Last Sunday, some of our St Martin’s groups reflected on God’s most important commandment, in the light of the war in Israel/Palestine. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. Our response was silence.
What is there to say? This Sunday we mark All Saints and All Souls, remembering those who have died in the past year. Alongside the loved-ones we name are the overwhelming numbers of people, each one precious, killed in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, and across our globe. In our hopelessness, complicity, confusion, anger and pain, how do we love God, neighbour and self? What does love even mean?
Yael Noy runs the charity Road to Recovery: 1300 volunteers drive Palestinians to receive treatment in Israeli hospitals. Interviewed in June, she said ‘This is an opportunity to meet Palestinians. We do not know them, we never meet them. We have an entire population that lives next to us, they are our neighbours’.
Yael’s kibbutz experienced one of the most brutal massacres on October 7th. Her parents and friends were there. Over 130 people were killed. Some of her volunteers were taken hostage. But Yael continues to transport patients from the West Bank to hospital. ‘Our hearts and deep concerns are with the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and the Gazan patients and their families. Even with what’s happening now I have kept on talking to my friends in Gaza. I think the most important thing now, for me, is to stay human…to stay with my open heart.’
Whether weeping, shouting or silent, I pray we may each have the strength to choose what is most important, to stay with our open hearts.
Susannah Woodd
