The practice of love

This morning I feel convicted and humbled. This morning I realize, as I have so many times and in so many ways before, but today in some way that is new, that in order to call myself a peacemaker, or even a “emerging student of peacemaking,” as I wrote in a recent article, I need to learn love better. This morning I’ve been privileged to read some reflections by a peacemaker working in Afghanistan, who is preparing to launch an international campaign called “Love is how we ask for peace.” The concept seems beautiful and simple, but I find that in reality, the practice is so very difficult.

In my own personal life, I find it easy to love those who are likeable - those who are interesting, engaging, share similar passions, who will lead me into meaningful conversation. I’m even good at loving a handful of people I find it hard to love, a few who complain, whom I find annoying, or have nothing I can visibly see to ‘give’ me, as long as they don’t ‘ask’ too much of me. But still, on a daily and sometimes hourly basis, I struggle to love well. I cling tightly to the things that I call my own (security, free time) but in reality are all illusions, instead of offering to others a fountain of life and love (I understand, though, that this cannot be done on my own. If I’m not open to receiving life and love from the Source, my sharing of ‘self’ will dry up quickly). I lack a basic ability of solidarity to understand why certain people behave as they do, or even if understanding is impossible, to love them anyways.

A few months ago I attended a training on nonviolent communication. I don’t want to oversimplify, but the basics that I took from it were that all people behave in a way to meet their human needs. If their needs aren’t met, they will often act destructively. Nonviolent communication provides a method for someone to express their feelings and needs in an honest way that will inspire the person who is acting out to also become honest and more compassionate. It is a tool to provide mutual understanding.

Perhaps I should have written “practice nonviolent communication daily” into my 2010 resolutions in order to help me better love those in my life that challenge me. Because until I can love well those people in my life, how will I ever begin to love my “enemies”? How will I find the courage to “get in the way” (as the Christian Peacemaker Teams say), in the streets of Columbia Heights or the streets of Palestine, if I do not know the practice of love and asking for peace?

“Our discontent has reached a critical breaking point,” the reflection offers… how will we use this crucial moment to build a better world, loving one person at a time?

some resolutions for 2010

• read scripture daily / go to mass often
  
  
• complete a triathlon, bike race, or 1/2 marathon
  
  
• write regularly & think intentionally about where i can use writing as an outlet
  
  
• go to the middle east
  
  
• find an outlet to explore growing interest in interfaith dialogue / work
  
  
• start a conversation each day with someone i might not be inclined to
  
  
• blog more? probably not. :)
  

campaign to shut down guantanamo

last night, i attended the monthly clarification of thought event at the nearby dorothy day catholic worker house. this month, members of the NYC cw and Witness Against Torture campaign were guest speakers.

i love going to the cw - there is such a refreshing spirit that pervades the house - one of genuine community and hospitality, one of love and openness to all people who enter. there was a healthy mix of seasoned activists with time-worn faces and energetic, bright-eyed young adults (which is not always the case at peace events!) and all were eager to dialogue over coffee and day-old, begged desserts from a local bakery. i need to hang out with these folks more often - it truly does rejuvenate my soul.

the campaign members opened the chat with some poems written by guantanamo detainees (read a few here). the poems were etched on styrofoam cups and given to the lawyers working on their cases and speak about justice, hopelessness, and their previous lives with their families.

the poems were read in order to connect the audience in a human way with the 270 current detainees, most of who are likely innocent (most released detainees have been without charge and the u.s. plans to release all but 60 detainees without trial - after holding them in awful conditions for years and allowing them to endure near starvation, beatings, and sexual and religious abuse). witness against toture formed to act in solidarity with these men (and boys) and take a stand against the torture they've endured.
the organization formed by a gathering of 25 catholic workers in an nyc apartment in 2005, 4 years after the first detainees were brought the guantanamo. the campaign made a pilgrimage from santiago, cuba to guantanamo and fasted held daily mass at the gates for 4 days.

the group's current campaign is 100 days to close guantanamo, which will involve a 9-day fast from jan 11 (the 7th anniversary of the arrival of detainees to the prison, as well as the Baptism of Our Lord - the beginning of Jesus' public ministry) until the inauguration, to help obama remember his promise: "I intend to close Guantanamo and I will follow through on that... I'm going to make sure that we don't toture."

there will be vigils to remember the innocent men and their families (particularly the 30 on hunger strike and 25 that are begin force fed) and direct action to raise awareness about the situation (the men do not have legal protection under the geneva conventions). 80 people are participating in the fast (including iraqi war veteran and consciencious objector camilo mejia - a really friendly and humble guy, at the cw last night too, imprisoned for a year for his conscience), and another 12+ groups from around the country are coming to participate in lobbying and public witness during the 100 first days of obama's presidency.

i plan on participating in the campaign activities in a variety of ways, and you can too, no matter where around the country you are. visit their website... and pray that the u.s. would have the courage to end this human rights atrocity.

in light of the current darkness in so much of the world...

