The Sunday Sermonette – In The Days of Evil.

In the last dark days of World War II, as the Third Reich imploded, there were still touching stories of empathy shown to those whose lives had been uprooted by Nazi racial hatred. One such story was that of Wilhelm Hosenfeld.

Wilhelm was a Catholic schoolteacher from a small German village who, like many German citizens of the day, believed in law and order and in service to his country. During his military service in the First World War, he was severely wounded. As war clouds gathered in the days before World War II, he reluctantly joined the Nazi Party in 1936 and was mobilized as a sergeant in the Reserves in August 1939.

In 1940, Wilhelm was sent to Poland, remaining in Warsaw for the rest of the war. The brutal, insidious realities of the Nazi occupation, though, quickly shattered his illusions about “noble” warfare. While many of his fellow soldiers grew numb to the violence—or worse, embraced it—something inside Wilhelm festered, not into despair, but into a quiet, dangerous rebellion.

Wilhelm’s courage began quietly. In secret, he gave food to the starving, “lost” reports vital to arrests, and warned Jewish families of impending raids as he walked through Warsaw at night.

Wilhelm’s most famous empathetic act occurred in the last days of the war. In the skeletal remains of bombed Warsaw, he discovered a Polish Jew hiding in an abandoned house. That terrified man was the famed pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman. When Wilhem asked Wladyslaw what he did, the man whispered, “I am a pianist.” Wilhelm led Wladyslaw to a battered piano in the house’s ruins and asked him to play.

As the melancholy strains of a Chopin nocturne drifted through the shattered house, the bridge between the two men, who should have been enemies, collapsed. From that day forward, Wilhelm kept Wladyslaw alive with food, clothing, and protection until the final days of the conflict. Even in those evil times, a remnant of empathy remained. But history is seldom fair.

When the Soviet Army liberated Warsaw, they captured Wilhelm but saw only the grey uniform of the Wehrmacht. They didn’t see the man who had spent years risking his life to subvert the Nazi regime and show empathy to those it despised. He was sent to a Soviet labor camp, and despite Wladyslaw’s desperate attempts to testify on his behalf and prove his character, Wilhelm died in captivity in 1952.

In Wilhelm’s diary, recovered after the war, his words revealed a simple philosophy that guided his dangerous, chosen path: “I want to be able to stand before God and say I helped when I could.” Do you also seek to help others when you can?

The Good Book provides numerous examples of empathy shown in days of evil. Joseph forgave his brothers who sold him into slavery. “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”

In Luke 10, the Good Samaritan shows empathy to a wounded stranger. His help transcended both cultural and racial boundaries. Romans 12:15 encourages Believers to “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” This verse emphasizes the importance of sharing both joy and sorrow.

Jesus is our best example of empathy. Born both God and human, enabling Him to experience every human emotion, He knows firsthand the pains and fears we face daily. We can rejoice that Jesus has complete empathy for what we go through in our lives.

Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus, showing His sorrow for those mourning. He saw the masses as “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” and was moved with empathy for them. He also empathized with a grieving widow, raising her only son from the dead, demonstrating a deep emotional connection to human suffering. Additionally, Jesus touched and healed a leper, defying social norms to show acceptance and care.

Because of Jesus’ empathy for us, we are called to show it to others—believers and nonbelievers alike. By extending empathy to others, we follow Jesus’ command to “love one another, as I have loved you.” Let us be inspired to act with empathy, becoming instruments of hope and healing in the lives of those around us. In so doing, we fulfill our calling as bearers of Jesus’ empathy and grace to a hurting, evil world.

Ponder this and go forward.