Learning hope from Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel has died. Reading the obituaries, the thing that astounds me is the thing that has always astounded me: how young he was. Eighty-seven now, in 2016. I’ve been burying World War II veterans throughout my years of pastoral ministry. How could Wiesel only be 87?

He was a child during the war, a teenager, carted off to the camps with his family. He was orphaned there. His adolescence, rather than being a time of discovery and excitement, was filled with death and loss. He asked questions atypical for most who are so young: Where is God? Why has God not prevented this? Why has the world not stepped forward?

Wiesel’s profound suffering and search for meaning shaped his life’s work. I am grateful to say they also shaped my own. Wiesel was a writer, a public theologian, and a citizen of the world who worked tirelessly for peace; he was also a teacher.