The Indian Jesuit Tony DeMello had a great way with a story. I remember once his telling a rather pious story of an American tourist visiting a leper colony and observing an Irish Nun dressing a leper’s festering wounds. The visitor was horrified at the sight of the sores and confessed that there was no way he could bring himself to do what the Sister was doing. ‘No, not for a million dollars!’ the nun smiled sweetly and replied, ‘Neither would I. I do it for the love of God.’ There was a short pause and then Tony remarked quietly, ‘I wonder how the leper felt listening to this conversation. Was no one willing to do it for him?’ That is what I meant by Tony DeMello having a great way with a story. We all remembered how Christ cured people, recognising their pain and fear; he got them back on their feet and able to walk off about their lives.
The DeMello postscript, as it were, came back to me when I read an article in the May issue of the Messenger. The Long Awaited Shower, was written by Tomas Reichental, one of only four survivors of the Holocaust still living in Ireland. He was only nine years old when he and his family were arrested and transported for seven days in cattle carriages from Slovakia to Bergen-Belsen, a concentration camp in North Germany. It was a terrifying experience; fortunately he and his immediate family survived, although he lost thirty-five members of his family in the Holocaust.
Central to that survival was the comforting presence of his mother around whom they huddled closely on the long march to the camp, who was close to them as they slept, and who was by their side as they lined up in early morning for a roll call. The most moving image is of the mother squeezing her children tightly after they were undressed and herded into a large square shower-room. The routine was similar to what was happening in Auswitz at that time in 1944. They believed they were about to be gassed. That there were no gas chambers in Bergen-Belsen is immaterial, they lived a near-death experience. But the children were fortunate to have the love of their mother at that terrible moment.
One scribe was described by Jesus as wise. And why? Because he identified the kernel of God’s law as loving God with all your heart and with all your strength, and recognising that this was inexorably linked with loving your neighbour as yourself (see Mark 12:28-34). The life of Jesus incorporated both these loves and he expects no less from his followers.
John Looby, S.J.
Editor