In history, people have always taken up roles in moments of oppression, violence and othering. Some are bystanders, some are perpetrators, others are victims, and others become resistors or defenders.
In our daily lives, we see oppression, discrimination and marginalisation of people. How do you respond to this? Is there something that keeps you being the bystander in these instances? What enables you to be an activist or defender to those who are oppressed?
Historically people have held onto their privilege through the various systems of power that we live within. This has been mainly at the expense of those who live on the margins. This is violent in itself that our own wealth and comfort excludes others. We become bystanders to the systems that work for us and justify this for ourselves because we have isolated and othered those for our growth. Thomas Merton had an awakening on an ordinary
day:
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the centre of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realisation that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world….. Then it was as if I suddenly saw the
secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God's eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and 'understood' by a peculiar gift.
If we are to renew and reconstruct our spiritual, national and cultural identities, we have to read the scripture as an invitation to solidarity. What can be understood as the 'preferential option for the poor'? To move away from the idea of 'how can this maintain my status' towards 'how can this enable us to all grow and change'
Spend some time today thinking about how you may be a bystander to systems of power that maintain your status?
What could you do differently?
Ask God to give you the courage to make these decisions.
