PREFERENTIAL LOVE FOR THE POOR: AN INTEGRAL DIMENSION OF MISSION IN INDONESIA TODAY
By Silvanus S.
Introduction
Poverty and affluence are two striking realities of our time. On one hand, half of the entire human family in our time is living in abject poverty. Day by day, their number is increasing and their situation is deteriorating. It is a hard and brutal reality, says Mary Mel L’Ecuyer. Their very survival is under constant threat. On the other hand, there is another quarter of the world’s population living in unprecedented affluence. Their standard of life is steadily increasing. This contradictory situation is fraught with many problems and serious challenges.
Today, this tension has been increasing sharply in the name of globalization that creates a single world economy, which eliminates all traditional and small-scale societies and economies by the centrality of the market. Some people are enriched fabulously, but many more are not only not better off, but are actually being driven deeper into poverty and misery. In 1996, the United Nations Development Program noted that with the increase in wealth, the disparity between the rich and the poor is growing worse in nearly all parts of the world, with roughly 20 percent enjoying the fruits of global capitalism, and the rest struggling to hold their ground and slipping away into deeper poverty.
KUNJUNGAN USKUP PALANGKA RAYA KE SALAH SATU PAROKI
Indonesia is not an exception as far as all the aforementioned issues are concerned. According to the latest report of the National Statistics of Indonesia in June 2006, the number of population living in poverty is 22 percent or roughly 50.8 million of the total population. Many are living on the poverty line, and even many more living under the poverty line.
The researcher sees that the case of poverty in Indonesia does not only bring hunger, diseases, illiteracy, lack of proper housing, as well as crimes and immoralities. More than that, the unresolved malnutrition of the children can be a cause of degeneration in the future life of the nation.
And this is not only affecting the government’s activities, but directly influencing the very life of the Church. It is the Church’s problem, too. Based on data survey made by Admajaya Research center in 2001 that 67.7 percent of the Catholics are poor farmers. The number could be higher if the factory workers, house maid, shop keepers, the primary school teachers and so forth, who generally are receiving low wages, are added here. It is deeply affecting the Church missionary activity. The researcher himself had experienced it when he was working among the poor farmers in Central Kalimantan Province. In some villages, only women and children can attend Mass, while the men work in the forest or outside. One said, “Father, do not preach to us how to enter heaven, but teach us how to escape from the burden of material poverty.”
Asides from the influence of the economic stagnancy, poverty in Indonesia is also caused by the destruction of environment due to the exploitation of natural resources which is aggravated by the natural calamity flood, tsunami and earthquake. Poverty in Indonesia is also related to the unresolved political instability that takes advantage of the religious and ethnic conflicts. Due to the political tension, the ethnic and religious conflicts had occurred so many times, and as a consequence, brought much destruction, in terms of both property and human life. Majority of the victims are the poor who are being used unjustly . This conflict is still rampant in some parts of Indonesia nowadays.
It is noteworthy that the rights of everyone to worship according to each belief are guaranteed by the Constitution. However, in reality, the religious minorities find themselves limited and restricted in observing their religious right. Even worse, their progress and development are often perceived as a serious threat that should be eliminated. For example, in some areas, proclamation of the Gospel is prohibited, and the construction of the new church building could not be done without the permission of the majority in society.
Based on these circumstances, the researcher through this writing, proposes a renewal in the Church’s mission strategy. The researcher does not intend to claim that the Church is insensitive to the plight and conditions of the poor. However, the tendency of too much concentration in the spiritual and sacramental ministry in her mission among the poor may not be the best response of the Church toward the poor in society. Such kind of pastoral approach will only strengthen the already dominant spiritual elitism and will widen the gap between the rich and the poor faithful. The relationship among Christians is closed and tending to be exclusive. Then in relation to the poor, the rich are often described as the benefactors and the poor are the passive object recipient of the corporal mercy.
Here, if the Church is truly committed to her mission, as the continuation of Jesus’ own mission, the Church has to be the Church of the poor which is struggling for the building up of the Kingdom of God. In the context of the poor, the Kingdom of God is not a matter of whether you get what you like to eat or drink, but a matter of justice, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (see Rm. 14:17). The Kingdom is the center of Jesus’ teaching. The poor are poor because of the injustices imposed upon them. For them, God stands at the right hand to defend them against unjust accusers (see Ps. 109: 31) and becomes a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in time of trouble (see Ps. 9:10); so that the strength of God becomes the strength of the poor whom He defends. God is right there in the midst of the troubles of the poor.
This image of God as defender of the poor is exactly present in the word and deeds of Jesus Christ. In the New Testament the concept of justice is linked to the Kingdom theme insofar as it refers to life-giving relationship. As we see, the whole ministry of Jesus is geared towards re-establishing those relationships on which the covenant was built. The image of God as compassionate and concerned with justice, his constant critique of his opponents for having ostracized the whole groups and his untiring effort to bring those who had been marginalized back into the covenant community; indicating how Jesus understood his mission in terms of justice, in terms of re-establishing relationships which would give life to those whose life had been diminished because of injustice.
Since God is the defender of the poor, we too, the Church which was founded by him, have to continue his mission by standing at the side of the poor and oppressed. And this is not just an option, but rather as a preference which finds its root in the Gospel’s message. This is an essential characteristic of mission in the whole Church’s tradition, which implies not simply to tell them that they have a Father in heaven, but to help them live here and now with the minimum dignity proper to the children of his Father.
The Church through its preferential love for the poor may present God’s love to all humanity. Through love and charity which is the soul of mission, the Church of Indonesia though minority in number and living in diaspora, can work on her missionary mandate of preaching Christ and his Gospel values through witness and love. So, it may be a life-breath, because where love conquers, faith propagates, but where selfishness conquers, there the faith is dead. Or as Pope Benedict XVI says, “love is the fundamental mission of the Church.” In doing so, we need to listen to the poor and learn profoundly of their experiences. In this context, this study will try to point out the trials that the praxis of mission to the poor has to be confronted.
Considering this, the Bishops of Indonesia have been unceasingly inviting the religious and all faithful to revitalize themselves in the light of Gospel values, and adjusting suitably to the changing and challenging situation. The Church’s mission, part of which is mission to the poor, is rooted in Christ’s mission (see Lk 4: 18-21). Therefore, the Church should always go back to Christ’s mandate and to his praxis of love and compassion for the little ones. Furthermore, preferential love for the poor is an integral dimension of mission by which the Christians can give witness of the true faith in God, through solidarity and service to the poor.
