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Lest We Forget

25/1/2018

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27th January, the date of the liberation of Auschwitz, marks Holocaust Memorial Day. It began at the turn of this century when representatives from 46 governments around the world met in Stockholm to discuss Holocaust education, remembrance and research and in many parts of the world it has become an annual fixture. Here in Scotland I’ve been attending several events – the national one organised by Interfaith Scotland, one organised by children from three secondary schools in Glasgow and presented to their primary feeder schools and a further service at the Reform Synagogue. There will be many more throughout the country. 

Stories are at the centre of the events – from survivors but more commonly now their children and  from young people who have visited Auschwitz. Each year two pupils from every secondary school in Glasgow have the opportunity to do this and for them it’s a life changing experience, one which they are able to share at Holocaust Memorial events.  This year we heard two stories. The first story we heard was of Rostov-on-Don, a town in Russia where 27,000 inhabitants, more than half of whom were Jewish women and children, were slaughtered by the Nazis while their husbands, sons, brothers and fathers were fighting for Russia in the war. What made this story so compelling was the similarity between Rostov-on- Don and Glasgow and the presence of some citizens from there.   This atrocity happened over two days in August 1942.

The second story was that of Rabbi Meir Lau, a former chief Rabbi of Israel who now serves as the chairman of Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem. By video Rabbi Lau told us of how, as a young boy of 7, he was separated from his family apart from his brother who saved him from certain death by carrying him in his backpack. They were both sent to Buchenwald concentration camp and Meir was put in barrack 8 which housed young people and children. There he was befriended by 16 year old Feodor who looked out for him, stealing potatoes, lighting a fire and cooking them for the little boy, even knitting ear warmers to protect him from the freezing cold. "Feodor, the Russian, looked after me in the daily life like a father would for a son. His concern and feeling of responsibility gave me a sense of security."  Rabbi Lau never knew Feodor’s family name so was never able to find him until 65 years after liberation he discovered that Feodor had died but survived by two daughters. One of his daughters was with us at the Scottish National event, proudly displaying a picture of her father and moved to tears by the reception she got.

The Holocaust is a terrible blight on the history and memory of our race. It fundamentally challenges the foundations of our civilisation and yet though, as the Stockholm Declaration tells us “the magnitude of the Holocaust, planned and carried out by the Nazis, must be forever seared in our collective memory, so too we must remember the selfless sacrifices of those who defied the Nazis, and sometimes gave their own lives to protect or rescue the Holocaust's victims.”  The Holocaust is like a mirror – it reflects the best and the worst of our species. It shows our capacity for evil and for good, for all of us are capable of such things. If one human being can commit such atrocities then we can all do it but if one human being can rise to the heights of heroism then we can all do that too.

One of the reasons, perhaps the main reason, for remembering the Holocaust is that it should never happen again. And yet it has happened again. Now we remember at these events the subsequent genocides of Cambodia, Bosnia, Darfur, Rwanda and the previous one of the Armenian people. History shows that there have been many attempts at genocide. I read recently of a call to recognise the Irish Famine as attempted genocide and at the moment we see the result of the persecution of the Rohingya on our television screens as they flee the land of their birth. This, and the hardness of heart shown to the plight of refugees and those seeking asylum, does not show our species up in a good light.

The theme of this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day is ‘The Power of Words’ – for good and for evil. It recognises the propaganda that called fellow human beings animals and vermin; it recognises the words of protest, support, reflection and analysis and the words which helped people survive dehumanising horrors.  Words can open up new horizons and liberate us but they can also condition us to see the world in a particular way.  They can take us into the life of another, allow us to stand in their shoes for a moment and challenge us to reflect on what we might have become or might have done in similar circumstances. Each year the stories from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides speak to our hearts in a powerful and haunting way.  They remind us of the power for good and for evil that resides in each one of us. Please God we might make our own the prayer of Pope Francis: May our words be seeds of goodness for the world: 


