World Day of the Poor 2017: A Reflection

I wrote the following reflection after a trip to Managua, Nicaragua three years ago. 

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,

It is even beyond our vision.

(Oscar Romero)

A modern challenge for reflecting on important global issues such as suffering and poverty is that, as modern people, we fail to consider that we too suffer and are poor in some material or spiritual sense. To externalize these deep realities may lead us into arrogant “solutions” for the poor and those who suffer. Thankfully, every once in a while, we are offered a great gift which seems to help us understand eternal things. I had such a gift given to me during a recent service trip to Nicaragua wherein I witnessed the divine language of mercy come alive through committed relationships of self-giving love.

During the trip we worked in a very poor neighbourhood of the capital city, Managua. We helped build a home with a local contractor, his workers and members of the family who now live in the home. We had a far-too-brief glimpse at some of the living conditions and socio-economic realities of day-to-day life in this neighbourhood. 

I would like to briefly tease out the depth of one word which was on my mind a great deal while working in Nicaragua. The word is Charity. It is a word that is largely understood as something like, “giving to a person in need” or “a generous act.” One could most sincerely say, “I give to charity” and this is entirely true and worthy of thanksgiving. I do not wish to engage in etymological dualism, but rather a discerning deepening in the true sense of the word. As such, I would like to show that the Christian sense of the word charity is based on the New Testament Greek word agape, which means something much deeper than to simply give; it means to love dearly. Agape was translated into latin as caritas and the King James Version of the Bible translated caritas into charity. As such, Charity today seems to me to be a watered down version of the essence of the Greek word from whence it comes: agape. Agape denotes a concept which is far deeper than simply giving to a person in need; it is indeed giving of the self to someone or something else. Therefore, implicit in the nature of this word is relationship. In John 3:16 we see that God so agape the world and later, in John 12:43 that we agape the praise of one another rather than the praise of God and we are told to agape one another as God agape us. Relationship…relationship…relationship.

Love implies a relationship. The modern notion of charity implies simply giving which establishes a relationship with CRA as we await our income tax return.

As I write from my comfortable office in the geographically tiny parish of Trinity Church Halifax – our parish boundaries are not much more than 1 km by 2 km, there are hundreds of lonely people within this small area. Great numbers of people who want an Inn from the suffering and poverty of loneliness caused by a myriad of factors, many of which point to a breakdown in fundamentally important relationships and institutions that have historically enabled healthy community. The need is great, the labourers are few and it takes a toll on us as individuals and society.

We all suffer and are poor.

So, with all the need that exists in my own city and inside my own parish the question I struggle with is, Why do I sense such a strong desire to work among the poor in places like Managua, Nicaragua? I have often brought Galatians 2:10 into prayer where Peter and John said to Paul as he was about to embark on his mission, “They asked only one thing, that we remember the poor, which was actually what I was eager to do.” Geography matters; there are poor here, in the midst of where we have been planted.

I have come to sense that what is really at play here is less about any idealistic notions of solving anything here or there, it is much more about cultivating a deep sense of gratitude for relationships. Relationship with Our Lord and one another. This deep sense of gratitude for the transformative love I have been offered through Christ not only brings into focus the gift of life but also brings into focus what I have and what I take for granted here in Nova Scotia.

Yes, I built a home in Nicaragua and that was a good work for a dear family. But, really, I didn’t give anything to the people of Nicaragua; they gave to me. I was the student as I soaked in eternal truths revealed to all of us by Jesus. All of this brought home by a service trip to a desperately poor part of the world. By working in such an environment, my own poverty and suffering is brought to the surface by the Holy Spirit who speaks, stills, leads, reassures, enlightens, encourages, convicts, comforts and calms us through a thundering, still voice of unity. We are one in the Spirit. God loved us first; our love for one another is a dim reflection of that perfect love.

We all suffer and are poor but we are never alone.

So, with all this in mind, in February 2015 I went on a service trip Managua, Nicaragua with a fabulous group of people from Halifax, NS, Summerside, PEI and St. John’s, NL. We went in support of a Halifax-based organization called Pathway to Progress Nicaragua. It is a Christian organization which is dedicated to supporting an innovative program in Nicaragua that provides educational opportunities for Nicaragua’s most vulnerable sector: children and youth living in poverty. 

