Well, here we go again,... back to Kenya, back to Nairobi, maybe Mombasa, back on the road to talk to men and women who are so desperately in need of hope....in need of a hug, hand-holding, a smile,.. you get the picture. And those are just the needs for human contact. Taking that out of the equation, what about the need for clean water, for food, for medicial care, for justice? Not that we can provide all of these aspects of daily living,.. but we can try. We can try, as best we can, to bring hope to hold someone's hand, to facilitate access to clean water, to food and all the rest. But in the end the challenges are enormous. But Jesus wanted us to start somewhere, with the hope that one candle lit would allow others to envision and light their candles,... as people see, not only what is, but what could be, that lives would be changed.
The young man with whom I'm traveling from the Philadelphia area, wants to experience the vision,.. but more than that, he wants to feel the vision. How can people in need be given the chance for life that most of us in the western world experience? What' s necessary for justice to be given to those who are left wanting by colonial systems, long gone, but present, still? This young man seems to want to find out if we can make a difference simply by going, simply by showing up, because in that, and in that alone, there is inspiration for others to do the same. Inspiration,... especially if you are a young man with the fortitude to travel 8,000 miles to ask "How can I help?", of those who are in desperate need. This young man is becoming a man of vision.
Nehemiah would have been proud. Nehemiah knew that Jerusalem had been destroyed, that there were challenges in the re-building of Israel's capitol. In the distress this caused him, he knew something must be done. In his distress, he envisioned a new Jerusalem. In his distress over the destruction of Jerusalem, his home region, Nehemiah knew he had to go to see how he could help,.. how he could allow his vision to become reality,.. in His home region. Nehemiah would have been proud of the young men and women who ask "How can I help?", and then actually show up. What an extraordinary thing.
But when people suffer, when they need the very basics,,, in Africa, in South America, in the Ukraine, in Haiti,...(isn't there need everywhere?)...shouldn't all of us ask "How can I help?". Isn't this planet our home region. When people suffer, when we travel 8,000 miles to show up, aren't we traveling around the corner in our own neighborhoods? When Nehemiah shows up, when others shows up, when you, or I just show up, the vision of how Jerusalem can be rebuilt inches just a little further toward reality.
So, we're leaving for Nairobi Kenya tomorrow. We're meeting four M.I.T. students, my colleagues Steve Praissman and Titus Kahiga, and staying at St. Mary's Guest House on the grounds of St. Mary's Missions Hospital. We're leaving with the hope,....the prayer,... that we'll come just a little closer to rebuilding this part of Jerusalem and inspiring others to come to the feast,.. to join the construction effort.
From time-to-time, we'll post some observations on this blog. I believe that as you read, as we explore, how we can help,.. that we're co-travelers. Thanks for being part of this journey.
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."
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