Three young men, one physician and one pharmacist are gathered in an office in the physician's home in Nairobi, Kenya one afternnon in April. The three young men were looking for news, mostly good news, that their father, in the late stages of liver cancer could be offered some hope for a longer life. The 60 year old carpenter has become excessively weak in the past several days. The three young men are just the oldest of this man's progeny, and seemly, the spokesmen for the family. Alarmed at the deteriorating condition of the father, they come to the physician's house with a plea that something can be done to sustain the father's life.
There is hope in their eyes although a despair in their body language. Seated on benches and chairs in the office, they are bent with hands cupping faces, weighted by the burden of uncertainty, wondering what words of assurance will be provided. The physician has seen the father's X-rays and shows signs of internal struggle as he looks for words to express his truth. That the father will die from this cancer is certain... when?.. is less clear. How to tell these devoted sons is difficult and unclear. The words come slowly and with compassion, but they come. "The best course for your father at this point is hospice care. " Your father can be made comfortable in his final days. "This is time for refelction and reconcilliation with family members", says the physician. "There are no effective treatments".
When we hear those words, where do we turn? When you are told that your 60 year old father will not live much longer, how do you fit those words into your life. The sadness of Kenya is that 60 years old is beyond the average life expectancy by several years, and so, this father was living in excess of his allotted time. But isn't that still 18 years too short? Isn't that 10 years below our conception of a "normal" lifespan? I have no answers, only questions.
These young men, Daniel, Simon and Peter, will soon loose their father at the age of 60 years old. The physician and pharmacist, good friends and co-workers in missions, deliver the bad news with compassion and sympathy, tempered with an attempt at hope that at least the father's pain can be relieved. Through consultation with each other, the pharmacist and physician offer morphine as a way of mitigating the father's pain, ..but who will mitigate the pain of these sons? Who will offer relieve for the Mother who will soon loose her mate, or the twin sisters and youngest brother, who at 22, will be fatherless? It seems shallow at times to say that God relieves our suffering, although he does. It can sound insincere and empty to suggest that God lifts our fears of the unknown, although he has promised to do that. The morphine the pharmacist recommends will be unable to sooth the emptyness and the soon to appear void of the father's loss... What can we offer them, other than prayer,.. which we offer? I have no answers,....only questions.
Welcome
Welcome to All. This blog is a discussion site, looking at our lives through our experiences, our spiritual, and, not so spiritual lens, ....what our lives look like at The Front. We are and some would argue, always have been, in interesting times. Servants, past and present have been at constant struggle with whatever the issues of the day have been. Where do we even begin to name them: poverty, hunger, education, shelter, .... and did I mention poverty? Fifty-one years ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared war on poverty, a war by the way, we're still fighting. Then again, we've always been at war with poverty, and yet poverty has remained steadfast. Jesus apparently got it right: "The poor will always be with you." But Jesus was a smart man. Did he mean what we think? Does poverty always have to be with us. Let's talk about this, and whatever else, in real and truthful ways. Let's view our lives from The Front.
If you have come to help me, then you are wasting your time. If you have come because your liberation is linked to mine, then we will work together.
----(Anonymous) Australian Aborigine Activist
--mailto:--neilpitts@aol.com
----(Anonymous) Australian Aborigine Activist
--mailto:--neilpitts@aol.com
Contemplative Action
The Rite of Initiation: You are going to die
A shocking statement. Perhaps. But the Franciscan Priest, Richard Rohr,,who has studied the Rite of Initiation has said the following::
"Every initiation rite I've studied had some ritual, dramatic, or theatrical way to experience crossing the threshold from life to death in symbolic form. Some ritual of death and resurrection was the centerpiece of all male initiation. It is probably why Jesus sought out and submitted to John the Baptist's offbeat death and rebirth ritual down by the riverside, when his own temple had become more concerned with purity codes than with transformation. It is probably why Jesus kept talking to his disciples, three times in Mark's Gospel, about the necessity of this death journey, and why three times they changed the subject (8:31-10:45). It is undoubtedly why Jesus finally stopped talking about it, and just did it, not ritually but actually. Death and resurrection, the paschal mystery, is the theme of every single Eucharist no matter what the feast or season. It takes us many seasons and even years to overcome our resistance to death.
"The transformational journey of death and resurrection is the only real message. It makes you indestructible. The real life, God's life, is running through you and in you already. But allowing it to flow freely doesn't come easily. When you do, the spiritual journey really begins. Up to that moment it is just religion. Everything up to then is creating the container, but you have not yet found the contents; you are creating the wineskins, as Jesus says, but you are not yet drinking the intoxicating wine."
No comments:
Post a Comment