Our Faith
John Paul II and Prophetic Imagination
Rev. Fr. George Ehusani
Prophetic Imagination is a major plank of the Judeo Christian religion. Prophets are the visionaries of their time. When all others are blind, prophets are the ones granted to see the handwriting on the wall, to interpret the signs of the times, and to see the light beyond the tunnel. Equipped as they are with superior knowledge and perception, prophets analyse the situation on the ground in the light of the common good and in the light of God's wisdom and commandments. Prophets refuse to be defiled by the corruption of the moment; they refuse to be engulfed by the darkness of the surrounding environment. They possess the vision of life as it ought to be, and it is this vision that propels them in their difficult assignment. Prophets speak for God under different circumstances. They are endowed with rare courage not only to denounce evil in general, but also to name the specific human agents of evil in society. They remind society that our God is a God of truth, and that peace is the fruit of justice. They warn evil doers of the inevitability of nemesis, while giving the much needed hope to a suffering people. They tell the poor and oppressed or the victims of injustice not to despair, because God is capable of intervening and turning things around. Prophets give reason for the poor to hope. They assure "the remnant of Yahweh" that all is not lost.
Prophets arose at critical times in the history of Israel. They came up when they were most needed. During the period of the Kings, they came up to check the excesses of the monarchs. While false prophets played the sycophant, the true prophets of God were endowed with rare courage to speak the truth before kings and rulers. They warned the people of God of the socio-economic and political consequences of their sins, and assured them of God's mercy and forgiveness if they repented. During periods of tribulation, such as the Babylonian captivity, when there was the great temptation towards despair, prophets arose to encourage and to offer hope of redemption. Thus, at a time of great depression and distress Prophet Isaiah tells his listeners: “Do not be afraid, Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty soil, streams on the dry ground. I will pour my spirit on your descendants, my blessing on your children…” (Isaiah 44: 2-3).
The poor see prophets as those who formulate their desperate cry into a divine discourse, which will soon win for them freedom and liberation. The prophets are for them the harbingers of hope and the heralds of freedom. Whereas the rich, the powerful, and the oppressive ruler are often threatened by the presence and the message of the prophets, the poor find consolation and encouragement in their ministry. This is because the prophets speak the language of the poor. They appreciate very well the misery and agony of the distressed, since they themselves operate from a lowly disposition. They operate from a position of weakness. They possess no material or political power. Their only source of strength is the oracle of God they bear.
Jesus Christ is the prophet par excellence. He has come so that human beings may have life and have it to the full (Matthew 10:10). He says he has been anointed to proclaim release to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18). He says he is the light of the world, and anyone who follows him will never walk in darkness (John 8:12). He says he is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him (John 14:6). He tells all those who labour and are over-burdened to come and he will give them rest (Matthew 11:28). He assures his followers that when the Son sets them free, they shall be free indeed (John 8:36). He teaches the way of the Kingdom of God. He cures the sick, he opens the eyes of the blind, he gives freedom to captives, liberates the demonised, he feeds the hungry, he forgives sinners, he teaches the ignorant, he challenges the sinful structures in society that push people into sub-human existence, and he promises eternal life to those who follow him faithfully. So Jesus is the way to integral human development. The salvation which he offers is all-embracing.
Martin Luther King Jr., the African American Civil Rights leader and Nobel Prize winner, was a prophet, a visionary, and a dreamer for the American society. He was sustained by the Christian virtues of faith, hope and love, and he applied the Christian principles of justice, fairness and equality to the American society of his day. He denounced the injustice of racism, and spear-headed the massive peaceful demonstrations that led to the collapse of the evil policy of racial segregation. He died in the struggle, yet his life was consistent with his faith.
The Christian Church of the 21st Century must assume this prophetic role for and on behalf of the suffering, confused and disoriented people of God in the world. Human beings are inherently religious, whether they acknowledge it or not. They are created for something much more than can be found in the material world, whether they recognize that fact or not. As St. Augustine says, the Lord has created us for himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in him. That is why even as Church attendance goes down and the ritual practice of Christianity recedes in Western societies, there is nevertheless a fascination with and an attraction to spirituality in one form or the other.
While rejecting formal religion, many young people in our day seem frustrated with a life devoted only to the cult of the material, a life committed solely to the pursuit of wealth, power and pleasure. Many young people are totally disenchanted with the level of crime and violence, the phenomenon of religious and ethnic bigotry and the reality of degrading poverty existing side by side with affluence in the same society. This is surely not the world of their dream, so they are enlisting in spiritual and quasi-religious cults and confraternities, seeking spiritual fulfillment and extra-bodily experiences, probing into the mysteries of the world and looking for answers to the profound questions arising from depth of their hearts. Many are traveling from Europe and America to India and China, seeking to understand Eastern Mysticism, and undertaking a sympathetic study of the ancient religions of Hinduism and Buddhism.
