by Lisa Etter Carlson
If I were to fly across the span of time and look down upon the world of the Christian, I would find the landscape to be different in many places, the clothing to be foreign, the languages to be vast, and at points I would find no one living on the very land which I now call my home. If I were to fly across the span of time I would get a birds-eye view of the school of thought that brought about the symposium, and see Joan of Arc riding off to battle and Betsy Ross sewing the first American flag, but, across all this vastness and all this time, there is one thing I would find that remains the same. I may find wars, places dry with famine, I may see cities known for gambling and prostitution and others, places of slavery and segregation, I may even (and God help me) see such monstrosities as Auschwitz. If I were to look down on the lives of Jesus, Paul, Constantine, Teresa of Avila, Francis of Assisi, John Calvin, Blaise Pascal, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Romero, Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King Jr I would find, in all these places and all times, the Christian to be living in a time and place where the majority of people in the world are living in poverty.
Go with me now to the time of 1980 and to the place of El Salvador. Here, we will find a man, an Arch Bishop named Oscar Romero. He lives during a time where there is war in his country, a war that in 1980 claimed the lives of 3,000 per month, with cadavers clogging the streams, and tortured bodies thrown in garbage dumps and lining the streets of the capitol weekly[1]. Like us, and like those who have gone before him, he lives in a time where there are many more who are poor and suffering than those who are rich and thriving. What Romero did in the face of all this, was to journey with the poor and persecuted of El Salvador. What he was to share with them was a message, a message that was broadcast all over the country, and that message week after week was one that said, “we were not created for suffering but for happiness.[2]” What this message and actions of Romero did was cause the church of El Salvador to be persecuted. Romero spoke to this persecution saying, “While it is clear that our church has been a victim of persecution, it is even more important to observe the reason for the persecution. It is because the church is taking the defense of the poor and because we are assuming the destiny of the poor[3].”
The destiny of the poor…
Assuming the destiny of the poor.
When Monseñor Romero spoke of the church of as “taking the defense of the poor” because they were “assuming the destiny of the poor”, he understood the true destiny of the poor to be something very different then it was at the time. To me “the poor” extends to all things: the sick, the hungry, the prostituted, the abused, etc, and although I am not a huge fan of the word happy in the above context, I believe that when Romero says “we’re not created for suffering but for happiness” in the context of the destiny of the poor, he is actually speaking of their right to fullness, flourishing, and lastly- to hope.
Romero implies that before the poor can know of their true destiny they must be defended, and defended by the church in particular. I would like to ponder more about what this means. Romero is using the word “defend.” A word most of us, post-colonialists, would shutter at. But this word, to those who are of the free of heart such as Romero, has a beautiful, mutual, empowering meaning different then what us, from the Global North might imagine. To really grasp what this word means, we must ask the question “what is it that we are defending?”
I believe that Romero was primarily defending the people’s basic human rights and needs, and secondly—I should not separate them—their spiritual birthrights. All of these wrap together to make the fullness of humanity. This too is what I feel called to defend in order for the poor to know their true destiny.
Through my work with the poor, I have been challenged to face my own poverty and learned of the reality of the many faces of poverty and trauma. Meeting the prostituted, the abused, the child-soldier, the incest survivor, the trafficked and unfortunately so many more, I have been faced with the question “How now shall we live in the face of all of this?” My first thought is a simple one and it is this: we must live in the face of all of this. My second thought is: we do live in the face of all of this.
Through the lens of humanity and the gospel of Christianity, I have come to believe that we all are the same: We all have the same basic needs to grow and flourish. It is out of these basic needs that our growth into our own unique particularity is cultivated and harvested. I believe that we all deserve the right to basic things such as an education, health care, safety, food, water, housing and opportunity. These are the things that make us human. And it is from the context of these things that our humanity grows. Unfortunately, like all those who have gone before us- we live in a time when the social and political fabric of our world creates a large gap between the rich and the poor and the poor are the ones who suffer from the absence of these basic human rights.
