Categoria: Idiomas

Encounter with Lula in prison: spirituality and politics

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

As of May 7th, former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had spent 30 days in prison. For the first time, he was allowed to receive visits from his friends. I had the honor of being the first to visit him, due to our friendship of more than 30 years, and that we share the same Causa: Liberating the impoverished, and reinforcing life’s spiritual dimension. I fulfilled the evangelical precept: “I was in jail and you visited me”.

I found him as we knew him before he was imprisoned: the same face, hair, beard… only somewhat more slender. Those who hoped to see him angry or depressed must be disappointed. He is filled with energy and hope. His cell is large, very clean, with built-in-cupboards, and a bathroom and shower in an enclosed space. The first impression is good, even though he lives in isolation because, other than his lawyers and children, he can only talk with the guard, who is of Ukrainian origin, gentle and attentive, who has become his admirer. He brings Lula his food tray, more warm or cool, and coffee whenever he requests it. Lula does not accept the food his children bring him, because he wants to eat as the other prisoners do, without any privileges. He has his time to take in the sun. But lately, when he does that, drones appear overhead. As a precaution Lula leaves, because the purpose of those drones is unknown: to take photos of him, or perhaps something more sinister..

Among our discussions of politics, the most important was our conversation on spirituality… Lula is a religious man, but of the popular religiosity, for which God is existential evidence. I found him reading one of my books, The Lord is my Shepherd, (from editorial Voces) a commentary on the famous Psalm 23, the most read of the Psalms, which is also read by other religions. He felt fortified and confirmed, because the Bible is generally critical of pastor/politicians, and praises those who care for the poor, the orphans and the widows. Lula feels that he belongs in that line, with his social policies that benefited so many millions. He does not accept criticism as being a “populist.” Lula says: “I belong to the people, I come from the people and direct my policies, as much as I can, towards the people”.

At the head of his bed there is a crucifix. He uses the time of solitary confinement to reflect, meditate, to review so many things in his life, and to deepen the fundamental convictions that give meaning to his political actions, all that his mother, Lindu (whom he considers his protector and inspiring angel), often repeated to him: always be honest, and struggle and struggle more. Lula sees in that the meaning of his personal and political life: a struggle that everyone may have a dignified life, and not just a few at the expense of the others. “The greatness of a politician is measured by the greatness of his Causa”, he emphatically told me. And the Causa must be to make a life for everyone, starting with those who have the least. For that reason, Lula does not accept definitive defeat. Nor does he want to fall on his face. He does not want to fail, but to remain always faithful to his basic purpose, and to make of politics a great tool for organizing a life of justice and peace for all, especially for those who live in the hell of hunger and misery.

This dream has an undeniable ethical and spiritual greatness. It is in the light of these convictions that Lula maintains his tranquility, because he says and reiterates that he lives for that interior truth, one that possesses its own strength, that one day will become evident. “I only hoped”, he commented, “for it to happen after my death, but it is already happening, even now, while I am alive”. He becomes profoundly indignant at the lies spread about him, based on which they have mounted the triplex procedure. He wonders: “How can these persons consciously lie and sleep in peace?” He challenges Judge Sergio Moro: “show me a single shred of evidence that I own the triplex of Guaruja; If you show me one, I will renounce my candidacy to the Presidency”.

He asked me to pass a message on to the press and the people in the encampment: “I am a candidate. I want to carry on with rescuing the poor, and to create social policies in their favor, State policies, and that the costs –that are investments– are in the budgets of the Union. I will radicalize these policies for the poor, with the poor, and to dignify our country”.

Meditation has made him understand that prison has a meaning that transcends him, me, and the political disputes. It must be the same price that Gandhi and Mandela paid, with prison and persecution, to reach what they accomplished. “This I believe, and hope”, he told me, “that this is what I am going through now”.

I who came to encourage him, left encouraged. I hope that others are also encouraged. and shout “Free Lula!”, against a Justice that does not manifest justice.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher anda of theEarthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

