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RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN RIGHTS

E-Newsletter
Vol.2 No.52
December 22, 2000


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Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is now available online at: http://www.rghr.net

Religious Perspectives on Human Rights is a weekly e-newsletter issued by Buddhist, Muslim, Catholic and Christian Groups on Human Rights, initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission.

We wish everyone a Happy Christmas, and a season filled with love and concern for the rights of others.

We also wish to share in the joy of the Muslim community celebrating the festival of Peace, Joy, Reconciliation and Sharing: EID

1) Christmas thoughts by Dr. Nalin Swaris

I Was in Prison and You Did Not Visit Me: A Christmas Tale from Today's Sri Lanka

[Ed. Note: We offer this reflection for Christmas and invite other reflections related to the religious observances, holidays and festivals of other faiths in Asia.]

This is a true story about a poor working woman who is named after the Mother of Jesus. It took place in the season when Christians the world over are preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It is in the light of the life that Jesus of Nazareth lived, what he did and taught, but above all the circumstances that led to his terrible death on the Cross that his birth takes on historical significance.

The Last Judgement (Matthew 25.31ff)

In the period that Jesus was born, Jewish society was bristling with rebellion and charged with messianic expectations. The Jews believed that their God would soon send down a liberator from heaven to defeat their enemies and raise them to their rightful place as the people chosen by God to be at the head of all the nations of the earth. This hoped for liberator was called the Messiah. The advent of the Messiah, the Jews believed would be preceded by a cataclysmic end of the world. After which the Messiah would arrive to judge the good and the evil. The Jews, as the Chosen People, were absolutely certain that they would be on the right side because they worshipped the true God and had kept faith him.

Jesus took the popular belief about a Last Judgement and vested it with a radically new content and thereby overturned the values of conventional religiosity. The Last Judgement will indeed take place, he said. The Son of Man will separate the good and the wicked just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will then invite the good, as ones blessed by God, to take as their heritage the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world. He will then turn to the wicked and banish them as accursed people to the eternal fires of hell. What is interesting is the criterion that Jesus uses to separate the just and the unjust. Remarkably, he excludes external observances of religion as the decisive criterion. 

The wicked are condemned to hell for failing to do what those who were blessed by God had done: "Depart from me you cursed into the fires of hell, for I was hungry and you did not feed me. I was thirsty and you did not give me to drink. I was naked and you did not clothe me. I was sick and you did not come to see me. I was in prison and you did not visit me". The condemned ask, "Lord when did we see you suffer these hardships and failed to come to your help? The Son of Man replies: "I tell you, what ever you failed to the least of my brethren you failed to do to me. So depart from me and go to your eternal punishment". Visiting the imprisoned is one of the standards by which a Christian will be judged.

What is extraordinary is that the just did not know that when they helped a person in distress, they were helping Jesus. It was a spontaneous welling up of metta-karuna that impelled them to relieve suffering whenever and wherever they saw it. No religious affiliation, social class or ethnicity is mentioned as a criterion for being justified before God. Just the quality of a person's heart and humanity.

Mary, The Name of Jesus' Mother 

To return to the poor woman who is named after the mother of Jesus. She comes once in two weeks to wash and iron my clothes for which I pay her a full day's wage. She has lived her life in the shadow of her parish church. For about fifteen years she has been hand washing and ironing the cassocks, clothes and bed linen of the priests of this church. Her two daughters were baptized in this church and the younger daughter teaches catechism to children in Sinhala every Sunday.

About 8.30 on the morning of Monday the 4th of this month I received a telephone call from this woman. She was in a state of great distress. In words broken by sobs, she told me: "Help me mahattaya, I have no where to go. Our eldest daughter was taken away by the police last night. She was kept the whole night in the station. We stayed on the roadside till two in the morning. We were threatened by the police and asked to go home and return in the morning. When we did, our daughter told us she had been severely beaten. 

The complaint was that the young woman had stolen a pure gold designer-watch worth five lakes. The young woman of 25 had been working for a young, wealthy Roman Catholic couple as a day cleaner. In a choked voice the mother told me: "Last night when she was taken away, I rushed to Father X and pleaded with him to go to the police station and ask the police to treat her well. The priest had already had been already apprised of the alleged theft by his wealthy friends. He also knew the poor distraught woman well. He had baptised and given the First Communion to the girl held by the police. But he told her: "There is little I can do for you. Get hold of a lawyer and go back to the police station? The poor woman had replied "Swami, how can I find lawyer at this time of the night - can't you help?" The priest had refused. 

