Frankl in a Fallen World

Viktor Frankl. We learned about him in class today, and I think that was one of my favorite lectures of this semester. What an incredible man. His story is heart wrenching, his character is beyond unique; it is steadfast and loving and humble and open. He has many Christ-like qualities and I put him in the category of the Fall- not because he himself seemed fallen, but because the world around him was crumbling and he rose above it.

I have been to Auschwitz concentration camp. It was at the end of a mission trip to Poland my youth group went on. I remember reading Night by Elie Wiesel and actually finishing it as we pulled up to the camp. You can’t really describe what it is like to walk around and see all the brick buildings, the dorms, the shoes, combs, hair. The gas chambers. It is like walking around a ghost town, only wondering in a sort of awe at the horrors that happened there. That was a fallen time. That was a time where death and life intermixed in a twisted dance that left everyone stumbling. Evil prevailed in expected and unexpected ways. Evil blinded; evil killed.

Frankl seemed to remain certain through his time at Auschwitz. He helped others, he cared for the sick, he survived. Frankl decided to persevere as best he could, and he did so with grace. This reminds me of Christ as he carried the cross through the streets of Jerusalem. He was scorned, spit at, discouraged, beaten, broken. Yet he showed kindness and perseverance to finish the task. Frankl had accepted death as a possibility. So did Jesus.