Haiti Remembrance—Love of Your Neighbor

“Oh, friends! I can clearly see how important love of your neighbor is to some of you, and how others of you just don’t seem to care. If only you could understand how vital this virtue is to all of us, you wouldn’t engage in any other study.” Teresa of Avila, The Interior Castle (1577)

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and my church held an all-day vigil in remembrance.

Part of the vigil included ringing bells for 35 seconds at 3:53 p.m. to remember the 300,000 lives lost in Haiti that day. Ben Larson, the son of our pastors, was killed in the earthquake and our congregation mourns his death in a very real way. Besides Ben and all the others who died in the earthquake, yesterday we also were remembering the survivors who included Ben’s wife, Renee, and his dear cousin Jon who were in the church building with Ben at the time of the earthquake and who lived to witness its terrible devastation. As the bells rang in our church, I realized how long 35 seconds is and thought hard about how life was changed—utterly and completely changed—for millions of people between 3:52 and 3:54 that Tuesday afternoon.

In The Interior Castle, Teresa writes wisdom from which we can all benefit: “Oh, friends! I can clearly see how important love of your neighbor is to some of you, and how others of you just don’t seem to care. If only you could understand how vital this virtue is to all of us, you wouldn’t engage in any other study.” Because Ben died in Haiti with the poorest of the poor, he has been united with his neighbors in a very tangible way and our congregation has found the world made smaller by this connection. Love of neighbor—close by and far away—was evident yesterday at our church; and the hands holding the bells, the hands lighting the vigil candles, the hands holding the hymnals were all involved in making the kingdom come on earth.