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Sunday
This past week Mariann Budde, who was my diocesan bishop when I lived and worked in southern Maryland, called upon to “have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” Among these were LGBTQ+ children, immigrant laborers, and refugees fleeing oppression. It was very much in the spirit of Jesus when, returning to Nazareth, he spoke before the synagogue in which he had grown up (today’s Gospel lesson). And just as Jesus was roundly attacked and almost thrown off a cliff, so was the bishop roundly attacked by Trump and his supporters, including so-called Christian Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House. Trump’s Christian supporters seem to have no problem beating up on the poor.
At the end of today’s post I include a poem by Nicaraguan poet Ernesto Cardenal, a practitioner of liberation theology who draws on the psalms just as Jesus did.
First, here’s what Jesus had to say in today’s Gospel:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.
And now Budde:
Let me make one final plea, Mr. President. Millions have put their trust in you and, as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives. The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away. And that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here. Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger, for we were all once strangers in this land. May God grant us the strength and courage to honor the dignity of every human being, to speak the truth to one another in love and walk humbly with each other and our God for the good of all people. Good of all people in this nation and the world. Amen”
And finally Cardenal’s poem, translated by Jonathan Cohen. If you know the psalms, you will see it as written very much in that tradition:
Give Ear to My Words, Psalm 5
Give ear to my words O Lord
Hear my groans
Listen to my protest
For you are not a God who is a friend of dictators
nor a supporter of their politics
nor are you influenced by their propaganda
nor do you associate with any gangster
There’s no honesty in their speeches
nor in their press releases
They talk of peace in their speeches
while they increase their war production
They talk of peace at Peace Conferences
and secretly prepare for war
Their lying radios blare all night long
Their desks are piled with criminal plans
and sinister documents
But you will protect me from their plans
They speak through the mouth of machine guns
Their flashing tongues
are bayonets…
Punish them O God
foil their politics
mix up their memos
block their programs
At the hour of the Alarm Siren
you will be with me
you will be my refuge on the day of the Bomb
You bless the righteous
who don’t believe in the lies of their ads
nor in their publicity and political campaigns
Your love surrounds them
like armored tanks
It’s worth noting that, while Cardenal’s radical Christianity drew the fire of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza so that he had to flee to Costa Rica, it also angered the Marxist government that overthrew Somoza. His funeral in 2020 was disrupted by pro-Daniel Ortega supporters and he had to be buried in secret.
