Recently I have found enjoyment and inspiration by listening to Pete Seeger´s songs of union and struggle, which suggest that solidarity and tenacity form the basis for hope of victory in our efforts for justice and peace.
For instance --
STEP BY STEP
sung by
Pete Seeger
Step by step, the longest march
Can be won, can be won.
Many stones can form an arch,
Singly none, singly none.
And by union what we will
Can be accomplished still.
Drops of water turn a mill,
Singly none, singly none.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Atheist Bus Campaign
The Atheist Bus Campaign
According to a Jan. 6, 2009 article by Sarah Lyall in The New York Times, “Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses,” the Atheist Bus Campaign has posted ads proclaiming: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
These atheists have every right to express their notion of “God” and their conclusions about how life would be after Her demise. I don’t feel compelled to defend every religious notion of God. In fact, I feel that many of these conceptions are dehumanizing and militate against the personal and political liberations which humanity needs. Very often, religion is indeed the opiate of the people, and for me it is an open question whether religion in world history is more often an obstacle to personal and structural transformation rather than a liberating force.
Some of my best friends and some of the most dedicated humanists and social-change agents are atheists or agnostics whose love of neighbor, practical service and political commitment put many Christians to shame. I consider them the holy atheists of Matthew 25 – those who fed Christ in the hungry and visited him in prison although they were not conscious of loving and serving him in their neighbor.
But the bus posters in Britain do not represent the position of these atheists. The ad seems to be based on the old image of God as the Great Disciplinarian who squelches the joy in human living, the Supreme Punisher who will make us suffer later for our pleasure now.
This is not the biblical God, the creator who saw “that all is good,” the God of Jesus who wanted his joy to be ours. The question is, “What is true joy and happiness?” Enjoy your life has an individualistic ring to it. If I “enjoy my life” at the expense of others, exploiting workers for my own accumulation of profit and possessions; if I “enjoy my life” by being sexually or ecologically irresponsible or by choosing to remain blissfully ignorant of the suffering around me or by profiting from investments in ethically questionable firms – then indeed the Christian God will challenge me, calling me to be true to my real self and responsible to my brothers and sisters and to Mother Earth, inviting me to live and work in compassion and solidarity with others rather than in the pursuit of my own selfish power and pleasure. Jesus claims that this is the Way to true fulfillment.
For the vast majority of humankind, banning the notion of God from their lives will not help them to “stop worrying” and “enjoy life.” They will continue to worry about the day’s food and water and medicine for themselves and their kids, or about the boss demanding that they work harder and longer, or about their man beating or leaving them. They cannot enjoy life under such circumstances.
For many of these victims of oppression, it is precisely God who gives them a sense of dignity and a drive for freedom, calling them to struggle against the pharaoh in their lives, strengthening them on the way, and nourishing their hope as they work with God in the creation of the Kingdom of Justice and Peace.
The bus ads would be of no consolation or liberation for them.
According to a Jan. 6, 2009 article by Sarah Lyall in The New York Times, “Atheists Send a Message, on 800 British Buses,” the Atheist Bus Campaign has posted ads proclaiming: “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.”
These atheists have every right to express their notion of “God” and their conclusions about how life would be after Her demise. I don’t feel compelled to defend every religious notion of God. In fact, I feel that many of these conceptions are dehumanizing and militate against the personal and political liberations which humanity needs. Very often, religion is indeed the opiate of the people, and for me it is an open question whether religion in world history is more often an obstacle to personal and structural transformation rather than a liberating force.
Some of my best friends and some of the most dedicated humanists and social-change agents are atheists or agnostics whose love of neighbor, practical service and political commitment put many Christians to shame. I consider them the holy atheists of Matthew 25 – those who fed Christ in the hungry and visited him in prison although they were not conscious of loving and serving him in their neighbor.
But the bus posters in Britain do not represent the position of these atheists. The ad seems to be based on the old image of God as the Great Disciplinarian who squelches the joy in human living, the Supreme Punisher who will make us suffer later for our pleasure now.
This is not the biblical God, the creator who saw “that all is good,” the God of Jesus who wanted his joy to be ours. The question is, “What is true joy and happiness?” Enjoy your life has an individualistic ring to it. If I “enjoy my life” at the expense of others, exploiting workers for my own accumulation of profit and possessions; if I “enjoy my life” by being sexually or ecologically irresponsible or by choosing to remain blissfully ignorant of the suffering around me or by profiting from investments in ethically questionable firms – then indeed the Christian God will challenge me, calling me to be true to my real self and responsible to my brothers and sisters and to Mother Earth, inviting me to live and work in compassion and solidarity with others rather than in the pursuit of my own selfish power and pleasure. Jesus claims that this is the Way to true fulfillment.
