Tributes have
been pouring in for author, teacher and Holocaust-survivor Elie Wiesel who died
on July 2 at the age of 87.
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| Elie Wiesel Sept 30, 1928 - July 2, 2016 |
Wiesel’s
classic Night was one of the
formative influences on my spiritual and theological development. Although
written as a work of fiction, it is based on Wiesel’s own experience in the
Nazi concentration camp where his father, mother and younger sister all
perished.
Wiesel’s
forty books all deal with the mysteries of suffering, God and faith, and the
vital importance of memory. Wiesel has written extensively about the suffering
of the Jews, but with no trace of self-pity, rage or entitlement. His voice has
carried such moral authority because he has spoken on behalf of all innocent
victims, not only his own tribe. He insists that we remember so that we will
learn, grow and heal.
Wiesel also reminds
us that faith is a struggle and that doubt is an essential element of
belief.
It is common
today for people to give up on faith too easily. “I see terrible things
happening – so God must not exist.” “The Bible was written 2000 years ago – so it
must not be relevant to today.” “Christians are responsible for wars and
oppression – so the church must be wrong.” “I can’t make sense out of doctrines
like the Trinity – so I’ll just dispense with them.” “Science has vastly
increased our knowledge – so we’ve outgrown ancient traditions.”
From Elie
Wiesel we can learn the importance of struggling with faith and wrestling with
God.
In a 2005
interview with writer Cathleen Fansani, Wiesel talked about what he called his “wounded
faith.”
Why
on earth does he still believe? I want to know. I need to
know.
“Doubt
is there all the time,” he says, softly. “The questions are there, and all my
questions are stronger than all my answers.”
And
yet you continue to wrestle with God?
“I
continue because what is the alternative?” he says.
You
could walk away.
“And
do what, really? Could I not believe? If I were not who I am, of course I would
not. But I am who I am,” the professor says. “I cannot not believe. Not because
of myself, but because of those who were before me. It is my love for and
fidelity to my parents, my grandparents, and theirs, and simply to stop, to be
last in the chain, is wrong. It would humiliate them. They weren’t at fault.
Why should I do it to them? I feel such a presence when I think about them and
even when I don’t think about them. I want to follow in their footsteps. I
don’t want to break the chain. And to choose what? Is it better to be agnostic
or better to be an atheist? I don’t know. I’ve never tried it. I accept having
faith. I call it wounded faith, my faith is wounded. But I believe. A very
great Hasidic master once said, ‘No heart is as whole as a broken heart.’ And I
paraphrase it differently: No faith is as pure as a wounded faith because it is
faith with an open eye. I know all the elements of the situation; I know all
the reasons why I shouldn’t have faith. I have better arguments against faith
than for faith. Sure, it’s a choice. And I choose faith.”
(From Cathleen Falsani, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives
of Public People. www.cathleenfalsani.com
Wiesel’s voice is so powerful
because it is the voice of authenticity. There is nothing facile about his
faith. It is the faith of someone who has wrestled with God. Atheists often
accuse believers of taking the easy way out, of using God as an avoidance
strategy. They haven't listened to Elie Wiesel. Faith for him is not an opinion
considered at a safe distance. It holds him in its grip. It compels him. Far
from blinding him to the realities of human existence, his is a faith “with an
open eye.”
I fear that we are losing that willingness to wrestle with God. I hope that Elie Wiesel’s voice will continue to be heard by future generations, that they will read him and remember him, and be both challenged and encouraged by his remarkable, wounded faith.
