TO BE POOR AS MARY WAS POOR

Mary is the Mother of all Christians and since the vast majority of Sri Lankan Christians are poor, she is truly the Mother of the poor. By venerating her and learning from her, the poor can benefit the most and nourish their souls perpetually. She was a quiet missionary and true revolutionary.

All significant events in human history begin quietly and unassumingly. This truth is universal at all times and in all places. She was the voice of the poor, spoke on behalf of the poor and served the poor by totally being obedient to the God of the poor. The mother of the Redeemer of the whole human race is a poor woman from Nazareth. The poor people all around the world must make her a family member and she is also very much willing to become a family member and then no family will ever experience any loneliness, or meaninglessness.

The poor are hermeneutically privileged, that is, as a result of their daily struggle against poverty, diseases, oppression, exploitation, hunger, despair, anxiety, marginalisation, depression, addictions, sexploitation, ignorance, powerlessness, hopelessness and resourcelessness, they are in touch with a whole gamut of difficult human experiences which the rich never happen to experience or have no adequate idea of. Hence, to understand the world from the intelligence of the poor is the broadest and accurate perspective. Mother Mary clearly had that perspective.

Theologically speaking, it is the most panoramic view, the highest view point, the perspective of the Infinity (sub specie aeternitatis). This means to look at human condition from God’s eyes, from God’s senses and from God’s spectacles. The eyes of the poor are the eyes of God; the senses of the poor are the senses of God. The heartbeat of the poor is the heartbeat of God. The theological perspective on poverty and its root causes is the most comprehensive perspective and the over-arching perspective for the poor are a theological category. Every reality has a theological dimension. No issue is isolated. How everything hangs together is utterly crucial for any theological reflection. In order to grasp this truth, our theological horizons, parameters must continually be widened and broadened.

The mission with the poor begins with the correct vision. Without such a vision, there is no enduring mission. One has to grow, struggle and mature with this divine vision and mission. The poor are the widest window to the Divine. Whenever and wherever the poor are exiled or marginalized, God too goes into exile with them. There is no such a thing as “option for the poor” as if we could have an option when it comes to the poor. Neither is it an option amongst other options. We have no choice when it comes to serving the poor. Serving the poor and becoming poor is the only way to become a disciple of Christ. Whether we like it or not we are under obligation to live in solidarity with the poor. God demands it from us and judges us based on our response to that imperative.

Properly speaking, “option for the poor” is not an option, but the only way to God. This optionless option is the truth par excellence of Christian discipleship for Christ identifies Himself completely and deeply with the poor. Christ was the poor person par excellence in human history. Even for a single second, He did not have the desire to be materially rich. His whole wealth was in his poverty, humility and simplicity and Blessed Virgin Mary’s situation was no different from His.

Loving the poor and trying to change the socio-economic structures and realities that perpetuate mass poverty may, at first, seem like Sisyphean labour, but that is precisely where Christian hope lies. It is to find hope in hopelessness. When everything seems hopeless, bleak, and somber, then only we can hope against hope, then only hope begins to make sense and becomes hopeful. Hopelessness really makes us realise the value of hope.

In order to love and serve the poor, one need to be wiser and in order to become wiser, one should learn how to love. Loving is a training in wisdom. The love of wisdom and wisdom of love are not to be separated. True wisdom is liberative for the poor as well as for the rich. True salvation liberates the rich too through the emancipation of the poor. As Mother Mary herself sang; “He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree ; and he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away” (Luke 1:51-53).

Although the rich are the oppressors and exploiters of the poor, the poor are the true liberators and saviours of the rich. The Saviour of the whole humankind is a poor man from Nazareth. So without the help of the poor, the rich have no redemption and will be in eternal bondage. The torments and lamentations of the poor need to be heard and as a result of this empathic hearing, the oppressors and exploiters must change their greedy life-styles in solidarity with the poor. The cries of the vanquished demand continuous attention. They need the memory of their suffering to be kept alive forever. They want to be memorialisable and God will also not allow their memory to be eradicated. The sufferings of the poor must not be and cannot be repressed. A Christian is essentially a just person, a humble person and therefore every unjust situation is an occasion for evangalisation and re-evangalisation. When we begin to evangelize, we also get evangelized by the situations and people. God makes use of every situation to reveal Himself most intimately to us. Authentic evangelization is a direct fruit of being evangelized.

The victims of history confront us with the humanity we have suppressed within ourselves (Brendan Lovett). I can continue to oppress somebody only if I have done some damage to my own humanity. Only an inhuman person, a sub human person can exploit, oppress, sexploit and marginalise another. Emotionally healthy people do not harm, destroy, oppress or exploit others. By neglecting the poor people, we do irreparable damage to our own selves. The oppressed are a bit more humane than the oppressors. As long as we do not take the humanity of other people seriously, we cannot truly remain human and compassionate. We become less than human and our collective humanity diminishes gradually. Exploitation is always self destructive.

God moves amongst the meek of the earth. God takes such delight and deep pleasure in them. The only way to remain a genuine follower of Christ is to truly live, work with and care for the poorest of the poor. There is no any other way whatsoever for discipleship. God indwellst amongst the slum dwellers. Slums are the Divine tabernacles. Shanties are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Tents are trents of the poor. Part of our pain is that we cannot adequately enter into the suffering of others.We must be sensitive to the dignity of the suffering masses. Their suffering continues to evangelise us, educate us, instruct us and enlighten us. The poor are our real teachers and evangelizers.

If the poor people have nobody to care for them, they should go to Mary. She will surely welcome them, embrace them, nourish them and protect them. Not to love her is to become a very unhappy person. Not to experience her deep love is not to know what love is all about. She will love you the way she loves Jesus and therefore we must love her the way Jesus loves her. Not to love her is also not to love Jesus properly. By loving us, she radiates the Divine love around us.

Professor Anton Meemana

Bhakthi Prabodhanaya

Published By: Ranjan De Mel.