February 22
1 Pt 5:1-4; Mt 16:13-19
In the first reading, Peter exhorts the pastoral leaders not to “lord” power over people in their care. This hearkens back to when Jesus told his disciples that they should not wield power in the same way as the world (from Matthew 20:25) by “lording” it over one another.
Then in the gospel, Peter is told that what is considered bound on earth is bound in heaven and what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven.
Jesus was always attuned to the dynamics of power and wanted his disciples to pay attention to this also. Who uses power? In what ways? On behalf of whom?
My friend and mentor, Kathy Castania, often references models of power. She talks about the dominator model which is the model most of us are very familiar with and replicate. It is based on the use of force, coercion and hierarchy to achieve what it wants. It is a system based on a scarcity model and views the world in a binary manner (someone is up and someone is down). It is the model that we experience most often in our political, economic, educational, justice and familial systems, and punishment is a big part of its functioning. But it’s not the only model.
There exist many collaborative and shared power models. Here resources are defined in terms of abundance. Systems focus not on who is up or down but more on whether the least or most vulnerable members are doing well. While people have roles in systems, no one is more important than another, and when harm happens, restoring bonds of connection (versus punishment) is of high importance.
You can probably guess where Jesus would come down, and, quite frankly, the most powerful modeling of shared power I have experienced has come from being around women, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) folks, queer and trans communities, and other groups of people who have been wounded by dominator models. In general, those who have been excluded and harmed develop alternatives that are really important for us to learn from. My guess is that by Jesus hanging around with people on the margins, he too learned new ways of living into God’s kin-dom.
Lent is a great time to think more deeply about power and how it is used.
First we all have some forms of wounding related to dominator models that we need to heal. Dominator models have caused a lot of harm (in our families and in society), and if we don’t heal those wounds, we’re very likely to pass them on to others. We will need body and heart practices to do that healing.
Second, noticing how power and privilege operate around us is a crucial step in interrupting dominator models and/or cultivating shared power models. Both of these are playing out every day and all around us. Jesus was trying to help his disciples “notice” what was happening by pointing it out, and the reality is that the more privilege we have in a system the less likely we are to be able to notice how it operates. We often need assistance so that we can really see what is happening.
I have been reading a brilliant little Lenten reflection book by Walter Brueggemann called A Way Other Than Our Own. In it he says that Jesus seeks to teach us a new way to care for and be with each other in this world, but it is likely a way other than the one we have become accustomed to. It will require something very different of us. And it can start today if we are open to it.
10 Comments
Sarah Brownell
Our friends in Latin American have done a lot of good writing/reflecting on issues of power, such as Paulo Freire (Brazil) in “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” who talked about power in education systems (esp. for adult ed) and Gustavo Gutierrez (Peru) in “A Theology of Liberation” who addressed it in the Catholic Church. The use of Small Christian Communities like we do at Spiritus is part of Liberation Theology. I try to keep Freire in mind in my teaching…but is hard when systems are so entrenched in having and maintaining power structures. Also, we tend to replicate the way we ourselves learned, which is almost invariably in a heiarchical structure..it is hard to break the cycle.
Mike Boucher Author
Sarah, thank you for bringing the Latin American contributions into the conversation. Freire, Gutierrez and so many others have invited us to shift the domination systems – and especially in the church. As you say, however, the entrenchment is real and the cycles are hard to break…yet in your work and teaching I see such deep efforts towards shared power and collaboration. You help to model what it can look like.
Francene C McCarthy
Thank you, Mike. Brilliant and thought provoking as usual.
Mike Boucher Author
thanks, Francene!
Kathy Hanford
And how do we heal those wounds?
Mike Boucher Author
Thanks for asking that question, Kathy. The short and perhaps unsatisfying response is, “It depends…” because it does depend on what kinds of harm have happened to us. There may be physical harm, forms of oppression, silencing, rejection, emotional abuse and (sadly) the list goes on. But I suggest here that we will need many different forms of healing in order to move through these hurts. My fundamental belief is that any forms of harm that we have endured (and correspondingly that we perpetuate) separate us from ourselves and each other. So if you have been harmed, re-connecting with feeling, sensation, psyche, heart and body are all paths towards reclaiming wholeness. Reconnecting with the earth and it’s tremendous healing energy is another path. Mindfulness practices, yet another. Herbs, aromatherapy, colors and sounds can be a path. Therapy and/or spiritual direction can help as do other relationships and being in community with others. I do not want to be too vague and would be happy to talk more about this if you’d like. It really is such an important question you ask.
Joan Elizabeth Chandler
“Kin-dom”. I love the change of terms.
Mike Boucher Author
I certainly can’t take credit for making that up. I heard it a long time ago in feminist circles and your highlighting it made me do a little research….Apparently the term “kin-dom” was introduced into public discourse by Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz who said she learned it from her friend Georgene Wilson, O.S.F.” Thank you!
Sarah Brownell
I learned to use Kin-dom mainly in the Our Father from Harry Murray, who is part of the community at St. Joseph’s House. 🙂 It really sounded a lot better to me that way.
Mike Boucher Author
Gotta love Harry Murray!
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