A reflection for Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 given by Abbot Hugh Allan o.praem, Director of Mission, on this year's theme 'Bridging Generations'.
When a loved one suffers from dementia, you see the person you love slowly disappear. Why? Because we are our memories. One of the greatest gifts God has given human beings is the ability to remember. When fail to remember, we lose sight of who we are. The person we become in life is shaped by what has happened in the past and how we remember those moments, good or bad.
On Holocaust Memorial Day, we remember. We remember the horrific events that destroyed countless lives. We remember the unimaginable suffering and heartache.
We remember so that we may truly be formed by what has happened. The other side of this is that if we fail to remember then not only do we lose who we are, but humanity loses sight of the reality of being alive.
The ability to remember is something handed on through the generations. It creates a bridge between the ages. As Deuteronomy reminds us, “Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you.” (Deuteronomy 32.7).
We have a duty to remember, not just for the sake of the dead, but for the living. We are what our memories make us and we should never forget.
In our remembering, the words of Psalm 44 come to mind, Israel’s lament for its woes: “You have broken us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with deep darkness … because of you we are being killed all day long, and accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Rouse yourself! Why do you sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not cast us off forever! Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?… Rise up, come to our help!” (Psalm 44)
This cry of anguish, which Israel raised to God in its suffering, at moments of deep distress, is also the cry for help raised by all those who in every age – yesterday, today and tomorrow – suffer for the love of God, for the love of truth and goodness.
When all is said and done, we must continue to cry out humbly yet insistently to God: Rouse yourself! Do not forget mankind, your creature! Remember us always.
Our hope is always that our society and world will not be guilty of a “spiritual dementia”, of choosing to look away and forget. We can not and we must not forget.
For the hope of future generations, we pause and we remember.
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff – they comfort me … I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long” (Ps 23:1-4, 6).
This prayer can be used by Christians on or around Holocaust Memorial Day.
Fragility of Freedom is the theme for Holocaust Memorial Day 2024.
