Praying for Enemies

Enemies

By Janice Campbell

For the last several months, my husband and I have been reading Rabbi Rami Shapiro’s blog.  He feels like a kindred spirit and we have come to love him.  One of his You-tubes revealed him walking a labyrinth and getting lost on it while people were watching.  How he laughed at himself and his humanity was not only unusual but endearing. 

Friday, November 16, in his blog, “Beyond Religion”, he shared his feelings on the bombings at Gaza between Israel and the Hamas.  The tone of the blog was different from any of his others.   He said he was surprised at his feelings but discovered that he strongly felt he needed to go and fight, basically because he didn’t know what else to do.  And he ended the blog asking if anyone had any other suggestions.

I was disturbed when I read this.  I cared about him and I didn’t want him to go and get hurt or get involved in the fighting.  That night I woke up and the thought came to me that what can be done is to pray for the enemy.  I realized that in the Jewish tradition, that was not an option.  But it was in my faith tradition.  Jesus blatantly commanded his followers to pray for their enemies.  I have very rarely done this.  But I thought that this was something I could do for the Israel conflict.  I could pray for the Hamas.

But what would I ask for in praying for them?  I was unsure.  And then I remembered an article I had just read in the fall issue of Tikkun magazine.   In Tony Campolo’s article, he wrote of a meeting he recently attended in Ireland with the Catholics and the Protestants.  Considering their history, he was uneasy about the meeting.  When he entered the room, things didn’t look good because the Catholics were on one side and the Protestants on the other.  But then a dialogue began and people spoke of the forgiveness they had experienced.  One man in a wheelchair spoke.  He said he had lost his legs in a car bomb and that he had forgiven the man who had set the bomb.  Another man spoke.  He said he was the one who had set the bomb.  The man in the wheelchair spoke again.  He said that his wife had died nine months earlier and that he didn’t have any children.  But the man who set the bomb had taken him into his home and was caring for him. 

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This story affected me deeply.  I remembered the violence in Ireland and how, at the time, no one thought it would ever end.  And I remembered how two women, mothers, one Catholic and the other Protestant, had stood up and said “Enough”.  I remembered how they joined together, how they spoke and worked for the fighting to end.  I realized that I don’t know why it took.  I’m sure it was a combination of elements that came together.  That the timing was right and it worked.  Now look at the forgiveness and healing that has happened there and I realized that I certainly never thought that it would happen.  Yet it did.

Then it came to me.  And I saw forgiveness and healing poured over the Holy Land like a blanket.  Like a mother laying a blanket over her children, God pouring forgiveness and healing over everyone in that region.

Then the thought of collective prayer came to me.  And I wanted to call all the churches I knew and have everyone pray for the Hamas; to pray for a blanket of forgiveness and healing to be felt.

I realized that the timing of this prayer needed to be when people could actually do it together and noon seemed obtainable.   So that is what I came to: high noon for 5 minutes.

OK.  That morning, I called friends in two churches who agreed to take this to their church.  And I was on my way to take it to my church as well.

Part 2.  Carrying it out.

I was late getting to church that morning which was unusual because I’m never late.  It’s a thing with me.  Nevertheless, I was late, the service had already started.  I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t know how or when to bring all this to the church.  In looking at the bulletin, everything was about Thanksgiving.  Which was appropriate as this was the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  Then the minister asked if there were any visitors, if they would introduce themselves, and I thought this was my chance, so I stood up and said all that I had experienced.  And I asked them to join in.  The minister thanked me.  After the service, I apologized to him and said that I hadn’t known when would be the right time.  He was very gracious and said that the Prayer Time of the service would have been the right time.   That hadn’t even occurred to me.

Then I realized how much wisdom and courage I lacked.  Made me appreciate Moses a little more.  I’ve always considered him to be whiny but now I can see that I could give the guy some slack.

In praying at noon for five minutes, I have felt joined with others.  And at the same time, I’ve come to wonder, who am I to be asking people to pray for the Hamas?  I know very little about the situation and it seems brazen of me to presume all this.  And in thinking about peace, I remembered the song, “Let there be peace and let it begin with me.”

And I was ashamed.  Who am I to be praying for peace in Israel when I’m holding resentments.  There is someone in my life that I have a deep resentment toward.  I really don’t like this person, in fact, I can’t stand them.  And they haven’t even done anything to me.  I just don’t like them.  But I have to deal with this person every day and I don’t even like thinking about them much less, coming in frequent contact with them.

So I realized that the blanket of forgiveness and healing for the Hamas that I was praying for needed to include me as well.  I began praying that I would change and would being seeing this person through eyes of understanding and compassion.

So praying for the enemy is changing me.  Maybe the forgiveness Jesus spoke of was mainly the forgiveness I need to experience toward others.