"Loving your enemies reminds me of a story from World War II that always brings tears to my eyes. The Nazis gathered up Jesuit nuns and monks and sent them to the concetration camps, along with Jews, gypsies, and homosexuals. One nun was subjected to the horrifying and perverted medical experiments associated with Dr. Josef Mengele, Auschwitz's dreaded "Angel of Death". The assistant who administered these torments was a woman, one of Mengele's nurses. In extreme suffering, the nun knew she was about to die, and her last act was to take the rosary from her neck. She held it out to the nurse, who recoiled suspiciously and asked what she was doing. The nun replied, "A gift. Take it with my blessing." They were her last words before she died.
Here was a living example of "resist not evil," and in a flash it tells us that Jesus's core teachings depend upon higher consciousness. Few of us could respond to deep, intentional evil with compassion unless, as with this nun, compassion had become a part of our nature. In addition, such compassion must replace all that isn't compassionate, those instincts that force us to resist, fight, struggle, and curse evil when it touches our lives."
Can you imagine? This woman, in all her physical pain, cared so much for her torturer's soul that she reached out and blessed her. Maybe this was her ultimate test before God offered her the relief of a dying breath? Was this her soul's opportunity to bear extreme physical pain and and exhibit uncompromising compassion in order to elevate her entire soul family to a higher level of heavenly love?
Robert Schwartz in his book Your Soul's Plan investigates the role of a soul while life is being played out. He interviews one girl whose hand is blown to bits by a mail bomb left in the mail room of her office. She survived and continued on a path that was more fulfilling and enlightening than the one she previously walked. She also forgave her attacker. A few psychics were assigned the task of channeling various higher souls surrounding the victim. They uncovered that she and the bomber are in the same soul family and that he promised the girl that he would carry out this act of violence in order to help their entire family evolve.
Could it be that the Nazi nurse was in the Jusuit nun's soul family? Did a loving pact draw them together? While one learned deep forgiveness and compassion on the road to enlightenment, the other learned loathing and brutality in attempt to reach the same place - knowing love? Because only through its exact opposite can we truly understand and appreciate the beauty of love. How do we appreciate being healthy if we are never sick? How are we motivated to reach enlightenment if there is no challenge to overcome?
Just some things to think about...
xoxox
Peace!
V
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