I was in jail and you didn’t let them visit me

Leonardo Boff1 comentário

There is a very dramatic scene in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, dealing with the Last Judgment, namely, when the final destiny of every human being is revealed. The Supreme Judge does not ask to what Church or religion the person belonged, whether the person accepted the dogmas, or how often the person attended the sacred rites.
That Judge will look to the good and tell them: “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was hungry, and you fed me; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in: I was naked, and you clothed me: I was sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to see me… every time you did this for one of my little brothers and sisters, you did it for me…and when you did not do it for one of the smallest ones, you did not do it for me” (Gospel of Saint Matthew, 25, 35-45).
What counts in this supreme moment is what we do for those who suffer in this world, and not the preaching. If we have cared for them, we will hear those blessed words.
This was experienced by 1980 Argentinian Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel, (1931), who is an architect and well known sculptor, a great activist for human rights and the culture of peace, as well as being profoundly religious, and my supporter. Perez Esquivel asked the Brazilian judicial authorities permission to visit former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his friend of many years, in jail. I personally witnessed the events noted here.
Perez Esquivel called me from Argentina and on Twitter the conversation is summarized, in sort of a youtube. We would go together, because in 2001 I had received the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize (The Right Livelihood) from the Swedish Parliament. But I told Perez Esquivel that besides embracing a friend of more than 30 years, my visit was to fulfill the Gospel precept, “visit the one who is jailed”. I wanted to reinforce the tranquility of the soul Lula has always maintained. Shortly before he was arrested, he assured me: my soul is serene because nothing accuses me, I feel like a carrier of the truth that possesses its own strength and will manifest itself in due time.
Perez Esquivel and I arrived in Curitiba at different times, on April 18th. We went directly to the great auditorium of the Federal University of Parana, that was already filled with people, for a debate on Democracy, Human Rights and the Brazilian crisis that had culminated with Lula’s jailing. There were university authorities, Celso Amorim, the former Minister of Foreign Relations, representatives of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Sweden, and other countries. Beautiful Latin American songs were sung, especially those sung by the magnificent voice of actress and singer Leticia Sabatella. The Afro-descendants danced and sang in their outfits of beautiful colors.
There were several speeches. As if by magic, the general discouragement gave way to an aura of goodwill and hope that the parliamentary-juridical-news media coup would not succeed in determining the future of Brazil. Better yet, that a cycle of domination of the backwards elites would close with the opening of the path to a democracy from below, participant and sustainable.
Before the meeting we had been told that Judge Catalina Moura Lebbos, the right hand of Judge Sergio Moro, had forbidden the visit we wanted to make to President Lula.
Judge Lebbos did not realize the great significance of being a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. That person has the privilege of traveling all over the world, visiting jails and places of conflict, to promote dialogue and peace. This is supported by the 2015 Document from the United Nations called “The Mandela Rules”, about the Prevention of Crimes and Criminal Justice. That Document also touches on visits to prisoners. Brazil was among the most active countries in formulating The Mandela Rules, but does not follow them in her own territory.
But it was in vain. Judge Lebbos stood firm. The following day, April 19th, we arrived at the encampment where hundreds stood in vigil at the Federal Department of Justice, were Lula is jailed. They shouted to him, “Good morning, Lula”, “Lula free!” and other words of encouragement, hoping that he could hear them perfectly from his cell.
There were police everywhere. We tried to talk with their chief, seeking an audience with the Superintendent of the Federal Police.
The answer was always the same: you cannot, orders from above. After insisting, with telephone calls coming and going, Perez Esquivel received an audience with the Superintendent. He explained the reasons for the humanitarian and fraternal visit to an old and dear friend. But no matter how Perez Esquivel argued and referenced his title of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, recognized and respected worldwide, he always heard the same old song: You cannot. These are orders from above.
And so, dejected, we returned to be with the people. Personally, I insisted that my visit was purely spiritual. I had planned to give him two books, The Lord is my Shepherd, I lack nothing, a detailed commentary that really nourishes trust. And one by Carlos Mesters, our most articulate exegeta, The Mission of the People who Suffer, describing the helplessness of the Hebrew people in the Babylonian exile, how the Prophets Isiah and Jeremiah consoled them, and how those Prophets fortified the meaning of their suffering and hope.
The Federal Police Department prohibited everything. Not even a note could be sent to President Lula.
Among the people who spoke were representatives of several groups that support Lula’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize, especially a couple from Sweden. Perez Esquivel and I also spoke, reinforcing the hope that in the end, it is this powerful energy that sustains those who struggle for justice, and a different type of democracy. Perez Esquivel announced that he had launched a worldwide campaign to propose Lula as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize. There are already thousands of signatures from all over the world. Lula meets all the requirements for the Prize, especially for his social policies that lifted millions of people out of hunger and misery, and for his consistent work for social justice, the basis for peace.
There were many interviews by national and international means of communication. Photos of the event began to be published worldwide, and solidarity came from many countries and groups.
There we came to understand that in effect we live under a regime of exception, in the form of a “golpe blando” that confiscates freedom and denies fundamental human rights.
The spiritual pettiness of our Judges of the Lava Jato and denial of the guaranteed right of a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate to visit his prisoner friend in the spirit of pure humanity and warm solidarity, shames our country. This only corroborates the fact that we effectively are under a regime of exception that negates democracy.
But Brazil is bigger than her crisis. Purified, we will come out better, and proud of our resistance, of our indignation and, starting in the streets and the elections, our courage to retake a rightful State.
We will never forget the sacred words: “I was in jail and you didn’t let them visit me”.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher and of  theEarthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.

