What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared
to what lies within Us
I am congested and achy – I feel a nasty old-fashioned cold overtaking my body –the kind that leaves you flattened and laid up in bed. The kind that only a running supply of Kleenex, zinc/vitamin-C lozenges, and traditional herbs can tackle. As the virus seems to consume my flesh, I resolve that today’s list of things to do will be left untouched. I do not feel ready for the fight this cold is demanding.
Even before I was decimated in action with this cold I had decided last night that I needed “to fast.” It is only Monday morning and day two of the Copenhagen Climate Summit and already more is hitting the news than I can digest.
While in a daze I slowly stir a cup of tea, I feel inertia. I am plagued by the question of how to honour the life and recent news of the assassination of the Environmental Activist, Mariano Abarca Roblero from Chicomuselo. He was a leader in REMA (Mexican Network of People affected by Mining). He was a leading activist protesting the environmental damage that is taking place in his village due to Blackfire’s (a Canadian mining companies’) unabated and unchecked mining activities in his village. His video describes people suffering from skin cancer; water pollution; and various other serious environmental destruction.
As I contemplate this news, I hear Canada is being publically criticized in Copenhagen for its unwillingness to acknowledge and engage in responsible action toward reducing carbon emissions. This is but just one example of Canada's lack of commitment to environmental care and changed priorities from peace-keeper and care giver to corporate supporter and greed. I am overwhelmed. Who are we and who am I? I cough – I need to get this out. In that moment I make the decision. I am being "called" – "no compelled" – while being locked up in this apartment – to "fast." It is not only my body that needs to rest. My spirit and my emotions are full – full of grief – full of lament – full, full full. It is time to fast. I decide to eat only fruit and vegetables cooked simply without condiments – for seven days. Without really knowing fully why or where this will lead -- I begin. Breakfast is an apple. I rest into this freedom.
Many of my friends and I have begun to use facebook as an effective tool of resistance. This Monday morning a friend has posted an article about Rev. Bill Phipps’ fast for Copenhagen (See blog http://fastforcourage.wordpress.com/) Thank God I say. This is the prayer that pulls me in. He is fasting as a form of resistance. Suddenly all my desires make sense and I feel enveloped and drawn into an ancient Christian tradition that was not only a way of purging one’s personal body of toxins but was a way of cleansing the whole body of a way of unfettered control and abuse of power and privilege. I enter this decision with pride. I send an email to Rev. Bill Phipps with a prayer for his well being and deep gratitude for his public witness. An unexpected but welcome response from him informs me that my little way of fasting is but a small part of an action that has claimed over a thousand people into its clutches. The body is speaking – it has had enough.
My prayer this day is one of deep gratitude. This is the paradox of the Christian path. In this letting go I am filled. I feel connected to this body that is fasting all over Canada and other parts of the world. As we let go we are being filled. As we slow down to honor the pace that a fast requires there is more room to hear and to feel what the earth is crying out for. Others in the SCM (Student Christian Movement) join in the fast. As the days go further and I eat less and less, I feel fuller and fuller.
Day three I write a letter to the Minister of International Cooperation asking for the rationale behind cutting the almost 7 million dollar funding to KAIROS (the Christian Churches’ ecumenical forum for Human Rights advocacy and solidarity worldwide). The news from Copenhagen becomes more meaningful. Even, though I am still bolted up in my apartment -- box of Kleenex in hand and blanket wrapped about me – I now know intuitively that people there carry all of our concerns. There is a rising up of the voices of the Developing Countries in opposition to the colonial approach and possible deceit going on in Copenhagen by Canada, the EU, and the United States. New life is being born into this cacophony of the summit. Bite by bite of these tasty apples and boiled cabbage my body is being renewed. Day by day the body of our groaning waters and boiling sands are tasting the freshness of redemption in all of these voices and bodies of resistance there and here. Today I get a long letter back regarding my letter about the funding cuts to Kairos. Clearly there is more to be done. But this is the beginning.
My prayer today, day four of the fast is one of commitment and assurance: “I assure you Senor Abarca Roblero your life has not been in vain and your death will not go unnoticed.” I fire off a letter in opposition to Blackfire’s activities in Southern Mexico. And post his video on facebook. The fast may not have changed the world, but it changed my inertia. In that letting go I was filled with the wisdom of the aperture opening for new life in this larger body of Christ. Indeed, this is the time we can call out: “Christ come.”
