Loving Barbarians

We were recently at a small church gathering on St. Patrick’s Day. Given the day, the pastor shared briefly about the history of Saint Patrick. In summary, at the age of 16 Patrick was captured by a band of Irish pirates and held in captivity in Northern Ireland for 6 years. During this time he worked as a shepherd, learned the Irish language and culture and committed his life to God. Patrick did escape and made it back to his homeland in Britain. Surprisingly, after some time of being home, Patrick received a call from God to go back to his land of captivity as a missionary.

The Irish Celts were considered uncivilized barbarians, thought to be beyond the reach of the gospel. Patrick however, had developed a special love and compassion for the Irish and so returned. Patrick’s position of understanding the people allowed him to have great impact. Thousands came to the Lord and Patrick is still looked upon today as a model for spreading the Gospel.

Throughout the retelling of this history, one thing that stuck out to me was the Irish being considered barbarians. A simple dictionary definition of barbaric is: characteristic of a group of people who are alien to another land, culture, or people and who are usually believed to be inferior; having a bizarre, primitive, or unsophisticated quality.

Basically, the Irish were written off as being bad, not good enough, inferior, and not worth the time and effort. Perhaps a common line of thinking about the Irish was: “your way of life is alien/bizarre to me--> I don’t understand you--> so I can’t relate to you--> we’re not similar--> and in fact I think you are weird/wrong--> therefore you are inferior--> so I will write you off--> and I am justified because you are inferior.” Put simply, a whole lot of judgement.

I want to quickly interject that the Irish did legitimately do some horrible things that could rightly be labeled as barbaric. There is a difference though between holding someone accountable for morally wrong behavior and seeing an entire person or people group as evil or less human than us. This is the point I want to focus on.

While we were talking about Patrick’s understanding of the Irish people, I was reminded of a portion of Henri Nouwen’s “The Way of the Heart.” In this little book Henri says, “Compassion is the basis of all ministry. Let us not underestimate how hard it is to be compassionate. Compassion is hard because it requires the inner disposition to go with others to the place where they are weak, vulnerable, lonely and broken….we must realize that nothing human is alien to us, that the roots of all conflict, war, injustice, cruelty, hatred, jealousy, and envy are deeply anchored in our own heart….We must stop judging our neighbors, stop evaluating them, and thus become free to be compassionate. Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.”

I think what Henri is describing is exactly what resulted in Saint Patrick’s success in reaching the Irish people. Rather than labeling the Irish as beyond reach, Patrick was able to see them as fellow humans. I think he was able to recognize that at the core, he and these “barbarians” all struggled with the same things, were susceptible to the same pitfalls and were equally deserving of God’s forgiveness and grace. Although their choices and actions may have looked different, they were no less human. And I think that Patrick was able to have this posture and love for the Irish because of his time living amongst them. He didn’t observe and judge from afar. He lived life with them, he gained understanding and probably realized he could relate far more than he ever imagined.

I can’t help but think of how this applies to us today. How often do we label others as barbarians, writing them off as beyond reach. And I’m not talking about labeling the terrorist or human trafficker as barbaric. I’m talking about our neighbors, the people in our communities, our churches, maybe our families. So subtly and quickly the judgement comes. We observe a behavior or decision and think, “why would they do that, say that, believe that, vote for that?! That’s barbaric!” We might not use the word barbaric, but we really do think that ___ is inferior, bizarre or unsophisticated…so, barbaric. We could get closer, seek more understanding, try to relate, believe it’s even possible to relate. But too often we keep our distance, remain in our lack of understanding and then judge and classify people as very good, good, neutral, bad and very bad.

Like I said, this happens so subtly and quickly. It can be much easier to recognize when we’re being judgmental in big, obvious ways. It’s harder to recognize judgment in the little ways, ways that don’t seem to matter but I think actually matter quite a lot, as they directly affect our ability to have compassion. I’ve grown so much in recognizing and owning my “little” judgments. A huge lesson for me has been seeing that there’s a difference between moral right and wrongs and just cultural differences. That I can too easily make judgments and feel justified in them because I believe I’m on the moral high ground, when in reality it may not even be a moral issue, it’s just simply my preference.

For example, take the idea of someone being 15 minutes late for an appointment. Is being late morally wrong? No. It is very much a cultural thing. For us in the West, it can feel wrong and we often judge it as wrong, because that is our culture. But if you go to Africa or the Pacific Islands, being 15 minutes late probably means you’re the first one there!

We all gain culture through our nations, our regions, social communities and families. The challenge is that culture is often caught, not taught. It is something that we are so immersed in, that feels so natural to us, we often never think of it or question it. We can simply believe this is just how things are, this is the “right” way to live. Because it is often something we are unaware of, it makes sense that if we observe something different to our normal we can easily judge and label it as “barbaric.” This can result in us keeping our distance, which often leads to more and more judgment. It is an ugly cycle that makes true compassion impossible, widens the gap in relationships and ultimately results in writing off people or entire people groups as inferior barbarians.

Again I’ll interject and say that moral rights and wrongs do exist. Not everything is subjective or a preference. But from what I’ve learned in study and upon examining my judgments (to the extent that I’m consciously aware of them) I can say that most of the time my judgments are based on my own culture and preference and not real moral issues. More often than not what I deem as right or wrong is simply what I am comfortable with. And what I’m comfortable with is a reflection of the society I was raised in, my socioeconomic class, my religious upbringing, etc.

I don’t know if Saint Patrick thought about these things. I’m going to guess that on some level he did because like Henri Nouwen says, “Compassion can never coexist with judgement.” And Patrick’s life was one of humility and genuine love and compassion for the Irish people. I think his story is an excellent challenge to us to step out of our own culture, release our judgments and to see people not as barbarians, but just fellow people.