Forgotten Wars

I've been reading a fascinating book by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who pretty much parachuted into five of today's worst warzones: Sri Lanka, South Sudan, Burundi, Angola, and Colombia (War, Evil, and the End of History). What distinguishes these wars is that, unlike our grand, world-shaping battles, they have no meaning. No battle for the soul of Islam, no clash of civilizations, no confrontation of ideologies. Rather, children are pressed into military service, and innocent people live aware that no one cares whether they live or die, nor will anyone know their fate. How will a massacre of a rural African village affect me? How will the success or failure of a rebel militia affect the course of world history? The global implications of battles involving the West and radical Islam are clear, or if not clear, at least certain. The forgotten wars, however, have no implications.

Sri Lanka has been in the news recently, because violence has re-erupted between the Tamils and the Sindhalese. I read an article about some Catholic priests who have been rushing around their village trying to protect civilians of all faiths (Christians are a small minority; the ethnic conflict is between Hindus and Buddhists, with neutral Christians and, believe it or not, Muslims caught in the crossfire of terrorism). A priest called out to the world, "We are heading towards an isolated, unknown and silent death. Are we going to be a people forgotten? Not cared for? Is the World going to keep silent now and count on our bones from mass graves to sit on judgment? How will the international community especially the European Union, Co-Chairs, and Peace envoys of Norway and Japan be indifferent when innocent, unarmed, people are systematically decimated." Apparently, one priest, who witnessed the massacre of 15 people he was sheltering in his Church, has recently disappeared.

As a catechetical minister in the states, this story struck me inasmuch as it contrasts with the ease of my ministry. I spend my time planning discussions on social justice, catechizing new Christians, or discussing Scripture with high school students at Starbucks. Surely these activities fulfill some needs of the Church where I am placed. But in Sri Lanka, ministers are doing all they can just to preserve life in an inescapable hell. It's tremendously difficult for me to imagine a genuinely life-or-death ministerial situation. I try to instill in all to whom I minister the conviction that they are created in the image of God, that their lives and choices have meaning and implications. How could I do that when faced with a society that utterly disregards human life, or a world that ignores the deaths of so many? How could I find God and show him to my parish when my people were living as a people damned--unnamed, forgotten, and of no consequence any longer?

While I can think of no practical responses I can initiate (any suggestions?), I do recall Paul's admonishment: "God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without honor, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy" (1 Corinthians 12:24-26). Events in the Sri Lankan Church are just significant as events in the American Church, where we concern ourselves with things of greater (practical) consequence, things that actually have effects; somehow I wonder if what happens in forgotten regions, where our voice is of no practical significance, is in fact of greater consequence, for our words and actions in those regions interrupt, however quietly, the darkness of hell. (I wonder: How is the work of Christians in those forgotten parts of the world perceived?) Who are we to say that pivotal events in our history are also pivotal eschatological, when perhaps the suffering of those abandoned to violence, of those remembered only by a God who seems not to care, is more eschatologically definitive. That is, our response to the forgotten might more deeply define our world and our humanity than does the outcome of the great wars going on today. I can't do much for the forgotten, but a first step is to practice greater solidarity, at least in prayer, with all "the damned," all those meaningless victims of meaningless violence, who cannot even console themselves that their annihilation--whether by physical death or dehumanization or utter loss of agency--is in service of some greater cause. I can at least listen to the voiceless, and begin to give them a voice....