2/22/11
Of its very nature this mission cannot be a temporary thing. It is a total commitment to the Gospel, and can be nothing less than a way of life. - Spirit and Lifestyle
Last weekend I had the privilege of meeting Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez of Honduras, the president of Caritas Internationalis, Lesley-Anne Knight, the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, and Michael Casey, Canada's representative for Caritas-Canada. The United States is one of the 165 member countries of Caritas. It is known as USA Catholic Relief. In 2010, Caritas responded to 14 major emergencies - the largest being Haiti. Here are the core values of Caritas:
Dignity: We see the poor as dignified human beings, not hopeless objects of pity, and we work with them to build a better future for themselves.
Justice: We believe you cannot make a gift of something a person should already have by right. We challenge economic, social, political and cultural structures opposed to a just society.
Solidarity: We work to enhance solidarity with the poor, seeing the world through their eyes, and recognizing the interdependence of humanity.
Stewardship: We believe the planet and all its resources are entrusted to humankind and seek to act in an environmentally responsible way as true stewards of creation.
This mission of its very nature cannot be a temporary thing. It is a total commitment to the Gospel, and can be nothing less than a way of life.
Cecily
2/15/2011
We believe that God calls all People to peace and unity through justice and a sharing of world resources and goods. We wish to challenge and dissolve the barriers that divide people and Church and nations. We stand for oneness in the body of Christ. We commit ourselves to the service of Our God to work among all people, seeking to break down all forms of injustice and oppression, and all inequalities of sex, status, color, creed or nationality. "And there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus." Gal 3:38
- Spirit and Lifestyle
This week, Fr. Shay Cullen, an Irish missionary who has been in the Philippines for decades wrote on Valentine Day. Here are excerpts:
These days, "love" is in the air. Valentines' Day is a big event and a commercial one but what does it mean? People seek affection and togetherness with others to be happy, secured and fulfilled. Nearly all humans desire and long for such a relationship but love is elusive and frequently misunderstood.
The monogamous relationship helped the children survive and the family unit to evolve. It gave protection, food and learning. When this bond is absent the parents easily separate and the offspring are at risk. That's why today the bond of married love must be more than a sexual relationship if it is to last and the children kept safe. It needs a spiritual dimension.
When hunting and gathering for survival gave away to a settled agricultural way of life, food was more secure and the village was born. Emotional bonding became an important element in non-aggression and peaceful survival. Being together as family was valued all the more and celebrated. These values, human feelings and emotions, inspired artistic people to express and celebrate them in even more beautiful art. Greek culture valued human relationships and celebrated the natural emotional attraction between individuals. They called it Eros - a happy attraction and emotional attachment between individuals. This is the love that is celebrated on Valentines Day.
They called love, Philo, and they loved wisdom (Sophia) and so we got Philosophy. They taught us to understand the different kinds of love and to nurture and celebrate them. For the Greeks and CS Lewis, (the author of The Four Loves), Eros is different from sexuality. Eros only seeks emotional bonding but it can lead to, or be part of friendship. The philosopher Plato expounded on this and gave us Platonic love.
As Lewis says, if sexuality is added to friendship and Eros as an outward expression of inner feeling (called Venus by Lewis), then it is a very different relationship. Married love is the best and most beautiful expression of this. It has a spiritual dimension that can last a life time.
The Greeks had high regard for friendship; it is a strong bonding between individuals or a small group that arises from the need of individuals to work together for a common goal that could not be achieved alone. Eros, affection or emotional attraction, can also be present strengthening the bond of friendship. Friendship is based on spiritual values; mutual and equal return of trust, equality, honesty, openness, shared values, loyalty, faithfulness and even enduring death for the other. It is a spiritual love between individuals. "No greater love can anyone have than to lay down his life for a friend", said Jesus of Nazareth.
This can grow to yet another higher form of love - Agape. It is part of friendship but goes beyond it. It is unconditional, self-sacrificing love of others asking nothing in return. The love is expressed in compassion, concern and a desire to end suffering, help needy people and bring about justice and happiness in the world. The Gospel story of the good Samaritan is one example and the self-sacrificing acts of redemptive love of the individual dying for the many so they will be saved from evil is another. Jesus of Nazareth gave us the example. That is God's love made present in Him.
Welcome to Vic Doucette and many thanks and tons of good wishes to Julia. We'll miss you and pray for you as you follow your new mission.
2/8/2011
The spirit and calling of the VMM missionary is, first and foremost, one of love and service in and to the world. As lay people we give a special witness to the reality that all the People of God are called to involvement in Christ's mission. All who hear God's Word are called to respond. Bishops, builders and nurses alike must work together, equally, towards the coming of the Realm of God. Mission is given to us all.
- Spirit and Lifestyle
International Week at the University of Alberta was entitled World on the Move: Unpacking Migration. One of the sessions I attended was
entitled: Extinction of Indigenous Peoples in Colombia. In 1988 when the Nukak Maku were "discovered" in the jungle they were called the last nomadic indigenous group. A photographer filmed the men hunting.
I found it extremely moving to see the men find monkeys 40 metres up in the dense jungle and using an extra long blow gun with poison dart bring down a monkey. The five men could bring back 15 animals in a day - guinea pigs now disappeared and boars also provided meat - to feed a group of 15 persons for 5 days. In this first encounter, the photographers did not visit a camp so as not to disturb the families.
