"For many years I lived by the conviction that my destiny is to serve in the realm of privacy, to be concerned with the ultimate issues and involved in attempting to clarify them in thought and in word. Loneliness was both a burden and a blessing, and above all indispensable for achieving a kind of stillness in which perplexities could be faced without fear.
Three events changed my attitude. One was the countless onslaughts upon my inner life, depriving me of the ability to sustain inner stillness. The second event was the discovery that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself. Even the high worth of reflection in the cultivation of inner truth cannot justify remaining calm in the face of cruelties that make the hope of effectiveness of pure intellectual endeavors seem grotesque. Isolationism is frequently an unconconscious pretext for carelessness, whether among statesmen or among scholars.
The most wicked men must be regarded as great teachers, for they often set forth precisely an example of that which is unqualifiedly evil. Cain's question 'Am I my brother's keeper ?' ( Genesis 4:9) and his implied response must be regarded among the great fundamental evil maxims of the world.
The third event that changed my attitude was my study of the prophets of ancient Israel, a study on which I worked for several years until its publication in 1962. From them I learned the niggardliness of our moral comprehension, the incapacity to sense the depth of misery caused by our own failures. It became quite clear to me that while our eyes are witness to the callousness and cruelty of man, our heart tries to obliterate the memories, to calm the nerves, and to silence our conscience.
There is immense silent agony in the world, and the task of man is to be a voice for the plundered poor, to prevent the desecration of the soul and the violation of the dream of honesty.
The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all are responsible. I did not feel guilty as an individual American for the bloodshed in Vietnam, but I felt deeply responsible. 'Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor' ( Leviticus 19:15 ). This is not a recommendation but an imperative, a supreme commandment. And so I decided to change my mode of living and to become active in the cause of peace in Vietnam.*"
"* 'Clergy Concerned About Vietnam, The assembly elected three co-chairmen, Daniel Berrigan, Richard Neuhaus, and the writer if this essay. One of the results of this meeting was Daniel Berrigan's involvement in the movement for peace in Vietnam ( see the essay 'The Priest Who Stayed Out in the Cold,' The New York Times, June 28, 1970 )"
A.J. Heschel, The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement, in Moral Granduer&Spiritual Audacity, FSG, pp. 224 -225
The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings. It also became clear to me that in regard to cruelties committed in the name of a free society, some are guilty, while all are responsible. I did not feel guilty as an individual American for the bloodshed in Vietnam, but I felt deeply responsible. 'Thou shalt not stand idly by the blood of thy neighbor' ( Leviticus 19:15 ). This is not a recommendation but an imperative, a supreme commandment. And so I decided to change my mode of living and to become active in the cause of peace in Vietnam.*"
"* 'Clergy Concerned About Vietnam, The assembly elected three co-chairmen, Daniel Berrigan, Richard Neuhaus, and the writer if this essay. One of the results of this meeting was Daniel Berrigan's involvement in the movement for peace in Vietnam ( see the essay 'The Priest Who Stayed Out in the Cold,' The New York Times, June 28, 1970 )"
A.J. Heschel, The Reasons for My Involvement in the Peace Movement, in Moral Granduer&Spiritual Audacity, FSG, pp. 224 -225
