Removing Reproach

Readings: JOS 5:9A, 10-12; 2 COR 5:17-21; LK 15:1-3, 11-32

(Note: Today’s gospel contains one of the most important stories told by Jesus.  While it is not the focus of what I write about in this blog, I would encourage you to go back and read “The Prodigal Son”.  If you want to read my prior blog reflection on the passage, click here)

I had to stop and look up the word “reproach” from the first reading because if it meant what I thought it meant, then this is such a powerful line.  And it did mean what I thought.

In the first reading from Joshua, the Israelites are finally “stable” and settled in their new land.  God says, “Today, I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.”

The way that it is used here, reproach refers to the shame and disgrace caused by an event.  In this case, the Israelites had endured the shame and disgrace of slavery and then the shame of wandering in the desert for so long.  They had not been able to perform all of the rituals and community practices that made them whole.  These had been ripped from them by the horrors of slavery and then the experience in the desert.

Someone who has influenced me a lot is the West Indian and French philosopher and psychiatrist Franz Fanon.  Fanon, as a Black man watching France’s violence in Algeria in the 1950’s, wrote extensively on what happens to the subjugated in colonialism/imperialism. He said that colonizers not only enslave and objectify the bodies of those that they colonize, they also work to enslave the minds and psyches.  Colonization, imperialism and forced enslavement also seek to remind the subjugated that they are less than, worth less, not normal.

We know this to be the case in our own country.

Colonizers did this to the indigenous populations living here.

The same was done to enslaved Africans that were brought here for labor.

And the same playbook is used with any marginalized group.  Women have been told that they are inferior and less than.  LGBTQ+ people have been told this.  People with disabilities the same.  And the list goes on.  It is a pernicious and toxic process whereby the oppressor defines what is “normal” and tells you that you are not it.

This process was done to the Israelites enslaved in Egypt.  They were reminded again and again by the Egyptians that they were less than.  That their lives had no value.  That they were objects.  For multiple generations.

And so for God to say today that the “reproach” has been removed from them is a big deal.  This means that not only were they physically free.  They were psychologically free.

In today’s world, we call this the healing of trauma.  We have become so much more aware of the effects of trauma not only on a person’s life but also on the life of a community.  And we know that trauma – especially collective trauma – can get “passed down” to subsequent generations.

The work of healing from our traumas – whatever their origin – is substantive work because sometimes our trauma reactions become so normalized that they are not even recognized as such.  The influential trauma therapist Resmaa Menakem says that, “Many times trauma in a person decontextualized over time can look like personality. Trauma in a family decontextualized over time can look like family traits, trauma decontextualized in a people over time can look like culture and it takes time to slow it down so you can begin to discern what’s what.”

Part of the Lenten journey is personal and communal restoration, and this work takes into the realm of trauma healing.  This can take many forms – from therapy to recovery, from changing our diet to going out dancing.   Returning to deep cultural practices and rituals can certainly be part of that healing as well and can restore our sense of safety and familiarity.

We’re told in the first reading that God sustained the people with manna in the desert until they could feed themselves.  I think our healing journey is similar.  We have arrived at this place in our lives – sometimes getting by on very little.  But we got here.  As we do this healing work, we take deep breaths and ground ourselves in the present moment.  Slowly we begin to feed ourselves.

For today, just take stock of where you are in your healing journey. Check in with yourself about what might need healing – personally and in your wider spheres (like family, culture, etc.).  Breathe in goodness and release the pain.  Let God help you remove the reproach of what has harmed you.

(By the way, I did a little research and found that the word used for “removing” reproach in Hebrew is the word “rolled away.” So when Jesus’ tomb stone was “rolled away” he was now free from the shame and humiliation of his death. And the root word for “reproach” in Hebrew relates to the word “diaspora” – people who have been separated from their homeland. Thus when reproach is removed, that which has been alienated comes home. The interconnections here are nothing less than profound.)