In today's readings (March 9), Psalms 138:3 says: “You heard me on the day when I called, and you gave new strength to my heart.” The Ignatian Solidarity Network asks “When do you find yourself relying on Divine strength as you work for justice?”
These days, as an immigration justice activist and as a nurse, I find myself witnessing horrific hate and devastation. Yet more and more, I keep finding myself falling into communion, the Presence of our Creator who sustains, enlivens, and liberates us. That's the Good News I have to share: that G-d is strong, and real, and with Her children, and how we can find Her.
How do I / we live out the balance of acknowledging the reality of horrific devastation and at the same time acknowledge the reality of deep abiding powerful revolutionary love? I'm understanding at a deeper level what happens when I / we operate from a place of fear. In that place, I either misplace trust in my own limited power, or I feel disempowered, and I can't see or I discount the power held by people bearing the brunt.
Grief is also present. G-d is with me when I open to feel it, and when I do, I move more fully out of the place of fear and more fully into a place of trust.
Many of you know I make pastoral visits with men detained by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (aptly, ICE) at our local Suffolk County House of Corrections. I often fall into communion with G-d and the men there. I’ll share just one story. Earlier this year, about thirty men, about half Haitian and half Latin American, showed up for our group. We offered to lead two groups, one in French, and the other in Spanish, but the men refused. They had become family to each other. Over the next hour, they alternated sharing Psalms and hymns, each in their own language, and we felt, as Lenni Lenape spiritual leader Papunehang had in 1763 when visited by Friend John Woolman, where the words came from.
A few of the other people who have given me some clues over the past few weeks:
- On the wisdom of opening to grieving: Parker Palmer in an old article “The Broken Open Heart: Living with Faith and Hope in the Tragic Gap” and a recent interview with Joanna Macy “Learning to See in the Dark Amid Catastrophe”
- The gathered wisdom of Toussaint Liberator, Dorotea Manuela, Yamilia Shannan, Nadia Ben Yusuf, and Richard Cohen at January’s Quaker Nonviolence day at Codman Academy, and the experience of meeting for worship in a community room in with open windows out onto the streets of Dorchester.
- Robert Lentz's Icon Mother of the Disappeared hangs on my bedroom wall. Below it is a quote I copied from Tucson Friend Jim Corbett's book Goatwalking, based in part on his experience offering sanctuary to Central American refugees in the 1980s (another devastatingly horrific time):
Greed rules.
Murder prevails.
Love dies on the cross.
Another purported messiah has come and gone, and the Creation remains unredeemed.
Faith rooted in belief dies on the cross. ...
Faith rooted in hope dies on the cross. ...
There is a faith that is primarily belief. This kind of faith calls for definitive doctrines from which guiding objectives and priorities can be derived. And there is a faith that is primarily trust. This kind of faith expects to be guided by a unifying presence that enlivens each moment, breaks all borders, gathers us into communion with one another, and addresses us in all we meet. - Isaiah 58:6-7 is followed by verses 8-11 - In order to be vital and flourish - including spiritually - THIS is what we must do. Period.
- Father Greg Boyle SJ, who works with gang involved youth in LA. One hour video of his February message at Boston College here. Some highlights: We've forgotten that we belong to each other. ... G-d isn't waiting for us to give up anything. G-d is waiting for us to give into Her tenderness. ... We are not called to go to the margins to rescue anyone. Somehow, everyone is rescued. We give each others' selves back to each other. Our selves are given back to us & we inhabit our nobility. ... We're all in need of healing. The sooner we realize that, the sooner the widow, the orphan, and the stranger can reach us. ... If love is the answer, community is the context & tenderness is the methodology. ... We each are created in the Image and Likeness of G-d. The Image is given. The Likeness we have to surrender to. THIS is the Beloved Community.
- Last week's open mic featuring unflinching Boston hip hop duo Foundation Movement (interview from a few years back here) - the Power of Revolutionary Love in action!
- Interview with undocumented activist Aly Wane "We Can't Organize out of Fear"
“Praise be to G-d … the Mother and Father of compassion and the G-d of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from G-d.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-="The measure of our compassion lies not in our service to those on the margins but in our willingness to see ourselves in kinship." Father Greg Boyle, SJ (On Being)
