When occupied people face the empire, they generally
become so overwhelmed by its power that they start to think that the empire
will remain forever and that it has eternal power. Jesus wanted to tell his people that empire
would not last, that empires come and go. When empires collapse and depart it
is the poor and the weak who remain…The most dangerous thing for the oppressed
and occupied is that at some point they lose faith in themselves, in their
ability to change the status quo… The oppressed have to begin thinking what
seems to be unthinkable. They have to
know and realize that “yes, we can.”
Resistance is action not reaction. Resistance requires faith, so that it can
stop being caught up in the vicious cycle of retaliation that favors the
powerful and tries to mirror it. Faith
is nothing less than developing a bold vision of a new reality and mobilizing
the needed resources to make it happen.
Mitri
Raheb, Faith in the Face of Empire
___________________________
The denizens of power fill the streets, faceless
Armored instruments of oppression
Empire incarnate
In the courts, judges bought and sold
distort justice until injustice
flows like a mighty river
Victims are victimized yet again
transformed into villains
by their oppressors.
In the halls of power, people
who have sold their souls sit
and ponder the imponderable
having lost faith
in love
having abandoned morality
for the sake of convenience
At the command of empire
factories spew forth clouds of poison
darkening the sky
until breath is gone
and the planet
gasps for breath
Insignificant, marginal
weak
we are overwhelmed
and cede victory
What can we do?
Resistance seems futile
counterproductive
violence producing violence
hate producing hate
cowed, I sit at my keyboard
fingers stilled
There is nothing I can say
nothing I can do
to change the ways things are
I am not faithless
but I have no faith
that I, that you, that anyone
has the power to combat a power that seems
unassailable
I want to come out fighting
spewing words and hate
carelessly
reactive
And yet I know there is no victory
If empire secedes empire
even if it is my empire
The promised land is not filled
with the rich and powerful
but by the weak and meek
by the hungry poor
who, in love and humility
abandon the ruins of empire
and turn again to the land
plowing and planting
hoping for the water of love
to create a harvest
of justice and peace
I want to think the unthinkable
that this WILL pass
that I have agency
I can change the way things are
I can create a new reality
where dominion is replaced by servanthood
greed by generosity
exclusion by welcome
fear by assurance
hate by love
Yes, I can
Yes, we can
