A couple of days ago, I received another e-newsletter I subscribe to from American Catholic. This month's focus was on "How to Rid the World of Evil." The newsletter featured an article from the writings of two prestigious 20th century Catholic writers, Fr. Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk. The next two paragraphs are excerpts from this article.
Fr. Nouwen said that Thomas Merton saw a close link between violence and a faulty notion of evil. “If you see evil as something ‘out there,’ something outside yourself, sharply defined and irreversible,” explained Nouwen, “then the only way to deal with it is in the same way you deal with a malignant tumor—You cut it out, take it out, eradicate it, burn it away, kill it—which means you immediately become violent.” Father Nouwen pointed out how Adolf Hitler had identified Jews as “the evil thing” and believed that “once you take that away, there will be no more evil.”
To follow the wisdom of Thomas Merton, therefore, we should not only make a big effort to exterminate the evil outside ourselves, but first of all to diminish the evil tendencies within us: selfishness, pride, vengeance, hatred, violence. These impulses we hold in common with all humanity. As Merton wrote in his New Seeds of Contemplation, “Instead of hating the people we think are the war-makers, hate the appetites and the disorders in your own soul, which are the causes of war. If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed, but hate these things in yourself, not in another.”
What is amazing to me, is how their thoughts came to life for me in my building's laundry room that same night!
One of my neighbors came in very frustrated and irate. She shared with me someone in the building has been stealing her laundry detergent. This was her third bottle that either was missing or was discovered empty and left setting on the storage shelf.
As part of her venting, she shared her revenge strategy to fill up an empty detergent bottle with bleach to "get even" with the culprit. I did my best to calm her down and rationalize what the benefits versus the deficits of doing such an act would gain for her. She then realized that our building manager had an idea of who the offender was and that the individual would be moving out of the building by the end of the month. I pointed out to her to return an evil with an evil, someone else gets hurt ... someone innocent and she also retains a resentment.
Through her frustration, she did not know how she would complete two loads without detergent. I offered her the last bit in my bottle and reassured her not to worry about it. I had purchased a new bottle of detergent a week prior. It was my way of showing her "for every evil act, something good comes from it." Personally, I experienced an interior glow because my actions were motivated by the Holy Spirit throughout the entire situation. I was in the laundry room for a greater purpose than to do my own laundry! Never in my wildest dreams would I ever thought I would be offered an opportunity to make a witness in, of all places, a laundry room! Amazing how the Holy Spirit discovers ways to utilize us as His instruments when we least expect it!!!
Rebecca is merely an acquaintenance to me. However, I do know she is a Christian from the few previous conversations we've shared in the laundry room. Thus, I challenged her to pray for this person by "spiritual adoption." Deep down inside of themselves, they are hurting and this is their way of crying out for love and attention. This person is probably experiencing a lot of inner brokenness. By no means is it the healthiest way to go about it; nonetheless, they may not know any other way to ask for the most basic human need all of us desire -- love, attention, respect and affirmation.
However, the most loving thing any of us can do is to move beyond our hurt and pray for our offenders. By doing so, we honor the greatest commandment of "loving our neighbor as ourselves." Through our intercession for our enemy, our hardened hearts are transformed into fleshy hearts. None of us may ever know if our enemies heart is softened, but we will know if ours becomes softened or if it remains hardened. In the end, each of us chooses our attitude -- to love or to hate -- and we have to live with our decision -- either in bitterness or in peace. And yes, none of us (including myself) is perfect. It is really easy to say these words but I am continually challenged to put them into action.
Due to people moving out, some became lazy by leaving their garbage and cans in the laundry room. Rebecca decided at that moment to remove the trash and large garbage bag of cans by disposing of it to the dumpster. I was quietly impressed how she took the initiative to do something positive by eliminating the garbage from the room. Spiritually, I saw the connection
of how she was eliminating the "spiritual clutter" of someone else so all of us could have less chaos in the laundry room. Again, she chose to do a random act of kindness for the random act of evil committed toward her. How beautiful is that?!
I pointed out to her to take the cans and redeem them for their value. Heck, she'd probably come out to the positive -- a new bottle of laundry detergent AND some extra money, too! God was working in her favor for the "sin" committed against her. We both shared a laugh, but I truly reinforced the fact to keep and redeem the cans for herself. "What's one's junk is another's treasure" revealed itself in this scenario as well. About 10 minutes later, I was driving my car toward the dumpster ... and there was Rebecca dumping the trash AND the large bag of redeemable cans! Again, another selfless act on her part and it spoke volumes to me!
Now that it's been a couple days since this incident, I ponder the spirituality within the story. Isn't a bit ironic that we use laundry detergent to wash our stained clothes? Isn't that what reconciliation is all about? We come to the sacrament feeling badly about our attitudes and behaviors toward God, others and ourselves. Reconcilation offers the opportunity to share these issues with a priest. The priest represents Jesus and absolves us of all of our sins. We then make a penance, or amends, with ourselves, the Church and those we offended. We leave the sacrament coming out crisp and clean just as our clothes come out of the washer and dryer! The sad fact is that many Catholics don't take advantage of the sacrament nearly enough ... and I am very guilty to admit that I among this group!
For personal reflection: How can I challenge myself to recognize when evil "signs a rental agreement" and resides in my attitudes and soul? How do I allow this to happen? How can I prevent it from happening? How can my life make a positive difference when an injustice has been committed toward myself or another? In other words, how can I contribute a good deed for the evil one paid either to myself or someone else?
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