Nicodemus risks seeing Jesus to ask about his Way. Nicodemus is a wealthy member of the Sanhedrin. Their way is to oppose Jesus and they claim the right to condemn. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “God so loved the world as to give the fully begotten One… not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved.”
Nicodemus understands the stark difference between his condemning rule and Jesus’ loving Way. How is it possible that in the centuries since Nicodemus, people who call themselves Christian do not understand this difference. It is coming to light specifically in the matter of the Catholic Church’s Doctrine of Discovery related to colonialism and recently repudiated. Colonialism is acquiring political, financial, and theological control over people to exploit and violate them. The Doctrine condemned Indigenous people to being owned and tormented by rulers and their militaries. The Doctrine was written in 1493 by Pope Alexander VI to “our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand…and Isabella.” “As was pleasing to the Lord, you… chose our beloved son, Christopher Columbus, a man assuredly worthy and of the highest recommendations … to make diligent quest for these remote and unknown mainlands and islands… Christopher has already… built a fortress fairly equipped… and already discovered… gold, spices, and very many other precious things.” “(Y)ou have purposed… to bring these people to the Catholic faith.… this (being) holy and praiseworthy… by the authority of Almighty God conferred upon us in… the vicarship of Jesus Christ,… we make… you and your said heirs and successors lords of them with full and free power, authority, and jurisdiction of every kind.” Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery promulgated by institutional Christianity in the past, requires we repudiate it and end its current operations. Institutional churches, in particular, the Catholic Church, are still condemning people to ownership and torment. They do so by condemning the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, and other nations, to an invading U.S. military with an exorbitant military budget. All of it is an extension of their support for the U.S.’ continued condemnation of people to colonialism, overseas and stateside. We live in an era of world-wide sanctified assaults on indigenous persons condemning them still to oppression, poverty, and violence. Indigenous persons in the U.S. are risking their lives so the military does not condemn our shared natural resources. We can repudiate and end the U.S. military and its support institutions like institutional christianity that condemn humanity to being owned and tormented. As anyone is experiencing condemnation, the rest of us are called to risk ending it.
“Someone once asked me, what are the words I do not yet have… verbs that will story our bodies into something more than missing, more than squaw or lost, beyond statistics… We are vanishing lines in history books, treaties; laws do not protect us. I dig until mud and earth find home underneath my fingernails. I’ll plant something new in the absence… Invisible, our ghosts starve, while the rest of the world keeps on eating… Let us poem a place where you cannot erase us into white space. (Missing More Than a Word – Tanaya Winder)
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, encourage our respect for the dignity of each human being
Question: How have I or can I immerse myself in the condition of our indigenous family?
June 04, 2023 Gospel John 3:16-18 Feast of the Trinity