A Guatemalan Bishop Speaks: Living Solidarity

by Alvaro Ramazzini (pictured above), Bishop of San Marcos, Guatemala

The following is a talk given by Bishop Ramazzini in the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware.

Thank you for the opportunity to share with you some reflections about Solidarity.

Solidarity is an extensive topic, which can be approached from different perspectives. The points that I will mention are the following:

1. The subject of Solidarity: its dimensions and its obstacles.

2. Human Solidarity as a Christian value.

3. The Christian sense of human Solidarity

4. The challenges of Solidarity

Before beginning I would like to point out that I have used as sources for these reflections the Word of God, the magisterium of the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala, and a study made by a Jesuit priest who worked for many years in Central America and particularly in Guatemala, Fr. Juan Hernandez Pico.

1. The Subject of Solidarity: its Dimensions and its Obstacles

All social groups, in whatever part of the world, have something in common: we are human beings. From this basis it makes sense to repeat what Saint Augustine affirmed: "I am a man and nothing human can be alien to me."

In moments of social crisis, of catastrophes, of disasters which produce pain and suffering, this common feeling of being human beings emerges with force and is transformed into "solidarity."

We are in solidarity with others because we are human beings. When this human condition is threatened, we react against everything that threatens it, whether it be war, hunger, or natural catastrophes. This shows that solidarity, in a positive sense, means to be in favor of humanization of the human condition. To treat each other as human beings, not as objects or things. To preserve and protect ourselves as human beings. To create relationships of solidarity upon the basis of a common nature and a common destiny on a common planet, will help us enormously to have a more human world.

One of the criticisms that is made of the current process of globalization it is a process in which the human person does not have first place; capital, money has it. and with it the power that money gives. For this reason the Episcopal Conference of Latin America has launched its theme for this millennium: "Let us humanize globalization, globalizing solidarity.

As we speak of relations of solidarity, we must also speak of relationships of anti-solidarity: personal and social relationships of injustice, oppression, racial and economic superiority, enmity. When I speak of relations of superiority, I refer to the superiority of colonizers over colonized, of the victors over the vanquished, of one race or ethnic group over others, of the ruling class over the people, of educators over the uneducated, of the advantaged over the backward.

Our own way of speaking shows that in the mind of many, consciously or unconsciously, these anti-solidarity relation-ships exist. We speak of the first world and the third and fourth world, of legal and illegal migrants, etc.

The ideology of superiority ("we are the richest and most powerful country on the planet," "we have the most powerful army in the world," "the decisions of the United Nations do not bother us") are found on all sides, in bigger or smaller quantities. In Guatemala, in San Marcos, this ideology of superiority manifests itself in racial discrimination ("Poor ignorant Indians without culture") in the division of social classes because of money ("I am rich, you are poor, thus you are inferior to me") in the differences in formal education ("I am a graduate of a European university, while you are a poor, illiterate person").

It is because of this ideology of superiority that the exploitation, domination, and extermination of persons and of peoples exists, because in the eyes of the superiors, the inferiors appear as subhumans.

The fact of the negation of the human condition of the pre-Colombian peoples of the Americas, of seeing them as beings without spiritual souls on the part of the Spanish conquistadors, after 500 years still exists when we defend the free transit of merchandise, capital and technology, but raise an enormous wall that blocks the way of those who want to arrive in the United States in search of better conditions of life. At bottom, the topic of migration, of which I am speaking, is a topic of relations of solidarity or anti-solidarity. Still more, it is a topic of the ideology of superiority. Rich countries do not want to lose their superiority.

When we are loyal to our human condition, we confront with vigor and decision all that threatens it, and we decidedly commit ourselves to the defense of the human condition, in an integral sense. In this moment of struggle to defend the human condition, of pushing processes of humanization, we are in solidarity.

Between the conquistadors of the 16th century who came to the Americas and the Indians who lived on these lands, there was something in common: they were human beings. But the lack of development in the consciousness of a common identity made it possible that in the Spain of the conquistadors the doubt was planted about whether the Indians were human beings or not.

The human identity of solidarity must confront obstacles: different identities, that is to say nationalisms, the sense of belonging to a country, to a culture (why do borders exist, if we all are human beings and God created a universe for all?), the force of language, race, ethnicity, religion. At the same time it must confront those factors which generate anti-solidarity: the force of castes, social differences and their respective divisions, immovable scales of social prestige, social classes.

At the current moment, what causes can we point out as factors which put at stake the fate of the human condition?

I will mention a few: nuclear holocaust, the destruction of the environment, growing poverty in the whole world, AIDS, the development of science without subjecting it to ethical prin-ciples, violence and disrespect for human life.

Solidarity, then, is to share the same concerns and unite the efforts of all so that the human condition of persons in this world will be respected and promoted. To be in solidarity is to promote everywhere the processes of humanization.

2. Human Solidarity as a Christian value

In the experience of biblical Israel, we discover how the cries of this people, a powerful echo of the threat to its humanity: forced labor, genocidal birth control, are heard by God. God reveals himself because he hears them and takes interest in them (Exodus 2:23-25), 3:7-10). God is not indifferent in the face of the threatened human condition.

This same God will choose the prophets to denounce the lack of solidarity, the fruit of idolatry, wealth and security in power.

