When the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany was liberated at the end of the Second World War, a prayer was found on a scrap of paper in the camp, and it is often used today in acts of remembrance for the Holocaust victims. Both the Jewish and the Christian faith teach followers not to seek revenge, but to pray for their ‘enemies’, for those who hurt them, or who make them suffer in some way. In Islam, pardon and forgiveness are seen as better than revenge. Although many Jews, Christians and Muslims, and those who follow other faiths, find this extremely hard, there are always some who astound us by their love and generosity.
In the Bible, God’s judgment is seen as something positive, something to look forward to. Psalm 96 talks of the earth rejoicing and trees singing for joy when God comes to judge the earth. God’s judgment is seen as the time when wrongs will be put right, when those who suffer injustice or oppression will be rescued. But God’s judgment is also seen as merciful. Christians believe God’s judgment will rescue the perpetrators from their wrongdoing, as well as their victims.
Here is the Ravensbruck Prayer. It is moving, amazing and deeply generous. It is born out of compassion and mercy.
Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have borne be their forgiveness.
Beech Tree, Lake District, photographed by Gill Henwood
My friend Gill has sent me this wonderfully autumnal photo and poem.
Beech in Autumn
Fallen beech leaves, copper shining with rain, carpeting the grey slate with burnished glow of the changing season
As the tree sheds her leaves after another year, her bare skeleton speaks of hope and renewal: that one day, after the cold frosts, bitter winds and ice, warmth and buds of growth will come again, anew, afresh.
She is over a century old. She bears witness this Samhain, All Hallows, All Saints, Remembering.
This wonderful photo of a sunrise was sent to me this week by my friend, Gill Anderson.
With so much of our news shrouded in darkness, horror and misery, there is something very joyful in this photo. It exhilarates and somehow, it reassures. Despite all the uncertainty we can take some comfort that the morning sun has, in the words of the writer of the biblical book, Ecclesiastes, ‘hurried to the place where it rises. (Eccles 1:5).
Its rays reflecting on the stillness of the waves, penetrate the darkness. The sky is full of promise, hope and expectation. Pondering over the view, I have a sense that God is reminding us that in the words of the Prologue in the Gospel account of St. John (1:14), all Life is both a gift and intention of God – without him, nothing came into being, and what has come into being is life. This is a life which fills all people, though as we are seeing, that is not immediately obvious in so many different parts of our world. But St John insists it is so. Real life has come into being in Jesus, God’s divine Son, who is pure Light. For us, wandering around in darkness, St John tells us, The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it. As I looked at the light coming over the land in the photo, I just thought, we really do have to hold on to that. Many of the media photos and news events show us graphically, places and people overwhelmed with the darkness of destruction – naming Gaza and Ukraine as just two places among so many. It’s so easy to become depressed and despairing when just a few men (it’s always men!) act against so many billions of people. Why are we letting this happen?
However, there is a way forward and hope tells me that despite all the suffering and pain, death and the spiritual destruction of innocent children, there will be justice and there will at some point be peace. There will be love again. This is my hope and the subject of so many of my prayers.
I must now reveal something very important about this photo. My friend Gill Anderson took it, as I say, from her bedroom window. She was looking at the water which is actually, the Sea of Galilee. She , her husband and fellow travellers were on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. It became somewhat thwarted but they still managed to see some of the important sites held dear by Christians. She saw the Sea of Galilee but was unable to sit in a boat upon it which was a plan. Instead she was soon to travel to Jordan and relative safety and then home. She did not then fully know that, not that many miles away, a very different dawn was enfolding. Hamas had worked its evil and the Israeli Defence Force had retaliated. We are still in the midst of that deep darkness which engulfs the Holy Land and also Gaza.
But there, at Lake Galilee, there was a sense of history too, and of association with what we Christians see as the heart of our Salvation. For Galilee played a huge and significant part in both Old Testament and New Testament times. It was by its shores that Jesus chose his first disciples, four fisherman who fished in the waters there. By its shores, Jesus healed many people. He fed 5,000 on the foothills near the water. There, also, he cooked breakfast for his disciples after the Resurrection. He was intimate with its moods especially when he stilled a storm which threatened his followers, whilst he, at home with every element, had a little sleep. Most of all, he often prayed there.
Galilee was the backdrop for so much that became our Christian understanding of Salvation, eternal love and new life. Might it become therefore a place where, drawing inspiration from this sunrise, we dare to place our hopes, our desires, our prayers, into a new dawn which will rise in the hearts of all those engaged in war, violence, deceit and meting out suffering on others. I believe we must pray for a better way of life for all as we work together to bring a new light, symbolized by this photo, to a broken and desperate world. The Light of Love. In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, speaking not that far from Galilee: The book of the Prophet Isaiah Chapter 9: verse 1 & 2.
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined
Mr G's Ponderings 