I love a good testimony! The founders of this mission in Managua have a great testimony which took them from living in the South End of Halifax to mission in Nicaragua by an experience of Our Lord’s immeasurable and transformative love. It is not my testimony to tell so I won’t, but I will tell you that in 2005 when Ed and Barbara Dunsworth moved to Managua they were shocked to see the conditions in the public pre-schools and primary schools. They began to tackle the huge educational deficit and devised a project to select bright children from families living in poverty and sent them to a very good private school. In the first year they had three children in the program. Now they have approximately 100 students in the program, 14 local social workers and other staff members and they build 10 houses a year. 

My charitable act is enabling a beautiful relationship of agape by a team in Nicaragua committed to self-giving. It inspires me to engage in relationships of agape in my own city.

As a participant in this service trip I had the opportunity, with a dozen or so others from Atlantic Canada, to deepen in the attitude of gratitude for all that we have and all that we easily take for granted. I hope to make it an annual trip for my family and I as we all deepen in our faith, hope and love as we listen to the deep crying out to deep.

Would you like to sponsor a child in support of the Pathway to Progress mission? Perhaps you would be interested in being part of a service trip to Nicaragua?

If you would like to consider being part of a service trip please email me at rev.rob.elford@gmail.com

OR, if you would like more information about Pathway to Progress Nicaragua or how to support the agape of this mission please contact:

www.p2pnicaragua.org                                  PO Box 27092

            p2pnica@gmail.com                                       Halifax, NS B3H 1N0

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.

(Oscar Romero)

Journal

29 May 2017

As I write this I am on a train heading to Saint Jean Pied de Port where Stephen and I will begin healing the ancient pilgrimage route, the way to Saint James in Santiago de Compostela.  I expect this journey to be physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually challenging. 

Stephen and I have prepared physically for this journey and we have spoken about the emotional/mental and spiritual aspects of the trip. I think we are as ready as we will ever be understanding that I know we are not totally ready. I tried to pack well but I know we am carrying too much. We will simply have to make adjustments as we go. Such is life. 

Spiritually, I have begun reflecting on the Psalms and as I wrote earlier, have so far made it to the third word, "man".

So far I have considered "blessed" and "is". I have been thinking a great deal about the word "man" since then. I wrote a short entry about a year ago on the manliness of mercy. But, as I reflect on "man" today I don't consider man as in the masculine but man as in being a human.  

I am a man, a human, created in the image and likeness of God. I am reminded of an image that came to me in prayer some time ago when I was making an Ignatian directed retreat. The image was that of me rising up out of the mud in the Garden of Eden. I remember wiping away the mud from my eyelids amid the splendor of the Garden. As I wiped the mud away I saw my Creator looking at me with a wide, gentle, loving smile from ear to ear. He face was one of pure joy and love as he delighted in my creation. "Beloved child" is all that needed to be said as I stood there joyfully immersed in love. I simply basked in the awe and wonder of it all. 

This is the seat of my true identity as a man; to know that I am loved, created by a loving Creator who delights in my presence and I delight in His. 

As I write this, on a train between Paris and Bayonne with windmills and vast green pastures whizzing by I gaze upon my son, asleep in the seat next to me. I am fully of joy and delight as I bask in his presence. I notice the patch of eczema on each of his eyelids as he sleeps. I want to wipe it away, to heal him. I love him, my beloved child. 

I am so thankful for this opportunity to make this pilgrimage with Stephen. As he sleeps next to me....My beloved children. I delight in their presence. 

I am overwhelmed with a sense of joy.  

I AM

Mystery is often reduced to that which cannot be explained.

Mystery is not that which is unknown or unknowable.  Truth is mystery. The truth is at its essence mystery.

Truth is a knowable mystery if knowing is a glimpse of the essence of the mystery.  It remains mystery but true.

To trust this mystery is to know freedom. To know freedom is to know the depths of gratitude for life. To receive gratitude is to share its mysterious magnificence.

