Healing In The Darkest Corners Of The Earth

In 1990 I went to Europe with a friend. We wound up in Munich, just a few minutes from the Dachau concentration camp. We visited the camp, where many of the original buildings were left intact. We walked through the barracks and through the crematorium.

I was 24 then, and not aware of energy or spirituality the way I am now. I felt a heaviness, more from knowing the history of the place than any conscious awareness of the crimes against humanity that took place here. I didn’t feel the agony of the Jews and political prisoners who were murdered, nor of the Nazis who had their own humanity diminished in their role as oppressors.

At the end of the tour we were taken to two other sites: a memorial structure for the Jews who were murdered and a residence for an order of Catholic nuns who lived there in the present day.

The Jewish memorial was moving. You saw a narrow structure, about ten feet tall with a star of David on top of it. In front of that was narrow tunnel that went gradually underground. It was completely dark except for the sunlight coming in at the open end at the top.

You descended into the darkness until there was nowhere left to go.

Then you looked up and saw the star of David in the sunlight.

For me, just as moving was the residence of the nuns. I was brought up Jewish and was constantly made aware of the suffering of the Jews as the Third Reich carried out its intention to commit genocide.

What is easily forgotten is the systematic imprisonment and murder of political opponents, gypsies, physically handicapped, homosexuals and religious dissenters.

Had I not visited Dachau for myself, I probably would have objected to any group other than Jews being memorialized at any concentration camp. I wasn’t taught about the persecution of other groups, only the Jews.

But experiencing the presence of the Catholic order felt right. It felt healing. I didn’t see any nuns during the visit. But there was a sense of gentleness, healing and love that emanated from the community.

Perhaps that was one of the first extra-sensory experiences I had with the energy of healing and love. It certainly wasn’t the last.

There are all kinds of conflicts going on right now. A lot of them have their roots in the economics of the regions…a race to acquire seemingly scarce resources. Of course the wealth we really have is unlimited, even if it seems otherwise.

But most of them are tribal. Old hatreds we’ve never set aside. Seeing the other group as “other.” As less than.

And needing to make ourselves feel better by making someone else inferior.

So when I see anyone reach out to the different ones, even if it risks their own well being, I see God in action.

No one group has cornered the market on suffering. Violence – systematic or random – dehumanizes the perpetrator and victim. Not a popular notion, but each attracts the other.

And no one group has cornered the market on healing. It is right that any individual or group who is ready to embrace mercy and love plants its seed in the most injured and ill corners of the planet.

Dachau is Homs. It is Gaza. It is Harpers Ferry, or Newark, or Detroit.

True healing is achieved when the bonds of group identification are no longer our bondage. When we recognize our brothers and sisters, our own humanity in everyone.

What can you do to plant some healing energy in your corner of the earth?

Because there is a ripple effect. What you do in your world starts a chain reaction that carries to those who need it most.

Your Brother,
Larry

HOW TO RECEIVE

February 15, 2012 · Filed Under Uncategorized

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