Metánoia
A change of heart
Gotta get down to it. Soldiers are gunning us down.
Should have been gone long ago.
One of you knew her and found her dead on the ground.
How can you run when you know?
— Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young "Ohio"
I, and many others are fervently praying for the miracles in Ukraine. We have moved from shock and denial to anger and useless virtue signaling to bargaining ... bargaining with God.
I awaken most nights before daybreak and in that darkness lift up wordless prayers, trusting my heart to speak into the spiritual realm. Early this morning I implored YHWH Tsebha'oth to open blocked communication and supply routes to those being surrounded and bombarded, and shut off communication and bring confusion to the invaders, drying up lines of supply. Other nights I’ve prayed over the airspace, both physically and spiritually, that His angel armies would gain spiritual ground and intervene. Prayers continue. Prayers for those trying to escape, for those who have obtained safety and their new hosts, and for those left behind to fight.
Prayers for all the pawns caught in this evil game of chess.
My prayers joins the millions of petitions nailed to heaven's door.
We are asking for the miraculous; for bold acts of faith for the citizens and leaders of Ukraine, and the miracle of a turn-around for those responsible for the invasion, the perpetrators of atrocities and ruminators of the unthinkable.
And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets— who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
— Hebrews 11:32-34 ESV
God of Angel Armies, bring this kind of faith to those defending their homes and families, their cities and workplaces, their way of life. Let pluralism, the key to co-existence with those who are different from each other, continue to grow and flourish in Ukraine. Answer them when they cry out for justice, for the right to exist as a protected nation, and imbue them with shrewdness and creativity to outsmart and outwit their perpetrators.
And for the perpetrators, I ask for a turning, a metánoia, “a change of mind as it appears to one who repents of a purpose he has formed or of something he has done.”
A miraculous reversal.
Stop. Turn around. Go back. Think it over. — Seals and Crofts
There is something of the miraculous that occurs when a person, hell-bent on some destruction, whether to self or others, discovers from somewhere outside himself the urgent need to stop and reverse course.
All justification, all rationalization is extinguished deep within. The hardened heart sheds its callouses and softens, opening itself to a glimmer of grace towards one’s perceived enemy, and lets go. Excuses for perpetrating atrocities are replaced with ownership and abhorrence over wrongs committed.
On the heels of such a miracle, should Putin and his Russian minions experience it, I pray for another miracle: the wiping clean of justifiable bitternesses growing within Ukrainian hearts and the supernatural ability to forgive wrongs done.
Last Sunday, all Orthodox churches, including the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and incredibly, the Russian Orthodox Church calendars proclaimed a Lenten Sunday of Forgiveness. 3
Understandably, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted with a counter proclamation for Vladimir Putin. From the translated full text of his speech: 4
“Ukrainians!
Today is Forgiveness Sunday. A day when we always apologized. To each other. To all people. To God. But today, it seems, many have not mentioned this day at all. Have not mentioned the obligatory words: “Forgive me.” And the obligatory answer: “God forgives, and I forgive.” These words seem to have lost their meaning today. At least in part. After everything we went through ...
We. Will. Not. Forgive. Hundreds and hundreds of victims. Thousands and thousands of sufferings. And God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never. And instead of Forgiveness, there will be a Day of Judgment.
I’m sure of it.
... we heard the promise that there would be humanitarian corridors. But there are no humanitarian corridors.
Instead of humanitarian corridors, they can only make bloody ones.
A family was killed in Irpen today. A man, a woman and two children. Right on the road. As in the shooting club. When they were just trying to get out of town. To escape.
The whole family. How many such families have died in Ukraine! We will not forgive. We will not forget.
We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war. On our land. We will find every bastard. Which shot at our cities, our people. Which bombed our land. Which launched rockets. Which gave the order and pressed “start”.
There will be no quiet place on this Earth for you. Except for the grave.”
It was a heart-aching and powerful speech, and I have only quoted the half of it.
Indeed “God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow.”
However “Never.” is not always true.
After the miracle of metánoia, after repentance and a complete turning back, God offers grace also for the perpetrator to reform, to submit to just punishment, make restitution and to reform into right living.
Last night I caught this verse from a neighbor’s post on Instagram:
Let the wicked man forsake his way. And the evil man his thoughts.
Let him turn to the LORD and He will have mercy on him,
And to our God, for He will freely pardon.
— Isaiah 55:7 KJV
Metánoia did not happen last Sunday, nor this last week. But the miracle of repentance and forgiveness is still possible.
Because of that hope, Bishop Stepan Sus, Ukrainian Greek Catholic church in Lviv, rightly reflected on the same Forgiveness Sunday one week ago
“We have to forgive — not because we are weak, but because ... it is very important that we are not poisoned by this evil." 5
A half-century old lesson from my own homeland
On May 4 1970 the Ohio National Guard opened fire on a crowd of unarmed college students who were protesting the Vietnam War. (Crosby Stills Nash and Young recorded “Ohio.” The words, blazoned on my heart are quoted at top.)
In 13 seconds, the soldiers’ volley of 67 M1 armor-piercing bullets murdered four students, wounded nine others, and turned witnesses’ lives upside down, including a friend’s. I was sitting in a 5th grade classroom in the next county. She was on campus.
Yet, when my friend was first willing (and able, with her Creator's help) to share her painful memories for an oral history project on the 20th anniversary of May 4, she finished her spontaneous 23 minute testimony of the horrors of that day and its aftermath with this closing statement:
“I used to know ———— ————, and today when she said she would never forgive, it tore my heart out. I'll never forget. And I think there's some real important lessons with this. But if there's no forgiveness there's no healing, and the murders go on forever.
I guess that's all I got to say.”
Well said, well written. Indeed our hearts are broken and prayers arise.