 

 

With Pope Francis the Western Church ends and the Universal Church begins

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

The Papacy of Francis, Bishop of Rome and Pope of the Universal Church is now five years old. Many detailed and brilliant accounts have been made about this new spring that has emerged in the Church. For my part, I will emphasize only a few points that are of interest to our reality.

The first point is how the figure of the Papacy, personally lived by Francis himself, has been revolutionized. It no longer is the imperial Pope, with all the symbols inherited from the Roman emperors. Francis himself appears as a simple person, as someone who belongs to the people. His first words on greeting the people were to say, “buona sera”: “good evening”. Then, he presented himself as the Bishop of Rome, called to lovingly guide the Church that exists all over the world. Before offering the official Papal Blessing, he asked the people to bless him. He chose to live, not in a palace — that could have made Francis of Assisi cry– but in a guest house. And there he dines with all the guests.

The second important point is the joyful announcing of the Gospel, as a super abundance of the good life, rather than as the doctrine of the catechisms. It is not about taking Christ to the secularized world, but about discovering the presence of Christ in the world, through the thirsting for spirituality that can be seen everywhere.

The third point is the three poles found at the center of his activities: the encounter with the living Christ, the passionate love for the poor, and the caring for Mother Earth. At the center is Christ, not the Pope. The living encounter with Christ has primacy over doctrine.

Instead of the law, he tirelessly announces mercy and the revolution of tenderness, as he told the Brazilian bishops when he traveled to Brazil.

He expressed the love of the poor in his fist official intervention: “how I would like the Church to be the Church of the poor”. He met with the refugees arriving at the island of Lampedusa, in South Italy. There he had strong words for a certain type of modern civilization that has lost its sense of solidarity and no longer knows how to cry for the suffering of the other.

He raised the ecological alarm with his encyclical letter Laudato Si: About the Caring for the Common Home (2015), addressed to all of humanity. It shows a clear awareness of the risks run by life and the Earth-systems. He therefore expands the ecological discourse beyond environmentalism. He emphasizes that we must create a global ecological revolution (n.5). Ecology is integral, and not only green, because it involves society, politics, culture, education, everyday life and spirituality. It unites the cry of the poor with the cry of the Earth (n. 49). It invites us to feel as our own the pain of nature, because we are all interconnected and involved in a network of relationships. Pope Francis asks us «to nourish a passion for caring for the world … a mysticism that drives us, inner incentives that move, motivate, encourage and give meaning to personal and community actions» (nº 216).

The fourth important point has been to portray the Church not as a closed castle surrounded by enemies, but as a field hospital that serves everyone, without consideration of class, color or religious beliefs. A Church that is always moving towards the others, especially towards the existential peripheries that abound in the world. The Church must serve as an incentive to encourage hope, and show a Christ who came to teach us to live as brothers and sisters in love, equality, justice, open to the Father who has the characteristics of the Mother of mercy and goodness.

Finally, the Pope shows with clear consciousness that the Gospel opposes the powers of this world that accumulate to the point of absurdity, leaving a great part of humanity in misery. We live under a system that puts money at its center, that murders the poor and is a predator of the goods and services of nature. Francis has the harshest words for them. He dialogues with all the religious and spiritual traditions. In the ceremony of the washing of the feet, on Holy Thursday, there was a little Muslem girl.

Pope Francis wants the Churches, with their differences, to unite in the service of the world, especially in the service of the most helpless. This is the true ecumenism in mission.

With this Pope, who “comes from the end of the world”, a Western Church ends and a Universal Church begins, suited to the planetary phase of humanity, called to incarnate itself in the different cultures and to build there a new face, starting from the inexhaustible wealth of the Gospel.

Leonardo Boff Eco-Theologian-Philosopher  and of the Earthcharter Commission

Saint Joseph: saint of the nameless, the powerless and the workers

Leonardo BoffDeixe um comentário

Besides the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) that represent the intelligentsia of the faith, as true theologians of the figure of Jesus, there is a vast apocryphal literature (texts that are not officially recognized) that also carry, among other things, the name of gospel, such as the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and the History of Joseph, the Carpenter, which we will discuss here. They have not been officially accepted because they were not consistent with the prevalent orthodoxy of the second and third Centuries, when most of them appeared. They obey the logic of the imagination and fill the information void of the canonical Gospels, especially about the occult life of Jesus. But they have been of great importance to the arts, especially during the Renaissance, and in popular culture in general. Today’s theology, with its new methods of interpreting the Bible, also values them.

