Comment by Archbishop Giuseppe Chiaretti
Perugia (Fides Service) - "God is present in the troubles of mankind, in human suffering. It is God himself who is persecuted and killed, in the figure of every innocent victim": Archbishop Giuseppe Chiaretti of Perugia said this in a conversation with Fides Service with regard to the annual Day of Remembering the Holocaust on 27 January. The Archbishop is head of the Italian Bishops Conference's Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue.
"Today we remember the Shoa, and the six million people killed by Nazi barbarism, but we also remember today all those including many Christians who helped save numerous Jews from certain death. Remembering the Shoa as Elie Wiesel sees it, we may ask: where was God at that moment? Why did he allow the killing of so many innocent people? These questions arise every time we see massacres also in our day: why this apparent silence of God? We who believe in Christ have an answer: God is present in the troubles of mankind, in human suffering. It is God himself who is persecuted and killed, in the figure of every innocent victim. This is the theological vision of a patient God. In the Shoa, as in every killing, it is God himself who is killed. Whenever we fail to respect the human person, who is the image of God, when we despise humanity and human dignity, then we offend the mystery of God.
Today the Jewish people is still called to be faithful to God. I would mention a message left by one of the last victims killed in the ghetto of Warsaw Jizchaq Katzenelson who composed a Song of the massacred Jewish people. At the end of the war the song was found on sheets of paper contained in a bottle that had been buried in the lager. <Tell me O heavens why do these things happen. I do not understand. I am tempted to reject you and yet I remain faithful. I do not understand but I believe in your Word, in your faithfulness>. It is clear that God purifies through suffering.
We must remember, remembering helps to prevent. A people that forgets will make the same mistakes it has forgotten. It is necessary to remember also in view of the tragedies of our present day. Humanity is always on the edge of the precipice, it is always capable of repeating such tragedies. Remembering is also important for dialogue between Christians and Jews. As Christians we try to understand the significance of this unprecedented suffering; we draw near to the mystery of the persecution of the just, in which God has his plan. Although we do not understand this suffering we feel we must share it. Suffering also holds within it a Word of God, difficult, hard, the same Word which tormented the great prophets. For Christians the Jews are the root. Revelation given to the Jewish people is Revelation also for us. This means that the Word of suffering is addressed to us as well. Remembering softens hearts and helps the process of reconciliation already underway of Christians and Jews. The purpose of the genocide of the Jews was to eliminate a culture, mentality, traditions. In other cases, for example with gypsies, physically or mentally handicapped, homosexuals, it was ethnic cleansing stemming from despise for human dignity, arrogant exaltation of a few to the detriment of others. These tragedies occur when certain ideologies are absolutized and seek to eliminate the weak and the fragile to create a race of perfect men.
This day of remembering is an important lesson in civilisation. It teaches us to respect others, to look at those who are different with profound humanity, to build relationships with everyone whatever their physical ethnic, cultural or religious differences, to live with solidarity, to share ourselves with others. This Day teaches us to build relationships in the name of the Trinity, based on love and mercy". PA (Fides Service 28/1/2003)