"We have much to be judged on when he comes, slums and battlefields and insane asylums, but these are the symptoms of our illness and the result of our failures in love"

Madeleine L’Engle’s statement powerfully examines the state of human society by pointing out its most visible wounds, slums, battlefields, and insane asylums. These places stand as stark evidence of collective dysfunction, not merely as unfortunate realities but as indicators of much deeper issues within humanity. L’Engle is not only highlighting tangible manifestations of suffering and neglect but is also exposing the roots beneath them.

Slums embody poverty, neglect, and inequality, a chronic failure to distribute resources and care for the vulnerable. Battlefields evoke images of violence, division, and the tragic persistence of war, driven by hatred, fear, or greed. Insane asylums symbolize society’s struggle, at times its inability, to show compassion to those bearing mental anguish. Rather than being isolated problems, L’Engle calls them “symptoms,” suggesting they arise from a fundamental, pervasive ailment.

That ailment, she asserts, is a failure in love. By framing global crises as failures of love, L’Engle asks us to reconsider the traditional approach of categorizing these problems as simply political, economic, or medical in origin. Instead, slums result from lacking care and empathy toward the marginalized, battlefields from a refusal to embrace peace and understanding, and asylums from failing to accept and support mental vulnerability. Love, in her understanding, is not superficial affection but a profound, active commitment to others’ well-being, dignity, and justice.

By using the language of judgment, “much to be judged on”, L’Engle reminds us of our accountability. The world’s pain indicts not just individual acts, but societal priorities. Ultimately, she challenges listeners to recognize love as the essential antidote: with greater love, expressed through policy, community, and daily action, the symptoms, poverty, violence, alienation, can be healed. Her words compel reflection on how every social ill is, at its core, a call for a more courageous, expansive, and practical embrace of love.