Turning to God with a whole heart - "Turn to God - Rejoice in Hope": Unfolding the Eighth Assembly Theme

Ecumenical Review, The, April, 1998 by Nestor O. Miguez

In a meeting of some leaders of an aboriginal nation in northern Argentina with some missionaries during the 1992 commemoration of the fifth centenary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus, the conversation turned to the consequences of 500 years of Western culture and religion for the original peoples of the continent. One aboriginal leader, the pastor of an evangelical church, at a given moment, said calmly: "It was difficult for us to believe in the God you preached and the Bible you brought to us since you and your own people do not believe in it." He paused, and everyone looked at him with questioning faces. Then he continued: "The Bible says that every 50 years the land should be given back to the families of the original owners. Ten times 50 years have passed, and not even once has this law of God been fulfilled did not hear preachers proclaiming it. We had to learn to believe in God not through your witness, but against your testimony, through your words but against your fulfilment of those words."

In other words, this pastor was telling the missionaries to evangelize the Western world, to turn themselves to the same God they preached to others.

Turn to God out of sorrow

Osvaldo Catena was a Roman Catholic priest who dedicated his life to living and working among the people of the slum areas of Santa Fe, Argentina. He was a gifted musician and wrote many of the songs that have renewed Latin American liturgy. During the military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), he was harassed and threatened, despite his age and heart condition; and one of his best friends and co-workers, the lay base community leader Waldino Suarez, was imprisoned and tortured. Catena finally had to take refuge in a monastery, where he died before the end of the military regime. Among his songs, he wrote:

Everything is telling you: Turn to God!

Everything is calling you, with a whole heart!

There is a voice in everything: Turn to God!

for those who want to hear it with a whole heart!

(Refrain)

Turn to God, with a whole heart!

Everything is telling you, Turn to God!

Many are starving (Turn to God!)

many are suffering (with a whole heart!)

There is injustice and war (Turn to God!)

There is oppression and hate (with a whole heart!)

Christ is still dying (Turn to God!)

His blood is still running (with a whole heart!)

There is a voice in everything: Turn to God!

for those who want to hear it with a whole heart!

In the midst of the grief and sorrow he shared with the poor people of the slums of Santa Fe, Osvaldo Catena could still proclaim this call: Turn to God with a whole heart! Like the prophet Jeremiah, from whom these words are taken (cf. Jer. 24:7), Catena could see only violence and injustice, persecution and hate. He realized that the blood of the crucified Christ is still running in the suffering of street children, abused women, unemployed men. For the many people who are marginalized and discriminated against, strength and hope for salvation could come only from hearts turned to the God of justice, freedom and love. Those are big words, which evoke vigorous ethical and ideological debates, but for the poor people with whom Catena worked, they translate into very simple things: something to eat, shelter, adequate clothing. Perhaps a little bit more: the right to have a job and wages that would allow parents to experience the dignity of raising their family through their own work, the right to feel that they are not despised because of the colour of their skin or their accent.

Turn to God with a whole heart! -- a word that rings in the minds of all who survive each day at the edge of starvation or despair, reminding them of their God-given human dignity, assuring them that even though they seem excluded from the concerns and plans of the powerful of this world, they are not excluded from the love of the God who promises them that the reign of God is theirs.

"Turn to God" is an appeal to life. Turn away from the blood-thirsty idols of death, which can live only from the sacrifice of the weak and subject creation to the bonds of their own vanity. For those who live in sorrow, "Turn to God" is a constant reminder that we should not yield to the illusion of the irresistibility of the powers that have already decided who are winners and who are losers, that have determined the lot of those who have the right to easy and pleasant lives and of those who must always suffer in poverty or distress. It is a call to join in the struggle for life, to overcome the "each one for himself or herself" philosophy of individualistic consumerism. It is an appeal to do away with the sense of futility that threatens the small achievements of love in everyday life. "Turn to God" speaks of the possibility of building community beyond the growing violence of the poor against each other, beyond the tearing of the fabric of society, the immodest exhibitions of wealth and power that accompany globalization, the corruption that goes unpunished, the drug market which continues to grow.