Dear Shimmelstoy
After our talk the other day
(So many tears … but how energized I was when we parted!)
I went home to read and came across this line:
“We live in the shadow of the cross”
Or we should
Most of us never come close
We’re protected
We’re privileged
We’re ensconced
A follower of Jesus
Should be reminded
That the cross is an ever-present
Possibility
And why?
If we are practicing the presence
Of the Kingdom of God
That means we will be a thorn
In the side of the empire
Which is alive and ill and generating havoc
Most of the U.S. population
Is one or another kind of Christian
Yet very few run afoul
Of established power
The way, say, the Freedom Riders did
When we come into contact with the marginalized
We ought to be asking
“Who is marginalizing them?
Who is exploiting them?
Who is profiting from this?”
Sophie Scholl lived in the shadow of the cross.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer did too
Oscar Romero did
Like thousands of Salvadorans in the 1980s
They were crucified one way or another by the powerful
Thanks for asking me to share with the community next month
I wonder if I can talk about Rosario without breaking down …
On second thought, so what?
I’m fine with people seeing how much she has come to live inside me
After all, “our tears are our truths”
Abrazos,
Lucia
*John Dominic Crossan, The Essential Jesus: Original Sayings and Earliest Images
