Hope and Mobilization

Here is a provisional English translation of the reflection prepared by the Quebec Group on Contextual Theology. See the French version below.

In the preceding two texts about the economic crisis (Who will help us cross the desert? April 2009; New World Coming, February, 2010. See http://gtcq.blogspot.com/), we tried to discern paths that might serve not only to come through the crisis, but also to deepen our hope. Wishing now to raise questions and to share, we finish this series of texts by proposing a reflection on the mobilizing strength of hope.

    Spontaneously, hope can be associated with waiting, and so be seen as contrary to active and committed mobilization. We believe rather that it is required for engagement: without it, why continue, especially when the results hoped for are not realized or when they are few and far between? Some interpretation is required. In a Christian perspective, it is the search for coherence between our current action and what has been promised by God for our common future. The new world comes unceasingly toward us; it awakens us and comes about through our commitments. (See the earlier texts.) In real life, how can we link the reception of this new life with the responsibility to make it bear fruit? How can we link hope and mobilization in a context of crisis and of multiple questioning?

    As is the case with those who will read this text, the members of our group see themselves as agents and not as mere observers of social transformation. Their current and past experiences cover a large range of issues: the cooperative movement, union activity, the feminist movement, the rights of people on social assistance, ecclesial base communities, disarmament and peace, economic justice, ecology, pastoral ministry, intellectual engagement…. Based on these various commitments, we asked ourselves what hope, as presented in our earlier interventions, has and might still contribute to orient and renew our practice.

1. An Ethics of Hope
    The prophetic figure of Jesus is always present in our practice. We are inspired by him as an ultimate reference for our action. He determines its meaning and orientation. We look for how to situate ourselves in his way just as he set himself in the context of the prophets. From the practice of Jesus we draw most of all on his denunciation of every form of oppression and political or religious exclusion, as well as on his option for those who are weak and forgotten. This latter is an expression of the unfailing commitment of God, along with the call to follow him on the path of simplicity and perseverance in service and in order to fully enter into the movement itself. In a context of institutional injustice, we believe that his option implies a transformation of structures and attitudes with a view to establishing a society that is more human and sharing.
    So, we concentrated on the ethical demands of the following of Jesus. We tried to incarnate and to bring his message into our times through our responsible action. Did he himself not invite his disciples to “do this…,” notably in the story of the washing of the feet (John 13) or in the parable of the last judgement (Matt. 25)? It’s a matter of loving in acts and in truth. In the perspective of Jesus, ethical commitment confirms the authenticity of hope. It flows from it and is coherent with it. This prevents us from finding refuge in a passive waiting for some future paradise and constitutes the criterion for the truthfulness of our invocation of the Name of God. (Matt. 7, 21-23).
    Ethical commitment is at the heart of our hope. Yet, the question arises whether it is capable of providing a foundation for that hope. In what measure does hope depend on the persistence or on the radical character of our efforts to bring it into being?
    We begin by asking ourselves on what horizon of meaning, on what confidence in the future our ethical commitment to the following of Jesus is based. He never proposed precise historical results for our hope. He did not promise the reestablishment of the royalty in Israel, nor the end of injustice, poverty or violence. Nevertheless, he announced the coming of a new world, already present, which he called the Kingdom or the Reign of God. In it the great project of the Creator for humanity and for the universe was to be brought to fulfilment. And he called for conversion, to a radical turning around of social relationships in order to enter into this new world where the last will be first, where those who humble themselves will be exalted, where we turn the other cheek and love our enemies. He condemned the rich and invited us to become servants to one another….
    Ethical commitment in discipleship with Jesus flows from a utopia inspired by the Spirit. A vision of the future like this does not come from any anticipation of foreseeable results. No doubt hope requires the conviction that our combats can bear fruit. It is possible to achieve more justice and humanity in specific areas, on a more or less short term: a model for sustainable development, less dependence on petroleum, a more functional democracy, the end of one or another tyrannical regime, recognition or one or another rights, and so on.
    Hope, nonetheless, is not satisfied with partial or provisional gains. Its expectation is on the level of God’s project. It rests on God’s fidelity to the Covenant that was established with us in order to bring about God’s work. This hope counts on God’s action at the heart of our own in order to assure the fruitfulness of our efforts beginning right now, while still keeping open the question of its historical efficacy in the long run. Wanting to transform the world socially and politically is an objective that we can reach and that is coherent with the conversion Jesus called as also with his promises. However, that struggle for transformation is not entirely satisfied by its meaning and its intention. As important as the list of our partial victories may be, they always remain at some distance from the radically, globally and sustainably transformed world. We are neither the masters of the work of the Kingdom to come, nor those who are responsible for its coming. We are its servants in the working out of a wisdom or of a power that confides to us the keys of the future.
    That is no reason to announce the end of history, as neoliberalism has inappropriately done. Nor is it a reason to justify quitting or demobilizing. If the utopia of hope doesn’t expect paradise on earth, it believes and works constantly for the coming of a new world prefigured by every advance toward a more human world and the mediation of each of our struggles. That is the source of our mobilization and it is that which inspires all our efforts. Because the outcome of the human adventure does not depend on our efforts alone, we can be radically committed to following Jesus with the same filial confidence that allowed him to let himself be led without compromise through the interior force of the one whom he called, in familiar terms, his Abba (Father) at the wedding feast of Canada and during the night of his Passion. Even as he remains our major ethical reference, the prophetic figure of Jesus leads us toward a profoundly theological attitude.

