People's Edit
Dying for Someone!
Opinion | People's Edit | Neli Linus | 15-May-2021
“When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.” This British classical epitaph is seen in many places of war memorials. I saw it first at Kohima war cemetery. This epitaph is attributed to John Maxwell Edmonds (1875-1958), an English classicist, poet and dramatist and the author of several celebrated martial epitaphs for graves and memorials. How shall we write a new epitaph for our loved ones, members of our community, citizens of our country as well as of the whole world, remembering those millions who died of Covid-19 and who had been laid off in hurry without due honor and respect worthy of their dignity and religious belief to comply with Covid-19 protocol?
Losses and grief in families, chaos and pandemonium in decision-making halls, helplessness and exhaustion among health care forerunners, horror and speechlessness from spectators far and near continue to spill over into busy streets and restful parks and courtyards. Today’s lack of vaccines and oxygen, of hospital beds and ICUs, of medical doctors and nurses, helpers and ambulances will be tomorrow’s incredible tale. Still the darker side of human nature is the greed and corruption exhibited by the heartless opportunists who are grabbing and stealing from and depriving of many in the suffering hours of humanity. Our churches and temples are empty while hospitals and clinics are jam packed! Is this the hour to save souls or lives or both? Let us not rationalize and theologize in this hour of human crisis.
Yet amidst painful and horrifying stories of suffering and death, noble and magnanimous episodes of heroic love and sacrifices are giving signs of hope and consolation to humanity. Family members, friends, health care personnel, volunteers, social leaders, national and international communities are displaying the power of love and science in unimaginable measures to save their loved ones, neighbors and strangers at the moments of their death.
John F. Kennedy, former President of America, once said, “The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe – the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God … Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction.” (January 20, 1961).
Jesus asserted to his disciples a fundamental and radical path of living: “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13), and he claimed his disciples, “You are my friends” (Jn 15:14) and made clear his attitude towards them, “I do not call you servants” (Jn 15:15), and still further he indicated the path of reaching out to humanity in need by teaching on how to find one’s “neighbor” (Lk 10:25-37). Interestingly, Jesus never mentioned the name or whereabouts of the neighbor, but he showed the way to find him or her. The neighbor is the one whom one finds is in need. It could be the least and most helpless human person on earth (Mt 25:35-36). So, it is essential for us to understand the meaning of dying for someone, and more so to live a life that is worthy of dying for someone! It is radically and potentially in self-less service to help and comfort the other, even to the extent of giving up one’s life to save the other (neighbor) in love.
What, then, shall be our role at this hour? Whether to write an epitaph for someone or to die for someone? But, if we had to die, in whose footsteps should we die: of the brave soldiers of world wars or of committed medical doctors and nurses … or in the radical path of Jesus the Redeemer? Perhaps, none of the above! In any case, we should decide and do something – a way of dying - for someone. Or else we might just die of Covid-19!
“Finally, be strong in the Lord in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God … and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph 6:10-11, 18).
(The Author is the Ecclesiastical Advisor to NECARF and can be reached on linusfrneli@gmail.com. Views expressed are personal)
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