Respectful relationships + the inviolable dignity of the human person - adapted from my school bulletin reflection for 23/09/19

Respectful relationships and the inviolable dignity of the human person

 

I'd like to share a passage translated from a book in French by a 20th century Swiss Catholic spiritual writer and mystic, Fr. Maurice Zundel. He recounts an anecdote shared by a Russian journalist, Koriakoff, from the latter's 2nd WW experiences. It expresses most powerfully how mutual respect based on Christian values can transcend barriers of race, cultural identity, difference, etc… It reminds me of of what the 20th century Franco-Jewish philosopher, Emmanuel Levinas, said about how the inviolable diginity of the human person is communicated through the “face of the other”, in particular through eye contact. When I think I this, I always come back to the fact that in art (paintings, film/tv…) the representation of an execution will invariably involve the person being executed having their eyes covered, making it easier for the executioner to do their duty, because otherwise the visible humanity of the victim, as represented through their eyes and face, might make them hesitate. This can also be seen in the vast majority of artistic representations of the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham: either Abraham covers Isaac’s eyes or he simply looks away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s the aforementioned anecdote as recounted by Fr. Maurice Zundel:

 

Fr. Maurice Zundel (1897-1975)

 

"Koriakoff was a Russian journalist, born and educated under the Soviet regime… a convinced Marxist Leninist;... an atheist in good faith. The mobilisation of the population at the time of the German offensive in 1941 tore him away from his profession. Thanks to his bravery, he was promoted from private to the rank of captain. While on leave in Moscow, he met up again with an old librarian, a friend of the family and still a Christian, who gave him a New Testament.

He immersed himself in the book that was totally unknown to him, and was deeply moved. A true encounter took place between him and Christ who soon became the centre of his life. His recall to the front prevented him from officially joining the church. The only way he could affirm his new faith was by trying to behave in conformity with his unexpected and amazing discovery. He strove  – inasmuch as his rank gave in the power to do so – to protect civilians, especially women, against the acts of violence to which they were exposed. 

His army corps made a lightning advance, from Russia to Poland and from Poland to Germany, which it reached in the last month the war. Although they knew it was a losing battle, the Germans fought on fiercely in the area where Koriakoff's company was engaged… the outcome of the battle remained uncertain... One morning, when the Russians that had the upper hand, Koriakoff saved two young German women from attempted rape. In the course of the same day, the Germans regained the position occupied by the Russians and Koriakoff fell into their hands.

He was brought to the German camp and was received by an officer who hit his face so violently that his glasses fell off. The officer said to him: "You are one of those Soviet brutes who violate German women." A German colonel witnessed the scene, unmoved. In the midst of all this appeared a German farming woman. She pointed to Koriakoff as the Russian officer who had saved her two daughters that very morning. She had barely finished her statement when the colonel bent down, picked up Koriakoff's glasses and respectfully handed them back to him.

This infinitely small gesture reaches a level of greatness: it is like a surge of humanity... he, the German, towards a Slav, subhuman in his eyes; he, the colonel, toward a captain; he, the conqueror, toward a defeated man.

If this soldier had suddenly been led to express such respect, it was because he had turned his attention away from himself… he had been transformed in the depths of his being. He no longer saw Koriakoff as an enemy or as a stranger, but as a man whose dignity, brutally insulted, had just been revealed to him through the woman's testimony. He immediately felt solidarity for this dignity, the basis for which, as he had discovered, was the same as his own… inner self to inner self, from the German colonel's innermost being to the Russian captain's. At that moment, there were only two souls merged together in the breath of the same presence, a presence that breaks down all barriers in the radiance of its light and love."