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December 4: Feast Day of John of Damascus
When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.—Matthew 9: 36Compassion is one of the charismas of a life dedicated to God. For Buddhists compassion is the primary expression of enlightenment. A bodhisattva is a person who has reached enlightenment or oneness with God but chooses to remain a servant of the poor, living in the world, engaged in the suffering of this life.
Compassion is also a central component for nonviolence. The only truly nonviolent action is one rooted in compassion or love for the enemy. It takes daily practice to learn to choose compassion over revenge or over apathy.
Compassion, in the biblical sense, is situated in the bowels and intestines because this area of the body was regarded as the seat of passion, such as anger and love. For the Hebrews, however, the bowels were also the location of tender mercies and affection.
Today is the feast day of John of Damascus, one of the 3rd century hermit-reformers knows as the Desert Fathers. He wrote: “But, if you are curious about God, first tell me of yourself and the things that pertain to you. How does your soul have existence? How is your mind set in motion? … Think of God as a spring of life begetting the Messiah like a river and the Holy Ghost like a sea, for the spring and the river and sea are all one nature. Think of the God as a root, and of the Messiah as a branch, and the Spirit as a fruit, for the substance in these three is one. God is a sun with the Messiah as rays and the Holy Ghost as heat.”
Place a flowering branch in water and watch the prayers blossom along it.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Ad…..vent.
With gratitude to Pax Christi USA where some of these reflections first appeared in print.
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A Prayer for World Climate Change Meetings
The Climate Caretakers PrayerCreator God,
We thank you for an opportunity to come together as a global community to address such an important issue that is affecting so many people worldwide.
Please be with our leaders from around the globe. Give them wisdom as they seek a universal agreement on climate change. Give them minds and hearts that are open to the cries of those suffering the most from our harmful actions. Guide them to listen to the voices of all and come to a consensus on how to move forward in a manner that will benefit not the most powerful among us, but the most vulnerable.
Please grant us wisdom, as well, as we seek to be lights in our home communities. Keep us from fruitless arguments, and provide us with words of encouragement and edification as we seek to engage positively with those around us on the issue of climate change. Let our words and actions become one, stemming from our love for your creation and your people. Make us instruments for your peace.
Amen.
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#StayWoke White Folk
Anne Braden and Rosa Parks, 1950s Our friends over at #StayWokeAdvent are providing explosive Christian analysis on the Black Lives Matter uprisings in the context of Advent.
In that spirit, I invite you–especially if you are a “white” American Christian–to commit to two study sessions this Advent.
1. Read the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55), then watch this video of a woman in Indianapolis (5 minutes) addressing a community panel in October 2014. Read the Magnificat again. Compare and contrast the two addresses. What story would you tell if you were in her place?
2. Listen to Lauryn Hill’s “Black Rage” and read “Most White People in America Are Completely Oblivious,” by Tim Wise (published November 25, 2014 on Alternet). This is a long article and parts of it are hard to read and will likely make you very uncomfortable. That’s okay. Just sit with it. Then read Malachi 3 in The Message version. When did you first realize you were white?
Remember, “whiteness” is a social construct resulting from the Fall. It’s part of what John Kinney refers to as “snakeology” –lies our culture tells us. Each one of you, however, is God’s beloved. Nothing takes that away. You are strong enough and courageous enough to look at hard truths. You are not “white.” You are Christian. Shedding our “whiteness” means looking at hard truths of unconscious bias and unearned privilege. That’s okay. That’s what we are here on earth for — to look at hard things in ourselves and allow God to make them new in us. Jesus is always with us, always making all things new. God is with us in this. Emanuel. God has our backs. Be not afraid.–Rose Marie Berger
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First Tuesday in Advent – El Salvador
“Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of Abba in heaven.”—Matthew 7:21On December 2, 1980, Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, and Jean Donovan—Catholic missionaries from the United States—were murdered by National Guardsmen in El Salvador. Dorothy and Jean were driving to the airport outside San Salvador to pick up Maura and Ita.
On the way back from the airport, they were pulled over at a roadblock by National Guardsmen. The four women were taken to an isolated location, raped, tortured, and shot. Then they were buried in a shallow grave beside the road. The National Guardsmen were also “good Catholics.”
These four women died in the same manner as many of the poor Salvadoran people they served. They are martyrs because they laid down their lives in love for the poor—just as Jesus calls all Christians to be prepared to do. The witness of these four women teaches us about listening to the call of Christ, taking up the cross and following Jesus, and being born again.
A stone cross and small plaque mark the country road where the four women were buried. It reads: “Receive them Lord into your Kingdom.”
Breathe in. Breathe out. Ad … vent.
