WORLD FIVE: VICTIM TO SURVIVOR
This is the quest to move from Suffering to Endurance. For many, life is just getting from one day to the next, with good friends walking beside them. God is Emmanuel; Christ is the Suffering Servant who walks beside us. Dependability and tenacious faith, in spite of it all, are significant.
Conundrum: This is the way things are (givenness of realcitrant powers
Sin: Giving up Gospel Truth: Sometimes even God is powerless |
Resolution: Enduring is its own "overcoming"
Christology: Jesus is the Suffering Servant stretched upon the cross of the world with us Gospel Celebration: God is a participant in life - Emmanuel |
Scripture: Expresion of integrity in relationships
God: Emmanuel who suffers with us Salvation: Enduring/outlasting Movement: From victim to survivor |
Conundrum
There is a tediousness to daily living in this world. It seems that whatever can go wrong, will; whatever was troublesome yesterday will prove troublesome again today and the next day. In face of the onslaught or recalcitrant and intractable powers we feel we are sitting at the foot of a tsunami, existing on the edge of absurdity. The Jewish theologian Richard Rubenstein speaks from this world when he says, “The promise of a radical novelty in the human condition is a pathetic illusion.” Literary witnesses to these dynamics include The Hunger Games, Of Mice and Men, and The Kite Runner.
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In this monologue from Mcbeth the title character learns of his wife's death. He bemoans the unrelenting march of days to the grave. Note how sorrowful life is:
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Taken from "HOLOCAUST - A Music Memorial Film from Auschwitz". For the first time since its liberation, permission was granted for music to be heard in Auschwitz and a number of leading musicians were brought there to perform music for the film. The selected piece is the second movement of Henryk Gorecki's Symphony of Sorrowful Songs.
I can think of no more harsh a representative of World Five dynamics than the concentration camps of Nazi Germany. The Polish words were found written on a Gestapo cell wall by an eighteen year old female. The English translations is: "Mother, do not cry / Queen of Heaven, protect me always / Mother, Queen of Heaven, protect me always / Hail Mary, full of grace." A prayer to simply persist in the face of the onslaught. |
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Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones speaks to how things never change and how the weight of life is always with us. Here this weight is represented by the Devil "doing his thing."
We begin by noting how the pain of the devil's work has been around as long as humanity:
We move into the puzzling nature of a life lived in the face of recalcirant powers:
Finally, we wind up accepting that things won't change but need to be lived with:
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Resolution
In this World life is not a problem to be solved. It is an experience to be endured. It is in enduring that we touch wisdom. There is no radical reversal of our fortune, but rather a “keep on keeping on” in such a way that enduring becomes the very act of protest and authenticity. We are the contemporary Sisyphus rolling the stone, defiant, determined, courageous, and laughing as we walk back down to push it again. Suffering can be viewed as a refining fire for our inner attitude. While each day is the same, how we live through this day is our choice. As Viktor Frankel noted, "everything can be taken from a (person) but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances."
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When Liza Minnelli belts out Cabaret she engages in a jovial poke at a life which seems only to weigh us down:
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The Very Last Country Song by the Country duo "Sugarland" speaks to the heart of World Five: "Our scars are what make us beautiful."
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It Happens, also by Sugarland, employs the dynamics of holy humor to persist in the face of intractable powers.
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Spiritual Quest
It is how we live out the “No” of recalcitrant powers that determines whether our life is – in the end – a “Yes.” The only question worth addressing is do I suffer alone? Am I the lone victim? The “aha” moment comes in realizing all of us are huddled, and all of us are scared, yet in being in it together – in sharing in the huddle – a love can be born among us. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated, “We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”
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Warning you may need a tissue after watching this video. Dereck Redmund was a favored runner at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. But then he tore his hamstring. Nothing he could do would save the race. All that was left was to walk/limp the track to the finish line. Yet another person joins him. This is epiphania in World Five - "I am not alone, others walk with me."
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The Cherokee Morning Song is actually a prayer of unity with God. I find it wonderful that after 400 years which include oppression, genocide, and forced relocation the Cherokees, in face of the powers-that-be, claim their relationshilp to God. The English translation is, "I am of the Great Spirit. It is so."
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Again the Rolling Stones, this time with You Can't Always Get what You Want. Here the spiritual quest for World Five is amply summed up: "You can't always get what you want / but if you try sometimes / you just might find / you can get what you need."
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If we remain the victim in World Five we can easily slip into depression in the face of overwhelming odds. World Five citizens can become masochistic, intentionally seeking out pain, becoming the eternal victim.