Elements of Easter

What to write during this season, a time in which we reflect on the potency of new life made known through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ…?  Let me tell you about a book I have just finished reading: The Periodic Table, by Primo Michele Levi (1919-1987).

Levi was an Italian Jew, a Holocaust survivor.  He is considered to be one of the most powerful witnesses of twentieth-century suffering.  Unlike his first novel, The Periodic Table is written some 30 years after his experiences at Auschwitz.  It is full of ‘haunting reflections’ gathered over a life-time of working as a chemist in various contexts including the concentration camp itself.  

In the book, Levi explores his story with reference to different chemical elements (hence the title).  At times it is technical and hard going as he mentions yet another experiment to liberate a substance in pure molecular form from its natural habitat.  There is a certain barrenness about the dusty under-resourced laboratories in which he worked - reminding me of the sights and smells of my own science lessons at school.   But his writing is also deep, diligent, and lyrical.  The great atrocities Levi saw, and the personal suffering he endured, seem to bring him closer to the very grain of reality and life. 

For me the most powerful anecdotes come at the end of the book.  In the post-war years, Levi came into contact with a German scientist, his former ‘Boss’, at Auschwitz.  The exchanges between them make for uncomfortable reading as they try to address the memories of being on the opposite sides of the Holocaust…  

And then comes the finalé: a beautifully poetic chapter tracing the journey of the carbon atom, as it migrates from air to animal to plant to mineral and back again; coursing through life.  It is a surprisingly positive almost eucharistic ending to this otherwise somber book.  Light and gratitude pour through the pages as Levi shows how life cannot be extinguished even when surrounded by processes that lead to decay and death.  

Without undermining the deep difficulties and painful memories of Jewish-Christian relations over the centuries, this unexpected turn for me shifted the focus of Levi's writing from human suffering towards hope and the glory of eternity.  This is something Christians think about as the Easter season gives way to Ascension and Pentecost, and as we move from celebrating Jesus’ resurrection to considering what it means to be ‘temples of the Holy Spirit’.  

The life we are given in Christ, even the suffering Christ, is even more powerful and enduring than that of a versatile carbon atom.  In many ways, God’s Spirit is able to touch everything, presenting the possibility of healing and love, and yet God never undermines the difficult and perplexing situations in which we find ourselves.  God in Christ is especially near to those who suffer, and is always working in love…

Here’s to watching and waiting for the gift that God promises in Jesus (Acts 1.4).