For the vast majority of humankind, banning the notion of God from their lives will not help them to “stop worrying” and “enjoy life.” They will continue to worry about the day’s food and water and medicine for themselves and their kids, or about the boss demanding that they work harder and longer, or about their man beating or leaving them. They cannot enjoy life under such circumstances.
For many of these victims of oppression, it is precisely God who gives them a sense of dignity and a drive for freedom, calling them to struggle against the pharaoh in their lives, strengthening them on the way, and nourishing their hope as they work with God in the creation of the Kingdom of Justice and Peace.
The bus ads would be of no consolation or liberation for them.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
A DAY IN MY LIFE
A DAY IN MY LIFE
by
Joe Mulligan, SJ
Certain days bring a combination of experiences which, seen together, illustrate various aspects of my life and work. Jan. 3 was one of those days.
1)
It began at 8 a.m. with a call from a member of one of the Christian Base Communities I accompany. Her severe stomach pains had continued for a week, ever since she had gone to the emergency room of a public hospital here in Managua in search of diagnosis and treatment.
At that time the doctors had left her on a stretcher unattended for over an hour. Upon arriving at the hospital, I asked the doctor whether he was going to talk with her. He gave me his immediate diagnosis – “she has hysteria, Padre” –and said he was going to send her home with a pain pill. When I asked whether he had examined her, he said “no” but then talked with her for about ten minutes, attached an I.V. which ran for 45 minutes, and discharged her with some prescriptions
When she called me on Jan. 3 she was experiencing more severe stomach pain. I suggested that she go to the emergency room of the military hospital and that I would arrive there to pay the $30. fee for an initial interview and examination. There the doctor began by introducing himself by name (a very good sign) and, accompanied by two assistants, interviewed her in depth and ordered blood tests and an ultrasound. When these did not reveal anything alarming or of an emergency nature, he told her to return on Monday morning to be seen by a specialist.
We were very grateful for the professional attention she had received. Of course, this was on a private-pay basis. Her experience a week earlier at the public hospital illustrated the inadequacy of the public health service, which the vast majority of Nicaraguans must rely on.
2)
After this event in my pastoral social ministry I had a very interesting meeting with my good friend, Rev. Phil Wheaton, followed by lunch with him, his wife Sue, and other friends. Here the talk was all about theology of liberation, the prophet’s calling to be faithful to her task of denouncing injustice and proclaiming the need and possibility of a new world (even when that prophetic word does not produce noticeable results), and the current political realities of Nicaragua and of the U.S.
This event was part of my ministry for social justice and human rights, which has always accompanied my pastoral and social work.
3)
In the same vein, I spent about an hour later that afternoon watching BBC and CNN news, discovering that the Israeli military forces had just invaded Gaza with tanks and thousands of soldiers. What should we do? What can we do here in Nicaragua to say “no” to this escalation of the aggression?
A demonstration was held on Jan. 7 in front of the U.S. embassy, which represents the country which is the leading source of support for Israeli policy. On Jan. 8 I visited local TV stations with my Power Point package and was interviewed on 3 channels.
4)
Around 3 p.m. I received a call from a blind person in Masaya whom I help through my Fund for the Disabled. Very distraught, she asked me to visit a 16-year-old girl who was in critical condition in the oncology ward of the women’s public hospital in Managua.
Several months ago Flor de Lis had had surgery involving the removal of two very large tumors. I did not ask her mother why the doctors had not removed these tumors before they had become so large and had metastasized. Perhaps her family had not taken her to the hospital early on, or perhaps her disease had been misdiagnosed.
The girl was the only patient in an 8-bed ward. A doctor told me she was in very critical condition. No nurse was in sight. Flor de Lis was conscious and able to speak a little, with difficulty. She was bleeding from the mouth and from other places.
With my hand on her forehead, we talked a bit, and she joined me and her mother in saying the Our Father. I said that Jesus is with her and always will be, and she indicated that she trusted in him and in his love.
After a half-hour I said that I had to leave for now but that we would pray for her in the next day’s (Sunday) Masses and that I would return to visit within 24 hours. She waved slightly as I left the ward.
Two hours later her mother called me to report that Flor de Lis was in a coma and that the doctor gave her very little time to live. The mother and aunt wanted to take the girl home, in a rural area about 40 miles away, to die. In addition to spiritual, emotional, and family reasons for this, there is also a practical consideration in these instances: it is simpler to get the patient out of the hospital and home while still alive rather than after death, when a coffin must be found and brought to the hospital morgue and then transported home.
I called one of the Jesuit Volunteers to request that we postpone a supper visit with her family who are in Nicaragua for a week.
