Catholic Diocese of Broome

These words of Jesus echo throughout the latter part of the gospel stories, taking in both the sad time for his disciples as they prepared to bid him farewell (not fully understanding what all this meant and why it had to happen) and the joyful reunion with the Risen Christ as the disciples prepared to ‘go out' to courageously share the ‘good news' with the whole world.

In our own time, we are faced with images, slogans and propaganda that encourage us to be fearful and distrustful of ‘the other'. It is an old sporting saying that encourages humility in defeat and graciousness in victory. Could there be a more marked contrast than that displayed by the East Timorese following their victory over the Indonesians after thirty years of brutal imposition of power, and the way some American troops have treated captured Iraqi soldiers?

Jose Ramos-Horta appeared recently on television and spoke of the fact that it is unwise to rub salt into the wound of a defeated opponent. The East Timorese would have ample reason to feel justified in wanting to exact some form of just retribution for the treatment of their people by the Indonesian armed forces over a long period of time, and yet they have tried to be conciliatory in all their dealings with their one-time enemy. Some of the US soldiers in Iraq seem not to have behaved in the same generous fashion, choosing to humiliate, degrade and torture opposing forces captured in war.

Perhaps the American soldiers involved have succumbed to the messages put about by politicians for their own ends that these ‘others' are somehow less than human, less worthy of the respect and the rights that properly belong to all human beings irrespective of race, colour, creed or social status. We all need to be careful that we do not fall victim to those in our world who wish to devalue human life simply because it comes in a package that is somehow different from what we are used to or consider ‘normal'. We must resist the temptation to demonize the ‘other' in order to make it easier for us to disregard human rights that must be applied universally.
The command of Jesus to ‘love one another' came with only one qualification – ‘as I have loved you'. And how was that? Jesus gave practical example of accepting all human beings as equals, worthy of respect and to be accorded dignity as their right. That is the challenge Jesus continues to issue to the East Timorese, to the soldiers in Iraq and to each of us in our daily lives. As Christians, we cannot sit back and feel comfortable when atrocities are committed in the name of a quest for peace, justice and the establishment of democracy. Even these noble ends do not justify treating fellow human beings in the manner we have seen recently. We ought not remain silent while such things are being done in our name as part of the occupying forces in Iraq or for that matter anywhere else.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those of the Bishop of Broome.