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)