Flor de Lis died about half-way home, lying on the floor of the parish panel truck I was driving, with her head cradled in her aunt’s lap. Her grandparents and the rest of the family were waiting for her; relatives removed her from the truck, placed her on a wooden table, and, as is the custom in preparing for the wake at home, tied her mouth shut with a towel. Very few families here use funeral homes because of the expense and because it is customary to have the wake at home. She was buried the next day.
Thus ended “a day in the life....”
by
Joe Mulligan, SJ
Certain days bring a combination of experiences which, seen together, illustrate various aspects of my life and work. Jan. 3 was one of those days.
1)
It began at 8 a.m. with a call from a member of one of the Christian Base Communities I accompany. Her severe stomach pains had continued for a week, ever since she had gone to the emergency room of a public hospital here in Managua in search of diagnosis and treatment.
At that time the doctors had left her on a stretcher unattended for over an hour. Upon arriving at the hospital, I asked the doctor whether he was going to talk with her. He gave me his immediate diagnosis – “she has hysteria, Padre” –and said he was going to send her home with a pain pill. When I asked whether he had examined her, he said “no” but then talked with her for about ten minutes, attached an I.V. which ran for 45 minutes, and discharged her with some prescriptions
When she called me on Jan. 3 she was experiencing more severe stomach pain. I suggested that she go to the emergency room of the military hospital and that I would arrive there to pay the $30. fee for an initial interview and examination. There the doctor began by introducing himself by name (a very good sign) and, accompanied by two assistants, interviewed her in depth and ordered blood tests and an ultrasound. When these did not reveal anything alarming or of an emergency nature, he told her to return on Monday morning to be seen by a specialist.
We were very grateful for the professional attention she had received. Of course, this was on a private-pay basis. Her experience a week earlier at the public hospital illustrated the inadequacy of the public health service, which the vast majority of Nicaraguans must rely on.
2)
After this event in my pastoral social ministry I had a very interesting meeting with my good friend, Rev. Phil Wheaton, followed by lunch with him, his wife Sue, and other friends. Here the talk was all about theology of liberation, the prophet’s calling to be faithful to her task of denouncing injustice and proclaiming the need and possibility of a new world (even when that prophetic word does not produce noticeable results), and the current political realities of Nicaragua and of the U.S.
This event was part of my ministry for social justice and human rights, which has always accompanied my pastoral and social work.
3)
In the same vein, I spent about an hour later that afternoon watching BBC and CNN news, discovering that the Israeli military forces had just invaded Gaza with tanks and thousands of soldiers. What should we do? What can we do here in Nicaragua to say “no” to this escalation of the aggression?
A demonstration was held on Jan. 7 in front of the U.S. embassy, which represents the country which is the leading source of support for Israeli policy. On Jan. 8 I visited local TV stations with my Power Point package and was interviewed on 3 channels.
4)
Around 3 p.m. I received a call from a blind person in Masaya whom I help through my Fund for the Disabled. Very distraught, she asked me to visit a 16-year-old girl who was in critical condition in the oncology ward of the women’s public hospital in Managua.
Several months ago Flor de Lis had had surgery involving the removal of two very large tumors. I did not ask her mother why the doctors had not removed these tumors before they had become so large and had metastasized. Perhaps her family had not taken her to the hospital early on, or perhaps her disease had been misdiagnosed.
The girl was the only patient in an 8-bed ward. A doctor told me she was in very critical condition. No nurse was in sight. Flor de Lis was conscious and able to speak a little, with difficulty. She was bleeding from the mouth and from other places.
With my hand on her forehead, we talked a bit, and she joined me and her mother in saying the Our Father. I said that Jesus is with her and always will be, and she indicated that she trusted in him and in his love.
After a half-hour I said that I had to leave for now but that we would pray for her in the next day’s (Sunday) Masses and that I would return to visit within 24 hours. She waved slightly as I left the ward.
Two hours later her mother called me to report that Flor de Lis was in a coma and that the doctor gave her very little time to live. The mother and aunt wanted to take the girl home, in a rural area about 40 miles away, to die. In addition to spiritual, emotional, and family reasons for this, there is also a practical consideration in these instances: it is simpler to get the patient out of the hospital and home while still alive rather than after death, when a coffin must be found and brought to the hospital morgue and then transported home.
I called one of the Jesuit Volunteers to request that we postpone a supper visit with her family who are in Nicaragua for a week.
Flor de Lis died about half-way home, lying on the floor of the parish panel truck I was driving, with her head cradled in her aunt’s lap. Her grandparents and the rest of the family were waiting for her; relatives removed her from the truck, placed her on a wooden table, and, as is the custom in preparing for the wake at home, tied her mouth shut with a towel. Very few families here use funeral homes because of the expense and because it is customary to have the wake at home. She was buried the next day.
Thus ended “a day in the life....”
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