Psalm 70: Finding Meaning
Sunday, December 16, 2018
O Lord, come quickly to help me . . . come quickly to help me, God.
Victor Frankl
Friday’s MAGNIFICAT
Meditation of the Day, was written by Victor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived Auschwitz. As I read this psalm I recall some of his words.
Being human always points, and is directed, to something or someone, other than oneself – be it meaning to fulfill or another human being to encounter. The more one forgets himself – by giving himself to a cause to serve or another person to love – the more human he is and the more he actualizes himself . . . (Cameron 151)
As I reflect on his words I wonder how those who physically survived a death camp can ever smile again. I wonder how they move past the fear that must haunt them. I wonder how they manage to move through days of freedom without falling into fits of dark despair. I wonder how they begin again.
In some way, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning, such as a meaning of sacrifice . . . In accepting this challenge to suffer bravely, life has a meaning up to the last moment, and it retains this meaning literally to the end . . . My comrades’ . . . question was, “Will we survive the camp? For, if not, all this suffering has no meaning.” The question that beset me was, “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance – as whether one escapes or not – ultimately would not be worth living at all”. (Cameron 151)
Entrance to Auschwitz
We too often believe that life’s meaning is found in quick happiness and forget that true human meaning comes from paring ourselves down to a nothingness that brings us sharply up against the realization that only God is worth seeking. We too often act out of fear and forget that no deceit lasts forever, and that we only fool ourselves with our feeble deceptions for God knows and sees all in the end. We too often look for quick solutions and forget that only a forgiving heart and an abiding love bring true and eternal life.
O Lord, come quickly to help me . . . come quickly to help me, God.
And so we pray . . .
Good and glorious God, we struggle to find meaning in the highs and lows of our lives and so we gather up all that we have and all that we are . . . to offer it back to you. For you are our only place of refuge . . . you are our only source of meaning . . . you are the only salvation worth seeking. O Lord, come quickly to help us . . . come quickly to help us, God. Amen.
A re-post from November 13, 2011.
Image from: http://www.rjgeib.com/thoughts/frankl/frankl.html
Cameron, Peter John, ed. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 11.11 (2011): 151. Print.
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