|
|
           |
 |
Indifference In January of this year I had the blessing, thanks to the generosity of the Maryknoll Missionaries, to make a pilgrimage to El Salvador and Guatemala to the sites of the martyrs. Sites now made famous by the names of Archbishop Romero and Bishop Gerardi, the Jesuit Maryknoll priests and sisters. However, the famous are joined to the less famous into a chorus of some 200,000 Guatemalan and 80,000 Salvadoran souls. If one visits the Cathedral of Guatemala City there are inscribed on stone pillars around the entrance the names of at least 18,000 of thes  e good people mentioned in a few sentences in the Rehmi report published by the Church in April 1998. (The Interdiocesan Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory - Office for Human Rights of the Office of the Archbishop of Guatemala) The findings of that same report would be supported by the work of the United Nations the following year. The vast majority of those killed were neither guerillas nor part of the military, but were innocent civilians caught in the middle of living. In the case of Guatemala 93% of the killings were done by a local military out of control, connected to American funding and training. Regrettably Bishop Gerardi who presented the report before the general public was killed two days following its presentation. While official peace reigns since 1996 in Guatemala, it is something still very much on the surface from a land that has suffered violence for three decades. With the Rehmi report - titled Nunca Mas (Never Again/No More) exceptional courage was brought forward by thousands of persons to offer an instrument for healing for their country and a possible tool for other peoples. It is only a beginning in a land where people have been fed on a diet of violence for so long. Time, presence, and exceptional faith will be needed to not only heal such a history of pain, but to make it a source of renewal for lands beyond Central America. I do not doubt from those I met, that the people of El Salvador and Guatemala are up to the enormous challenge. But will the rest of the world heed their prophetic story? There is a sin that exists in silence before evil both in its structural form and spiritual realities. But silence before the complexities of issues and fear before the life changes involved in being responsible for having a conscience is not the greatest sin. The greater evil is indifference. There is an enormous difference between saying I do not want to see because I cannot bear the truth, and to say it does not matter. To assume that someone else's struggles do not touch my life is as foolish as to negate the existence of the Trade Towers or Afghanistan.It is indifference and not silence that is now shaping our decisions as a people in regards to lands such as sub Sahara Africa, the unfolding war in Columbia, the Congo. IN the case of East Africa, we know enormous populations have AIDS but significant policies and resource  s to respond to the situation are lacking. Sections of the world do not exist for us. It is not a result of blindness or ignorance; it is a choice to right off whole sections of the world. We off the record say they do not bring anything to the marketplace; we are tired of being involved. Rather, there might be laziness in leadership to study how we could be intertwined in the problems of diamonds, resources, land, drugs, and the machinations of dangerous third parties (paramilitary's, mercenaries, mafia) to our present life style.Indifference is not an American quality, although it has affected our culture. It is a quality of soul that can affect cultures, sections of the world, economic classes. It is a type of lethargy before responsibility. It is a worship of choices and options, when wisdom has already beckoned us towards a specific action and path.  In its deceptive forms indifference hides behind a false cause so that the real root of the problem is never addressed. So terrorism, as an evil that most can recognize, might well disguise the call that we have to see the roots of why peoples choose terrorism as a means for change. If terrorism throughout the world dwells in the homes of the poor, then let us live with the poor to hear their story so that we might learn that there is more than us. More importantly, as we live with the poor we will see that the schools of terrorism, fundamentalism, and "isms" for the most part, dwell among the wealthy hiding their anger and fear behind the poor. The poor are simply under the weight of violence and abuse seeking anything to be heard and to be freed. This is not a justification of terrorism in any way. Rather, terrorism's healing comes from people being together, not indifferent to each other. Healing comes from not seeing good guys and bad guys. In Christian tradition we call it "solidarity". Walking with the other, suff  ering with the other, sharing ones wisdom and resources. It is in being together we receive a creativity before these complex issues of starvation, education, violence, political autonomy, religious intolerance, economic development that reveals God's generosity and abundance.Together, not polarized, not seeing left or right but people. Not members of the military or guerillas, but sinners carrying each others sins and saints prophetically speaking for all this motley crew of humanity where Christ has chosen to dwell. It is in being together that we will move forward and say not simply in accusation this is your sin, you are at fault. But rather, while I am joined to you and your guilt and you are joined to me and my sins, together we are called to find God's voice and presence as solution. |
|
|