I stumbled across the two films below earlier today which feature Dr.Viktor Frankl, a survivor of the Holocaust and his belief that we must believe the best in others and cling unconditionally to love.
Dr. Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist that was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. During his time in the camp, he was in charge of a suicide watch unit and used his skills to assist newcomers cope with their shock and grief as they entered the camp. In 1944, Dr. Frankl was moved to Aushwitz and later to Türkheim, during which time, his wife, mother and father were murdered in the camps. Soon after, Dr. Frankl was freed and fled back to Vienna.
Because of his position within the camps, Dr. Frankl worked with people who were utterly depressed and had all but given up on life, yet although he was subject to the same dehumanizing and belittling conditions, he was relentless in his belief in the human spirit and ability to find meaning even in times of suffering.
Perhaps it is best phrased by Dr. Frankl himself:
... We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road leading from the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor's arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: "If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don't know what is happening to us."
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife's image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory...."(thanks to Wikipedia for all of this)
The salvation of man is through love and in love.
Love is one of those simple words that will forever instill a sense of awe, mystery, beauty and struggle within me. It is something I strive for, something that fills me, and something that provides purpose.
I often have a hard time understanding what it means for God to love unconditionally - independent of any actions or thoughts or desires I have, his love is constant. God's love towards us is described as an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3); in fact, God himself is love (1 John 4:16), they are one and the same. What an incredible day it will be when we begin to learn and understand what love is truly meant to be about. A love that is able to see the suffering surrounding a place as unloving as a concentration camp and still find purpose and beauty among those around us.
I have been blessed in my life and have yet to experience great suffering. I can't even imagine what an experience like Dr. Frankl's would be like and my heart aches to take some of that grief and pain from him. But I realize that I don't have that ability, and as much as I'd love to shoulder the pain and suffering for so many others, eventually I would fail and be unable to carry it myself. Perhaps I too often step in front of Jesus and try to play his role alone. As Christians, we are called to reflect Christ's light in the world, not to be our own battery-operated flashlight independent of him. I know I am guilty of sometimes feeling that God is able to recharge my batteries whenever I need it and then I can go out in the world with my flashlight wherever I need to. But Jesus isn't in the business of just recharging batteries - he wants to be our light source and our power source. Where in your life are you taking the light source away from Christ?
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