The festival of solidarity with victims of history
The poor are the widest window to the Divine
The birth of Christ is the rebirth of hope for the poor. To celebrate Christmas is to celebrate the birth of the liberator and emancipator of the poor and marginalised.To celebrate the birth of the saviour of humankind is to give hope to a broken world.Therefore, solidarity with the poor and the oppressed is the central praxis par excellence of Christian discipleship.
What does this mean? We ought to live as He lived, we ought to love as He loved, we ought to forgive as He forgave, we ought to serve as He served, we ought to work, as He worked, we ought to walk as He walked, we ought to sacrifice ourselves as He sacrificed Himself and we ought to die as He died. In order to become faithful to His mission, we need to become poor as He was poor and live in solidarity with the daily struggles of the poor.
The perspective of the wretched of the earth, of the victims of human history is the perspective of eternity. That is, it is the divine perspective, divine vision, the divine view of reality. God sees, feels and intuits human suffering, misery and malady and takes their side, struggles on their behalf in order to liberate them, redeem them and emancipate them. Because of this divine stance, we need to appropriate the intelligence of the victims, the wisdom of the poorest of the poor and humbly learn from the Magisterium of the poor (Aloysius Pieris), of the oppressed, of the exploited and of the marginalized.
Theologically speaking, it is the most panoramic view, the broadest vision, the highest view point, the perspective of the Infinity (sub specie aeternitatis). This means to look at human condition from God’s eyes, from God’s senses and from God’s spectacles. The eyes of the poor are the eyes of God; the senses of the poor are the senses of God. The heartbeat of the poor is the heartbeat of God. The theological perspective on poverty and its root causes is the most comprehensive perspective, the all-embracing and over-arching perspective for the poor are a theological category. Every reality has a theological dimension. No issue is isolated. How everything hangs together is utterly crucial for any theological reflection. In order to grasp this truth, our theological horizons, parameters and boundaries must continually be widened and broadened. Our vocation is to become organic theologians.
In order to enter into the universe of the poor, the rich have to undergo radical conversion or root change. They have to change their lifestyles radically, reduce drastically their profligate spending habits and live in deep solidarity with the wretched of the earth. The mission with the poor begins with the correct vision. Without such a vision, there is no enduring mission. One has to grow, struggle and mature with this divine vision and mission. The poor are the widest window to the Divine. Whenever and wherever the poor are exiled or marginalized, God too goes into exile with them.
Conversion of the Christian is a daily and a painful struggle. It is ongoing, self-correcting and intellectually demanding and hence it can never slumber. It is a lifelong journey. The victims of history confront us with the humanity we have suppressed within ourselves (Brendan Lovett). I can continue to oppress somebody only if I have done some damage to my own humanity. Only an inhuman person, a sub human person can exploit, oppress, sexploit and marginalise another. Emotionally healthy people do not harm, destroy, oppress or exploit others. By neglecting poor people, we do an irreparable damage to our own selves. The oppressed are a bit more humane than the oppressors. As long as we do not take the humanity of other people seriously, we cannot truly remain human and compassionate. We become less than human and our collective humanity diminishes gradually. Exploitation is always self-destructive.
The birth and passion of Jesus is to be placed within the ongoing story of the passion of humankind, in solidarity with the suffering of all peoples of all times and all places. Christian spirituality is not a solely and singularity isolated phenomenon but a fruit of one’s passionate and compassionate involvement with the suffering masses.
Every time a person is hungry or thirsty, Christ too becomes hungry and thirsty. Every injustice perpetuated is also perpetuated against Christ. Every persecution of the innocent is also a persecution of Christ. Every displacement of the poor is also a displacement of Christ. When we suffer unjustly, Christ too suffers with us unjustly, heart-breakingly, heart-bleedingly and heartwrenchingly. Christ too is an internally displaced person (IDP) suffering with other IDPs in Sri Lanka. When we suffer, Christ also feels our pain. Nothing human is alien to Christ. No human experience is ungraspable to Him.
God moves amongst the meek of the earth. God takes such delight and deep pleasure in them. The only way to remain a genuine follower of Christ is to truly live, work with and care for the poorest of the poor. There is no any other way whatsoever for discipleship. Every slum is a manger where Christ is born every day. We must create a world which can shelter Christ.
Who defines development? Whose rationality, whose justification is it? Who really benefits from economic development? Is it the poor majority or the rich minority? Who pays the cost of development? Have we Christians also not supported this myth of economic progress? Have we also not strengthened the process of unrestrained capitalism? Have we also not benefitted from the process of economic globalization? There is an urgent need for thorough, radical and ongoing self-examination and soul-searching. Social analysis needs to be deepened by self-analysis and self-scrutiny must be corrected and purified by structural-analysis. They are the two sides of the same coin. What is most personal is most political and what is most political is most personal.
God reveals himself in and through the poor, the materially, financially and economically poor. The world will be judged, in the end, by the flight of the poor. (Matthew 25:31-46) Are we really fit for the fight on behalf of their flight? Can we sustain our spiritual energy for a long struggle? Christ repeatedly assures us that what is impossible with human beings is really possible with God. Then struggle we must for the greater glory of God which is human beings becoming exuberantly, jubilantly alive and anew. This Christmas, we must take the first step towards this task.