As of today, a couple of Catholic bishops have issued a call to keep this nation in prayer in the light of the escalating tension of the Bersih 2.0 Rally planned for the 9th of July. The Agong has also voiced his concerns and I personally believe his intervention is much welcome and timely.
There is much to be said about the rally – whichever side of the divide one may be in. While we need to remain cautious for the safety and well being of everyone in Malaysia, we need to remember too that this is a “good fight”. The people behind Bersih 2.0 are doing it for the right reasons. For too long we have allowed things to fester under a hood of pretension that everything’s sunny and perfect in Malaysia when it’s been painfully not so.
So what can we do?
I think many of us would want the 8 points in Bersih 2.0 to be implemented so we can enjoy the right to a clean and fair election; that we can rid this country of the corruption that’s become so entrenched in the system; that we can all have the right to listen to all the media that want to reach out to us; that we can have a police, judiciary and due process of law and administration that we can be proud of; and finally so that we can get rid of the gutter politics that have made Malaysia a laughing stock both locally and in the larger world.
Maybe, this reminder from Oscar Romero can give us new inspiration, a guiding light and remind us of who we are and what we are called to be:
A Future Not Our Own
“It helps, now and then, to step back
and take the long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete,
which is another way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No programme accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about:
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything
and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders,
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.”
I especially like the words in paragraph 4: “we plant seeds that one day will grow….”
end note: We will really need to stand up for what we believe in. Archbishop Romero paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. He was assassinated on March 24 1980, one day after a sermon where he had called on soldiers to obey God’s law and to stop carrying out the government’s repression and violations of basic human rights, which ultimately saw his country El Salvador plunge into a decades long civil war.
Let’s keep Malaysia in our prayers.
Mucked In A Jam 