I AM 

"...is..."

"...is..."

Psalm 1:1

As I walked today I returned to Psalm 1 and made it all the way to the second word, "is" before I considered this word of being. 

My initial thought was simply that 'was' is past, 'will' is future and 'is' is the present. To be present now is to embrace the presence of the gift that simply is. The seat of possibility is right now. The shackles of the past are in the past and the future is unknown. We can, indeed we should learn from the past as the springboard into the possibility of the future by embracing the beautiful gift of the present.

I just walked by an old man sitting on a bench overlooking the Northwest Arm. He gave a warm smile and a hearty "Hello! What a beautiful day" as I walked by.

To be fully alive in the present is to be fully human. It is where humanity and the divine meet in the solitude of the present moment. It is where silence meets thunder. It is where the gentle breeze moves great mountains. The present humbly, persistently lures one into the Presence.

I thought about the fact that "is" is a verb. It is the third person singular present indicative of "be".  I find it very interesting that "be" is a verb, which, of course typically expresses an action, a state or a relation between two things.

When I consider the present as "is" I am considering that which is ultimately grounded in an action. I think, from an linguistics perspective ( maybe even an epistemological perspective) the verb "is" spans action and being by bringing us into relationship with that which ultimately is, the eternal reality of God who calls us into relationship in the space and time of now. Being is action. When I am present to the moment I am an actor in a relationship. My "is-ness" is not only found in this openness to the Presence of my being but is lured forth as an actor in space and time to do that which I know I must do. "Is" is not passive. To be is the seat of action. "To be" cannot be separated from "to do" for being is relationship, it rejoices in the other. Time and space all collapse in the present. To be is a sacramental calling to participate in relationship.

What a blessing to simply be...present...

Isaiah and Ashton know what it is like to simply "be"

Blessed

"Blessed..." Ps 1:1

Point Pleasant Park 12 May 2017 - Photo taken by Stephen Elford

In two weeks Stephen and I begin our Camino de Santiago in Saint Jean Pied de Port, France bound for Santiago. I admit to feeling a little under-prepared but time keeps marching on. It all feels a little surreal to me. My 12 year-old son and I are going to walk the Camino, an 800km trek across Spain! Am I crazy??

We have been walking regularly for the past few months although I admit that we were not as diligent at keeping our training program as I had hoped. Time keeps on marching on and whether ready or not soon we will be leaving.

I have been told there are two questions pilgrims ask one another along the Camino: "Where did you start?" and "Why are you waking?" I consider the latter question often. I thought about it before I purchased my tickets from Halifax to Paris. My answers have varied over the months but today I can confidently say that beyond having wanted to walk the Camino for years, I really have no idea why I am embarking on this adventure. I admit there is a deep desire in me to do it but I really don't know why. I think I am going to know, or at least get a knowing glimpse of the answer somewhere along the way. There is something I need to learn along the Camino and I think it will become clear when it needs to become clear. I am happy with that and step out in hope having no idea what it all means. 

I do have a bit of a spiritual plan to meditate on the psalms every day while walking. Tonight, while I was walking toward Point Pleasant Park I thought about beginning my reflection on the psalms now. So, I opened up the Bible to Psalm 1. It was a beautiful way to begin this Camino journey because had to read no further than the first word. The first word of the first psalm is "Blessed". I enjoyed considering how blessed I am to be on this journey..

"Blessed..." I am blessed to have this beautiful, fragile thing called life. To simply exist is a mysteriously beautiful gift to be embraced in all of its poverty and riches. Like anyone, when I think about the time, relationships and opportunities squandered - or at least not fully embraced over the years - I am able to learn and move forward in gratitude for more time to work it all out. More time to learn, more relationships to nourish and more opportunities to embrace.

I am blessed to have three dear, kind, loving, empathetic, sincere, beautiful children. I never knew how much capacity I had for love until I learned to be a father. I continue to learn how to be a father and I continue to deepen in love. 