The apocryphal book, The History of Joseph, The Carpenter, (La historia de Jose, el carpintero, Edicion Vozes, 1990), is rich with data about Jesus and Joseph. In reality it is a long narrative that Jesus offers to the Apostles about Joseph, His father. Jesus begins: «Listen now: I will tell you the life of my father, Joseph, the blessed old carpenter».

And Jesus says that Joseph was a carpenter, a widower, with six children, four boys (Santiago, Joseph, Simon and Judas) and two girls (Lisia and Lidia). «That Joseph is my father, as if by the flesh, who got together, as spouse, with my mother Mary».

The Gospel relates Joseph’s disturbance when he found that Mary was pregnant without his participation. It also narrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt and the return to Galilee. It finishes by saying: «My father Joseph, the blessed old man, continued working at his profession as a carpenter and that way, with the labor of his hands, we could be maintained. Let it never be said of him that he ate his bread without working».

Speaking of himself, Jesus says: «I myself called Mary, “my mother” And Joseph, “my father”. I obeyed them in everything they ordered me to do, without ever daring to talk back even one word to them. To the contrary, I always treated them with great love».

Continuing, Jesus relates that Joseph married for the first time when he was 40 years old. He was married for 49 years until his wife died. He was then 89 years old. He was a widower for one year. From his marriage with Mary to the birth of Jesus three years would have passed. Joseph, then, would have been 93 years old. He was married to Mary for 18 years. Adding this up, Joseph would have died at 111 years of age.

Later on, he narrates in detail that his father «lost the desire to eat and to drink; he felt that he had lost the ability to perform his work». When the death was near, Joseph lamented, hurling eleven cries. In that moment, Jesus entered the room and reveals Himself as the great Consoler. Jesus says: «Salve, Joseph, my beloved father, old, kind-hearted and blessed». To which Joseph replies: «Salve, a thousand times, dear son. Listening to Your voice my soul regained its tranquility». Then, Joseph recalled moments of his life with Mary and with Jesus; even recalling that once «he had pulled His ear and admonished Him: ‘be prudent, my son’» because He was mischievous at school and had provoked the rabbi.

Jesus then shares this confidence: «When my father spoke those words to me, I could not contain the tears and began to cry, seeing that death was overtaking him». «I, beloved Apostles, was by his head and my mother at his feet… for a long time I held his hands and his feet. He looked at me, pleading with me that we not abandon him. I put my hand on his chest and felt that his soul had already risen to his throat, preparing to leave his body».

Seeing that death was slow in coming, Jesus made a strong prayer to the Father: «Dear Father merciful, Father of truth, eye who sees and ear who listens, listen to me: I am your beloved son, I plead with you for my father Joseph, the work of your hands… Be merciful with the soul of my father Joseph when he goes to rest in your hands, because that is the moment when he needs your mercy most». «After he had exhaled the spirit and I had kissed him; I went over the body of my father Joseph… closed his eyes, closed his lips, and stood up to contemplate him». Joseph had just died.

In the burial Jesus shares another confidence with the Apostles: “I could not contain myself, and hurled Myself over his body and cried for a very long time”. Jesus ends up taking stock of the life of Joseph, His father:

“His life was of 111 years. At the end of such a long time he did not have a single tooth with cavities, and his sight was not weakened. All his appearance was like that of a child. He never suffered any physical discomfort. He continuously worked at his trade as a carpenter until the day when the illness happened that would take him to the grave”.

At the end of his account, Jesus leaves the following mandate: “when you are empowered by my strength and have received the Holy Spirit and are sent to preach the Gospel, also preach about my beloved father Joseph”. The book that I wrote about Saint Joseph, after 20 years of research, tries to respond to the mandate of Jesus.

To tell the truth, Joseph was almost forgotten by the official Church. But the people kept his memory alive, giving the name of Joseph to their sons and daughters, to cities, streets and schools. Joseph is the symbol of the nameless, the powerless, the workers, and the Church of the anonymous.

Leonardo BoffEco-Theolo gian-PhilosopherEarthcharter Commission

Free translation from the Spanish sent by
Melina Alfaro, alfaro_melina@yahoo.com.ar.
Done at REFUGIO DEL RIO GRANDE, Texas, EE.UU.