The circumstances of the poor can overwhelm their days and the unfortunate guiding reality of their life becomes to suffer. And they are not the first to suffer; from the great plains of yester-year to the hill-countries of today the generational cycles of suffering have been passed down through families and through time. And we have to believe that this is not their destiny. We have to believe that the cycles of poverty: structural oppression, abuse, and addiction can be thwarted. We must not be overwhelmed by the powers of evil, because we simply must believe that this is not the true destiny of those who are victims, orphans, abused or neglected…we must nestle our way into the very places of evil, live there and co-author a new story with each person and with our people. And, as Christians, we must believe that the poor are our people.
When Martin Luther King Jr. was suffering alongside his people he had to believe first that this was not their destiny and it was out of this guiding principle that actions and movements were birthed. What came from his Christian belief in the true destiny of the poor was his leadership in a movement that would call the law to responsibility. Dietrich Bonheoffer writes about the relationship between law, state, and the proclamation of the gospel in his book, “Who is For Christ For Us”, he says:
“I see that [the nations would mold their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks] as the goal of history, and if I could not believe in it then I would have no hope…I think this waiting for the Kingdom of God is only meaningful when it is not a passive but rather an active waiting…It is not yours to complete the work but you are not freed from beginning it…This means that the state has so extended its authority that it steals from the Christian proclamation and Christian faith its own right…we must call the state to responsibility…we are called not only to tend to the victims under the wheel, but to stick a rod in the spokes of the wheel itself.” [4]
Dietrich is saying two things here: 1. Tend to the victims 2. Stop the system of oppression by sticking a rod in the spokes of the wheel.
Lets work backwards here by starting with: “Stick a rod in the spokes of the wheel itself”- what does this mean. A story I love to share, which I believe, sheds light on Bonheoffer’s charge to us- is the story of the early church. Long ago there was an age-old tradition, which would serve to mortify even the toughest of us. The sheer terror of its existence enlightens the beauty of the role of the liberating Church and it is the perfect example of what I believe it means for the Church to stick a rod in the wheel itself. Years ago, back in biblical times, there was a cultural guiding principle that discouraged baby girls from being born. Much of this was adopted because of the struggle of the poor: girls were not able to make money for the family and marrying them off was an expense that many families could not afford- but also, men were more valued then women at this point in history. Due to all of these factors, when newborn girls were born it became a practice for families to take her down to the water at night and lay her on the shore and leave her, so that when the tide came up, it would wash her out and drown her. In response to this cultural practice, Christians at the time adopted a practice of their own, and that was to walk the beaches late at night in order to scoop up the babies that were left out to die. They would pick up all the newborn girls that were left out to die on the shore and adopt them all into their Christian family and raise them in love as if they were their own. To me this is the ultimate example of what it means to put a rod in the wheel itself. These early Christians were guided by a liberating love that scooped up those left behind and in doing this they were calling the culture and the state to responsibility in a way very unique to the way of Christ.
As we begin to find our own ways to call our culture and state (the law) to responsibility, Bonhoeffer said that we must also tend to the poor. What that means to Romero is, as a church, creating reasons for hope and “in order to create reasons to hope- we must be free persons. Freedom does not only belong to the political feat. Theology is the hermeneutic of hope. To do theology is to reflect about the reasons for hoping- the reasons to have hope.” My question lies in this: How do we become a people that reflect the reasons for hope in order to uncover the true destiny of the poor? As odd as this may sound, I believe it begins with prayer. And this is where I believe Bonheoffer’s first point of tending to the poor may begin to get fleshed out.
It begins in our own person. And the reason that it begins within our own person is best put by Dorothy Day when she says: “Charity is only as warm as those who administer it.” We cannot just simply have our task be to stick a rod in the spoke of systemic and structural evils…we must be lead by the liberating love of Christ, which lives inside of us and that love must work hand in hand with structural change. Because the poor long for, as much as a glass of water, to know that they are loved, unique and needed in this world. We cannot simply just provide.
