Janet Anstead
From the President:
Leaping to Proaction
In Matthew 25:31-46 we find the very familiar passage – a depiction of the return of Christ to judge the nations in which judgment is summed up in these words “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
This passage is often lifted up to Christians as an eloquent reminder of our call to help our Sisters and Brothers who are facing challenges. And the litany of appropriate responses to those challenges is expansive: food for the hungry, water for the thirsty, hospitality to the stranger, clothing for the naked, care for the sick, fellowship with the imprisoned.
Since Jan 12 we have seen this passage from the Gospel given life in Canada’s, and the world’s response to Haiti. The Aid workers, the search and rescue teams, the medical personal have all given these words ‘legs’ as they scramble over the rubble to find the trapped still clinging to life. They have given these words ‘hands’ as they distribute food and water or reach out in compassion to care for the injured and dying. They have given these words ‘heart’ as they have done so at some sacrifice and danger to their own well-being. And we too, we all have breathed life into these words as we have donated our money, lifted up our prayers, and shed our tears for those caught in this catastrophe. In our response to this tragedy we truly see this passage come alive.
But the challenge that keeps rising in my mind – amidst the world’s response of generosity and love is why do we read this passage as a call to reaction to suffering? Why do we not read it as a call to proaction to eliminate suffering from arising? Why must there be hungry children in this world? Why cannot every community have access to water? Why must we treat some of God’s children as friends and others as strangers? You get the point.
We all know that the reason the devastation was of such magnitude in Haiti was that they were already struggling with other challenges before the earthquake struck – crushing poverty, ecological degradation, political and social instability. These struggles were not hidden from the world – indeed the reason so many international agencies and NGOs suffered loses was because there were many dedicated women and men from Haiti and throughout the world who were already working towards change, living a proactive call to eliminate suffering rather than just responding to the devastation it leaves in its wake. How different would the situation be if the world had responded like those women and men prior to this tragedy? What if the plane loads of aid, the debt forgiveness, the new money for infrastructure, hospitals, police forces that are flooding in now – what if they had come a year ago? A decade ago? A generation ago? Would we still be talking of causalities of 200,000 plus?
Blessings
Janet
Janet Anstead is the President of the Women’s Inter-Church Council of Canada. She lives in London, ON.
|