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Shoes of the Fisherman: Pope Francis Sends Shoes to Climate Talks
“Two black shoes belonging to Pope Francis have joined thousands of other pairs at an installation in Paris on Sunday, as part of a global campaign ahead of the UN climate summit in the French capital next week.The installation is one of more than 2,300 events taking place in countries around the world as part of the Global Climate March, on the eve of the Paris summit. It was arranged by the worldwide citizen’s network Avaaz, after police cancelled a planned demonstration citing security concerns.
In cities across the globe hundreds of thousands of people have already taken to the streets to urge their leaders to commit to 100% clean energy sources by the year 2050.” From Vatican Radio (29 Nov 2015)
Read more here.
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Dorothy Day: It’s the Saints That Keep Things Going
Dorothy Day (Photo by Vivian Cherry) This week (November 29) marked the 35th anniversary of Dorothy Day’s death. My life continues to be shaped by the path she forged with her life and that of the Catholic Worker movement. I’m sure she was shocked when Pope Francis spoke her name on the floor of the U.S. Congress during his visit!
I’m grateful to Robert Ellsberg for his release of Day’s selected letters. Below is an excerpt from a letter she wrote to WWII conscientious objector and sociologist Gordon Zahn. It seems as fresh today as when she wrote it in the autumn of 1968.
“As a convert, I never expected much from the bishops. In all history popes and bishops and father abbots seem to have been blind and power loving and greedy. I never expected leadership from them. It is the saints that keep appearing all through history who keep things going. What I do expect is the bread of life and down thru the ages there is that continuity. Living where we do there certainly is no intellectual acceptance of the Church, only blind faith. I mean among the poor.
The gospel is hard. Loving your enemies, and the worst are of our own household, is hard.”–Dorothy Day in letter to Gordon Zahn
All the Way to Heaven: The Selected Letters of Dorothy Day, edited by Robert Ellsberg
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Herring: How Should Christians Respond To The Syrian Refugee Crisis?
Ryan Herring over at The Ghetto Monk has a great post on responding to the refugee crisis in Europe. (See graphic above for our own Thanksgiving story of refugees arriving on these shores fleeing violent persecution.)In this highly charged atmosphere of desperate refugees, mass murder in Paris, and demagoguery in the U.S. political discourse, it is even more important for people of peace and people of faith and people of hope to stay the course. Here’s an excerpt from Ryan’s piece:
Just days after a series of terrorist attacks in Paris, France left 129 people dead and over 350 others injured, Syrian refugees have once again become a topic for debate. It is believed that some of the terrorists gained access to Europe by using refugee status after a Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the suicide bombers from the attacks. However, Serbian police recently arrested a man carrying a Syrian passport with the exact same details as the documents found on the bomber in Paris and officials are almost certain now that both were forged in Turkey.
While the media both here and abroad have used this information to stoke the flames of Islamophobia, the president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has urged political leaders to continue to take in those fleeing from conflict. At the G20 summit in Turkey Juncker said, “Those who organized these attacks and those that perpetrated them are exactly those that the refugees are fleeing and not the opposite.”–Ryan Herring
Read Ryan’s whole post here.
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Last Night’s Anti-Keystone XL Rally at White House
As we celebrate the final defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline, I’ll repost some of the spiritual power that led to this day.
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[Originally published Feb. 4, 2014]
Rose speaking with media at anti-Keystone XL rally in front of White House on February 3, 2014. (Linda Swanson) “As Christians we are required to place the poor at the center of our social and political life. The awful reality we face is that climate change kills and displaces poor Americans and the poor around the world FIRST.
What the recent State Department report has made more clear is that tar sands oil to be carried in the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada is a huge carbon polluter. The State Department did better incorporate climate impacts into this version, but they don’t acknowledge that the amount is significant, or that it takes our country down the wrong energy path.
Sojourners particularly works with evangelical Christians, who know that, as Psalm 24 says, The earth is the Lord’s, and we are to be careful stewards of God’s earth and the ‘least of these’ who would be harmed by this pipeline’s pollution.”–Rose Marie Berger
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Berger Says, ‘Woe to TransCanada’s CEO Russ Stirling’
As we celebrate the final defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline, I’ll repost some of the spiritual power that led to this day.
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[Originally published on June 20, 2013]
I shared the stage today with religious leaders, environmental leaders, and financier Tom Steyer at the “Stop Keystone” press conference to kickoff a social-media campaign aimed at President Obama to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
At the end Ron Stief actually poured out tarsands sludge collected in Mayflower, Ark. It stinks and it sticks!
Above, left to right, Andrew Nazdin (former Obama staffer), Judy Alba (National Nurses Union), myself at the podium, Tom Steyer (NextGeneration), and Van Jones (Rebuild the Dream and Green For All).
