War and violence overflow with intensely painful emotions – grief, anger, shock. When triggered, we try to silence others instead of listening to understand different traumas. It is not just about Ukrainians and Russians…
It is about the Community of Hope in Ukraine and our partners from the collective West, for whom the greatness of the Kingdom of God is more valuable than the empires and traditional values…
We cannot move forward together… together without carefully and caringly voicing emotions from all sides of the Community of Hope – us in Ukraine and our partners “from abroad” alike… Only if we let each other with our different wounds stand close enough to be heard and open our hearts to share and understand Pain can we find a common language to convey the truth…
Pain initially has no language; thus, we — you, our partners, and us, People of the Bridge — must search together for the words and narratives that allow its meaning to emerge…
Our faith, too, faces profound trials and testing amidst wartime’s moral storms and corruption… We expect God, like a cosmic magician, to solve our minor inconveniences, not to allow great tragedy and death itself to breach the home of beloved friends.
A veteran wisely quotes a theologian: “Doubt is the ants in the pants of faith.” When horror surrounds us, and neatly packaged certainties fail, nagging doubts undermine spiritual assurance crafted in peaceful times…
An honest relationship with God – requiring emotional transparency, not just “spirituality” or religious practices – often starts when we brutally admit divine absence, injustice, and the apparent contradictions in how an all-good God allows suffering… rather than His presence…
This lonely space of grappling with theological questions, too, is God’s grace subtly at work expanding our capacity to understand the limitations of our understanding…
In the Gospels, followers initially welcome Jesus’ power and teachings as His blessings fill everyday life with wonders, meaning, community… food… and healing… However, when He is arrested and condemned unfairly through jealousy and lies, even His closest disciples flee in fear and confusion… We all — in Ukraine and the collective West — fled with them… No men remained with Him… No men…
Only the women surrounding Jesus on Via Dolorosa Street display the courage to stay by His side “to the end” as the seemingly cursed Cross approaches. Why? Because they already know their Teacher – not just from what blessings He gave them…
But from what vulnerability, anguish, and woundedness He willingly received from them… as their gift to Him… as the gift from those who suffer less to the One who suffers uncomparably…
Their honesty and faith in the darkness opened channels for brokenness to become wholeness, tragedy to turn to beauty, and crosses to be redeemed through grace.
Can we, too, amidst our war’s trauma and corruption, give Jesus not what we think He wants – our success, certainty, or loyalty to earthly powers pretending divinity…
Can we give Him as the gift of our Pain and powerlessness? Would you dare, friends, to give such gifts?
Can we refuse to expect Him as a cosmic problem-solver to take suffering away and walk closely enough to touch wounds ourselves?
Can we accept that partners walking with us on the Path of conscience are also wounded themselves by their efforts to understand and support us?
This horrific ongoing Russian full-scale war against Ukraine increasingly tests the foundations of our morality in all involved — us in Ukraine, you in the collective West — challenging relationships of trust across divides…
However, by sharing mutual anguish in solidarity, those willing to stay human, though haunted by past, present, and future suffering, will find guidance together through the storm.
As Scripture reminds us: “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalms 34:18). Do you want to be close to Him? Allow Him to break you… Give Him the right to crush you…
If we turn to Christ and one another – as the Community of Hope – with broken hearts… and keep our hearts open and broken as our gift to each other… then the healing grace can appear even now to light the Path forward to the Hill of Crucifixion…
We cannot and are not able to heal each other… The People of the Bridge in Ukraine and the partners who follow the Path of Simon of Libya… The healing is on the Hill… through Death to the New Life…
Can we, too, give Jesus our Pain and refuse to expect Him to take it away? Can we walk in Pain all the Path of Via Dolorosa on the Hill of Crucifixion? Are we able to pay attention to those who suffer less than us? Are we?… Peace be with you, People of the Bridge…
—
Taras Dyatlik, Ukraine
(737 days of the full-scale Russian war against Ukraine)
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