Conversion to the neighbor, part 3

Christians have not done enough in this area of conversion to the neighbor, to social justice, to history.  They have not perceived clearly enough yet that to know God is to do justice.  They still do not live in one sole action with both God and all humans.  They still do not situate themselves in Christ without attempting to avoid concrete human history.  They have yet to tread the path that will lead them to seek effectively the peace of the Lord in the heart of social struggle (page 49).

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings

Conversion to the neighbor, part 2

Conversion is a permanent process in which very often the obstacles we meet make us lose all we had gained and start anew.  The fruitfulness of our conversion depends on our openness to doing this, our spiritual childhood.  All conversion implies a break:  "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:37).  To wish to accomplish it without conflict is to deceive oneself and others.  But it is not a question of withdrawn and pious attitude.  Our conversion process is affected by the socioeconomic, political, cultural and human environment in which it occurs.  Without a change in these structures, there is no authentic conversion.  We have to break with our mental categories, with the way we relate to others, with our way of identifying with the Lord, with our cultural milieu, with our social class, in other words, with all that can stand in the way of a real, profound solidarity with those who suffer, in the first place, from misery and injustice.  Only through this, and not through purely interior and spiritual attitudes, will the "new person" arise from the ashes of the "old." (page 48)

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings



Conversion to the neighbor, part 1

A spirituality of liberation will center on a conversion to the neighbor, the oppressed person, the exploited social class, the despised ethnic group, the dominated country.  Our conversion to the Lord implies this conversion to the neighbor.  Evangelical conversion is indeed the touchstone of all spirituality.  Conversion means a radical transformation of ourselves; it means thinking, feeling and living as Christ--present in exploited and alienated persons.  To be converted is to commit oneself lucidly, realistically, and concretely to the process of the liberation of the poor and oppressed.  It means to commit oneself not only generously, but also with an analysis of the situation and a strategy for action.  To be converted its to know and experience the fact that, contrary to the laws of physics, we can stand straight, according to the Gospel, only when our center of gravity is outside ourselves (page 48).

Gustavo Gutierrez

Spiritual Writings

Gutierrez on Christmas

The Irruption of God

By Gustavo Gutierrez on 12-29-2010

It is often said at Christmas that Jesus is born into every family and every heart. But these "births" must not make us forget the primordial, massive fact that Jesus was born of Mary among a people that at the time were dominated by the greatest empire of the age. If we forget that fact, the birth of Jesus becomes an abstraction, a symbol, a cipher. Apart from its historical coordinates the event loses its meaning. To the eyes of Christians the incarnation is the irruption of God into human history: an incarnation into littleness and service in the midst of overbearing power exercised by the mighty of this world; an irruption that smells of the stable.

Source: The God of Life

A theology for the street

Across the years, people have given me strange looks when I confess that my faith has been shaped significantly by reading liberation theology. I do what I do in large part because of what I have discovered while exploring this very rich school of thought.

Years ago, while in seminary, I enjoyed the good fortune of sitting in a summer school class with Dr. James Cone from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Cone's course, Black Liberation Theology, provided me with hope, courage and even healing. I found him even more amazing in person than in print, which is saying a lot!

I suppose what I find most attractive about the thought of writers like Cone and Gustavo Gutierrez is the fact that everything is rooted deeply in the here-and-now.

Everything is practical.

Action in the real world is the key to every expression of faith.

Instead of becoming lost in the past or distracted by a future that will be experienced on a completely different plane of existence, thinkers like Gutierrez and Cone keep calling me back to the street and its reality.

In a system of thought like this, it becomes almost impossible for middle class types like me to rationalize my failure to engage the pain, injustice, suffering and oppression of my world.

My responsibility in this day happens to be this world or, better, that part of the world where I will find myself living today.

There is not much time for dwelling on the past, except as precursor for the present that is currently "in my face."

There is little reason to focus much on the future, it will take care of itself.

My call is to live and to act in faith for the transformation of the world as I find it.

Liberation thought demands an entering into the life of the world. To put it theologically, it calls for radical incarnation. I must enter the pain and the struggle of this world for the sake of and alongside the poor, the marginalized and the oppressed.

There is no way to heaven but through the earth.

My responsibility is the life and the world in which I find myself. In community with others, I am called to live out my faith from a street level perspective.

The old hymn, "This World Is Not My Home," might be true; but this world is without a doubt my current assignment, it is where I am rooted by faith, and I dare not "pass through" without thought, sacrifice and focused attention. It is what I have been given and called to engage.

Maintaining this very real, practical and "down-to-earth" focus keeps me on track. And, in this regard, I find reading Cone, Gutierrez and other liberationists to be most helpful.

They bring my faith to life and into my world.