I am blessed to have my marriage to Lindsay. I have learned about standing side-by-side by falling down. I have learned the strength of utter weakness and of hope that wells up like tears. Tears are sacred, cleansing messengers. Tears reveal a path of euphporic joy as well as the darkness of grief and pain. I have learned to trust the leading of tears as rivers of healing. I am blessed to have Lindsay as my wife. 

I am blessed to have the opportunity to make this Camino. That I am going with my son is an unspeakable joy to me. He is a kind boy. [insert tears of joy here]

I am blessed with enough doubt to have grown in faith in God that soothes every deep crevice of my body, mind and soul. I feel entirely free in my humanity because I know Christ and the deep intimacy of the loving otherness. It is all gift.

Stephen and I walked 15 km tonight. It feels good. I feel blessed. I feel grateful.

Doin' time for the crime...

Our criminal justice system is far more broken than we would perhaps like to admit. I don’t doubt for a moment the tremendous talent of the many people who work within the esteemed institutions of our country that uphold the important democratic principle of the rule of law. Yet justice seems to becoming all the more decoupled from any sense of public morality or, it seems, public safety. Many will applaud the demise of the former, but the latter, which is the purpose of this brief reflection, situates justice, or at least the criminal justice system, as either naïve or willfully reckless.

Or maybe it is society that is both naïve and willfully reckless for it clings to some silly notion which reduces justice to “doing the time for the crime.” Perhaps society needs to understand that 98% of citizens who are incarcerated do get out of prison so it is up to other aspects of society to absorb the formerly incarcerated.

Today I listened to lawyers argue over the details of a joint submission to Judge William Digby of the Provincial Court in Nova Scotia. With the admission of guilt the Crown and defence agreed that the equivalent of 541 days served met the legal threshold, a DNA sample was ordered, forfeiture of a laptop upon which over 4400 child porn images were found, Sex Offender registry and a s.161 imposed “Until you are dead,” to quote Judge Digby. The use of “for life” could have worked for sure but “until you are dead” certainly underscored the seriousness of the criminal history of the offender. After court the Sheriffs escorted the offender through the release process.

Shortly thereafter he is a free man (with court ordered conditions), although he described himself as terrified as we walked down Spring Garden Road in hopes of securing a bed at the Out of the Cold Shelter. He received no programming in jail to help him with his child porn addiction.

Some may delight that a penniless man, a convicted sex offender, has no home thus potentially hastening the finality of the judge’s darkly prophetic “until you are dead” statement. Today, however, as he battled the bitterly cold wind, wearing only a thin shirt, jeans and sneakers justice was imposed and a cold, terrified man left the courthouse.

I am left underwhelmed by my sense of justice in all of this.

I don’t blame the judge, the Crown, the defence or the police. This problem is far bigger and one we – community – must take seriously unless we retreat into the naïve, reckless mediocrity of justice as simply being doing time for the crime.

Moral Imagination

“But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; ⁴²there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Luke 10:41-42

As I prayed with this text the question that entered my mind was, “What is moral imagination?” How do I form as a moral actor in this world? Clearly acts of charity (caritas) are a good but how do I know this? With all there is to do, how do I understand my role, vocation, priorities?

As I see Mary at the feet of Jesus and I listen to Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Martha, there is clearly a focus on simply sitting on the feet of Jesus. There is a call to be taught by Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to be in dialogue with Jesus which has a place of primacy over the work of the day, even the work of hospitality which was so honoured in the culture of the time. Mary simply sits at the feet of Jesus, as we all can in prayer. This is the seat of our formation as disciples, as servants, as leaders, as moral actors in our world.

The contemplative life of sitting at the feet of Jesus is not rather than the active life of doing, but the source and summit, the beginning, the calling and the deep well of refreshment. It must come first and it must be the priority. “Mary has chosen the better part.” It is part of the whole. I don’t think it is possible for me to authentically argue that Mary’s is the only part for this would stand in contrast to the very witness of Jesus. He prayed and acted.

There is a time for praying wherein we learn what and how to do.

Contemplation is a call to action.

Likewise, in our works-based mania, genuine faithfulness is not a matter of service alone. Our works must be informed by our reception of the teachings of Jesus. Our moral imagination must be informed by tried-tested-and-true theology which comes from sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning.

