A Hibernating Child
The Holy Gospel according to Saint John, the 14th chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.
[Jesus said to the disciples:] 15“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
The Gospel of our Lord. Praise to you, O Christ.
Grace to you and peace from God our Creator, from our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and from our Sustainer, the Holy Spirit. Amen.
God’s love letter. Or perhaps more accurately a love letter from Jesus to you and me. It goes like this: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth…I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.” God’s love letter.
Let me tell you the story of a little girl named Daria – about 6 years old. In 2019 she and her family were refugees in Sweden seeking asylum from their home country in the Balkans – a region of countries in southeastern Europe. They fled their homeland fearful of their lives. Daria and her siblings had been terribly traumatized after witnessing their father being beaten and tortured in front of them by government officials. They fled their country in fear.
The family has been in Sweden long enough for Daria and her siblings to learn the language and attend school but all the while the family anxiously awaited word about the asylum application. Their first application was rejected and the family was told they would have to return to their home country where their father was beaten and tortured. Terrified and anxious Daria stopped talking. She stopped eating. She stopped drinking. She stopped moving. She entered into a catatonic state, and she was in what was like a coma month after month after month. During that time her parents had to bath her, move her, and feed her through a tube. Month after month after month Daria was in a catatonic, helpless state.
It has a name. It’s called Resignation Syndrome – now an actual diagnosis that until recently was only found in Sweden, one of the world’s most welcoming countries to refugees and those seeking asylum. For the last 2 ½ decades in Sweden, over 400 refugee children from war-torn and politically violent countries have been suffering from this debilitating disorder called Resignation Syndrome. There’s a poignant documentary on Netflix called “Life Overtakes Me.” It should be noted that symptoms resembling this syndrome have been recorded in other contexts such as Nazi concentration camps in World War II.
This is what is known about it. While parents are seeking asylum, children struggle to heal from the trauma they’ve experienced back in their home countries. If the family receives word that their application is denied, some children react to that terrifying idea by literally shutting down their bodies, and they lapse into a coma-like condition.
Here’s what Daria’s doctor said, “Daria is not suffering. Her parents are suffering because of her condition. She is lying there like Snow White because everything is so terrible around her. This is a way of protection. She is just waiting for the situation to be better and then she has a chance to be a normal, lively child again.” Another doctor said, “When I explain to the parents what has happened, I tell them the world has been so terrible that (the child) has gone into herself and disconnected the conscious part of her brain. I think it is a form of protection, this coma they are in.”
The world has been so terrible that the child disconnects the conscious part of her brain – to stay safe. The doctors all agree that every one of the children suffering from this syndrome has witnessed extreme violence against their own family members. By the time they get out of their country the children are severely traumatized, and the possibility of having to go back to the source of the trauma is terrifying and debilitating. Their little bodies can’t cope with the possibility of more trauma happening to them or their parents.
What happens to us when the world has been so terrible? What happens to us when our souls are shaken? What happens to us when our bodies are violated? What happens to us when our hearts are broken? What happens to us when our minds our invaded?
The disciples around Jesus thought they were safe – safe and sound – their leader, their Savior, their Messiah, their king, was with them in flesh and blood. In fact, such was this Messiah, this servant-leader that he knelt down and washed their feet. What assurance! What comfort! What protection.! What love! What wondrous love is that! But soon their world is turned upside down. Right after he washes their feet, he says, “Little children, I am with you only a little longer.” And Simon Peter verbalizes the fear, the uncertainty, the anxiety, the sense of abandonment, “Lord, where are you going? Lord, why can I not follow you? And then comes the love letter. It’s God’s love letter to you and me – spoken by Jesus himself. “I am coming to you. You will not be left alone.”
One day about nine months into little Daria’s coma-like state of hibernation – nine months of helplessness, nine months of hibernation – her parents got word that the decision about their asylum application had been reversed. They were granted permanent residence! They did not have to be deported/sent back to their home country.
Then with the doctor’s guidance the parents began to communicate to little Daria the good news but it took time – in fact it took months to let Daria know through their words, through their touch, through their spirit that they were hopeful once again, and their hope began to seep into little Daria’s consciousness, her mind. Her parents were filled with a sense of security and safety and stability and through their words and actions they gave those gifts to little Daria. Through the love of her parents, hope began to plant seeds of new life in Daria’s soul. And she gradually began to wake up. After twelve months Daria opened her eyes, gradually began to speak and eat and walk and play and go back to school and be that happy little girl she had once been. She asked her mother, “Was I sleeping?” Her mother responded, “Yes, you were a sleeping princess but now you are awake and all will be well.”
What was striking about watching the documentary, “Life Overtakes Me” about Resignation Syndrome is how the change in Daria’s parents changed Daria herself. Her mom and dad’s whole countenance changed. Their eyes lit up. Their facial expressions were light and happy. Their body language was loving and kind. They were filled with hope, and they passed that hope to their daughter through their words, their touch, their whole way of being with her, and that’s what it means for us to be Jesus in the world! Her parents were healed so their wellness, their hope, their happiness, their safety healed their daughter. Our wellness in Jesus gives us the gift to heal others who are suffering.
When we live, actually live the resurrection, when we live each day as if it were Easter morning – again and again and again – we ooze love. We communicate hope. We transmit to those around us a sense of joy!
Daria’s parents were filled with a sense of security and stability and safety. They passed onto their hibernating child an overwhelming sense of peace and hope and love. Their love, their hope, their peace cured little Daria.
God’s love letter to you is the same thing. When you are troubled, when you are traumatized, when you are anxious, these comforting words seep into our souls. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you…you will see me; because I live, you also live.” A parent’s love. A parent’s unconditional love for the child. God’s love. God’s unconditional love for you.
God’s love letter continues in the first lesson from Acts when Paul states, “God is not far from each of us. For ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’” The love letter continues again in our second lesson from 1 Peter with a nod to the kind of hope that Daria’s parents passed onto her. “Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.” The hope that is in you!
And with those words, God’s love wakes us up too. God’s gift of unwavering hope wakes us up too. Yet they are not just words, they are a call to action. I can’t help but think of the hundreds of children just like little Daria streaming over our southern border many of whom already know trauma too well, and what kind of hope, what kind of love will they receive – or at the mention of deportation – will they sink into a coma-like catatonic state of hopelessness? How can we be a safe place filled with hope and love and peace for those refugees traumatized by whatever they are fleeing from? How do we pass on to those suffering the gift of healing as Daria’s parents did?
After all – we have all the tools we need. We have God’s love letter to us. That’s all we need. God’s love letter to us is Easter morning. God’s love letter to us is resurrection. God’s love letter to us is new life. God’s love letter to us is forgiveness.
We have all the tools we need to change the world – to be healers and lovers and security guards and peace-keepers. We have all the tools in the world to be Jesus, to kneel down to those in need, to wash their feet, and to say, I love you – because those words, I love you, are really coming from God – through you. Amen.
Sources:
“Life Overtakes Me” 2019 Netflix documentary
Doctors of the World.org
Christian Century.org