Auschwitz Challenge
STAGE 11 - auschwitz
LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL DESPITE EVERYTHING
Dear pilgrim:
We came to the end of this experience. Arriving at Auschwitz death camp was for thousands of people the last part of their life journey. Today we join these people who were ripped out of their lives without mercy nor compassion, but we also join the camps and situations that currently are camps of destruction.
We come to the end of this experience, but the sadness we feel as we pass through the door that says "The work liberates" (Arbeit match frei) will not stop our life but, on the contrary, will give us the strength to continue fighting and working to liberate our world from hopelessness, lies, quiet complicity, insensitivity... so that tolerance, dialogue, agreement, universal fraternity become increasingly evident on our streets.
As we walk among the barracks, the furnaces, the streets that fell on thousands of people in one of the most horrible events in human history, I invite you to think of the hundreds of details of affection, affection, dedication, forgiveness... that were also given here. We cannot grant evil all space, we cannot be blinded by horror and blind to the good that was also given here. The words written by Etty, the confident prayers, the caresses, the good wishes that came out of here are as real as the murders. Why, at times, do we let the fog darken the beautiful?
I don't know if Etty was a naive dreamer or smoked the herbs she found or if she needed a few sessions of psychiatry. What I'm sure of is that he found a WHAT TO LIVE FOR AND WHO TO KEEP FIGHTING FOR. He got to work, set to serve and put the "poor little thing on me" aside. His life, thanks to the help of Spier, his friends, reading, writing and, above all, the God with whom he built an uninterrupted dialogue, made full sense regardless of the context in which his existence unfolded.
Etty was killed on November 30, 1943, but in his diary he had already written that everything had already lived within her. And Etty is here now, good friend and partner of ours. Great Inspiration in our difficult times.
PURCHASE YOUR PLANE TICKET BACK HOME
your personal driver wants to know if you have made good use of what you have experienced today. Therefore, here is a short questionnaire to be able to purchase your ticket to your place of origin.
FINAL LETTER FROM YOUR DRIVER
We have reached the end of this experience and the Challenge organization asks me to take you to the airport in the taxi. The truth is, after these weeks together, I'm going to miss you. When you are not in my taxi tomorrow I will remember you and I will surely pray for you and yours. And I will ask the Lord of Life that everything learned in this trip helps you to live deeply, with passion, without excuses ...
A war, an illness, an unfair job, friendship or love situation will never have the last word because life continues to be beautiful despite everything. The sun continues to be and illuminate, although there are clouds. And I know, it is not easy ... and I know that sometimes you have suffered a lot ... but as a good taxi driver that I am - a little talkative, yes - I will listen to you with affection, but I will encourage you to continue living.
And if one day you send me a WhatsApp and tell me that after these days you see the black color a little grayer, that the tears you cry are less bitter, that it is easier for you to get up from your chair to lend a hand, that you pray with more depth and, at the same time, you look without fear at the reality that surrounds you ... that day I will be excited because I will know that I have shared my taxi with a person who values life.
My dear friend, my dear friend, who is no longer just a pilgrim, Etty gave us the challenge of being balm for the wounds of the world and, I have to admit, that being by your side during these days my heart is happier. So thank you! You've been a bit of Etty to me.
Sorry for the times that you have not been a good driver or that you have talked too much. And if Fernando gives you an evaluation form, remember, always give me the highest score, okay? And the thing is that I want my contract to be renewed because each pilgrimage makes me understand that we are "homo viator", people on the way.
By the way, your luggage now weighs less ... and smells much better. What has happened in these days?
Receive a huge hug from your favorite driver.
EXTRA MATERIAL
READING: LETTER 60 (ETTY HILLESUM)
CINEMA PROPOSAL
READING PROPOSAL
A PIECE OF NEWS: ELPERIODICO.COM
