Thoughts on Haiti

Tonight we had one session of what, in the Mormon Church, is called "Stake Conference." Mormon congregations (wards) are determined by geographical locations (in Utah that means my ward is only about 3 X 5 blocks big!). A number of wards make up a "stake."

Before the actual session began, beautiful prelude music was sung. With that beauty surrounding me, my mind went to Haiti. I remembered my dad's words, "Today is a day beyond words," and "This will become a country filled with amputees." Images of Fedeline Mon Fleury flooded my mind. Mom sent some photos of my dad treating the wounds on Fedeline's face, but she (Mom) asked that we not post them; perhaps she felt they were too graphic. The photos made me cry when I first looked at them, and again, as the music surrounded me, my eyes filled with tears as I thought of all the pain and suffering in Haiti right now.

This happened to me before, where beautiful music made me cry because it contrasted so starkly with things in the world: Mom, Anna and I were in Krakow, Poland, in 1993, and had visited Auschwitz that day. While walking around, I was horrified but didn't cry. But that night, at a concert in a beautiful church in Krakow, the peace of the music and the terror of Auschwitz contradicted so sharply, that it made me break down and cry. Evil and beauty, destruction and creation, are dissonant bedfellows.

A few nights ago, Taylor and I were talking about the destruction in Haiti, and Taylor drew parallels to the earthquakes and destruction that the Book of Mormon records occurred in the Americas at the time of Christ's death. We believe that Christ then visited the people of the Book of Mormon, teaching them and performing miracles even more incredible than those done in the Holy Land.

Mormon artwork, such as this painting by Arnold Friberg, tends to portray Christ's arrival as occurring immediately or very very soon after the destruction had ended. However, the Book of Mormon record says that the destruction occurred in the first month of the 34th year (3 Nephi 8:5). The land was covered in darkness. In the next chapter, the people hear the voice of Christ, then silence for many hours, and then his voice again, promising to gather them "as a hen gathereth her chickens" (3 Nephi 10:4). At that point the darkness disperses, "the earth did cleave together again" (10:10), and the survivors rejoice: "their mourning was turned to joy" (10:10). The next few verses are not an account of events, but an explanation of prophesy. Then verse 18 reads: "And it came to pass that in the ending of the thirty and fourth year, behold, I will show unto you that the people ... did have great favors shown unto them, and great blessings poured out upon their heads, insomuch that soon after the ascension of Christ into heaven [from the Holy Land], he did truly manifest himself unto them -- [s]howing his body unto them, and ministering unto them..." (10:18-19). The chapters that follow recount Christ's visit to the people.

Why am I going through all of this? Taylor pointed out to me that Christ most likely did not show up days after the destruction. His visit was perhaps 9-11 months later, according to the dates recorded ("first month" vs "ending" of the 34th year). My dad is currently in a place of great destruction, and is trying to heal and save lives immediately. Survivors are even now being pulled out of the wreckage. Other doctors and aid workers will follow on the heals of my dad. What will those doctors see a year from now? Will Haiti really be a "country of amputees"? What healing will be needed then?

I believe that Christ came, that he taught them many truths, and that He healed their sick, as 3 Nephi 17:6-10 testifies:

6 And he said unto them: Behond, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you.

7 Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Have ye any that are lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy.

8 ...[F]or I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you.

9 And it came to pass that when he had thus spoken, all the multitude, with one accord, did go forth with their sick and their afflicted, and their lame, and with their blind, and with their dumb, and with all them that were afflicted in any manner; and he did heal them every one as they were brought forth unto him.

10 And they did all, both they who had been healed and they who were whole, bow down at his feet, and did worship him; and as many as could come for the multitude did kiss his feet, insomuch that they did bathe his feet with their tears.

The horrors in Haiti are making this passage all the more meaningful to me. Their society too may have been "a country filled with amputees" -- or of people otherwise injured from the great earthquakes that had ravaged them nearly a year before. It is all the more poignant to me that the people healed had been living with their lameness -- lost limbs, incorrectly healed bones, scarred faces, maimed eyes -- for that year before Christ miraculously healed them. Their appreciation of His miracle could only have been deeper for having had to live with the pain and the lameness for that length of time.

And Taylor stressed the fact that for Christ to come and preach -- while the people were still pulling themselves out of the rubble -- doesn't make much sense. Christ lectures for long hours to the people; could they have gained anything if the aftershocks were still reverberating through the country!

How I ache that so many in Haiti will continue to live with pain and lameness and loss! I want miracles to be poured out on them, too!