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Ageing Well

11/1/2018

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In the past week I’ve had two invitations – one to an event being organised by the Scottish Government and the other by a Christian Trust, both of them focussing on the isolation and loneliness of old age. The Scottish Government’s event is to update anyone interested in their work to develop a strategy on social isolation and loneliness and the other is for training in befriending older people in the community. Loneliness and isolation, especially in older people, is seen as a serious threat to health and well-being and it’s even been suggested that more old people die from loneliness than from other serious illnesses like cancer.  With a growing number of older people in society it’s becoming something like an epidemic. We live in an age and a part of the world where the cult of youth dominates and the breakdown of the nuclear family means that family members are scattered and not always around to give the support that’s needed. Most of us will probably end our days in some kind of care home, being looked after by strangers – something that past generations and more community-minded cultures would never have envisaged.
 
 I’m interested in old age, not just because I’m getting older myself (as we all are) but also because I work with a small charity called Faith in Older People. The name could be understood in two ways. Taking faith to mean confidence and trust, it could suggest that the charity has confidence in the possibilities of older people and their positive contribution to society, even if this is in small and hidden ways. It could also indicate a concern for the faith of older people and this is the focus of its activities, though it sees faith not in terms of dogmatic truths but in terms of spiritual growth and personal well-being. It tries to encourage good practice in care homes and in communities so that everyone is treated with respect and helped cope with the frailties and changes that inevitably come with old age, recognising that personal and inner growth is still possible.  
 
Old age is a gift not given to all of us and it’s something to be prepared for – not in the sense of becoming old before our time but by living each age and stage of our lives to the full, being open to the lessons each stage brings with its pains and its joys and integrating these into our lives as we move on from one age to another. I like Thomas Moore’s idea that we should think in terms of ageing rather than old age. In his latest book The Ageless Soul, he explores the concept of ageing which begins the very moment we are born and is the process by which we become someone real and alive. It’s a journey moving towards fulfilment and maturity. It is in his words “a fulfilment of who we are, not a wearing out”.
 
One of his main points is that ageing happens and that “our task is to be is to be there for the ageing no matter how it shows itself, rather than fight it. Fighting anything makes it look worse than it is. The first rule in dealing with ageing is to be with what is, even when it’s bad. We have to be with what is, not what we wish the situation to be”.  How countercultural is this when so many people in  western society put so much energy, time and money into looking younger. I have some friends who are committed to a sturdy course of exercise in the hope of staving off old age. But that won’t happen. Ageing happens whether we like it or not and we need to embrace it while keeping healthy and active of course. Then there are the supergrans, often portrayed on television, who can run marathons at 90 and likely to make most of us feel inadequate. It’s as though we’re failures if we don’t live up to that.

There are a lot of books being written about old age. A place in Japan that seems to have captured the interest of a number of authors writing about old age is Okinawa which has more centenarians than anywhere else in the world. The population follows a healthy diet but that doesn’t seem to be the secret of their long life. Rather it’s a development of ikagai, a Japanese word which means having and living a purpose in life, a reason for getting up in the morning. It’s more to do with one’s inner spirit than physical being – Thomas Moore’s ageless soul perhaps. For many people their purpose in life is work but there has to be a higher purpose so that when work goes life does not become meaningless.  
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Those who have sought to research the secret of old age come up with very similar ideas of what makes for good ageing.  To stay active is important, to eat healthily and well too but so too is this sense of meaning in life,  a social group where one is accepted and supported, an ability to face the past and present challenges in life and opportunities to be still and even to meditate – all to be found within religion.  Religion offers meaning and a sense of purpose, it brings people together and supports them in community, it offers opportunity for service and an awareness of those less fortunate than themselves and gives a practice to help deepen their understanding of self.  All this is good for the ageing process no matter what age we are. But people don’t see it or recognise it. It’s as though they cannot get behind some of the religious language to recognise the human good at the heart of it. And this goes for religious people as well as the non-religious. I often think it would do religion good to talk more on the human level than the divine. In this sense it needs a conversion away from religion to the human and make a valuable contribution to ageing well.

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    I am  a Catholic nun, involved in interfaith relations for many decades.  For me this has been an exciting and sacred journey which I would like to share with others.

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