2/23/2010
I have been reading a totally fascinating book: Great Mystics &
Social Justice: Walking on the Two Feet of Love by Susan Rakoczy
(Paulist Press ISBN -978-0-8091-4307-8). I'm not quite at the half-
way mark. Today I just finished reading Martha and Mary: Sorting Out
the Dilemma. As you would expect interpretations of this story from
Luke come from men reflecting the androcentric bias of Christian
theology down the ages. A significant voice in feminist theology,
Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, interpreted the story from Luke using
her fourfold strategy: hermeneutics of suspicion, of remembrance, of
evaluation and proclamation, and of imagination, to reveal a clearly
different interpretation of this text than has been traditionally
presented.
In a post-resurrection context diakonia means not only as usually
interpreted "serving at table" but also service to the community,
including service of the word (Acts 6:5). It has already become a
technical term for ecclesial leadership in Luke's time. Luke has
Jesus chiding Martha for speaking up in church and praising Mary for
her silence, for the posture of a disciple who listens but does not
proclaim. Thus women are included in the circle of disciples but
their ministry is to be limited. Fiorenza's position is that Luke's
interest in the text is to downplay the leadership roles of women
(Martha as proclaiming the word at the eucharistic table-service in
the house-church) and to the use the authority of kyrios (risen Lord)
to silence Martha. Women should listen to the word. The
characterization of Mary as a listening disciple corresponds to the
narrative's interest in playing down the leadership role of women.
Luke, also the author of Acts, minimizes the role of women in the
early Christian community. Luke tells no stories about women
preachers, missionaries, prophets, and founders of house-churches.
The word of God is not immune from the conscious and unconscious use
by authors with an androcentric bias that is oppressive to women.
Fiorenza notes that ministry should not be regarded as service but as
an "equality from below," as a democratic practice of solidarity with
all those who struggle for survival, self-love, and justice." Women's
ministry has to be re-envisioned as a practice of solidarity and
justice since the category of service does not function as a
liberating concept in a patriarchal Church that does not promote a
discipleship of equals.
The Martha-Mary text is a good analogy of the struggles of the life
of discipleship in finding ways to unite prayer and active service. A
hierarchical approach that values one over the other is not useful
because both have intrinsic worth. What is needed is a "both/and"
dynamic of uniting prayer and action, of Mary and Martha becoming one
in the life of a person, of making a conscious effort to combine
intense prayer and living action for justice, peace and reconciliation.
Rakoczy ends this chapter with:
"What gives energy to the work of transforming the world, more
specifically, the place in which we each live the gospel? It is
living at the center of our being, who is God, as we act in the power
of the Spirit to do the works of God, which are justice, love,
compassion, and reconciliation."
Cecily
2/16/2010
The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits
to grow sharper. Eden Phillotts
January 12, 2010, Zilda Arns died in Haiti. I found out a month later
from an article in the Saskatchewan Prairie Messenger written by
Sister Louise Hinz who for many years now has been a missionary in
Maceio, Alagoas, Brazil, where Zilda Arns began Pastoral da Criança
(Pastoral Care for Children), 26 years ago. At the time of her death
in Port-au-Prince, the 75-year-old woman, who had recently handed
over to others her role as national coordinator of the organization
in Brazil, and travelled to 20 countries (including Angola, East
Timor, the Philippines, Mozambique, Paraguay, Columbia, Venezuela,
Bolivia)to spread the movement, had arrived in Haiti to train more
volunteers. Sister Louise wrote: "Shock, disbelief, sadness and a
sense of victory, mystery, gratitude: such were the sentiments of
those who worked with Doctor Zilda Arns, and the people in Brazil in
general, upon learning of her tragic death in Haiti.... 'Her mission
of love and commitment was completed,' was a phrase that was repeated
in various moments and forms in the days that followed.... She
proclaimed that it was not the quantity of money that would solve the
problem of poverty and immature mortality, but a network of
solidarity based on love. For her life and her labour were inspired
by the Gospel texts that they may have life and life in abundance,
and the multiplication of loaves."
"Among the poor states of the Northeast, Alagoas was the first to
implant the Pastoral for Children. From the beginning professionals
dismissed the possibility of volunteers who were not highly educated.
However, Zilda believed that simple women could assume this mission
with love and commitment. And she always treated them with dignity,
giving them personal love, courage and support.... The following is
taken from the final paragraph of the last lecture she gave in Haiti
before her death: 'Like the birds that look after their young, making
their nest in high trees and mountains far from their hunters, from
the threats and the dangers and closer to God, so we must care for
our children as sacred, promoting respect for their rights and
protecting them' .... 'She died in the cause she has always
believed,' said her brother Paulo Evaristo Arns, Cardinal Emeritus of
Sao Paulo." As well, at least 11 Brazilian members of the UN Peace
Corps died.
Pastoral Care for Children is based on community-oriented methodology
of multiplying knowledge and solidarity among poorer families. She
used to say that providing education to mothers, by means of
qualified community leaders, was the best way to fight easily
preventable diseases and to protect children from becoming criminals.
The Pastoral Care for Children provides assistance to over 1.9
million pregnant women and children under 6 years of age, and 1.4
million impoverished families in 4,063 municipalities in Brazil.
