Let Yourself Be Touched By The Events Around You

Every once in a while, there’s the life of another human that impacts you a bit more than others and gives you some hope and encouragement (from the root word ‘coeur’ meaning that they give you heart). Bishop Thomas Gumbleton was one of those people for me, and his passing on April 4th was a significant loss. 

I came across Bishop Gumbleton back when I was in college, and he was one of the few bishops in the United States who was speaking out publicly on so many important issues. I met him on a few occasions at national conferences, and from what I recall, he had come to Corpus Christi Church in Rochester to speak a few times. Even if people never met him, however, many had heard of him!

A National Catholic Reporter (NCR) article about him called him a “bishop cut from a different cloth” and talked about him as a “bishop who not only listened (and listened deeply)…but one who made decisions based on deep reflection and study, guided by the social Gospel, the prophetic tradition and the lived experience of those he accompanied.”  Furthermore, “he gravitated to those who suffered the violence of war as well as structural violence of economic and political models that excluded the vast majority of the world’s people.” Bishop Gumbleton took his inspiration from MLK’s “beloved community” and actually participated in numerous nonviolent direct actions as part of his commitments.  This just wasn’t the standard practice of bishops!

Unlike so many in positions of power, he “used his office and position…to give voice to those…who were ignored and/or oppressed. He said yes to countless invitations to examine the root causes of world events, to place his hand in the open wounds of those who suffered, and to challenge the complicity of his country and church, even when doing so placed his standing in his country and the institutional church at risk.”

What I always appreciated about Bishop Gumbleton, was that he not only spoke about and gave witness to social issues, he spoke about and gave witness to issues within the church as well. He was an advocate of same sex marriage and the ordination of women when others were silent (or vocally opposed) and spoke openly about clergy sex abuse.  He went on in his life to become one of the founding members of Pax Christi USA (a Catholic peace movement that promotes nonviolence and rejects preparation for war) and participated in many delegations that went to areas of intense (and dangerous) conflict to use his power and influence to bring attention to violence and harm.

In today’s readings, we hear about Stephen (in the early church) who is described as being “filled with grace and power…working great wonders and signs among the people.” Bishop Thomas Gumbleton was this same kind of person.

Like most people, Tom Gumbleton did not set out to be “radical” or serve as a transformative force in the world. His journey was one of transformative experiences that he let shape, change and radicalize him. It reminds me a lot of the question the disciples ask Jesus in today’s gospel from John 6, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” And Jesus says, “Believe in the one whom God sent.”

And so Thomas Gumbleton believed in the Christ who was being sent to him in the horrific images coming out of the Vietnam war. Gumbleton believed in the Christ being sent to him in his gay brother. Gumbleton believed in the Christ being sent to him through the brutal sexual assault and murder of his friend (a nun in El Salvador) and the atrocities in that country (backed by the United States). He believed in the Christ being sent to him through the the lives of the people of Detroit. 

And he let this Christ change and work through him as he was drawn deeper and deeper into this world – drawn into its pain and suffering as well as its possibility for hope and transformation. 

In the introduction to his biography, “No Guilty Bystander,” Bishop Gumbleton himself offers us an invitation on how to live into transformational discipleship no matter who we are. He says, “find out what is going on in the world and let yourself be touched by the events around you…recognize that each of us has a small part to play in the whole picture…join with others in common efforts to bring about the kind of societal changes that are necessary…pray as though everything depends on us, but that the results depend on God..move forward with calmness and determination in our effort to transform our world into as close an image of the reign of God as possible.”

May we all learn from the witness of someone like Bishop Gumbleton and may his spirit animate our personal and collective actions.