Have you ever lost a good friend you’ve never met? In tribute, I share a brief bio of Johann,
Christoph Arnold, a prophetic author of compassion, hope, and forgiveness. I felt the loss of this influential author in
my life during Easter of this year. In
addition, I framed his bio with pearls of wisdom from a few of his books. Hopefully, his thoughts bring you moments of
pause and grace.
Seeking Peace
“We often think of peace as the absence of war; that if the
powerful countries would reduce their arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we
see our own minds – our prejudices, fears, and ignorance. Even if we transported all the bombs to the
moon, the roots of war and the reasons for bombs would still be here, in our
hearts and minds, and sooner or later we would make new bombs. … working for
peace must mean more than getting rid of weapons. It must start with uprooting war from
ourselves and from the hearts of all men and women.”
“Shalom means the end of war and conflict, but it also means
friendship, contentment, security, and health; prosperity, abundance,
tranquility, harmony with nature, and even salvation. … It applies to
relationships among people and nations, and between God and man. Seeking Peace
Endangered
“… new children are born into our torn and twisted world
every day, and each one brings the renewed message that God has not lost faith
in mankind.”
“You yourself are the child you must learn to know, rear,
and above all enlighten. To demand that
others should provide you with answers is like asking a strange woman to give
birth to your baby. There are insights
that can be born only of your own pain, and they are the most precious. Seek in your child the undiscovered part of
yourself.”
“Don’t worry that your children never listen to you. Worry that they are always watching you.”
“As long as Christ lives only in your bibles … and not in
your hearts …”
“Why is it that in bringing up our children, we so quickly
see the obstacles and problems, and so easily miss the joys? Raising the children we bring into the world
ought to be a privilege and a joy.”
“Constant pressure of any kind will eventually cause a child
to snap.”
“The idea of the child as teacher, though not an uncommon
one, always deserves rediscovery. It is
the logical consequence of a reverent approach to children.”
“It is because we have forgotten that the tie that binds one
generation to the next means far more than the sharing of blood. As humanity’s oldest and strongest bond, the
love
between a parent and a child is a gift for the future – an inheritance for
prosperity.”
“… whatever a child needs in the way of guidance, security,
and love, he/she needs now. Many things
can wait. Children cannot. Today their bones are being formed, their
blood is being made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say ‘tomorrow.’ Their name is ‘today.’” Endangered
Born in England in 1940, one of nine children to parents who
fled Nazi oppression in Germany, Johann Christoph Arnold spent his childhood in
flight. The Brits considered the fleeing
Germans enemy aliens. Under pressure,
the Arnold family crossed the U-boat infested Atlantic to settle in Paraguay
living as farmers and craftsmen. In
1955, his family moved to upstate New York to the Bruderhof, an intentional
Christian community where members pool all income, talents, and energy to care
for one another and to reach out to others.
Johann made his commitment to the
Bruderhof. He completed a degree in
business, becoming a salesman for the community’s toy manufacturer. While traveling on business to Atlanta, he
watched breaking news of young Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death in Selma,
Alabama. Jackson had been shot at a
peaceful voting rights march. Overwhelmingly
drawn (called?) to the civil rights movement, Johann immediately drove 200
miles to Selma to the funeral. Johann
wrote, “The viewing was open-casket, and although the mortician had done his
best to cover the injuries, the wounds on Jimmie’s head could not be
hidden. … We never heard one note of anger (among three
thousand attending) or revenge in the service.
Instead, a spirit of courage emanated from the men and women of the
congregation, especially as they rose to sing the old slave song, “Ain’t Gonna
Let Nobody Turn Me ’Round.””
At the
cemetery, Martin Luther King spoke of forgiveness and love. “He pleaded with his people to pray for
police, to forgive the murderer, and to forgive those who were persecuting
them. If there was ever cause for hatred
or vengeance, it was here. But none was
to be felt, not even from Jimmie’s parents.”
