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- Han (Korean notion for shame)
- These predicaments do not necessarily lead people to crying with others. What is required is recognising theses predicaments, accepting ownership of these predicaments within one’s sphere of
influence and a heart of compassion.
- The crying may be elicited by compassion for the victims of injustice, by solidarity with those who are “sinned against”. It may also be born from a confession of guilt from a recognition of the
consequences of one’s own sins on others. It may also result from a realisation that we have collectively become the victims of our own sins, that we suffer from a dispensation that we are partially responsible for through our
sins of actions, words, and attitudes, through what we have done and left undone.
Crying …
- May be an expression of anger, for example over injustice
- May be a form of weeping (bringing catharsis, relief and healing), mourning or lamenting
- May be a form of prayer: A cry directed to God. Crying may also be directed to the powers that are maintaining the status quo.
- Prayer is epitomised by the Lord's Prayer (see the note below)
- A response of crying and praying would be the opposite of complaining, blaming, complacency or silencing.
And Struggling
- Crying is not the only relevant response to the predicaments that we are faced with. There is also a need for learning, celebrating, thanking, working and serving. To be crying with others may
mean to be with them in silence and anticipation, but it cannot mean to remain sitting around, doing nothing.
- Crying as praying should be the well-spring for working, for a commitment to transformation, for taking responsibility, for helping, for participating in a struggle for “Justice, Peace and the
Integrity of Creation”.
- The relationship between crying as praying and struggling is capture by the classic Christian motto: Ora et labora, Bete und Arbeite, pray and work. This calls for further theological reflection
on the relationship between grace and works, God’s work in us and our work in the world, justification and sanctification.
With others …
- Crying alone or in community
- With others inside and outside Christian communities
- With humankind and otherkind in the earth community
- With the poor, oppressed, marginalized, widows and orphans, imprisoned, disabled.
- The others also include our biological and spiritual ancestors, our communion with the saints and future generations.
- In solidarity with others.
- With respect to the otherness of the other.
To live …
- A theology of life in all its fullness
- Life in community
- A community of life, the Earth community
- Life as a struggle for survival
- To live with dignity and to die with dignity
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