There are over 260,000 volunteer workers. The Pastoral for Children
was responsible for lowering infant mortality rate from 35% to w3% in
Brazil, according to UNICEF's records. I had the opportunity to visit
the Maceio program in 2006 and 2009.
She believed in women. When asked if she had to struggle through
barriers in the labor market because of her gender, she noted she
had, remarking that :"Perhaps men have some limitations to find the
capacity of women.
Her husband died in 1978, she lost her first child days after birth
and a daughter in a car accident in 2003. She leaves 4 children and
10 grandchildren. But as Sister Louise noted: "One sensed from the
number of leaders present (at the memorial) that the work of the
Pastoral for Children will continue to grow and bear fruit."
Cecily
2/9/2010
"Think of the earth as a mother. This is one earth. Don't be divided
by thinking of yourselves as belonging to different countries. We
belong to one earth. Proceed with this in mind. Look to the future
with a vision of good deeds for the whole world, not just one
country. Have great courage and patience - and be not afraid of
water, fire or great storms - face them bravely."
Haidakhan Babaji. The Teachings of Babaji.(1983-04-07)(P.54)
When I came to throw out the sport section of the newspaper this
morning (I get rid of the sport section at the same time as all the
advertising inserts), I noticed that the Saints won the Super Bowl
and I was glad because I knew it meant a lot to a wonderful person I
met last week. Donna Brazile was the keynote speaker at International
Week at the University of Alberta last week. Her topic was Civic
Engagement: Creating Lasting Change. I took a few notes:
Listening in on adult conversation, I got tired of waiting to grow
up, she said. She participated in her first election at the age of
nine when she worked to elect a City Council candidate who promised
to build a playground for her neighborhood: the candidate won, the
swingsets were installed, and a lifelong passion for political
progress was ignited.
Brazile had read the Edmonton paper Monday morning and noted the
story of a man who as a young man had moved to Alberta and didn't
like the town to which he'd come. But he had an "epiphany" moment and
decided to make it into his kind of town. He had a how-can-we-help
attitude. The "we" here is not a mistake because our freedom to
create is never an I alone project. We can stir things up together.
We start right where we live. The steps and rules: Get involved for
civic engagement; Begin from where you are; Don't wait - fierce
urgency of now; Think; Involve others; Be passionate; Don't give up;
Acquire leadership skills to motivate; Cultivate humility and pride;
Believe in something bigger;.
Opportunity knocks but once. Act now - quickly. Passion is catching,
something to keep your fires burning. The human spirit - where we
find God, hope - full of joy and love. The human spirit is a living
force. We need people who just love people. Voting for change is a
commitment to act for change.
Donna Brazile was at the Super Bowl yesterday. I'm glad the Saints won!
Cecily
2/2/2010
My inspiration for today's reflection came from today's newspape,
from the "Passages" page. One was Ester Chavez (1933 - 2010). The
article entitled "Activist drew attention to Juarez murders: Retired
accountant protested violence in Mexican city where hundreds of women
have been killed." The article first appeared in Daily Telegraph. I
am sure many of you heard of hundreds of women's bodies - kidnapped,
raped, tortured - that regularly appeared in the desert outskirts of
Juarez. In the early 1990s, Esther collected the newspaper stories
and decided the murders were a generalized consequence of the "narco-
traffic" on the frontier between Mexico and America, and more
specifically, of a renewed disdain for women in the country that gave
the world the word machismo. The women worked in the clothing
factories - sweatshops - and the men' were jealous that women were
earning a modest income, allowing them to upset the traditional
dependence on men. Twenty -our hour work schedules and the location
of the maquilas in the outskirts where women waited at the end of the
line for buses made them vulnerable. Police were also complicit in
the murders.
Esther, whose parents died when she was very young, leaving her and
her seven siblings orphans, managed to study accounting. She worked
for Kraft and eventually was transferred to Juarez. She retired in
1992, at about the same time as the first bodies were being
discovered in the desert around the city. Profoundly shocked by the
lack of police attention, she founded the March 8 Organization
(marking international women's day) to bring together campaigners
against the violence. In 1999, she opened Casa Amiga shelter and rape
crisis centre, which now helps thousands of women each year, free of
charge. The violence continued - more than 4,000 of the city's 1.5
million in the last two years - an average of more than seven a day.
Many of us heard of of the murders through international attention
and several films. In 2008, Esther received the National Human Rights
Award . Her last wish was the creation of a second Casa Amiga. Talk
about a retirement project!
The second was Abraham Stzkever (1913 - 2010) "Yiddish poet captured
pathos of war: Writer helped save precious books, artwork from Nazis"
a report by Joseph Berger New York Times News Service. You can read
the story. I just want to write two of his poems. In a 1942 poem
called My Mother, he wrote of a dead mother who tells her son:
If you remain
I will still be alive
as the pit of the plum
contains in itself the tree
the nest and the bird
and all else besides.
In 1942, he wrote A Wagon of Shoes, about a wagon clattering through
Vilna's (Lithuania) alleys filled with a heap of "throbbing shoes."
The poet asks"
Tell me the truth, oh, shoes,
Where disappeared the feet?
The feet of pumps so shoddy,
With buttondrops like dew -
Where is the little body?
Where is the woman, too?
All children's shoes - but where
Are all the children's feet?
Cecily
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