This event
transformed Johann Arnold, inspiring, shaping his life’s mission. “The cause worth dying for was the kingdom of
God coming to earth. Baptism by water
and Spirit had sealed his commitment to this kingdom. Love to all, peace, and forgiveness were
weapons of power, tools for the courageous believer, not the soft or
faint-hearted.” He proclaimed the
gospels in several books, one of his more powerful, “Why Forgive?”
Johann
Christoph Arnold, a prolific writer, pastor, elder in the Bruderhof, relentless
fighter for peace and reconciliation through forgiveness, a disciple to live
the gospel and love his neighbor, and a prophet died three days after Easter
2017. I found his writing to-the-point, profound
and insightful. He lived in the graces
of the Spirit often among very challenging people. Blind to social status, he respected people
who held differences of opinion. Many
described him as “disarming with warmth and trust.” “We might not have agreed,
but we could respect each other and acknowledge our shared goodwill and
humanity.”
Johann had
his haters. “I didn’t relish them, but I
could thank them for giving me reassurance in light of Jesus’ words: ‘Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well
of you!” Luke 6:26.
Under his pastoral care, the Bruderhof grew from four
communities in two countries to 24 communities on four continents. Johann attended peacemaking conferences in
Israel, Iraq, South Africa, Mexico, and Rwanda.
Inspired during his meeting with Mother Teresa, he guided the Bruderhof
humanitarian aid to Haiti, Thailand, Central and South America, and the Middle
East.
His friendship with New York’s
Cardinal O’Connor opened doors with his Catholic brothers and sisters. Occasionally, Cardinal Dolan and Elder Arnold
shared company while enjoying good German sausage and beer. His convictions on the vitality of the family
led to meetings with Popes John Paul II, Benedict, and most recently Francis. He worked with Chuck Colson on prison
ministry and Sister Helen Prejean on death penalty abolition.
Arnold
teamed with Detective Steven McDonald to form “Breaking the Cycle” taking the
message of forgiveness to schools. Shot
and paralyzed while investigating a crime in Central Park, Detective McDonald
publicly forgave the fifteen-year-old who shot him. McDonald has continued to reach out to his
shooter in prison ministry.
McDonald spoke of Arnold; “He
cherished opportunities to learn about people’s needs, joys, and sorrows, and
always marveled at how similar people are underneath. He recognized the image of God in
everyone. He was never ashamed to speak
of the love of Jesus.”
Value those who give you guidance,
strength in faith to carry on, to grow.
Who affirms you in forgiveness, family, faith, and peace?
Escape Routes
“The joys of heaven are often overshadowed by clouds or
hidden in the most unexpected places.
Yet they are always there, ready to be discovered by the seeker who has
eyes for them. And once he finds them,
even the weariest soul will see that the agonies of searching were not without
meaning.”
“We’re
always in danger of ending up possessed by our possessions. When this happens,
it is a sign that we have lost our dignity as human beings and become mere
tools for creating wealth. Inevitably, we’ll treat other people as tools too.
Strangers to our own humanity, we’ll find ourselves adrift just when we thought
the good life was within our grasp.”
“Reading
these words, we might think that her story has a happy ending – and in a sense,
it does. But she knows that her struggle is not over. Like every one of us, she
must daily renew her decision to fight her demons and work toward wholeness,
both within herself and in relation to others. A disease of the spirit won’t
simply go away and stay away. But we can choose to turn the battle against it
into a positive one – even into a source of strength.”
“Materialistic
attitudes have cheapened human life so badly that many people would rather
spend a dollar on punishment than a dime on prevention.”
“Perhaps the
legacy of his tragic end is this – the lesson that though admitting and
embracing our failures is painful, the inability to face them can be lethal. Do
we put our faith in money and the material signs of having made it, or do we
find our fulfillment in close relationships and a strong purpose for living?”
“Though the son of God, he had the frame of a
human male and he neither despised the human body nor shied from the physical
or the sensuous. We need only recall that he provided a wedding party with wine
and allowed a woman to dry his feet with her hair.”
