Viktor Frankl was a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. During his imprisonment, Frankl began to record what was happening inside the camp. He later said that this job of writing became his sense of purpose, which eventually gave him the willpower and reason to survive.
In his famous book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he offers lessons that are deeply relevant to us as Christians, especially in this advent season.
Among many prisoners, Frankl identified two distinct groups of people. The first group consisted of individuals who refused to let the terrible environment destroy their inner selves.
These people would recall the images of their loved ones. They would have deep, inner conversations with their loved ones in their imaginations. Frankl witnessed that this mental activity brought them a joy that transcended their physical pain. Over time, this allowed them to maintain their spiritual strength regardless of the reality around them.
They maintained their human dignity by choosing to comfort others or by sharing their last piece of bread. They chose to respond with love rather than despair. Frankl described these people as ‘those who kept hope’, and their hope became their purpose in life in the camp.
The second group consisted of the majority, who lived in despair. These individuals saw the brutal reality of the camp as an unavoidable fate and completely surrendered to it.
Frankl noted that the most dangerous sign in the camp was the loss of hope for the future. These prisoners stopped imagining freedom and instead took the German guards’ cruel words—”No one ever gets out of here alive”—to their hearts. Once they accepted this forced dark reality, they lost the will to take care of themselves or to help anyone else.
He also noted a sharp increase in the death rate during the Christmas season in the camp, especially when Christmas was over.
When the day passed and they were still prisoners, their despair even got worse. Their mentality was broken. Their spirit was shattered, and as a result, their immune systems collapsed, becoming severely weak or ill. Many of them couldn’t survive the following year.
Whenever the suffering became unbearable, Frankl would perform a mental exercise. He would close his eyes and imagine he was standing in a warm, nice lecture hall in Vienna after the war. He imagined holding his finished papers and lecturing the audience on “The Psychology of the Concentration Camp.”
Such intense mental exercise literally kept his body functioning. And that was precisely what he became of after the war. Not only in Vienna, his home in Austria, he also travelled many nations to lecture hundreds of audiences.
For Frankl, writing was not just a hobby. It was an act of rebellion. It was an act of his spiritual exercise. We call it hope.
Both the story of the survivors in the Nazi’s concentration camp and today’s reading of John the Baptist in Matthew’s gospel deal with ‘wilderness’ experiences.
John the Baptist was the voice crying in the wilderness. Viktor Frankl was a voice crying from the camps. Both tell us the same crucial truth: “You cannot find the light by ignoring the darkness inside, but by defeating the darkness with the light you find inside.
John cries out, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near!” In Greek, the word for repent is metanoia, which means in English a fundamental shift in your mind.
That’s right. For John the Baptist, repentance was a change of attitude. It isn’t just saying “sorry”; it is choosing a new direction.
Viktor Frankl wrote that the Nazis could take everything from a prisoner: their clothes, their hair, their name, their families, their children, parents, grandparents, their spouses, and even their lives.
But Frankl said that there was one thing they could never take away: “The last of human freedoms”. What amazing words! The last of human freedoms for Frankl was to choose his mind and attitude in any given circumstances.”
Well, advent is not just about waiting. It’s about choosing our attitude.
Frankl and many other prisoners in the Nachi’s camp believed that their inner attitude was more important and powerful than their external darkness. I believe John the Baptist is saying the same thing this morning, “Our inner spirit, our inner attitude is more powerful than the wilderness or darkness we go through in this world.”
Repentance, the change of your attitudes, the change of your minds is the last of your human freedoms as Jesus’ followers.
This time of year is so busy. We call the season Advent but the world calls it Christmas. A lot of people out there are focusing on external things such as: the decorations, the shopping, the busy schedules.
But John, in today’s Gospel reading, tells us the opposite. He cries out: “Repent! Change your attitude! Change your inner direction! Turn away from your sins, because the Kingdom of God is near.”
We all believe that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Lord, and he came to the world to save us. But his main job was to show us how to live God’s Kingdom life on earth.
This Christmas season, we don’t have to get caught up in all the rushing and busyness happening outside. Of course, we will still celebrate with family and friends! But during this Advent time, our first priority should be to focus on our inner peace and spiritual state.
Edith Eger was another survivor of Auschwitz camp at age 16. She said, “The most terrible prison is the one in my own mind.”
I agree. The most dangerous, the most hopeless prison might be the one in our own minds. Friends in Christ, that is exactly what John the Baptist points us to today. He encourages us to prepare a road for the Lord by overcoming the prison in our minds by changing our minds and changing our attitude.
This Advent, let us follow John’s call. Let us repent. Let us change our minds.
Advent is not just something that we do once a year around at this time. Advent should happen every day, even every moment of the remainder of our lives on this planet.
Let us strive to be a different person: a different parent, a different spouse, a different human being.
Let us overcome the prison of despair by focusing on hope. Let us prepare the way for the Lord. Christ is our ultimate Meaning and Purpose in life. He is our true Hope. Amen.
