A reflection on the occasion of Sojourners' 20th anniversary in 1991.
When I think about the life and work of Sojourners over the past 20 years, the question that the little boy asked the prophet comes to mind: "Dear Prophet, why do you keep prophesying when nobody listens to your words and when nobody changes their life?" The answer to that question was and always will be, "I prophesy, not simply to change the world, but to prevent the world from changing me."
Sojourners' task is to be that of the prophet who prophesies even when very few people listen or change their lives. And I deeply believe that the great call for Sojourners is not simply to bring about changes in our society but to live an authentic, faithful life in the middle of a world that continues to be very dark, very cruel, very exploitative, and very oppressive.
Sojourners and all those who support Sojourners were not able to prevent the [first] Gulf war, but that doesn't mean that the voice of protest against that war was not necessary and important. It is a voice that, first of all, wants to remind us of our vocation in this world as strangers in a strange land, constantly calling people to recognize God's love and constantly challenging people to choose that love instead of fear and all its consequences.
As I think about the future of Sojourners, I feel very strongly that it will be crucial for it to keep calling its readers to live the brokenness of the world and their own brokenness under the blessing. Our great temptation is to live our pain and the pain we see around us as a sign that we are unworthy and unloved. But then we live it under the curse. And when we live our suffering under the curse, it leads to more suffering and eventually to despair.
I see it as the great task of Sojourners to keep bringing the agony and anguish of our world and its people under the blessing that calls us the beloved sons and daughters of God. The great significance of Sojourners is not that it is able to take away human pain, but that it can reinterpret that pain as a way to an ever deeper life in communion with the God of love. That is the way of Jesus and that is the way we all are called to follow.
It is obvious that, as the travelers to Emmaus, we keep wondering why all these terrible things happen. And all this wondering will lead us to great darkness unless we trust that someone has joined us on the road and speaks to us about God's love and inflames our hearts with new hope and new love.
If there is one word I would like to offer Sojourners at this time, it is the word "communion." I hope and pray that all the events in our world that Sojourners reflects on will be reflected on as events that can lead us to a deeper communion with God -- that can help us to claim over and over again our blessing as the beloved sons and daughters of God. In this way, it will be possible to travel through the valley of tears with joy and peace because we know that we live in that short time between Jesus' leaving and coming again.
It is certainly my conviction that it is the great call of Sojourners to help us to discover that all the darkness that we live will be transformed into the joy of the kingdom.
Henri Nouwen was a Sojourners contributing editor and shared his life with mentally handicapped people in the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Ontario when this article appeared. (Copyright 2007 Estate of Henri J.M. Nouwen www.HenriNouwen.org.)
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