2. Weave together the links between our struggles.
    The networks of our commmitments periodically give witness to the difficulty of providing places for convergence as if the struggles continued to be sectoral. That was once again the case recently after the last Quebec Social Forum, in spite of some efforts to pull together issues like eco-feminism.
    In the networks inspired by Christianity, the same fragmentation can happen. It is normal that each of us cannot show the same degree of interest in or commitment to the full range of issues that mobilize us. What becomes problematic is a certain distrust or even antagonism among groups with different orientations, as far as their objectives go, or their methods of action, their ideological affiliations or institutional references. This may sometimes lead to discrediting certain forms of action, or to holding some groups at a distance from the large fraternity, either because they are judged to be not politicized enough, for example, or too closed to the theological dimension of the Christian faith. In that case, what suffers is the common cause that brings us together: that of creating, at all levels of our shared life, spaces for inclusion in dignity and active solidarity with the most vulnerable, relationships of sharing among ourselves and with our planet. Does this shared hope not transcend each of our causes or particular approaches? By refocusing constantly on hope, we will be better able to practice among ourselves that welcome of difference that we work to make possible in society as also in the Church.
3. Keeping the spirit alive
    Another observation that is common in our networks is that the struggles demand a lot of energy and that sometimes we just don’t have it. It’s normal sometimes to feel fatigue, but it there is a weariness made heavy by doubt that can drain us out when we have the impression of carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders. Does it not happen that we let ourselves become so totally absorbed by carrying out our projects or advancing our causes that we lose sight somewhat of the other manifestations of and calls from a Presence that is very close to the everyday, among those who are close to us and our companions on the journey or even in ourselves? Could we not see in the winks from life a sign of hope, something like a call from the first source of all renewal of the world?
    Our responsibility takes its meaning from being the response to that Other who goes before us, who is greater than us and who, like his Father, “is always at work” (John 5,17). Being attentive to this constant upsurge of life that is unpredictable and that comes in all sorts of forms, allows us to live out our struggles in a covenant with the Living One, to see ourselves as carried by a life that acts through our efforts. This is perhaps the condition that allows us to keep up our spirit and a certain quality of being in the fire of action. It also allows us to continue to believe in the impossible even when everything seems to say the opposite of our hopes.

4. Staying awake during the night
    How can we keep our hope alive in the middle of a violent world? First of all, by resisting violence with all our strength, by taking up the defence of the weak and by fighting the powers of death at their side. The rising up of the oppressed to stand and organize to defend their rights and those of others like them is already a sign of hope. Striking events like that of Solidarnosc in Poland or the end of apartheid in South Africa sometimes occur to crown the struggle with success. Unfolding events like that of the recent ascent of the left in Latin America are encouraging signs. In Quebec, the adoption of Bill 112 [Trans: Bill for the Elimination of Poverty.] represents a significant achievement prolonged by an untiring fight to make sure it is put into practice. It’s the same thing, recently, with the agreement the ecological movement reached with the paper industry [Trans: In Quebec] for the exploitation of the boreal forest. There are quite a number of other achievements that could be added to the list. But, how about those that don’t end well? What about those who end their days under the blows of violence and injustice, in refugee camps or as prisoners, in favelas or in urban areas ravaged by the drug cartels? What is the light that sometimes appears on the faces of all these crucified people?
    There is no other response to this question than the face of Christ on the cross, executed among two thieves. Even before his resurrection, the free gift of his life spread the light of a goodness, of an unimaginable compassion for humanity and a confident abandonment into the hands of the Father. The cross leads us to believe that every situation of suffering or of oppression, even the most dramatic examples, can be a path of transformation, a road toward life.
    It happens sometimes that innocent victims offer this same witness to the truth of God by gestures of forgiveness, of mutual help and of disinterested service, in the midst of their misery and often at the risk of their lives. Their courage in getting up each day with the conviction that tomorrow will be better is a witness to a confidence in the future that can never be uprooted. It happens that all that they have is their suffering, borne with patience and non-violence. That is when their witness questiones the hardness of our own heart and obliges us to see the impact. It is as if to open a breach that pierces a new awareness, another way of being human.
    The persistence or the recurrence of evil in the world is the trial that can most sap the foundations of our hope and our commitments. They can also serve as a spur against our bowing out, like the call of an emergency that is never lifted. For that to be the case, we need to see the glow of the new world shine right into the middle of the thickest darkness. That is what can keep us standing and moving forward: the attention to the secretly active presence of the Spirit who recreates a new humanity by a multitude of paths that are often incomprehensible and that, over the centuries, raises up witnesses that are bearers of hope.

THE QUEBEC CONTEXTUAL THEOLOGY GROUP (1)

May 2010

Contact person : Guy Côté (gcote1740@hotmail.com)

(1) Michel Beaudin, Céline Beaulieu, Guy Côté, Roger Éthier, Lise Lebrun, Jean Ménard, Richard Renshaw; Eliana Carmen Sotomayor, Marcela Villalobos.