Another part of my Sabbatical trip was to visit Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany. I was asked several times why we would visit such a place and what possible spiritual benefit I could find. Well, I found much more than expected.
First of all, my grandfather helped liberate this camp at the end of the war and I wanted to connect with why he could never speak about it. He could only weep when it came up.
After walking through all the museum posters and photos, we attended a well done film about the camp and the aftermath of the war. The camp had been cleaned up to the point of it feeling sanitized and sterile. It was so sterile it was difficult to connect with what actually happened there.
One of the places at the camp that had a huge impact was a memorial site.
It bothered me that there was absolutely no denomination, no church that spoke out in opposition to the Nazi regime. But this memorial, by the Catholic Church profoundly made a statement.
It was a bell tower with a large brass bell that rang everyday at 3:00 p.m. It didn’t just ring, it pealed for several minutes to the point of discomfort as the loud ringing shook the very bones in my chest. As I stood in that loudness, my eyes dropped to the plaque underneath the bell. It was called “The Mortal Agony of Christ.” It rang each day at 3:00 p.m. to commemorate the death of Jesus on the cross.
I stood weeping in front of that sign, thinking about the atrocities that happened there. God, always sees, He sees all that happens and it stuck me deeply that not only does Christ look out over all things that are created, but he looked at this suffering of mans inhumanity to man and actually understood the agony these people endured. Our God not only endured agony but understands what it is when human beings suffer. He looks on the scene and grieves what the people he died to save, we’re doing to other people he died to save. My heart still wrenches when I remember the scene. It feels like prayer is not enough, because in the words of my grandfather, “there are no words.”
Romans 8:26 NIV ...The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
