“Since it was not I who was making the light, since it came to me from outside, it would never leave me. I was only a passageway, a vestibule for this brightness. The seeing eye was in me. Still there were times when the light faded, almost to the point of disappearing. It happened every time I was afraid..."
After the first deportations of French Jews and the first arrests for resistance that Jacques became aware of, he fell ill. Jacques realized that the German occupation of France was his illness. And so he became the leader of a Resistance Movement.
Everyday Jacques knelt in prayer; “My God, give me the strength to keep my promises. Since I made them in a good cause, they are yours to keep as well as mine. By myself I know how to do almost nothing, but if you will it I am capable of almost everything. Most of all give me prudence. Your enthusiasm I no longer need, for I am filled with it.
The Lord took pity on the poor mortal who was so helpless before him. But there was one thing left which I could do: not refuse God’s help, the breath he was blowing upon me. That was the one battle I had to fight, hard and wonderful all at one: not to let my body be taken by the fear. For fear kills, and joy maintains life...
I was nothing but skin and bones, but I had recovered. The fact was I was so happy, that now Buchenwald seemed to me a place which if not welcome, was at least possible. If they didn’t give me any bread to eat, I would feed on hope. It was the truth. I still had 11 months ahead of me in the camp. But today I have not a single evil memory of those 333 days of extreme wretchedness. I was carried by a hand. I was covered by a wing. One doesn’t call such living emotions by their names.
I hardly needed to look out for myself. I was free now to help the others; not always, not much, but in my own way I could help. I could try to show other people how to go about holding on to life. I could turn toward them the flow of light and joy which had grown so abundant in me.
From that time on they stopped stealing my bread or my soup. It never happened again. Often my comrades would wake me up in the night and take me to comfort someone. I became 'the blind Frenchman.' Hundreds of people confided in me. The men were determined to talk to me. They spoke to me in French, in Russian, in German, in Polish. I did the best I could to understand them all. That is how I lived, how I survived. The rest I cannot describe.”
Jacques Lusseyran, And There Was Light and Poetry at Buchenwald
"Could you see, what God sees, those snares and pitfalls which the devil is placing about your path; could you see that all your idle thoughts which you cherish, which seem so bright and pleasant, so much pleasanter than religious thoughts, are inspired by that ancient seducer of mankind, doubtless you would tremble, even as he does while he tempts you.
But this you cannot possibly see, you cannot break your delusion, except by first taking God's word in this matter on trust. You cannot see the unseen world at once. They who ever speak with God in their hearts, are in turn taught by Him in all knowledge; but they who refuse to act upon the light, which God gave them by nature, at length come to lose it altogether."
John Henry Newman
"We can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world. We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. There is nothing we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as our friend.”
Dorothy Day
We hear far too little about those who shine like lights in the darkness, down through the halls of history.
It's not good for the sake of the elite to give hope and good examples to the common people I imagine.
Thankfully few are challenged in such a manner, and called to be heroes for conscience.
But we are all beckoned, everyone of us, to deny ourselves, take up our own cross, and follow Him.
We are all called to be blind heroes of the resistance to evil.
Stocks and the markets were chugging along, and in the afternoon Fed heads Bullard and Mester delivered a one-two punch with some rather hawkish remarks about the Fed's stance on interest rates.
Stocks plunged, and went out on the lows ahead of tomorrow's option expiration.
The VIX shot higher.
The Dollar edged higher.
Gold and silver finished largely unchanged.
I hope someone is keeping track of the current and former Fed head insider trading this week.
As if.
Have a pleasant evening.