In light of Dorothy Day’s quote about charity, and the examples from Romero and Martin Luther King Jr. of what this can look like, I think it is important to note that when we are in the face of the horrors of trauma experienced by the poor, we cannot attempt to heal or liberate out of true relationship. Judith Herman speaks to this same theme on her book “Trauma and Recovery.” She speaks to the reality that healing cannot happen through merely an offering of therapy or “help” to the individual- it can only come through relationship. And Judith Herman’s gift to the world of psychology has been just that: it has been to slowly but surely shift the general treatment approaches to that of one of relationship, also known as “a trauma viewpoint.”
Author Gail A. Hornstein’s book, “Agnes’s Jacket” was inspired by Judith Herman’s approach and one of the main messages she writes in her book is that in order for a person to be healed through a therapeutic relationship: “a person in anguish has to have someone who can imagine the possibility if his or her getting well.[5]” And that possibility can only be birthed out of a relationship.
Surely one of the most beautiful examples of someone whose very life, moments and essence has been to live in relationship with the poor is Mother Teresa. Her very being-ness is a testimony to us of how healing can occur through relationship with the poor and imagining with the poor, a different way or a different destiny (as Romero would say). And I have learned a great lesson from this woman- but- this lesson is not the same as I have heard it is for many. What I have learned from Mother Teresa is how I cannot care for my people unless I am praying daily. My boss at Recovery Café shared with me that on a pilgrimage in Calcutta she had the privilege of speaking with Mother Teresa. She asked Mother Teresa if it was true that she prayed four hours a day and if it were, how she managed to make the time for it? Mother Teresa nodded and then added, “I simply must spend that amount of time in prayer, because there is so much work to be done in the world.” I personally believe that I simply cannot see those in my midst, let alone love them well when I am not centered in prayer.
It is out of this deeply centered prayer life that a space is created within me and an awareness greeted within me that I simply cannot handle all of the pain of this world alone. There is just too much of it for me to hold. And it is out of this place that I cry, I mourn, I grieve—I wail for those within my midst and those who are far away that are hungry, thirsty, unsafe, fighting diseases that in my neighborhood are curable and yet deadly to them…I bang my fists at the injustice and name aloud those whom I know are being prostituted and harmed. I kick and scream at the monstrosities that tear apart the fabric of a family and wrongly inform an innocent child for the rest of her life. I spit at addiction and the generational cyclical nature of all that it breeds: I say NO to it! And then, then I ask our Dear God to be the God that I believe God to be- for my people- for God’s people! Lastly I beg the Lord for strength, a vision and an illuminated imagination to believe in a different destiny for them – for each person that I come into contact with in each moment –for that day.
This is the place that I must begin everyday. Then I open my door and unfortunately there are many who need to be seen, feel safe, experience love and then know that they were created for something more: and they must hear that THIS IS NOT THEIR DESTINY! So help me God—that people may receive this message through my love.
At this point I would like to reiterate my belief (along with those who have gone before me that I have mentioned in this paper) in the power of all of the points that I have made. I believe that all of those who have lived out the liberating, healing initiatives for the poor have done this with the poor and that this liberation and healing has come through their relationships, which have occurred only because of, and simply through their ability to pray. And that prayer is what makes us a person of freedom. Romero said that it is the person of freedom that may create reasons for hope for the poor- and I believe that nurturing reasons for hope in a new destiny comes through a healing, loving relationship. And I believe that THIS is what I am alive for. I desire with every fiber of my being to live out this liberating love, this message of a new destiny, in every moment, through every interaction – with every person that is in front of me for the rest of my life. And I am foolish enough to believe this with and for every person – so help me God.
[1] Denny Golden, Scott Wright and Marie Dennis, Oscar Romero: Reflections of His Life and Writings. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000).
[2]Gustavo Gutierrez, Archbishop Romero: A Witness of Faith. ITunes U, Yale University Lecture.
[3] IBID
[4] Dietrich Bonheoffer, Who is Christ for Us (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 58.
[5] Gail A. Hornstein, Agnes’s Jacket: A Psychologist’s Search For The Meaning Of Madness (New York: Rodale Books, 2009), xxi.