Ivor Perl, a survivor of the Holocaust, was speaking on the radio last week of his experiences in the concentration camp at Auschwitz. He and his older brother survived while the rest of his family were murdered. At the end of a powerful and moving interview, he shared what he had learnt through all this, simply that ‘Love will get you further than hate in the long run’. Love will get you further than hate…
Bishop Rachel wrote in the Bulletin last week about our observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (27 January). Our remembering each year is always poignant and should always be unsettling. Our remembrance should spur us to respond, to ask ourselves how, in the light of such evil, then and now in our world, might we be those who hold fast to life.
This call to life is an invitation to which we shall be invited to respond again in our observance of Lent as we contemplate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Jesus’ obedience to the cross and the triumph of love over hatred that we will witness at Easter. Lent this year does not begin for over a month, not until 5 March since Easter is late this year. But if we are to keep it well, if we are to be made anew, it needs a little forethought and preparation.
This triumph of love and life is for me the most important thing that I know of God who calls me, who calls us. This is no sentimental love, but hard-won, painful, bought at such a high price. A love that above all else welcomes all with arms wide open, a love that looks out beyond our own lives and those like us, to the wider needs of the world and its people, a love willing to face evil head on and know indeed that such evil will not triumph.
On the cross Jesus draws the whole world to his life and love. For me this year, I am determined that Lent for me will therefore be a looking out beyond the Church, beyond the immediate concerns of my daily life to the needs of the world and of all God’s people. I will strive to engage myself more fully with justice, mercy, with the needs of the poor and marginalised, with our care for our environment. In doing so, my prayer is that I might also again be reminded of the purpose of the Church, formed and loved by Jesus Christ, in which we are called to serve not ourselves but those for whom Jesus gives up his life.
Where I wonder Lent will take you this year?
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