Women brings words of Jesus to life in fight for justice
The Universe
(April 16, 2006)
This Holy Week, there will reminders of the great biblical event that changed the world from one that was dominated by cruelty, torture, violence and abuse. These vicious attitudes are still evident today. Darfur is drenched with the blood of innocents as villages burn and thousands of women tremble in fear of the killers and rapists.
The Congo is the scene of even worse atrocities and armed groups are still creating mayhem and madness. When will it stop? Has his sacrifice and message failed to change and redeem this sinful world of 2006? Millions are starving in drought-hit Uganda and Niger yet the warehouses of the rich nations are bursting with subsidized food.
Is there any hope that the compassion, love, justice and respect that Jesus taught and died for has taken hold in the hearts and minds of millions of people around the world? Some Christians refuse to believe anymore because they can’t see any hope salvation and redemption. They see chaos and confusion, war and despair.
While there is great sin in the world, it is there because we have not done enough to eradicate and replace it with the prophetic presence of Christ. All of is have to see the Gospel in action and know that there are hundreds of thousands of Christians feeding the hungry, healing the sick, fighting for human rights and justice, risking their lives and dying to protect the wretched of the earth. Christ is present through them. But they are still too few in number.
Not only should we of little faith see these self0sacrificing Christians, but we should join them spiritually or physically. It is then that we are closest to the living presence of Christ. We meet him when we are one in heart and soul with the outcasts, the oppressed and the downtrodden. “What you do to these, the poorest of all, you do to me.”
Disillusioned Christians have to see that the revolutionary values that Jesus brought are alive and active today and some people are lifting up the downtrodden and the nobodies and declaring them beloved of God as Jesus did.
Many of these valiant Christians are women who were once oppressed and excluded but are now empowered and embued with respect and dignity. The Gospel exalts women. They were with Jesus every pain-filled step of the way and had status as disciples. They were with him in his ministry, when he was dying on the Cross and it was a woman who was first to announced that he had risen from the dead.
The example of Christian women in Rwanda is inspiring. After the shocking genocide perpetrated by the Hutus against the Tutsi, there were seven women for every three men. The males were almost wiped out. The women have come to lead and inspire the nation better than the men ever did. Around 59 per cent of the seats in parliament and highest offices are held by women. The Supreme Court president is a woman.
In Chile, Michelle Bachelet, a victim of torture by the Pinochet regime, overcame all adversity and is now president. In Liberia, a Harvard-educated grandmother, 67-year-old Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, surrounded by a parliament sprinked with elected war criminals is the first woman president in all Africa.
Women, once despised and banished to the cooking pot and kitchen, are emerging empowered and bringing hope where there was little or none.
This coming Holy Week there is much to learn how great faith can rise above suffering and death and follow the example of the selfless love of Jesus Christ.
It is this that brings hope and resurrection to a nation. [End]