I read online yesterday that the lead actor in the movie Silence was deeply, personally impacted by having taken the Ignatian Exercises in preparation for his role as a Jesuit priest.  I would say, in the context of my reflection today, his moral imagination was informed by prayer at the feet of Jesus. His time in contemplation set deeps seeds of moral, spiritual, theological thought in his mind. He was formed through the Exercises, by learning an ancient method of prayer, meditation and contemplation.

Finally, back to context for a moment, this parable is Lukan. Luke’s meta-narrative is one of grace, mercy and reconciliation as the Kingdom of God is formed in a way that reaches out to the poor, lepers, tax collectors, sinners, outsiders, Samaritans…etc… I don’t think it would be must of a stretch to suggest that sitting at the feet of Jesus in prayer is an act of defiance against the dominant, myopic powers of the world. As such, contemplation is not only action but resistance. A resistance that has no fear for it is informed by authentic, self-giving love - the seat of moral imagination. What a blessing to sit at the feet of Jesus in anticipation of the work ahead. It is all gift.

Lost and Loved

“For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” – Luke 19:10

A key idea in the spiritual teachings of Saint Ignatius is that of magis or, in English, more. The sense of the word Ignatius wanted us to understand is a greater way of loving, a deeper way of living out the great mysteries of life, a more wholehearted way of following Jesus. With this in mind, as I consider the text at the header, I seek to more deeply know and respond to the call of Christ who sought out and saved the lost.  

In my time of prayer with this text I first considered its context. Basically, a field preacher who had become widely popular for his teachings with authority and healings had attracted large crowd. In this particular crowd, on this particular day, a man short in stature named Zacchaeus joined the crowd. The text tells us, “He was trying to see who Jesus was…” (vs 3). It is not simply that he wanted to get a glimpse of Jesus, as if he was waiting for a Hollywood star to appear on the red carpet. He wanted to see who Jesus was.  

Zacchaeus, a wealthy tax collector, widely known to have unethical practices in the collection of taxes, despised by the locals, wanted to see who Jesus was. A man who had become rich on the backs of others came to see who Jesus was. He did not come to gawk at the show, but was motivated to see who this field preacher from Galilee really was.  

The text creates a scene that is nearly comedic; a short man trying to see Jesus through the crowd but he can’t. He climbs a sycamore tree. Imagine him walking along trying to see but not being able. I doubt many would have offered him a better place from which he could see given that he was so reviled by the people. At any rate, Zacchaeus finds a sycamore tree from which he can see Jesus but he has yet to see who Jesus was. The rich, prideful, unethical, sinful man must have been shocked to his core when Jesus invites himself to stay with Zacchaeus! He wants to discover who Jesus was and, all of a sudden, Jesus comes more closely. Perhaps shockingly close at first.

That the invitation shocks Zacchaeus is self-evident, but the invitation not only shocks but scandalizes many of the others gathered. “All who saw began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” (vs 7) How about that for scandal, even disgust?

Last summer I hired a contractor who ripped me off. Just imagine how I would initially feel if this contractor was singled out in a crowd and invited to dinner among a crowd in which I was present along with many of my friends and family who had also been ripped off by this contractor. Just imagine, this contractor invited by Jesus to join him for dinner, not to be scolded or shamed, but simply to be loved.

I might like to think of the many people in the crowd who had striven their whole lives to follow God’s holy ways, but here Jesus chooses a man who has made a living by ripping people off. At first glance it is scandalous. But as we know through the text it brings Zacchaeus to have some sort of change of heart; he wants to make things right again, in spite of his past. Jesus delights in his host for, “…the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Jesus loves the lost. He seeks them out only to love them, not to coerce them into submission but to bring them alive in the freedom of being fully human, fully alive in the beautiful knowledge and mystery of God’s self-giving love.  

Jesus delights in showing mercy; loving the sinner.

Go Deeper: Bring to mind someone in your community who has acted unethically. Imagine Jesus inviting himself into this person’s home in a desire to enter into mutual friendship. Imagine the conversation between Jesus and that person.