“The fires
through which we must go will leave us either scarred or refined.”
“That is why
it is often said that at the hour of death, nothing else matters but our
relationship to God. In fact, that relationship can be measured by very
concrete things: the love we have given others, or failed to give; our
dependence on God, or our attempts to steer clear of him; love, or the lack of
it; humility, or pride – these are the things that will either comfort or
torment us as we prepare to die”.
“I believe
that since God set us into a material world, we ought to live in it fully – in
the here and now. Even if our present life is meant to be a preparation for a
better life to come, there is no point in frittering away our days worrying
about the future, or our chances for eternal blessedness. Jesus taught us,
“Love your neighbor as yourself,” and that simple command holds more than a
life’s work.”
“When I held
my grandson for the first time, I couldn’t find words to express everything I
was feeling.”
“For isn’t
every person–family member, stranger, enemy, or friend–a bearer of God’s image
stamped with the sign of eternity and carrying a divine spark? Isn’t each one a
messenger for whom we ought to set a place, one we should welcome and honor and
love? To view our fellow human beings in this way is not only a lofty idea; it
is the only way out of confinement and alienation.” Escape Routes
Why Forgive?
“Will we choose
to love or not? Everything else pales beside this crucial question.”
“Forgiveness is neither earned nor even deserved, but a
gift. It is also a mystery.”
“An offender can be punished, but to punish and not to
restore, that is the greatest of all offenses …. If a man takes unto himself God’s right to
punish, then he must also take upon himself God’s promise to restore.”
“Bitterness is more than a negative outlook on life. It is a
power – and a destructive and self-destructive one at that. Like a cancerous
cell, a dangerous mold, or a spore, it thrives in the dark recesses of the
heart and feeds on every new thought of spite or hatred that comes our way. And
like an ulcer aggravated by worry or a heart condition made worse by stress, it
can be physically as well as emotionally debilitating. In fact, if not
addressed and taken care of, bitterness can lead to death.”
“Asking one’s partner for forgiveness is always difficult,
because it requires humility, vulnerability, and the acknowledgement of
weakness and failure.”
“Most of us will probably never be faced with forgiving a
murderer or rapist. But all of us are faced daily with the need to forgive a
partner, child, friend or colleague – perhaps dozens of times in a single day.
Perhaps the hardest thing about practicing forgiveness in daily life is that it
requires us to confront the reality of our feelings toward those we know best.
It is difficult enough to forgive a stranger we might never see again, but it
is much harder to forgive a person we love and trust. Our family, our friends,
the people we feel closest to at work – they not only know our strengths, but
also our weaknesses, our frailties, and our quirks.”
“Later I read more and a line from the Lord’s Prayer – this line
that says ‘forgive us as we forgive’ – jumped out at me. The meaning seemed clear: “You won’t be
forgiven until you forgive.” I remember
arguing to myself, “I can’t do that, I could never do that,” and God seemed to
answer right back, “Well you can’t. But
through me you can.””
“Forgiving is a deeply personal matter. Ultimately, each of
us must find healing within, on our own terms, and in our own time. On another
level, however, forgiving is much more. Even if its power connects people one
by one, the resulting ‘ripple effect’ can be felt on a much broader scale. In
fact, forgiveness can be a powerful social force, transforming whole groups of
people.”
“What does forgiving really mean? Clearly it has little to
do with human fairness, which demands an eye for an eye, or with excusing,
which means brushing something aside. Life is never fair, and it is full of
things that can never be excused. When we forgive someone for a mistake or a
deliberate hurt, we still recognize it as such, but instead of lashing out or
biting back, we attempt to see beyond it, so as to restore our relationship
with the person responsible for it. Our forgiveness may not take away our pain
– it may not even be acknowledged or accepted – yet the act of offering it will
keep us from being sucked into the downward spiral of resentment.” Why
Forgive?
