of our God. We are given hope to help us through the great evils that human inflict on another.
The very center of meaning of the cross of Jesus is that evil will not triumph. Evil will never have the last word. God has turned the power of evil into the grave and given us the resurrection. God will also give us the power to change the power of evil into goodness and life.
It is the Holy Spirit that is giving us power to be revolted by the senseless killings of civilians in the Ukraine and in our grocery stores. The movement or effort to try to correct such a horrible, evil situation is part of the movement of God’s Spirit.
I am so strengthened by the Holy Spirit that whenever there is evil done, I am being moved to practice justice and compassion. I am being moved to treat my fellow human being with more respect and to value their lives more intensely.
Never poh-poh any evil. Always listen to what the Holy Spirit is moving you (us) to stronger goodness and justice. Out of the ashes of Good Friday arise the justice and compassion of Easter morning!
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