Try to Praise the Mutilated World

by Adam Zagajewski

Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of wine, the dew.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
You must praise the mutilated world.
You watched the stylish yachts and ships;
one of them had a long trip ahead of it,
while salty oblivion awaited others.
You've seen the refugees heading nowhere,
you've heard the executioners sing joyfully.
You should praise the mutilated world.
Remember the moments when we were together
in a white room and the curtain fluttered.
Return in thought to the concert where music flared.
You gathered acorns in the park in autumn
and leaves eddied over the earth's scars.
Praise the mutilated world
and the grey feather a thrush lost,
and the gentle light that strays and vanishes
and returns.

Translated by Clare Cavanagh, published in the New Yorker shortly after 9/11.

pope benny 16 on global poverty

sorry, another ctrl + c crtrl + v... but i thought it was interesting and wanted to share, both the message, and america's assessment...

America: The National Catholic Weekly

Fighting Global Poverty

By The editors | JANUARY 5, 2009

P ope Benedict XVI has written two encyclicals, one on love, the other on hope. Especially last year, which was the 40th anniversary of Paul VI’s Development of Peoples and the 20th anniversary of John Paul II’s On Social Concern, speculation was rife that the pope would write a social encyclical on globalization. In his World Day of Peace Message, published on Jan. 1, Pope Benedict has now issued a commentary on poverty in the global economy under the title Fighting Poverty to Build Peace. It extends the teaching of his predecessors on solidarity in development to today’s globalized economy, with a renewed plea for the inclusion of the poorest nations in the world system.

The heart of the message is that solidarity, especially with those nations that participate least in the global economic system, is the virtue that meets the challenges of globalization. It urges us, “in our dealings with the poor, to set out from the clear recognition that we all share in a single divine plan: we are all called to form one family in which all—individuals, peoples and nations—model their behavior according to the principles of fraternity and responsibility.” Amid its praise for the productivity of the post-World War II economy—world poverty has been cut by as much as 50 percent in the last 30 years—it focuses intently on the world’s poorest nations, which stand outside the global economic system, especially in Africa. These countries are strapped, on the one hand, by lack of fair access to world markets for their products and, on the other, by the rapid rise in world commodity prices during the last year. Like Pope Paul VI’s Development of Peoples, the 2009 message appeals “for all countries to be given equal opportunities of access to the world market, without exclusion or marginalization.”

Though the message ends with John Paul II’s radical call in Centesimus Annus for “a change of life-styles, of models of production and consumption, and of the established structures of power,” its content seems less radical, surveying the dimensions of poverty today, the ambiguous effects of globalization and the implications of the world financial crisis for the prospects of alleviating poverty in the most disadvantaged nations. It is devoid of the insightful biblical analogies and ambitious proposals of Paul VI and the incisive social spiritual diagnoses of John Paul II. Given the shocking drop in the world economy, its confidence in economic growth as an engine of progress seems surprising. On the epochal dereliction of financial institutions leading to the current economic crisis, it simply comments that the “lowering of the objectives of global finance to the very short term reduces its capacity to function as a bridge between the present and the future, and as a stimulus to the creation of new opportunities....”

The message seems to break with previous church teaching on the importance of holding inequalities in check as a step to preventing deeper and more widespread poverty. Given the expansion of inequality worldwide during the last 30 years of growth, a phenomenon the message acknowledges, its outright dismissal of redistributive programs (“mere redistribution”) as an “illusion” is all the more remarkable. Only when redistributive measures, like investment in education, health care, maternal and infant nutrition and job creation, are in place has economic growth proven to reduce poverty across the population, and not just in a privileged segment of it.

The reality of contemporary poverty, the message points out, possesses several features in need of the world’s attention, including pandemic disease, child poverty, military expenditures and the food crisis. The food crisis, it notes, results primarily from speculation in petroleum and other basic commodities, including the price of imported food. It also results from the unfairness of so-called free trade regimes that open up poor countries to industrial products, whose prices “rise much faster than those of agricultural products and raw materials in the possession of poorer countries,” which in their turn have more restricted access to markets in developed countries.

