Lenten Day Eleven:  Dag Hammarskjöld 

“For all that has been, thank you.  For all that is to come, yes!” ~ Dag Hammarskjöld

On this eleventh day of Lent, I face this quotation once again and feel my resistance to it. I admit that this particular quotation has been on my mirror, off my mirror, on my mirror, off my mirror, many times throughout the years. Among the quotations I have shared thus far, I find this one to be the most challenging for me, so I would really appreciate your take on it, too.

But first, its author. Among other accomplishments, Dag Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961.  According to Wikipedia, he “presided over the creation of the first UN peacekeeping forces in Egypt and the Congo and personally intervened to defuse or resolve diplomatic crises. Hammarskjöld’s second term was cut short when he died in a plane crash while en route to cease-fire negotiations during the Congo Crisis.”  Some historians believe that Hammarskjöld’s plane crash was premeditated to thwart his peace-making efforts.  He is also the only posthumous recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, so I take his words to heart, and I try to embrace them, taping them back to my mirror.

The challenge is with that little/big word “all.” It is quite easy to say thank you for some of the things that have already been, isn’t it? But for all?  How do I say “thank you” for political divisiveness, unjust wars, prejudice, the assault on our planet Earth, a pandemic, the personal crosses we’ve had to bear along the way?  Saying thank you for all requires a certain boldness and a willingness to find some kind of meaning, some kind of opportunity for growth, in the midst of turbulence and pain.  But what if we don’t? Then it’s even a bigger leap of faith. Saying yes to all requires a reliance on something—or someone—bigger than us. 

What about saying yes “for all” that is to come, when we have no idea what those things will be?  There’s that annoying word again: all. That’s even more difficult for me than saying thank you.  At my age, I can guess some things to come, and I’m not sure I want to say “yes.” Saying “yes” may even require more trust in that something—or someone—bigger than us.  To get to the yes takes courage and even some craziness, along with, again, boldness. 

Considering this is the Lenten Season, I reflect on how Jesus the Christ, and other spiritual leaders/teachers, lived out this quotation.  Christ taught about trust and certainly opened his arms wide to the “yes,” whatever it was, the led to Love.  So, too, it seems, did Dag Hammarskjöld.  Both came with a price.

Perhaps that price is why I resist this one quotation, while I also desire to have the faith and trust and boldness to say thank you and yes, no matter what. What a challenge! I expect it will take me a lifetime.

Blessings ~ Rosemary