Theology in the Dust and in Suffering

Theology in the Dust and in Suffering

Dear friends, I have had a life experience that I will never be able to forget.

I am in Haiti periodically since January 13, 2010. The earthquake happened January 12, 2010. Haiti has become nomadic with more than two million people in the streets.

I am in a camp of 200 families; 1200 people without water, without food, without latrines, without beds, without material possessions. Their eyes are suspended in space, waiting for someone to help them. I decided to spend some time with them, sleeping as they sleep, as the Ancient Book tells me that I should suffer with those who suffer and this is the best moment to honor the Author of the Book.

Last night I slept on a bed made of pieces of wood covered with a lifeless and worn-out rug. It rained that night and water ran through my bed; the water leaked through the tarp that served as a roof. No one could sleep. There I understood in a deeper way that human beings have the ability to love and to destroy. How in a nation without shelters, without bread, without health, without beds, without any sort of protection, could there be a sector living with their backs to this inhuman situation, living in comfortable mansions, with an abysmal gap separating them from the defenseless majority. I understood the pain because I was suffering with those who suffer.

Today I spoke with a mother who lost her husband and a father who lost his only daughter. 25 meters from my rustic bed I see a completely collapsed house and under the rubble a family of nine without funerals and without crosses, all dead. I have thought about what it means to be a Christian in this context of extreme poverty. I have come to the conclusion that it is not enough to proclaim that one day good will triumph over evil; we need to make the good triumph, giving our lives for the truth, for justice and for the dignity of others. We should participate in the processes of change of our nation. Not just be one more who hides behind the curtain to not see the poverty, not be one more who feeds off of ignorance, not be one more who is not willing to change the paradigm that breaks the diaphragm of the society.

To not be one more who only speaks to defend the already privileged sectors. I am not angry, I am astounded.

There are two types of theology: that of the classroom and that of the dirt. To be in the camp has obligated me to understand the depths of pain and the cruelty of those who take advantage of the poor, leaving the multitude without dignity and without options. In Haiti the major catastrophe has not been the earthquake, but rather the lack of coordination and the planned disorder that is managed for a sector to be able to continue living off of them. We should preach the Truth, the Justice, the Integrity, the character and the institutionalization of the State.

Only in this way, the Dominican Republic will have the hope of not living what Haiti is living today.

Samuel Luna
President

Nation in Transformation (NET)