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“Lord, bless those who bless us and do good to those who wish us evil.”
Benedictine Daily office, Thursday -Lauds, Weeks II and IV.

I was using my Benedictine Daily office prayer book, a gift from my friend Jackie, for morning prayer when I came to the petition above. I stopped, I read it, but I didn’t pray it. I examined it closely and thought about what it would mean–really mean– to utter those words in prayer. Blessings for blessers is not a problem. So many people have blessed my life, and I desire God’s blessing to be upon them. But that second part–do good to those who wish us evil–is problematic.

It’s one thing to pray the Lord’s Prayer–forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. The way that usually works in my mind is that “our trespasses” means my sins, failings, and shortcomings, and I ask God earnestly to forgive me all things. But then “those who trespass against us” I take quite differently. It’s like a wooded piece of land with no trespassing signs on it, and people come stomping onto the property in disregard for the postings. And since I don’t own any land, I don’t have to forgive anybody. I know it’s a distortion of the prayer, but I do much better at asking God to forgive me than I do at forgiving others. And, besides, if you just accelerate in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, it’s relatively easy to just gloss over the whole trespass section and move right into the deliverance from evil with barely a blink of the self-examining eye.

But to say straight out to God, “Do good to those who wish us evil”, and to mean it.!! That’s a lot to ask. I know that Jesus distilled all the commandments down to two big ones- love God, and love your neighbor. And he was pretty clear in that good Samaritan story that the category of “neighbor” includes those we despise. And there was that whole thing about loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you. But it’s easy to “love” an enemy in the most basic sense and; to pray for him or her along the lines of “Don’t let him get hit by a bus,” or “Don’t let her be squashed by falling space debris.” It’s another thing altogether to ask God to do good, to bless, to be kind to that person. So while I don’t pray for certain folks to be miserable, sick, or destitute, I equally do not pray ;for them to be happy, healthy, and wealthy.

The annoying thing about using a prayer book for the daily office is that the prayers repeat in a cycle. So two weeks later that petition came up again- do good to those who wish us evil. If they provided us with white-out in here, I believe I could correct the prayer book. But all I have is a pencil. And my concern with attempting to scratch it out is that the graphite would not cover the ink of the printed words, so I would simply be highlighting the part the disconcerts me.

In the midst of my wrestling with my inability to pray that particular petition I read a book called “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. My good friend Charles Wesley (aka, Rev. Sherry Morrow Wood) sent it to me through Amazon, and it really was an uplifting and inspiring tale. It’s a work of narrative nonfiction recounting the story of Louie Zamperini whose bomber crashed in the Pacific in World War II. It’s an against all odds story of survival across thousands of miles of empty ocean, with thirst and starvation, sharks, enemy aircraft, capture, and life in Japanese POW camps where the words brutal and dehumanizing seem mild. Louie is an overcomer, and he finds within himself the determination, hope, ingenuity, and strength to survive, to help others survive, and to return to his family..

The treatment of POWs by the Japanese was sickening and harrowing -constant beatings, the most meager portions of terrible food, medical experiments, forced labor, isolation, exposure to the elements, torture, and mind games. The worst of the Japanese guards made me so angry that I was glad when the POWs formed plans to kill some of their tormentors, including the most sadistic of torturer nicknamed “the Bird”. Their plans did not work out, and they suffered grossly. The Japanese guards had orders to kill all the POWs if Japan should fall. So, as the Americans won victories, the POWs feared that they would be slaughtered, which did happen on some Japanese-held islands. The inspiring part of the story was the overcoming spirit of the POWs, who faced things that were so much worse than my situation that I felt thankful for what I do have here in prison.

But the part that absolutely amazed me was the response of the POWs to liberation. Because of the hastened end of the war by the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese did not have time to execute their POW extermination plans. The war ended and American airplanes appeared in the sky, dropping food and supplies to the POWs. Hillenbrand describes Louie’s and the other POWs’ response this way:

“For Louie these were days of bliss. Though he was still sick, wasted, and weak, he glowed with euphoria such as he had never experienced. His rage against his captors was gone. Like all the men around him, he felt flush with love for everyone and everything. ”

“Only the thought of the Bird gave him pause. A few days earlier, Louie would have bound and killed him without remorse. Now the vengeful urge no longer had sure footing. The Bird was gone, His ability to reach Louie- physically, at least-extinguished. At that moment, all Louie felt was rapture.

Forgiveness coursed through all of the men at Naoetsu. POWs doled out supplies to civilians and stood in circles of children, handing out chocolate. Louie and the other POWs brought food and clothing to the guards and asked them to take it home to their families.”

For Louie the war was over, but in some ways the war traveled home with him. Today we call it Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. He suffered from flashbacks and turned to alcohol as a remedy. His life was falling apart. He married, but the relationship was rocky and moving towards violence. Amazingly, Louie’s wife did not divorce him, but instead in 1949 pleaded with him to go hear a 31 year old evangelist in a circus tent in Los Angeles. Thousands were flocking to hear this tall blonde headed preacher speak, and many were experiencing a religious awakening. The evangelist was a very young Billy Graham. You’ll have to read the book for the full description of Louie’s transformational experience. It wouldn’t make sense without knowing the whole story. But there, under a tent with sawdust on the floor, Louie found a new life in Jesus Christ, and he was finally at peace.

The next year, 1950, Louie returned to Japan to visit Sugamo prison, where many of his former guards were jailed for war crimes. The guards were brought before Louie, and they shuffled towards him, moving hesitantly, their eyes regarding Louie with fear and shame. Hillenbrand writes, “Louie was seized by childlike, giddy exuberance. Before he realized what he was doing, he was bounding towards them. In bewilderment, the men who had mistreated him watched him come to them, his hands extended, a radiant smile on his face.”

Where does that power to forgive come from? When does it occur? It certainly didn’t happen for Louie until his imprisonment and torture ended. He had not sat in his tiny cell at night praying for the violent Japanese guards with petitions of “do good to those who wish us evil.” But then again, he didn’t claim to be a Christian at the point in his life. Once again, I fear that maybe I’m only trying to justify myself, saying that someday, when I am set free, then I’ll work on forgiving and asking God to do good to those who wish us evil.

How are you doing with forgiveness in your life? Are you able to ask God’s blessing on even your foes, your enemies, those who do you wrong or wish you evil? I hope so. I hope I can get to that state of mind and spirit where you arrived. If not, then let us pray for each other along this life’s journey of learning to forgive like Jesus.