Our own people in this part of the world are still a very religious people. They turn to God at times of crisis, disaster or epidemic, and seek His intervention. They look up to the ministers of God - the priests, the mediums, and the chief custodians of their religious beliefs for explanation or interpretation of what is happening to them, and through the agents of God, they seek liberation from the spiritual and material forces that oppress them. So the hunger for God remains prevalent all over the world, even among those who have rejected the institutional religion. This is why the Church of today is faced with the critical challenge to play its prophetic role – to show 21stCentury humanity the way, to teach the men and women of our generation the truth that saves, to give practical witness to the love, the mercy, the compassion and the salvation of God in Christ.
For the last 26 years, Pope John Paul II, now of blessed memory, tried to meet this prophetic challenge for the world on behalf, first of the Catholic Church, then of all Christians, and finally of believing humanity as a whole. Amidst the fears and anxieties of the last quarter of the 20th Century, plagued as it has been by the threat of nuclear conflagration, ecological disaster, civil wars, religious conflicts and what has been described as the clash of civilizations, John Paul II from the moment of his inauguration as Pope consistently urged the men and women of the world not to be afraid, but to approach the new millennium with trust and confidence that God is still in control. He rejected communism as a political ideology that is not only atheistic, but also one that diminishes individual liberty, and he championed the cause of freedom for his native Poland, and eventually for the entire Eastern Europe. With his prophetic imagination John Paul II defied the world of excessive power and privilege that is built upon the exploitation of the weak. He rejected liberal capitalism as callous and brutal and called for a world “where the rich will live simply so that the poor may simply live.”
In his 1987 encyclical with the title, On Social Concerns, he emphasized that being is greater than having, and urged men and women not to destroy their being with irrational pursuit and excessive consumption of material goods. He said progress does not consist in having more, but in being more. Yes, as the world was reveling in the many scientific breakthroughs of the 20th Century, John Paul II insisted that the Christian Church must teach the world before it gets carried away with a jaundiced sense of progress or success that true dominion which derives from God consists in “the priority of ethics over technology, in the primacy of persons over things, and in the superiority of spirit over matter.”
With his prophetic imagination, John Paul II championed the cause of genuine dialogue, mutual forgiveness, reconciliation, unity, justice, love, peace and non-violence among the segments of humanity that are to violence and to war. As charity begins at home, his landmark achievements in ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue are clearly unprecedented. He was the first Pope to visit the head of the Anglican Communion, the first Pope to step into a Mosque, the first pope to enter a Jewish Synagogue, etc. Above all John Paul II’s commitment to ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue got to the point where in 1986 and also in 2001 he could bring together in the city of St. Francis, leaders of all religious groups from all over the world to discuss how religion could be used as a veritable instrument of global and regional peace. Even when it was politically incorrect – with stiff opposition from certain elements within the Church - the Pope rendered an unprecedented and public apology for the sins of the Church in the course of the centuries
John Paul II was a prophet of divine mercy, and so he constantly pleaded with humanity to forgive one another and give witness to the mercy and compassion of Christ in the concrete circumstances of their everyday lives. In his 1980 Encyclical titled, Rich in Mercy, he said that mercy is what the world of today needs most. He urged men and women to have mercy on one another and learn to forgive, for a world without mercy and mutual forgiveness shall be a cold world of endless strife. He rejected violence in all its forms, and on one occasion he said to the men and women of the world, “On my knees I beg you to turn away from the path of violence and return to the path of peace.” He is known to have vehemently opposed the 2003 America-led war and subsequent occupation of Iraq.
True prophet that he was, John Paul II’s teaching did not go down well with many people in our generation who seem to have rejected the concept of universal laws or moral absolutes, especially in the area of sexuality. Those who promote what Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) once called “the tyranny of relativism,” described John Paul II as conservative because he insisted that Abortion, Euthanasia, Homosexual Unions and Artificial Contraception are evil and unworthy of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of the human body. But the late Pope’s teaching against abortion, euthanasia, homosexual unions and artificial contraception can be best understood within the overall context of his Christian humanism or his existential humanism.
We need many Christians in the 21st Century to follow the prophetic path of Jesus Christ the way Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II have done. We have every reason that Pope Benedict XVI will thread this path for the universal Church. But we need a dose of this prophetic imagination in our own country Nigeria, where the children of God are groaning under the weight of what could be described as corporate amnesia and collective myopia. There is today in our country an acute shortage of moral vision, intellectual rigour, critical thinking, and a discerning conscience, even among the elite. What appears to be in place instead is a cult of mediocrity. Many of those whom Nigerians look up to for a sense of direction, have often become corrupt officials or sycophants, praise singers and propagandists for whoever is in power. In the face of this national malaise, Nigeria is in dire need of Christians with sufficient prophetic imagination to champion the cause of national rejuvenation, leading the men and women of our country from the present valley of tears to the promised land of justice, peace and prosperity.
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