Sunday
When Scripture is read through the eyes of vulnerability—what Catholics call the “preferential option for the poor” or the “bias from the bottom”—it will always be liberating and transformative.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
If our inner journey does not match and lead to an outer journey of liberation for all, we have no true freedom or “salvation.”
—Richard Rohr
Tuesday
If we walk in the radical nature of Christ when we step into spaces of injustice, people will think, here comes trouble: good, liberating, loving, Christlike trouble!
—Janelle Bruce
Wednesday
Christ is our liberator, and God in Christ wills that we should be free. Therefore, we need to stand firm and must not submit to anything that dehumanizes or enslaves us.
—Naim Stifan Ateek
Thursday
Dom Hélder Câmara traveled the world spreading the message of the gospel and liberation. He urged contemplative, inner transformation as necessary for structural changes in our systems and world.
—CAC’s We Conspire
Friday
Let’s use the word emancipation to describe a deeper, bigger, and scarier level of freedom: inner, outer, personal, economic, structural, and spiritual. Surely this is the task of our entire lifetime.
—Richard Rohr
Week Twenty-Seven Practice
Fight for a Vision!
An authentic faith—which is never comfortable or completely personal—always involves a deep desire to change the world.
—Pope Francis, Evangelii Gaudium
Simone Campbell, a Catholic sister and activist, describes what drives her work for economic emancipation:
Touching the real pain of all is at the heart of the movement toward emancipation. But it can’t stop there. There is a second component to this journey toward freedom: fight! Too often we think of fighting as “fighting against.” I have learned that when you “fight against” someone or some policy, that person or policy may actually be reinforced. Rather, in this spiritual journey toward emancipation, we are called to fight for a vision that can be shared. We fight for a world that is inclusive of all creation. We fight for an economy of inclusion….
It is my experience that we realize emancipation when we combine radical acceptance with fighting for a vision. Embracing all with care and fighting for an economy that benefits the 100% will liberate us from the shackles of polarization and division. In my experience, these events become like a communal fire. There is a flaming-up of community dedicated to the good of all. It is fire in the warmth of the care we share with each other and in the commitment to make a difference. It is a fire that frees us from fear, judgment, and isolation, and opens us to the freedom of an abundant universe….
In our time of being shackled by income and wealth disparity, we are called to let God flame up in our lives. Emancipation happens when our contemplative journey takes us beyond ourselves into care for all and fighting for a vision that benefits the 100%…. The emancipation proclamation of our day is that together we must end the shackles of income and wealth disparity in our nation and around the world. This one body of creation is in a single great struggle….
Sink into your being. Listen deeply to where you are called to act. Join me in the quest for emancipation from an economy of exclusion. Join me in making different choices for our nation and advocating for justice for the 100%. This is the emancipation for which we long. The contemplative life is faith in action. We hold the keys to the shackles … listen deeply and act!
Reference:
Simone Campbell, “The Shackles of Our Time,” ONEING 3, no. 1, Emancipation (2015): 38, 39. Available in print and PDF download.
Image credit and inspiration: Sushil Nash, untitled (detail), 2020, photo, United Kingdom, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. The fist is a simple but mighty symbol of resistance, solidarity, and unity in the face of oppression and injustice. An innate desire for the liberation of the oppressed also results in the unexpected liberation of the oppressor.
