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| "Freedom" (Zenos Frudakis) |
This blog explores today’s slavery from a liminal space where we are invited to expand our consciousness so to have a better understanding of the root causes of inhuman behaviour at the collective and individual level. As Mahatma Gandhi said: “Freedom and slavery are mental states”. Martin Luther King also said that “as long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery.”
This blog is based on the belief that, deep within reality, all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected; that when we live from the core of our being, there is no “out there.” It is an invitation to vulnerability, to powerlessness, to name, to own, to deconstruct and to embrace humanity’s collective pain in the here and now as we breathe forgiveness. Walter Brueggemann says that embracing is the culmination of a process which involves “confrontation with the numbness of death, recognizing and naming that which has outlived its usefulness, grieving its loss, ritualizing the letting go, and eventually laying the death to rest.” In other words “to criticize in order to energize.” And this was Jesus’ strategic wisdom on Justice and Peacebuilding. As Diarmuid O’Murchu says: “My concern is the Jesus who embraced deconstruction as a central strategy of his life and mission.”
Richard Rohr’s inspiring and articulated principles on contemplation and action will guide us in the challenging journey to embrace the 'giant wound.' The second of his principles highlights the beliefs that we need a contemplative mind in order to engage in compassionate action. This goes together with Thomas Merton’s words to Thich Nhat Hanh when saying that: “a new mentality is needed, and this implies above all a recovery of ancient and original wisdom; and a real contact with what is right under our noses.”
As we fight against slavery, our strategies are challenged again and again. We are constantly encouraged to imagine and envision new creative alternatives; to engage in new knowledge creation. I believe that the ultimate abolition of slavery will happen once we are courageous enough to be transformed and healed out of the very energy trapped in enslavement. In the end we are invited to a paradoxical journey where breathing forgiveness will recreate us becoming fully alive.
