With the Poor
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Inclusion, Power and Cosmology
We are called to directly engaging with Jesus asHe clearly identifies himself with those who are isolated, vulnerable, hungry and powerless
The King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me into your house. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you went to see me".
Then the upright will ask him: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food; thirsty and give you drink, or a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to see you?" The King will answer, "Truly, I say to you: whenever you did this to one of the least, to my brothers, you did it to me." - Matthew 25 : 34-39
How do we prepare ourselves to start working in programmes that engage with people and communities experiencing extreme poverty and marginalisation?
Jesus' teaching as outlined in Matthew above appears quite straightforward and unequivocal; go out and give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, clothing to those without, spend time with those isolated by sickness or imprisonment and give welcome to strangers. Why is this formula for action so important?
It is Other focused - It calls us to an inclusive orientation or stance and one that is opposed to exclusion.
- It is about restoring imbalance and injustice - those who are on the edges or outside of the community are brought back in by being given their entitled share of its common good.
- It is about directly engaging with Jesus as, in this passage and in so many others throughout the gospels, He clearly identifies himself with those who are isolated, vulnerable, hungry and powerless.
- It elevates the status of the excluded Other because this is the group with whom Jesus sees himself belonging - ‘you do it to me, "one of the least, to my brothers"'.
Most humans do not need to be taught by Jesus to be charitable to others in need. Our own intrinsic goodness, which is an innate part of our human nature, impels us to respond when we see or encounter others suffering. Yet simultaneously, within this same human nature is the capacity to inflict great cruelty and suffering on those who we have excluded from our common good community. Those of us who don't consciously inflict great cruelty and suffering on others possess the capacity to ‘not see' and ‘not engage with' the suffering of the excluded Other.
Where Jesus' teaching is important for us within the Christian narrative is that He provides the means whereby, through Him, we can practice the transformative discipline of adopting an inclusive orientation or stance. This practice will sharpen our response to the excluded Other and open our vision to identify and engage with exclusion wherever it exists. One other very significant piece of Jesus' teaching about the excluded Other is that they are given full status with the community from where they are excluded or are on the margins of. Their poverty and apparent powerlessness does not diminish their humanity, nor their status within the community.
Power Relationships in Helping Others
How we engage with people experiencing extreme poverty and marginalisation is critical. Similarly, how our engagement is experienced by the Other is just as critical. Being an individual or organisation with resources to help an Other bestows power and it is a power that does not go away simply because we don't want to claim it or recognise it. It exists and is experienced by those without it regardless of our own intentions or motives. How we engage with the Other experiencing poverty and how we share this power are inextricably bound up.
To share power with an Other requires a quality of relationship that encompasses characteristics from concepts such as, humility, respect, dignity, equality, inclusion and interdependence. When a relationship begins between a helper and someone being helped it begins with a power differential that will be experienced by the ‘helped'. This power differential will continue until the ‘helper' applies the discipline or stance that can shape the relationship with these characteristics and power can begin to be shared. A power sharing relationship requires a structural, as well as an individual discipline or stance.
The Practice of Helping. Charity, Alms Giving
The giving of money, food or goods to the ‘needy' reflect a generosity of spirit, a recognition that others are suffering, that acts to alleviate this suffering are required and that these are good acts for individuals or the community to be involved in. Generally these are acts that bring about some temporary relief to the suffering of the Other, but, by themselves they tend to not address any of the complex reasons why an individual or recipient group needs help or is suffering. Unfortunately when people give help to an Other without paying sufficient attention to the power relationship they are engaged in, they can, unconsciously perhaps, cause a disconnect between themselves and the one who is receiving their help. The result of this disconnect will often be an increased powerlessness and a lowering of status and esteem of those "helped".
Power Relationships, Spirituality and Cosmology
Each of us has a sense of where our own selves are positioned in relationship with others; those intimately close to us, those within our common good community and those on the edge or excluded from this community. This sense is informed by our own spirituality and the dominant cosmology shared by our community. Historically people have practiced charity to others out of an innate human goodness that wants to respond to others in need. Many with a religious ethic bring to their charitable practice a dynamic or purpose that may also be about participating in a Divine plan or exercising their own relationship with their God/s or religious body of beliefs and practice.
From a Christian point of view the dominant Cosmology for the last four to five centuries evolved towards an individualistic focus. Each person's relationship with God was important and societies and economies evolved to reflect democratic ways for individuals to live and work together within a mutual, or common good community. Responsibility focused on the individual. Generally a sense of justice and a concern for others less fortunate is the motivation to help the marginalised Other, but fundamentally, any individuals that fell to the margins of the common good community, or were outside of it all together, were there by their own responsibility.
This is a too simplistic statement to adequately reflect the many rationales that place responsibility more on the marginalised than the community - rationales such as Divine will, or each person's situation reflecting a falling in or out of God's grace or favour. The thrust of such a statement was that in an individualistic cosmology it is generally arbitrary whether the community picks up any responsibility for the marginalisation or exclusion of any of its individual members. If there is truth in this, then the very act of choosing to help an Other becomes a discretionary act based on having the power of choice.
Within the evolving cosmology of today there is a shift from an individualistic focus towards an awareness of all of creation being inter-connected and inter-dependent. As this awareness gains ascendancy in our community's consciousness there will be greater awareness of our whole-of-community's responsibility for those of us who are suffering and marginalised. The response to help them shifts from being an arbitrary choice towards being an imperative, as their suffering or marginalisation mirrors our own diminishment. Within an inter-dependent, inter-connected cosmology we are all ‘in it together' and if some of us have our capability to thrive, to live fully, reduced, so do we all. If the capability to thrive within parts of the eco-system within which we live- our Earth, is reduced, all of us will experience the consequences eventually.
The words of Christ in Matt 25: 39, quoted above, jump out in relief when read from this evolving cosmology consciousness:
"Truly, I say to you: whenever you did this to one of the least, to my brothers, you did it to me."
As Christ identifies himself with those who are isolated, vulnerable, hungry and powerless, so do all of us and the status of the excluded and suffering Other is elevated towards a Christ -like level because these are who He identifies with. This is the place of radical responsibility for the Other.