The message gives special attention to the moral relationship between disarmament and development. Pope Benedict reminds his audience that “immense military expenditure...is in fact diverted from development projects for people, especially the poorest....” He continues, “The resources saved could then be earmarked for development projects to assist the poorest and the most needy individuals and people....” He concludes, “Efforts expended in this way would be efforts for peace.” We should expect high interest on the part of the church, therefore, in resolutions to be proposed to the new U.S. Congress and to the United Nations in 2009 that money spent on nuclear weapons should be applied instead to meeting the needs of children.

prayers for gaza, please

i promise i'll blog with some actual content soon. but for now, just an action alert from CRS, USCCB, and Pax Christi on the situation in gaza...
its far too easy to get caught up in our own lives and not ponder on and be in solidarity with those suffering around the world.
its far too easy to point fingers to one side or the other without examining the roots and complexities of problems such as these.
its far too easy to feel despair and helplessness - that there is nothing we can do in the midst of this terrifying violence.
we are called, however, to be peacemakers, to be "prisoners of hope," to stand in solidarity with our sisters and brothers suffering worldwide.
let us be aware, examining, intentional, prayerful and hopeful in times like these, to be little mirrors to reflect light amidst so much darkness.

THE HOLY LAND IS ENGULFED IN VIOLENCE: URGE PRESIDENT BUSH TO HELP NEGOTIATE A CEASEFIRE NOW

TAKE ACTION NOW! Contact President Bush now and urge him to send a high level personal representative to the Holy Land immediately to help negotiate a ceasefire and ensure that the people of Gaza receive humanitarian assistance.

WHAT IS THE CURRENT SITUATION IN THE HOLY LAND? Escalating violence between Hamas, the Palestinian party that controls Gaza, and Israel has caused death, destruction and great suffering in recent days among Israelis and Palestinian civilians. Unjustified rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and the disproportionate Israeli military actions causing unacceptable casualties among Palestinian civilians will have serious negative effects on any progress in peace negotiations and risk a wider war.

WHY SHOULD CATHOLICS CARE ABOUT THE HOLY LAND? Our Catholic faith teaches us to be peacemakers. The U.S. Bishops wrote in The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response, "Peacemaking is not an optional commitment. It is a requirement of our faith. We are called to be peacemakers, not by some movement of the moment, but by our Lord Jesus."

Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has called on the international community to help Israelis and Palestinians to discard the "dead end" of violence and pursue instead "the path of dialogue and negotiations." Immediate, visible and decisive U.S. leadership is urgently needed.

In a December 30 letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Bishop Howard J. Hubbard of Albany, Chairman of the Committee on International Justice and Peace of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), wrote:

"At a time when the attention of Christians is drawn naturally to the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, it is tragic that innocent civilians are once again the victims of armed conflict and a humanitarian crisis." A ceasefire and humanitarian relief are indispensable initial steps on the road to a two-state solution-a secure Israel living in peace with a viable Palestinian state-with justice and peace for both peoples."

WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH DOING TO PROMOTE PEACE IN THE HOLY LAND? In 2005, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) launched the Catholic Campaign for Peace in the Holy Land. The campaign's goal is to create a shared commitment to the broad outlines of a just resolution of the conflict and to raise a united voice with policy makers and the wider public. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has worked in the Holy Land for nearly half a century, supporting peace with justice for all people, while responding to the humanitarian and sustainable development needs of Palestinians.

Together, USCCB and CRS are advocating for stronger U.S. leadership to hold both parties to the conflict accountable in building a just peace. We also support U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority to increase its ability to govern as well as urgently needed humanitarian assistance for the Palestinian people.

from "The Cure at Troy" by Seamus Heaney

This was read as part of the DC Poets Against the War event at the Peace Mural currently on display in DC:

Human beings suffer,
they torture one another,
they get hurt and get hard.
No poem or play or song
can fully right a wrong
inflicted or endured...

History says, Don't hope
on this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
the longed for tidal wave
of justice can rise up,
and hope and history rhyme.

So hope for a great sea-change
on the far side of revenge.
Believe that a further shore
is reachable from here.
Believe in miracles
and cures and healing wells.

Call the miracle self-healing:
The utter self-revealing
double-take of feeling.
If there's fire on the mountain
Or lightning and storm
And a god speaks from the sky

That means someone is hearing
the outcry and the birth-cry
of new life at its term.I
t means once in a lifetime
That justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.