Wisdom, Part III
Here is a news headline that brought up a number of emotions in me:
Another radio host who urged listeners to boycott COVID-19 vaccines dies from COVID-19.
This past Sunday’s first lesson was from the book of Proverbs. Wisdom speaks openly in public places and says the following: I will pour out my spirit to you and make my words known to you; but, if you refuse to listen, I, in turn, will laugh at your distress, and mock when terror comes over you. (Proverbs 1:20-26) Can this be applied to the unvaccinated? Does Wisdom laugh at them? What about those who openly mock vaccinations on the radio and other media
streams and encourage others to mock them too. Should anyone mock them when peril falls upon them?
I learned a new German word this week – Schadenfreude (shaa-dun-froy-duh). It is a combination of two words; Schaden which means “harm” and freude which means “joy”. An example of schadenfreude is this: smiling when you find out that your cheating, no good ex-boyfriend’s house just burnt down.
I am not proud to tell you that part of me participated in schadenfreude when I read that another evangelist of misinformation got sick and died from the very thing they were mocking. I am human, after all, and schadenfreude was one of the emotions that ran through my mind when I read that headline. But, it made me wonder if Wisdom/God participates in schadenfreude? Does God actually laugh at distress?
My Jewish Study Bible said that at the time Proverbs was written the “if/then” phrase – if you don’t heed my advice, then I will laugh – was known by the audience as a rhetorical device to persuade the audience to listen to Wisdom. It was not an indication of God’s personality; nor was it used to teach God-followers to laugh at other’s distress. God doesn’t laugh at us when we fall… even when we don’t listen. Instead, while people were mocking Jesus on the cross, he responded with mercy and compassion and said, “Forgive them; for they know not what they are
doing.”
What about the vaccinated; should they laugh when an unvaccinated person becomes sick and dies? Probably not if they are a part of the Jesus movement. We are called to mercy, forgiveness and compassion; not scornfulness; and it is one of the most difficult things that followers of Jesus are called to do.
How about a little schadenfreude? Are we allowed just a glimpse? I don’t think we are judged on the immediate reaction we feel upon hearing that our good-for-nothing ex suffered some sort of calamity. I think Wisdom speaks to us after we feel joy in hearing of another’s harm. After feeling schadenfreude, do we rub salt in the wound, do we seek vengeance, do we mock, and laugh, and ridicule; or, do we follow our Savior and try to act in ways of mercy and compassion?
We are the hands and feet of Jesus on this earth. Sometimes Jesus gives us gloves to pick up the broken glass of others as an act of mercy and kindness. Sometimes we are given the shoes of peace to bring healing into a calamitous situation. And, every once in a while, Jesus gives us the shoes of peace to run away from a horrible relationship and allow someone else to do what we cannot.
As far as that headline goes, Wisdom is whispering to me that after feeling schadenfreude I should have compassion on those who choose, and even propagate, an anti-vaccination stance, and I should continue to speak as Wisdom does – out in the open – to share the wisdom of taking measures to protect oneself and one’s neighbors from this public health crisis.
-Fr. Dave
