This week, Pope Benedict XVI, will be making his first pastoral visit to Latin America. He may be surprised to discover that Liberation Theology, a movement that he once called "a fundamental threat to the faith of the church," remains very much a live and a defiant force within the country. According to the New York Times (May 7, 2007) there are 80,000 "base communities and nearly one million "Bible circles" that discuss current eco-socio-political issues in the light of Holy Scripture. These gatherings conclude with the Lord's Prayer and a hymn:
In the land of mankind, conceived as a pyramid,
there are few at the top, and many at the bottom.
In the land of mankind, those at the top crush
those at the bottom.
Oh, people of the poor, people subject to domination,
what are you doing just standing there?
The world of mankind has to be changed,
so arise people, don't stand still.
Jon Sobrino, S.J. in Christology at the Crossroads (1978) states that "we live in the presence of so much death. there is the reality of definitive, physical death and of the death that people experience in the toils of oppression, injustice, and sinfulness. Any consideration of God that ignores such a basic datum of life is idealistic, if not downright alienating. .... Liberation theology must ... ask itself in what sense suffering and death can be a mode of being for God. People in Latin America, however, seem to feel almost automatically what Dietrick Bonhoeffer expressed in intuitive, poetic terms: 'Only a God who suffers can save us.' ... If God really is present in the cross of Jesus, then he is there first and foremost as someone contradicting the world and all that we consider to be true and good."
At the heart of Liberation theology is the pastoral care of the poor - helping to empower them in the midst of wealthy land owners. It supports pensions and worker's rights under the Brazilian labor code; it fights against other social problems, like the lack of sanitation.
The Roman hierarchy has never endorsed this movement. It has sought to dismantle it. And yet it remains very much alive. Martyrs mark the land including Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador and Sister Dorothy Mae Stang, an American, shot to death in February 2005 in the Brazilian Amazon.
Though this this theological movement has gone underground in recent years it remains a strong force of change in a world of degradation and oppression of the poor.
What do you think is the link, if any, between politics and faith?
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Practicing Wisdom
+ Erik H. Erikson committed his life to understanding the various stages within the life cycle. In the eighth and final stage of human life, Dr. Erikson, understood the importance of ego-integrity overcoming despair. If a person achieves 'enough' ego integrity throughout his lifetime, then one's approaching illness and death will be accompanied by the virtue of wisdom. Yet, as the recent article in the New York Times (May 6, 2007), researchers in the field of psychology have yet to fully define "wisdom."
Gerhard von Rad, a biblical scholar, writing in Wisdom in Israel, states "No one would be able to live even for a single day without incurring appreciable harm if he could not be guided by wide practical experience. .... By and large man creates the experiences which expects and for which, on the basis of the idea which he has formed of the world, he is ready. Experience presupposes a prior knowledge of myself; indeed it can become experience only if I can fit it into the existing context of my understanding of myself and of the world. Thus it can even be that man misses possible experiences offered to him, that he lacks the capacity to register them, because he is incapable of fitting them into the limits of his understanding."
The New York Times article concludes that Wisdom remains elusive and thus may only be understood through a variety of concepts. Here is a summary of those characteristics that are found in the wise: The uncanny ability to remain calm in the midst of crises, ability to cope with adversity and regulate emotion; being content with one's own life; being humble; to examine an event from multiple perspectives; to step outside oneself and understand another point of view; having compassion toward others; ability to remain positive in the face of adversity; appreciating the fragility of life.
William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890) observes that "the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." Such maturity takes a lifetime, and needs to be practiced now. In the Hebrew Scriptures, wisdom, chochmah, is the interweaving of the heart and mind in judging, reflecting, and deciding.
I remember times when I visited with two widows in a nursing home in the early 1990s. They both faced the same physical infirmities: confined to a wheelchair, needing assistance with the smallest things, etc. When I would visit one of them she would spent her time complaining about her life and situation. I would try to make her feel better, but she continued to point to all that was gone in her life. When I visited the other widow, she was filled with joy and thanksgiving, she was grateful for the life she had lived, for her children and grandchildren who she was so proud of, and all her friends who were still living. I usually had very little to say, for in her I saw the light that shines in the midst of darkness. It is this widow who had practiced wisdom her whole life, and in her presence I became her disciple.
Gerhard von Rad, a biblical scholar, writing in Wisdom in Israel, states "No one would be able to live even for a single day without incurring appreciable harm if he could not be guided by wide practical experience. .... By and large man creates the experiences which expects and for which, on the basis of the idea which he has formed of the world, he is ready. Experience presupposes a prior knowledge of myself; indeed it can become experience only if I can fit it into the existing context of my understanding of myself and of the world. Thus it can even be that man misses possible experiences offered to him, that he lacks the capacity to register them, because he is incapable of fitting them into the limits of his understanding."
The New York Times article concludes that Wisdom remains elusive and thus may only be understood through a variety of concepts. Here is a summary of those characteristics that are found in the wise: The uncanny ability to remain calm in the midst of crises, ability to cope with adversity and regulate emotion; being content with one's own life; being humble; to examine an event from multiple perspectives; to step outside oneself and understand another point of view; having compassion toward others; ability to remain positive in the face of adversity; appreciating the fragility of life.
William James in The Principles of Psychology (1890) observes that "the art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook." Such maturity takes a lifetime, and needs to be practiced now. In the Hebrew Scriptures, wisdom, chochmah, is the interweaving of the heart and mind in judging, reflecting, and deciding.
I remember times when I visited with two widows in a nursing home in the early 1990s. They both faced the same physical infirmities: confined to a wheelchair, needing assistance with the smallest things, etc. When I would visit one of them she would spent her time complaining about her life and situation. I would try to make her feel better, but she continued to point to all that was gone in her life. When I visited the other widow, she was filled with joy and thanksgiving, she was grateful for the life she had lived, for her children and grandchildren who she was so proud of, and all her friends who were still living. I usually had very little to say, for in her I saw the light that shines in the midst of darkness. It is this widow who had practiced wisdom her whole life, and in her presence I became her disciple.
The Feast of Dame Julian of Norwich
Lord God, in your compassion you granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to see you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; throiugh Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Rule of Saint Benedict
Prologue
And so we are going to establish
a school for the service of the Lord.
In founding it we hope to introduce nothing harsh or burdensome.
But if a certain strictness results from the dictates of equity
for the amendment of vices or the preservation of charity,
do not be at once dismayed and fly from the way of salvation,
whose entrance cannot but be narrow (Matt. 7:14).
For as we advance in the religious life and in faith,
our hearts expand
and we run the way of God's commandments
with unspeakable sweetness of love (Ps. 118:32).
Thus, never departing from His school,
but persevering in the monastery according to His teaching
until death,
we may by patience share in the sufferings of Christ (1 Peter 4:13)
and deserve to have a share also in His kingdom.
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