In the Christian experience God not only "listens," not only raises up leaders to serve in solidarity. God becomes solidarity. God becomes flesh, puts up his tent in the midst of humanity (John 1:14) and shows with this his love and loyalty for humanity. In Jesus Christ God breaks with all the religious justifications of the superior-inferior relationship ("He did not cling to his condition of God. . . but became one of us" Philippians 2, 6-7) and he shows us the way that we must follow if we want to live in solidarity: If Jesus, being rich, became poor for us in order to enrich us with his poverty, how much more must we make ourselves poor in order to enrich others. The riches that we must share with others is "love which bears all, which is patient and serves" (I Cor 13). The model is God's own action: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son …" Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the love of God for humanity, in Him is shown the loyalty and fidelity of God. Jesus points out to us an effective way to humanization: Mutual service between fellow humans: "I have given you an example so that as I have done so may you also do (John 13, 15).

In Christ, God identifies the authentic sense of history with the attitude and acts among the human condition in danger: "I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me to drink … Saint Matthew 25, 32).

In Christ God puts all at stake, not intervening falsely at the moment of the crucifixion and the passion, but "abandoning his own son in the hands of the executioners," in the hour of darkness, of the chalice of suffering. But this life of Jesus, surrendered and given for solidarity with humanity, is vindicated and sealed by God in the resurrection of Christ as authentic human life, the fullness of life. "For this I have come: so that you may have life and have it abundantly."

We, the followers of Christ, form a universal community which we call Church, called to offer and practice a real alternative of life in solidarity in the midst of anti-humanity, a community which shares, serves, and fosters equality, celebrates life, and always supports a message of life (Hebrews 2, 42-47; Phil. 2, 14-15).

Thus we will be salt of the earth and yeast in the dough. This signifies for the Church a great responsibility in the imple-mentation of the process of humanization, recognizing the plan of God and inserting herself in the historical reality of solidarity with every just human project. The preferential option for the poor and the excluded, reaffirmed in the Synod of America and reinforced in the document, "Ecclesia in Ame-rica," as a historical prolon-gation of the Love of God (God makes himself Solidarity because He is Love) must be today the form of growth of this alternative of life humbly proposed by the followers of Jesus in the face of the threatened human condition of the poor and in them of all humanity.

In countries as poor as Guatemala, in which the level of poverty is 80 per cent, being only 11 million inhabitants, with many resources which could give well-being to all, the greatest challenge for Christianity, in my under-standing, is that of constituting ourselves in a community of followers of Jesus who propose his plan, his project, which is the plan of God, living it. For rich countries like the United States the challenge is the same, although in different circumstances and with different demands. They are the circumstances of well being, of waste, of the ideology of superiority, of power. They are the demands of social justice, of the truth in politics, of authentic peace, of respect for human rights, of solidarity.

3. The Christian Sense of Human Solidarity.

As Christians, we believe that the Lord Jesus is present in the poor and the marginated: "each time that you did it for one of these least ones, you did it for me." In the words of Pope Paul VI "the poor person is the sacrament of Christ."

Our faith invites us to believe that the Word, the Son of God, completes in Himself the plan of God. Christ the Lord is the visible manifestation of the invisible God. The example of Jesus is the example of he who "passed through this world doing good," liberating those oppressed by the devil, giving sight to the blind, freeing captives from prisons, pro-claiming the Year of grace of the Lord.

He is the maximum reference point for witnessing to the solidarity of God toward us and of us among ourselves.

Because of this, solidarity goes far beyond philanthropy. Solidarity is not only mere humanitarian help or benefi-cence, nor an alliance of groups joined together to defend their own private interests, although these may be worthy. Neither is solidarity well defined when we reduce it to a simple act of charity or alms with which we try to momentarily resolve situations of indigence or lack. Solidarity has a direct relation with the act of sharing, distributing, and feeling in one's own flesh the real needs of others. In this sense solidarity is compassion, suffering with, it is recognizing and being affected by the poor and marginated as neighbors; it is experiencing that the joys and sufferings of the brother or sister-whom many times we do not even know-affect our own life, obligating us to go out of our comfort and selfishness to the encounter with a brother, which is the true encounter with God.

The word solidarity evokes also the idea of participation, because in solidarity we not only give, receiving our brother we also receive God. In this way solidarity is converted into a great principle that allows us to overcome individualism. If the response to the pain of the poor is an ethical demand born of the Gospel, it is also a saving practice for those who practice solidarity with them. Those who succeed in doing this frequently recover the profound sense of their own life that they believed had been lost (Carta colectiva de la Conferencia Episcopal de Guatemala, "Urge la verdadera paz," nn. 166 y 167, año 1995).

4. The Challenges of Solidarity:

The challenges are many. Of the many, I would like to point out the following:

1. Be sensitive perceiving the concrete, historical threats to the human condition: from Central America these threats are clear: progressive impoverishment, forced migration, growing violence which is the fruit of drug trafficking and of conditions of social injustice, economic dependence on rich countries, especially the United States.

2. Have the capacity to live equality in order to exercise a solidarity that cancels out the ideology of superiority.

3. Help the solidarity movements in the United States become conscious of their own conditions of "impoverishment," that is to say, that they find and consider attentively the threats to their own human condition.

4. Become all one true Church of the poor, in the style of Jesus.

With the power of the Lord Jesus and of His Spirit, we will have the strength to respond responsibly to these challenges.
 

Houston Catholic Worker, Vol. XXIV, November-December 2004.

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