In the line up of speakers I was asked to follow Rev. Lennox Yearwood (HipHop Caucus), the hip hop high priest of Jesus and justice. Yikes. But I just said that his preaching had done a fine job of converting the stand from a podium to a pulpit. (smile). Below are my remarks:
My name is Rose Marie Berger. I’ve spent more than 25 years with Sojourners here in Washington, D.C., a Christian organization whose mission is to proclaim the biblical call to social justice. I stand here today as a Catholic who works primarily with evangelicals. I stand here today as a woman of faith who believes in the wonder-working power of God.
Little did I know that the summers I spent traveling between Magnolia, Ark, and Denison, Texas, along Highway 82 would become a flashpoint in my adult life for fighting tar sands extraction and its distribution through the Keystone XL pipeline.
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Sojourners’ Statement On Climate Victory (and Keystone XL Pipeline Defeat)
Rev. Mari Castallanos protesting Keystone XL pipeline. As we celebrate the final defeat of the Keystone XL pipeline, I’ll repost some of the spiritual power that led to this day.
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[Originally published on Jan. 18, 2012]
Press statement from Sojourners on Obama Administration Rejection of Keystone XL Pipeline
Christian and Other Faith Leaders Praise Administration’s Decision to Put Creation over Narrow Corporate Interests
Washington DC, January 18 – Christian and other faith leaders today welcomed the news that the Obama administration has rejected the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. The controversial project, which would have run for 1,700 miles from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico, would have been a backward step in the administration’s professed commitment to investing in clean and renewable energy sources.
During August 2011, over 1,200 peaceful protestors were arrested as part of a sustained campaign to demonstrate against the pipeline project. In November 2011, Sojourners CEO Jim Wallis, along with other Sojourners staff members and 15,000 members of the public, encircled the White House to urge President Obama to stop the project.
Sojourners welcomed the president’s decision in November to postpone the permitting of the pipeline until an environmental impact report was completed. While this new decision is a clear step forward, TransCanada has the opportunity to reapply for the permit along a different route and leaders have pledged to remain vigilant and watch the issue closely.
Rose Marie Berger, a Sojourners associate editor and organizer for the Tar Sands religious witness, said:
“President Obama campaigned as a man who understood the crisis of global warming. He told us that he understood that climate change kills the poor first, as we’ve seen recently with the typhoon in the Philippines. Today he’s demonstrated that he can actually take substantive steps in leading America to meet that challenge. He pushed back on “too big to fail” oil and energy companies. He pushed back on foolish partisan bullying. He stood up as the leader that many elected him to be.
“The fight doesn’t end here – because abusive corporations don’t stop just because their permit was denied—but today we know that our president can also be our leader. We look forward to a future of job production that any American will be proud to be involved in—jobs in an industry that is producing clean energy and protects rather than poisons God’s good earth.”
Dr. James E. Hansen, Head of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City and Adjunct Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, said:
“A slowdown in exploitation of the tar sands would be welcome news, but we have not yet made governments understand and communicate to the public that we cannot burn the unconventional fossil fuels, such as tar sands and tar shale, without destroying the future well-being of young people and other species on the planet.
The climate science is crystal clear. Yet governments continue to resist the implications. We must collect a gradually rising fee on carbon emissions from fossil fuel companies and distribute the money, 100 percent, to the public. That will stimulate the economy, innovation, energy efficiency, and clean energies, creating far more jobs than the meager number associated with pipelines and coal mines, while moving us to a clean energy future.”
Fr. Jacek Orzechowski, OFM, speaking on behalf of the Franciscan Action Network, said:
“We applaud the administration for standing up to the narrow corporate big oil interests and doing the right thing for America. This is a moral victory that advances the cause of justice, respect for life, and the common good of God’s creation. As followers of St. Francis of Assisi, we call on all people of good will to work even harder in advocating for government policies that would protect our environment, the poor and the future generations and, at the same time, invest in creating hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs.”
Kathy McNeely, Interim Director, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, said:
“It’s a moral outage that the XL Pipeline decision – so important to the U.S.’s heartland as we know it — is caught up in a political battle. We will continue to work with other faith based groups and redouble our efforts to protect God’s creation from the threat of unsustainable resource extraction and pipeline spills.”
Joanna Hanes-Lahr, Activist and Grandmother, said:
“On behalf of my 7 1/2 grandchildren, I salute our President for his understanding of what is at stake in developing tar sands: unleashing unpredictable climate change/ game over. We who got arrested to call attention to the risk did understand but felt the power of the oil industry and just could not let this go unchallenged.”
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Sojourners’ mission is to articulate the biblical call to social justice, inspiring hope and building a movement to transform individuals, communities, the church, and the world. Visit http://www.sojo.netand http://www.GodsPolitics.com.
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Rose Marie Berger 