When will we ever learn?

became more and more radical, more and more divided, until there was nowhere else to go except to a peace conference.
Exactly the same broad process, despite the many particular differences, will happen in the Middle East and Afghanistan. No one would listen to Hamas or respect the fact that they represented a deep felt yearning and had won an election on the basis of it and so now they have gone over the top and forcibly driven out their opponents. You do not have to be a politician to see that some day, some how, someone will have to sit down with them and try to respond to their concerns. I do not think anyone is born a radical. One is driven to it by the constant refusal of those in power to listen.
But it is painful to hear of the developments in Palestine and the new wave of suicide bombings in Afghanistan – to say nothing of Iraq. Someone said, ‘those who do not study history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.’ Surely the Viet Nam war taught us something; that power doesn’t solve problems. The US was an elephant and Viet Nam was an ant but the ant won.
What is it that makes the ‘powerful’ so confident that they do not have to listen to the ‘weak’? Russia thinks it can crush Chechnya, America Iraq and Israel Palestine. They can’t. Surely we know enough about human beings to know that? But we never learn. Jesus got so frustrated with us: ‘You faithless generation, how much longer must I be with you? How much longer must I put up with you?’ (Mark 9:19).
He was talking about the refusal of the people of his time to move beyond the way they sought security in staying as they were. They simply would not believe in him and follow him into a new way of relating to others – the way of acceptance and love. Eventually he was crushed by their intolerance and closed minds and force was used to get rid of him. And the process has been continued ever since.
But the crushing of Jesus was not the end of the story. He rose. And many many people, Christians and people of other faiths and those who claim they have no faith, have also risen.
In the end there is always hope and history teaches us how it is rewarded. Again one can think of the settlement in Northern Ireland as the most recent example. In our own country force is dominating our lives but once again it will bring no permanent solution. We have to sit down and listen to one another. When will we ever learn?