[Note: Today’s guest blogger is Sarah Brownell. Sarah is a mother, Catholic Worker, and Solidarity Engineer currently working as a lecturer for the engineering capstone program at RIT. Sarah’s been a member of Spiritus Christi since 1999 following her first trip to Haiti with H.O.P.E. and has volunteered with the Religious Education, Haiti, and Chiapas ministries and the GBI pilot program. Thank you, Sarah!]
I believe that I know a lot of prophets. Maybe I am drawn to these prophetic voices because prophecy is not my own spiritual gift. But by walking with them, I have noticed something: most of them have a lot of trouble from the leadership, even in their own countries, workplaces, and churches. Nevertheless they persist. They are inspired or called or compelled to share their truths despite the consequences. My husband, Kevin, who I consider a prophetic voice, told me that, to him, it feels like something bubbling up from within that cannot be held, a truth beyond his control, a truth that must be shared.
It is in the place of rejection by leadership that we find Jesus today in the Gospel. Although he was born in Bethlehem in Judea, Jesus grew up in Nazareth in “Galilee of the Gentiles,” which was considered the outskirts or the boonies, compared with Judea. (Here’s a map of Israel at Jesus’ time for reference.) From the perspective of the Judeans, the Galileans spoke with accents and were considered backwards, “contaminated” by the influences of neighboring Syrian and Phoenician tribes. They were not even allowed to say public prayers because of their pronunciation. In general, they were not seen as pure Jews in the eyes of the Judeans, who considered themselves to be at the center of the faith in Jerusalem. This sentiment is clear from the reading when the leaders say “Look and see, no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Yeah, how could someone “from the sticks” be a prophet or the Messiah? But God shows us time and time again that there seems to be something about being from the margins that allows one to see the center more clearly.
When Jesus starts his ministry he first goes further north in Galilee, away from the center. And all of his disciples are gathered from Galilee, with the exception of Judas Iscariot. When the gospel begins today, Jesus has come down to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Tabernacles–somewhat secretly because he knows of the plot against him. He begins teaching first at the festival and then more openly in the temple courts. There are mixed reactions from the crowd–from amazement at his brilliance, to those calling him a prophet or the Christ, to those insisting that he is deceiving people and should be arrested.
When things get uncertain or scary, people naturally look to their leaders for advice. So some in the crowd go to see the chief priests and Pharisees. Nicodemis, who the leaders seem to know comes from Galilee perhaps because of his accent, attempts to argue for critical thinking and spiritual discernment. But the leaders insist that the crowd is accursed and deceived. They imply that Nicodemis is stupid, that he should know prophets don’t come from Galilee. Their message is that believers should tow the line of the leadership and dismiss Jesus.
So how does this play out in modern times?
When I think of prophets dismissed by leadership, Dr. Thony, the director at the H.O.P.E. hospital in Borgne comes to mind. You may have heard him speak at one of the H.O.P.E. Masses or even danced with him at a Kombit.
Born on the side of the road as his mother was coming from the hills on the outskirts of Borgne to sell goods at the market, Dr. Thony has dedicated his life to improving the health of his neighbors. He grew up brilliant and hardworking and received an amazing opportunity to study medicine in Cuba, which has one of the best public health programs in the world. He has used that training to expand preventive and primary care services to all the people of the commune of Borgne–even those way out in the boonies. His propheic work is that of action and healing more than words, and it has earned him a lot of credibility, respect and love from the people. He demonstrates a way of being, a way of caring that embraces all, but with a preferential option for the poor.
Unfortunately, much like in Jesus’ case, these sentiments have been taken as threats by powerful politicians in Haiti who would very much like to take control of both the resources of the hospital and the hearts of the people in their quest to maintain their own power and positions. Dr. Thony has faced threats for decades, but the community of Borgne have time and time again rallied for him. You might remember how two years ago, the hospital was ransacked as a gang tried to kill Dr. Thony, but many many people stood up for him, both locally in Borgne (despite grave physical danger) and here in Rochester. The political leaders had dismissed his way of doing medicine, his way of being in the world. Yet as they say in Haiti “Kreyon Pep pa gen gnom” — The People’s pencil has no eraser. The people took to the streets, they wrote articles, had radio shows, they made Tik Toks, they met with Congress people, they made phone calls, they filed legal cases, and eventually, they prevailed. Fearlessly, Dr. Thony has now returned and is working on re-establishing all the hospital programs. The USAID cuts will be his next challenge, but I know Dr. Thony will persist.
I have another friend, let’s call him Rafael (not his real name). He works as an engagement specialist in the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Office for the college of engineering at a prestigious university. This university is a leader and an exemplar in recruiting diverse leadership. However, the students that Rafael represents, Students of Color, international students, and LGBTQ+ students still struggle with university policies that adversely impact them, especially around policing, disciplinary actions, free speech, and academic suspensions around “merit”. Even though the faces of people in leadership are diverse, the structure and culture of the institution still pushes out the marginalized students. These persistent problems have led electrical engineer, anti-racist STEM education researcher and author Ebony McGee to compare the system of STEM education to an exclusionary table. She says she doesn’t want to bring other voices to the table – she wants to break the table. (reference)
When Rafael points out the pain points to the administration and advocates for his students, he is shut down, gas lit or told to follow the “chain of command.” This response is the same as the chief priests and Pharisees who didn’t want to hear Jesus’ critique. Raphael has even been penalized by disciplinary action and lost pay for apologizing to students for not being able to do more to support them (his apology, the administration says, misrepresented the view of the institution). That institution relies on their past accolades for diversity to write off current bad behavior and dismiss Rafael’s prophetic critique. Even great institutions can be called to be even better.
All of this leads me to say: Even if we love and value our institutions, when the margins speak, we should be humble and perk up our ears and listen.
Still prophets are just people, not God, and therefore not perfect, as we see in the Isaiah reading. Just as Isaiah gives gratitude to God for making him aware of those who would persecute him, he also asks God to take vengeance on them. To me vengeance is a human response, not something I attribute to God. Pacifist Walter Wink wrote about the three ways to respond to violence 1.) Passivity, 2.) violent opposition, and 3.) The way of Jesus, which he referred to as the Third Way. It seems to me that God often finds a “third” way, to save those who are persecuted while also trying to transform, not to punish, the persecutors. Daniel subdues the lions in the lion’s den, David refuses to harm King Saul who is persecuting him, Joseph is warned in a dream to flee to Egypt, and Jesus heals the ear of the soldier in the garden of Gethsemane. Our desire for vengeance, for violent, demeaning, and carceral punishments, are human failures of both our compassion and our creativity to call our human family back into a community of love.
Prophets are people just like you and me. They are not and do not have to be perfect people. Their job is to remind us – in word and deed – what God’s kin-dom can look like in our midst. And they often come from the margins – which makes their analysis and crituque spot on and yet can disturb us and make us uncomfortable with its clarity.
Maybe part of our Lenten journey is to keep finding the prophets in our midst and take in their message and apprentice ourselves to them. And maybe we, too, will find ourselves in a bit of “good trouble” along the way. At least we will be in good company.
References
McGee, E. (2022).“Why Historically Excluded STEM Researchers Can Help Save the planet!,” Explorations in Diversifying Engineering Faculty Initiative.
WINK, W. (2017). Engaging the Powers: 25th Anniversary Edition. Augsburg Fortress. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1tm7j16
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