Spirit On The Margins

At our recent City House educational session,  Janice Andersen of the Basilica of St Mary’s was asked to tell not only her own story, but that of St Vincent de Paul’s.  Here is what she shared with us.

Born in 1580 in France, St Vincent de Paul yearned for an always-deepening relationship with Christ in his life. Drawn into the suffering and pain of the people, he lived with incredible optimism and joy – finding Christ and forgiveness in the faces of those he helped. 

Catholic Encyclopedia

There are four characteristics one can see in St Vincent  de Paul and his ministry. Lived out in humility and simplicity, we can seek to integrate these characteristics into our own life.

Unconditional acceptance, love and patience for himself and others: St Vincent de Paul faced his own shadows and faults, repented and found forgiveness. Letting go of his own need for perfection – admitting his shortcomings, and offering them to be use in service to the Lord – Vincent found freedom, acceptance, patience and love for himself and others.

Absolute balance between prayer and action: The more Vincent embraced the discipline of prayer – the greater his ability to act in love. Even as he embraced humility, Vincent had the audacity to act in bold ways to fulfill his mission of helping the needy and the suffering. Through prayer and meditation we receive what we need to be of service.Through action in relationship, we find God and are drawn back into prayer.

Attentiveness to the moment: Trust that God provides us what we need, and who we need, when we need it.  We must be attentive to who we are with  and what we are doing.  NOW is the moment we find the holy and sacred.  Vincent had a deep conviction that God is present in time, history, events and people. God is here!

God is in charge. As we put our trust in God’s goodness and mercy, we begin to surrender our need to control everything and everyone in our lives.  We develop patience and trust to let God be God, and to wait…

A quote from St Vincent de Paul:

“I should not judge poor peasants, men or women, by their exterior nor by their apparent mental capacities.  All the more is this so since very frequently they scarcely seem to have the appearance or intelligence of reasonable beings, so gross and offensive are they. But turn the medal, and you will see by the light of faith that the son of God, whose will it was to be poor, is represented by these people.”

One of my favorite Biblical stories is in the book of Samuel, chapter 16. It is when God tells Samuel the prophet that he is sending him to annoint a new king for Israel. Samuel is sent to look for this king among Jesse of Bethlehm’s sons, but he doesn’t know which one. 

So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” So Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen these.”

And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all the young men here?” Then he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.”

So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

Yet, one more story in which God chooses the little, the lost, and the least to bring about change in the world. Just as a small boy named David goes on to become a great king and leader for Israel, so God leads and reaches us through persons on the margins of our own society.

Hagar and Ishmael Banished by Abraham

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

“In the Biblical narrative in Genesis, Hagar was an Egyptian slave who belonged to Sarah, the wife of Abraham.  When Sarah was unable to provide Abraham with a child, she proposed that her husband beget a child with her slave…By the time Hagar was pregnant, Sarah regretted the arrangement and began to treat her quite harshly. In fact, at her insistence, Abraham sent Hagar and her son, Ishmael alone into the wilderness.”

Genesis Biblical story of Sarah and Hagar

“They wandered in the desert heat until their water supply was finished.  Then Hagar put the boy under a bush and wandered off alone, unable to bear the sight of her child’s death.” ‘Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.’

“Though Hagar is not the main protaganist in the story of Abraham and Sarah, she plays an important role in the characterization of God.  Though she is an outsider, a foreigner, a woman of no account, a discarded slave in the wilderness, it is yet she who “sees” God and names him in turn as the God who sees.”

All Saints – Robert Ellsberg

This last statement is so powerful and so true. I am regularly astonished at how often God communicates directly and most clearly to me from individuals who find themselves on the margins of society. It is their secret gift to us who find ourselves in the mainstream.

Site of Mahatma Gandhi

“Mohandas Gandhi was the hero of the Indian independence movement. Others had embraced nonviolence as a personal or religious code. But, it was Gandhi who demonstrated that the same spirit of nonviolence he embraced as a principle of life could be harnessed as a principle of political struggle.”

“He was a Hindu who politely rejected the dogmatic claims of Christianity while embracing the ethical claims of Christ. Indeed, if left with the Sermon on the Mount and his own interpretation of it, he said he would gladly call himself a Christian. Jesus, as Gandhi observed, called human beings not to a new religion but a new life.”

All Saints, by Robert Ellsberg

“I came definitely to the conclusion that, if I had to serve the people in whose midst my life was cast and of whose difficulties I was a witness from day to day, I must discard all wealth, all possession….”

“I cannot tell you with truth that, when this belief came to me, I discarded everything immediately. I must confess to you that progress at first was slow. And now, as I recall those days of struggle, I remember that it was also painful in the beginning. But, as days went by, I saw that I had to throw overboard many other things which I used to consider as mine, and a time came when it became a matter of positive joy to give up those things. And one after another, then, by almost geometric progression, the things slipped away from me.”

“And, as I am describing my experiences, I can say a great burden fell off my shoulders, and I felt that I could now walk with ease and do my work also in the service of my fellow-men with great comfort and still greater joy. The possession of anything then became a troublesome thing and a burden.”

Gandhi

Ultimately, Gandhi also became a source of inspiration to Martin Luther King. Jr. and his nonviolent civil rights movement.

On January 20, the church celebrates the life of Alessandro Valignano, a Jesuit Missionary (1539 – 1606). 

The spread of Christianity in the Americas accompanied a policy of colonial conquest. But, in Japan and China, the Jesuits insisted on a different approach. This involved distinguishing Christianity from any hint of colonial interest and even from European culture.  Instead the Jesuits sought as far as possible to root the gospel in the culture and mentality of their hosts.  Alessandro believed it was essential that the church assimilate itself to Japenese and Chinese culture.

This is exactly the approach we use at City House, only we go a step further. Not only do we meet persons on the margins where they are and not where we want them to be, we also let go of any agenda about religion.  We believe that God is already at work in each person we encounter. We just support people in deepening that awareness. They already have everything that they need.

But even back in the 1500s, Alessandro was living out the values of assimilation that we honor in our work.

Wikipedia Alessandro Valignano

This book is a great resource, filled with inspiring stories about the great saints, prophets, and witnesses of our times.  I highly recommend it.  Many of the stories are about great people that were in solidarity with the poor.

One such person is Mev Puelo. “She discovered a great talent for photography.  In trips to Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, and elsewhere in the Third World, her photographs documented the life, struggles, and humanity of the poor. Her aim was to revere the human spirit and bridge the distance between persons.”

“She had wanted to give the poor a face, a voice. She always wanted to be identified with them…She became the poor she loved. She died on January 12, 1996 at the age of 32.”

I was really struck by this quote from her: “Jesus didn’t die to save us from suffering – he died to teach us how to suffer.”

The Book of Mev, by Mark Chmiel