Inspirations by Chava Redonnet, Chaplain |
Satyagraha, and humble service
A few days ago someone forwarded an email about hot chocolate, and how it tastes just as good from an old, cracked mug as it does from fine china --- and how our lives are like that, it’s not the containers that count, the containers being our houses and cars and jobs – but the living, the life itself that’s what’s satisfying. (Actually I didn’t like the story much, because it had this professor guy offering his students cocoa and then lecturing them about how they all chose the nice cups and how it didn’t really matter, which I thought was a pretty rude kind of pedagogy, but I liked the point about it tasting good no matter the vessel). It made me think of one of our guests, a man named Eric who had been sleeping on the picnic table in our parking lot all summer, who said one day that it’s too bad that most people don’t appreciate how great life is. Well, like I said, I don’t know how John felt about his life, but I know that there were some people who were really sad to see him go. The readings at his memorial were serendipitous, as readings so often are – the lectionary for that day had us reading “The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them…” from Wisdom – and from Psalm 34, “The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.” The Gospel seemed to me to have little to do with John – it was from Luke 17, that rather tough bit where Jesus says, in effect, “Look, you’re just servants. Don’t expect a parade.” But someone pointed out that the reading really did sound like John – a humble guy who didn’t expect a parade, who loved his God and tried to live the kind of life he believed God wanted him to, within the reality of his alcoholism. “God’s man.” But I didn’t know that when I was preparing, didn’t know the reading was applicable to him at all, so I tried to think of something useful to say about this really rather difficult passage – I mean, where’s “Well done, good and faithful servant”? We might not want a gold star but it would be nice to have, you know, a hug! I remember how good it felt when my first boss would say, “Good job!” - I would kind of glow, I can still remember the feeling - and here’s Jesus saying, “don’t expect to be appreciated.” But this reading is about humility and duty, and doing what we know we must do – and I know lots of people who live like that – lots of them, out there serving the poor, walking with God’s people, acting justly and loving tenderly and walking humbly with their God --- and a whole bunch of them had been at the Catholic Worker the night before. We had a non-violence training for our shelter volunteers, which is really necessary because sometimes things can get tense. What I noticed was how many people were there who could have said, “hey, I’ve been doing this for years! I don’t need non-violence training!” – there were people there who are living non-violence every day of their lives – walking with the poorest people in our city, nurturing life, bringing love and hope to some pretty loveless, hopeless places, challenging themselves to live lovingly, peacefully. But not one of them claimed that. Not one of them seemed to think they had it all together where non-violence was concerned, not even our leaders. Both of them, Harry and Chris, talked about how they’re still learning this. Harry talked about parenting being the thing that caught him up short – I know that’s true for me, too – someone I know said once, “I always thought I was a good person. And then I had kids.” Harry said almost the same thing – and anyone I know who is honest about how hard parenting is, says that, too. So we were there, learning together. Hearing about Gandhi and the principles of Satyagraha: admit your mistakes. Act in openness and honesty. Trust your opponent. Don’t take advantage of your opponent. Always distinguish between the evil and the person. Those principles – it takes about thirty seconds to write them down. Living them is a bit harder. Thirty years aren’t enough. In fact, after thirty years I think it’s easier to see how I fail, easier to admit it. But the living of it – the going back into the field like the servant in the story Jesus told – the day-to-day stretching and learning and growing, learning how to love, how to live in peace, how to act justly and love tenderly and walk humbly with our God --- that’s the best adventure I know. And it can be done from anywhere. From a picnic table in a homeless shelter parking lot – from any kind of mug – it’s going to taste just as good.
Chava Redonnet
Previous Inspirations by Chava Redonnet: ============= To volunteer, review our rewarding opportunities on our Volunteer page. To help us financially, visit our Donation page. For more information, please call 232-3262 and ask for Tom Malthaner. |
Tuesday afternoon we had a memorial service at St Joe’s for a man named John. We heard from those who knew him that he was a very smart man, and had been quite successful in his field before alcohol destroyed all that… I almost wrote, “destroyed his life,” but I don’t know if that’s true. I mean, we heard about his smile, and that he was “God’s man.” I don’t know if he would have said his life was destroyed, or how he felt about it.