St Nikolai Velimirović
Letter 22
TO A CERTAIN PENSIONARY WHO IS
I must admit, I was bewildered by your comments concerning the ongoing
war between the Chinese and the Japanese. You say: “The danger of war is being
put away from Europe. The war is taken to the
other side of the world, where, when it is night, we over here are enjoying
daylight”. And you even rejoice, predicting a peace to Europe.
How can this peace of yours be sweet to you while you are hearing about a
raging war among people anywhere in the world? Can you really enjoy your meals
and drinks, your parties and the cinema, jokes and laughter when you extend your
thoughts to the fields of Manchuria and look at those frozen, blood tainted,
hungry, miserable people, who are offspring of the same forefather, as it is the
case with your own people and yourself, for that matter? Every evening you
listen to the crap from the radio, and you think you
are becoming ever wiser because of it! The most important thing which could be
communicated to you by the radio these days is the cry of the thousands of
wounded men and the howl of the dying people, as well as the sobbing of the
mothers, the widows and the children in two great realms of humanity. All of
them are people just like you, living souls, thirsty for life and happiness.
Above them shines the same sun as it does above you. They too are watched by the
tearful eye of God, just like you.
Therefore, it is not time for rejoicing, but for mourning. And this
shouldn’t be mourning of one or two persons, but mourning of all the peoples,
tribes and countries. When the rulers of Europe proclaim a public mourning in
honor of the death of a Savoy or Bourbon prince, how are they
forgetting to announce mourning for the violent death of thousands and thousands
of human beings, who in the eyes of their Creator are all princes? Could have
peoples of Europe been more enlightened, they would have immediately proclaimed
nation wide public mourning for any war happening in whatsoever part of the
globe. They would have closed all the taverns, dancing halls, casinos and
cinemas and would have banned all wild parties during the time when bloodshed is
going on among brothers and neighbors. Oh, just how would heavens rejoice if the
Slavs where the first who could practice this!?
Probably you will have a good laugh over the things I am writing to you.
I know, Pilate would have laughed too. But I know for certain, Christ would not
have laughed.
And concerning your prediction, that Europe has ensured its peace because the flames of war
have burst far away from it, take your caution. Do not believe
neither to yourself neither to your prophecy! When the wood is burning in
one of its ends, couldn’t the wind just take the flames to the other too?
Peace and mercy to you from God.
Translated into
English by Igor Radev from the original Serbian:
22. Писмо, Пензионеру Који на Свој Начин Тумачи
Кинеско – Јапански Рат (стр. 32-33),