The Book of Lamentations is a painful elegy on Jerusalem, on its sorrows, on the misfortunes caused by the war. A tremendously current resonance, just as the invocation for peace is current
by Rosanna Virgili
«Desertum fairunt et pacem appellaverunt», which translated is: «They made a desert and called it peace». Thus Tacitus writes in De Agricola, with words that describe the tragically current reality of various cities around the world, still destroyed by wars today. What is striking - today more than yesterday - when faced with the damage of human wickedness, is the justification given with academic cynicism: "War must be waged to achieve peace".
Contemporary times remain as violent and vengeful as in the times of Tacitus and, similarly, mask wars and their reasons with hypocrisy. And if the horrors caused by acts of terror they are an inhuman spectacle, no less appalling is the lie that comes out of the mouths of those who return to propagandize them. «There is nothing new under the sun», Ecclesiastes would say darkly (see 1, 10). At least in the ancient world, and also in the Bible, there is no shortage of "chronologists" who note and denounce the tendentiousness that is transmitted by the official channels of the bullies on duty.
A biblical text that tells the truth about war and, in the light, the indispensability of peace, is the Book of Lamentations. The curtain of his curtain opens on Jerusalem, destroyed by the enemies: «Like sSo lonely is the city once rich in people! She has become like a widow the great among the nations; the lady among the provinces is subjected to forced labor. She cries bitterly in the night, her tears on her cheeks. No one consoles her, among all her lovers. All her friends have betrayed her and have become her enemies" (Lam 1, 1-2). The comparison is with a female figure who has lost the good of friendship: she is left alone in her abandonment and no one consoles her. All those who claimed to be her friends betrayed her and disappeared.
An image that hides a complaint against the kings of Judah who, instead of protecting the lives of the children of Jerusalem, became enemies. Instead of safeguarding their future, they brought about death. Our thoughts go to the mothers in the city who cry at night for their children kidnapped or killed due to the war wanted by the monarchs. And no one consoles her among "all her lovers", all the accomplices of those who she said wanted their good.
«The streets of Zion are in mourning, no one goes to its festivals anymore; all her gates are deserted, her priests sigh, her virgins grieve, and she is bitter. Her adversaries are her masters, her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for her innumerable misdeeds; her children went into exile, driven by the enemy" (Lam 1, 4-5).
None of those responsible cared about the fate of the people and such is the reality that they are shrouded in mourning and their children have gone into exile. Just as the Lord had given them the land as a gift, so now he drives them away from it: «The Lord has become like an enemy, he has destroyed Israel; he has demolished all her palaces, he has pulled down her fortresses, he has multiplied lament and mourning for the daughter of Judah. He has devastated her home like a garden, he has destroyed the meeting place" (Lam 2, 5-6).
Instead of blaming those enemies - the Babylonians - who are actually besieging and putting the city on fire, the inhabitants of ancient Jerusalem should reflect on their own infidelities, present in the eyes of the Lord: «The Lord has accomplished what he had decreed , he has fulfilled his word decreed from ancient times, he has destroyed without mercy, he has made the enemy rejoice over you, he has exalted the power of your adversaries" (Lam 2, 17).
Aware of this, they observe with greater pain how their unfortunate behavior has fallen like hail on their country and their lives. The question is touching: «To what shall I compare you, daughter of Jerusalem? What will I do to console you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your ruin is as great as the sea: who can heal you? Your prophets had visions of vain and vain things for you, they did not reveal your guilt to change your fate; but flattery, vanity and illusions have prophesied you" (Lam 2, 13-14). It is "your prophets" (not those of God!) who are pointed out as defaulters and traitors: they should have revealed the truth of their sins so that they could change direction in time and convert, so as to escape the current misfortune. Instead they said "silly things" as still happens today with the thousand "prophets" of the networks sold to lies, who multiply nonsense and nothingness on unified networks, at every hour of the day, to mislead all the people into a fatal deception.
A glimpse of hope, however, is the exhortation which, despite the absolute desolation in which the city is now immersed, is heartfeltly addressed to her: «Cry out from your heart to the Lord, groan, daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night! Don't give yourself peace, don't let the apple of your eye rest! Arise, shout in the night, when the sentry shifts begin, pour out your heart like water, before the face of the Lord; raise your hands towards him for the life of your children, who are dying of hunger at every street corner” (Lam 2, 18-19). Don't give yourself peace, Jerusalem, until you get peace!