Hacksaw Ridge and The New Civil Discourse Part II

I recently published part 1 of Hacksaw Ridge and The New Civil Discourse addressing the division our nation is experiencing 4 Solutions to Achieving Unity. Today I wish to share four solutions to achieving the unity all of us, no matter which side of the aisle we are on, are looking for.

Let Them Speak…..

As the battle of Hacksaw rages, Doss and Smitty move to the front lines and keep watch in a foxhole, overlooking the Japanese defenses. During the night, Smitty confesses why he bullied Doss in basic training. He never knew his parents and spent his childhood in and out of orphanages. That is enough to confuse any man. Doss then recounts the moment he vowed to never again pick up a gun. It was after an altercation with his father, an emotionally scarred World War I Veteran nearly turned deadly.

We are all broken and carry baggage from the past. If a woman is pro-choice, she may very well have suffered through an abortion. If a guy is a drug addict, he may have come from a broken home. If someone fears marriage, there may be a history of divorce. Behind every belief system is a reason, behind that reason, most often, lay a wound that has yet to be healed.

One of the best ways to bring healing to a broken world is allowing those we disagree with to share their point of view. Not only does this tear down walls of misunderstanding and division, it allows us to learn their point of view so we may answer them with charity and truth.

And Listen To Them

After reading this title, you may be thinking, “Yeah James, that is inferred when you allow someone to speak!” However, I would ask you, how often do we listen to another person with compassion? Compassion means to suffer with. Many times, I listen to people due to my own self-interest of getting the last word in. But this is not what it means to listen.

To truly listen to someone means to understand where they are coming from, embrace their suffering as if it is your own and do everything within your power to lift them out of the rut they are in.

The power of listening and having compassion on someone you disagree with is perfectly portrayed after Doss and Smitty share their stories. As morning approaches, they are overrun by a vicious Japanese counterattack. In the ensuing firefight, Smitty is gravely wounded. Doss, takes it upon himself to place his fallen comrade on his shoulders and carry him to safety. Listening, empathy and compassion bear the same power. It tears down walls, forges new bonds of friendship and love and in many cases, it heals and saves people from making further damaging decisions.

And this bleeds into my next point…..

Affirm (and remind them of) their inherent dignity

Affirming those you come across is a good thing. Everyone needs affirmation. The problem is, we live in a society that affirms evil and degrades the good.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, affirm, means to declare one’s support for, uphold, defend.[1] We are never required to affirm sinful behavior. To encourage someone to pursue a lifestyle filled with drugs, sex and alcohol is not affirming their dignity. It is degrading their humanity.

John Paul II says it best, “Man is the highest expression of the divine gift because he bears within himself the inner dimension of the gift.”

What the former pontiff is saying is everyone is a gift. After his platoon is overrun, Doss had the opportunity to retreat from the ridge they were fighting on. He could have left over one hundred wounded men to be finished off by the enemy. As he stands at the edge of the cliff he whispers a prayer, “I don't understand. What is it you want from me Lord? I can't hear you!”

Suddenly, he hears numerous soldiers screaming, “Medic! Help me!” Without thinking he rushes to assist his fallen comrades.

Our duty as Catholics is to reaffirm the inherent dignity a person possesses and encourage them to embrace the gift they are. When they struggle with any issues of self-esteem, fear or self-confidence, it is our duty to place them on our shoulders and bring them to our Lord who can heal their wounds.

Please Lord Help Me Get One More

Private Doss ropes together a pulley to lower the wounded soldiers to medics below. He starts by saving one soldier. Then he rescues, five, ten, twenty, thirty all the while placing himself in immense danger by penetrating deeper into Japanese held territory. As he labors into the night, he continues to rescue wounded soldiers. His back is bruised, cramped and bleeding; his hands are gushing forth blood from lowering the rope. After every time he rescues one soldier, he utters a simple prayer, “Please Lord, help me save one more! Help me save one more!”

He does not stop until he rescues seventy-five wounded men from his platoon. And even then, the very next day, he leads his platoon back into battle where they finally take Hacksaw Ridge.

Our constant prayer as Catholics should be to “get one more.” Our duty, as Christ exhorted us in the Gospel (Matthew 5:38-48), is to love our enemies, forgive them, pray for their conversion of heart, to stand firm against evil and fight hatred with charity as Desmond Doss did.

We also need to realize that those on the other side of the aisle are entitled to their point of view. However, when the opportunity presents itself, we should share the truth with them in the greatest charity in order to bring them to Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Truth and the one who sets all of us free.

Above all, we should pray for the conversion of those who attack the church and the truth. Saint Maximilian Kolbe, the martyr of Auschwitz said, “We have no right to rest as long as a single soul is Satan’s slave.” Our prayer frees our enemies to pursue the truth! Pray for those you disagree with! Learn from them, listen to them and be charitable to them. You never know the number of walls you will tear down, hearts you will soften and lives you will save and make whole. All it takes is "one more" to change the world as Desmond Doss did.

[1] https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/affirm