Twenty years later, the Nukak Maku wear clothes. They can no longer feed themselves because much of the jungle has been slashed to grow cocaine or to plant palm trees to produce biofuel. Immense areas are fenced and they can no longer reach the jungle in a day. They number only 400 now. The children are pot-bellied.
All indigenous peoples in Colombia are at risk of disappearing.” Of the 102 indigenous peoples who live in Colombia, 32 have a population of less than 500 people, the majority concentrated in the regions of Amazonía and Orinoquía. Of these 32 peoples, 18 have a population of less than 200 people, and 10 are composed of less than 100 individuals. This demographic vulnerability, when added to other complex processes such as the internal armed conflict, poverty, discrimination and institutional abandonment, places them at serious risk of physical and cultural extinction. Hunter gatherers, they never had private property but now overnight armed men take the young to fight, narcotraffickers plant marijuana or coca and enlist the natives to plant, harvest and process. Agent orange, the same defoliant used in Vietnam, is sprayed from the air, sterilizing the soil, rendering the people sick and subject to congenital deformities such as harelips. As in many other Latin American countries, some have relocated to shanty towns and eke a living from garbage dumps.
The 70-page report on Columbian Indigenous peoples is found on the site of the Rights and Democracy Network http://dd-rd.net/en/ Below is the introduction:
“When an indigenous people disappears, a whole world is extinguished forever, along with its culture, spirituality, language, ancestral knowledge and traditional practices which contribute to sustainable and equitable development, and to the adequate management of the environment.” The survival of indigenous peoples with dignity is in all of our hands. Let’s React Now!!
BROTHERS AND SISTERS FROM THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD
Attention all the nations of the world
Hear this frequency from your indigenous brother,
I hear my exhausted voice in the desert, I think tiredly about the passing of my life.
My gaze agonises at the passing of a funeral march that never ends, It hurts me so to think of the absence of joy.
Stunned, I look through the mirror of life My face is older now A desperate cry accompanies my heart.
I pass the hours remembering the footprints Of the pathway that I have walked, Today I weep for my commercialised present.
Every moment I hear
Death threats against the earth
Meditating, I look out across the morning, I speak of my unfathomable pain.
And I yearn to meet with my ancestors soon; Although the colour of my skin is the same As the earth and my eyes watch the beauty Of the purple yellow sun, my breath My sweet verse has been left behind.
I have lived without love,
I have walked without the sun in my eyes and I have travelled through darkest night.
Yet always I keep with me inside the breath of life That helps me to flower again.
And I call upon hope to guide my steps
Towards the liberation of my dignity.
HIGINIO OBISPO GONZALEZ
Eperara Siapidaara People
2/1/2011
We are, therefore, sharers of the Good News through witness and service. It is only through the way we live, love and serve that we can truly witness to the Christ who served, and invited us to do likewise. Only in following His way faithfully dare we claim the name Christian. "If I, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet. I have given you an example so that you may copy what I have done to you." (Jn 13:14-15)
- Spirit and Lifestyle
Doing what is suggested in the above passage from Spirit and Lifestyle and from John's Gospel is difficult today - both in North America and in the Global South. It no longer fits into what is understood as the mandate of government. It's no longer fiscally responsible. There are subsidies for banks, corporations, the oil and gas industry, war, monuments, roads, but little for our poor, children, women, homeless, jobless, sick, elderly; for education, healthcare, immigrants. Foreign aid supports multinationals and our own corporate interests. The GDP is the measure of the health of our nations but in reality it has little to do with the needs of the poorest members of our communities.
In Alberta, last week, our premier suddenly announced he will be stepping down in June after the end of the session which begins shortly. It is a puzzling move. We expected him to run in the next elections and to win. The session begins with the budget and Premier Stelmach announced several weeks ago it would not be possible to present a balanced budget because the only way to balance the budget would be to cut social programs: education, healthcare, housing, poverty reduction and he wasn't willing to do this. It seems that his conservative caucus felt a deficit budget was unacceptable and the premier, rather than risking the breakup of the party two years before the elections, decided to step down to allow a leadership race.
I have over the last five years been very disappointed, time and time again, over his decisions favouring industry, especially oil and gas, and decisions that were wrong for the environment, for agriculture, workers and sustainable development. I had hoped that Stelmach, from a poor Ukrainian farming family, would do better. Decisions on health care, Oilsands development, education, etc, all went against the environment and the poor. It seemed that only industry had the ear of the government. Many of us - I would say most of us - were very concerned and frustrated. It's also frustrating that elections will once again result in a Conservative majority. After spending a lot of time thinking about this, I realized Stelmach had no other option in the last five years than to act the way he did. He was forced to. The one time he put his foot down and made a decision that would support us, he found out he couldn't do this. Governments have to follow the mantras: small government, low taxes, listening to lobbyists, etc.
Today I watched the gala performance of the Canadian Skating Championships. Patrick Chan, the gold medal winner of the men's competition, gave a spectacular performance last week. Today was the time to have fun with his amusing performance with the reggae song "Don't worry; Be happy!" That's good advice. Let take things in our own hands. Let's live, love, serve. Let's care for others. Let's give our second coat and not buy a new one. Let's give the money we have left over at the end of the month. We can truly witness to the Christ who served and invited us to do likewise.
Below the source of two memorials to bishop Samuel Ruiz, a true witness to the Christ who served, and invited him to do likewise. Cecily
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