Reflection on Genesis
32: 8, 22-30; Psalm 121; 2 Timothy: 3: 14-4-5; Luke
18: 1- 8
by
the Rev Margaret
W. Thomas
Persistent is certainly the
word for the widow. She was willing to wear out the judge for
"justice against her opponent." The poor are often
systematically oppressed, and then when they seek justice, they
are often doubly oppressed in limited access to channels of
power and influence. Persistence and the "right on her
side" may have been all the woman possessed. By her determination,
she was eventually given the justice she sought.
Those who strive for environmental,
human rights and economic justice can be guided and strengthened
by the widow's story. While she seemed totally alone in her
work, she must have relied on her sense of relationship to God
to continue. She must have had some sense of communal and Scriptural
support , yet we do not know that. As a woman, and a widow with
no male advocate she was faced with huge challenges to justice.
We have no way of knowing the cause or object of her case. She
clearly continued with the unjust judge. He finally gave in.
From a perspective of environmental
work, persistence must be expected. Those who work for particular
issues such asblocking the exploration and oil drilling in places
like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or Alaskan National
Wildlife Reserve face continual persistence work as attempts
continue to be made under various guises. Increased energy need,
loss of Arabian oil, defense, cheaper and safer oil all are
used as reasons for development which would seriously damage
the caribou breeding and safety for breeding of many species
of arctic birds and animals. The area would loose its pristine
wilderness designation and beauty. Just as one issue gets addressed
and laid to rest, another crops up to begin the assault on the
fragile ecological area again. Those indigenous folks who wish
to preserve the caribou herds for their sustainable way of Alaskan
life, are poor, live simple lives, are not always able to advocate
for themselves, and may be indeed be facing unjust judges of
their rights to live traditional lives.
Folks who live far from Alaska
may visit the refuge and know of other migrating wildlife which
is not so locally involved as the caribou. Those folks need
to persist too because they can listen to their friends, the
Episcopalians of the Alaskan north, who say they want to preserve
the areas. Perhaps there can be more advocates to support the
cause. The down-state Episcopalians may respond by being locally
persistent, by being well informed, and lobbying their legislators.
An additional layer of persistence involves the sacrificial
solidarity of using less oil wherever one lives. Having visited
Alaska, and having heard the advocates, both Episcopalians and
others who strive to keep the issues continually before us,
including the bishop of Alaska, The Rt. Rev. Mark MacDonald
and local worker, Lucy Birch, I trust them. I am trying to support
them in using less fuel and in being a better advocate for simpler
lives that requires less oil and working toward a more locally
sustainable life style myself. We need to heed the persistant
calls for help from the Athabascan Alaskans who live with the
caribou and in the areas in contention.
Theologian Leonardo Boff in
Cry of the Earth, Cry of the
Poor speaks of the power of the permanent message
of original peoples. Boff says of original folks,"And even
while they take on the advantages of modernity in their own
way, they know how to hold onto the feeling of the universe
and the sense of the subjectivity of nature with which we establish
relationships of reciprocity. Boff says that original people
posses ancestral wisdom, and that they "understand the
universe as it is transparent to the Divinity."(Boff, Orbis
Books: Maryknoll, New York 1997 pg. 122- 125) Surely, the persistent
widow is an original person in Jesus'story. We can echo her
and represent her in our modern world, by listening to the injustice
around us such as the Alaskan situation I witnessed and in the
local issues in our own parishes such as fertilizer, pesticides,
gas and oil consumption and and plastic materials in our own
homes.
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