The next morning when her daughter told her three policemen had beaten her in turn, she went back to the priest and asked him to go to the station and inquire about her daughter. The priest refused to do so and had again told the desperate mother to find a lawyer and go to the station. It is then that in a last desperate bid that she had decided to call me. 

Divine Rites and Human Rights in Sri Lanka Today 

I called the Institute of Human Rights and asked for a lawyer a friend had recommended. Fortunately he was present  and he immediately agreed to act on the matter. By the time I went to the police station he had already arrived. I was faced with a difficult situation. How could I provide some sort of comfort and a sense of security to the girl and her parents? There is a convent of nuns adjoining the church where our man of God had been parish priest for several  years. I went there and asked the nuns if they could go and visit the girl. They proved to be true ministering angels. They immediately agreed to go and visit the young woman who is well known to priest and nun alike in this parish. I also spoke to a priest serving in this parish. Though recuperating from a debilitating illness he promptly got on to his scooter and came to see the girl in custody and spoke to the officers present of his concern for her welfare. The obscure meaning of priestly ritual was revealed in reality. 

The One Sent By God

When the nuns came out of the police station they told me: "This child is frightened to death. Can't we go and see father X and ask him to speak to the rich matron. She is a great benefactor and a dear friend of father". I did not know the priest's address but the nuns said they would direct me to the place. To my amazement it was about a mile away and down a lane on the same main road as the police station - a five-minute drive by car. The place is at the end of the lane, in a pleasant and secluded spot. There, this priest who heads a non-governmental welfare organization has built a cozy little cottage for himself. Generous donations of(f)course.

The nuns stated the purpose of their visit and pleaded that he speak to his dear friend, the rich matron and ask her to tell the police  not to harm the girl in their custody - that this was not their intention when they reported her as a suspect to the police. The priest declined to do so and the asked the nuns to go visit the lady if they were that concerned. Realizing that this would be a fruitless exercise, I dropped the nuns off at the convent and returned to the
police station, where I kept watch with the parents and other friends and relatives from the shanty town.

The Man Beaten Up and Left Half-dead (Luke 10.25ff)

That afternoon I was standing with my back to the road in front of the police station together with the family and neighbours of the detained woman. It must have been around 5.30 p.m. when the people told me: "There, there, swami yanawa". They pointed to a double cab going past the police station on the opposite side of the road. When I asked "kohede yanne?' the people said, "He is going to say evening mass in the small church up the road". "Do you realize, I asked, "that this is exactly what happened in the Gospel? 

Jesus taught a new law, which would supersede the Mosaic Law: 

"Love thy neighbour as thyself" Peeved by his insolence, the Pharisees, led by a lawyer asked him the cynical question: "Who is my neighbour?" 

The question was essentially self-centred. They wanted Jesus to give them a legal definition, which would in turn delimit the extent of their obligation. Is `neighbour' those who live in my immediate neighbourhood? People of my own religion, race or kinship group? 

Jesus, seeing through their casuistry decided to tell a story instead. A certain man (no race, no religion) was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. He fell into the hands of bandits who "stripped him, beat him and made off leaving him half dead". Then, says Jesus, a priest and a Levite (a member of the Jewish priestly tribe) came by and when they saw the wounded man they passed by on the other side. Then, in a devastating blow to the false religiosity of these pious men, Jesus said: "A Samaritan came along and seeing the wounded man was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He took him to an inn and looked after him. The next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper and said "Look after him, and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have". Turning to his questioners Jesus then asked: "Which of these, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the bandits' hands?' The legalist replied, "The one who showed pity to him". Jesus said to them, "Go, and do the same yourself". Jesus tells the true believers that a pagan had understood the great commandment of love better than the priests and acolytes of their religion. The `neighbour' is whoever is in need - irrespective of gender, ethnicity, class or caste.

2) THE EID : THE THANKS-GIVING DAY reflections by Aminah S. GOLING

The Eid is a thanks-giving day where Muslims assemble in a brotherly and joyful atmosphere to offer their gratitude to Allah for helping them to fulfil their spiritual obligations during the month of Ramathan. This form of thanks-giving is not confined to spiritual devotion and verbal expression but it goes far beyond to manifest it self in a social and humanitarian spirit. 

It is a day of remembrance. Muslims remember the deceased by prayer of their sols, the needy by extending a hand of help, the grieved by showing sympathy and consolation, the sick by cheerful visits and utterances of good wishes. It transcends all limits and expands over far-reaching dimensions of human life. 

It is a day of victory. It marks the achievement of the freedom because he knew how to control himself and discipline his desires, and flee from sin and wrong, from fear and cowardice, from vice and incidence, from jealousy and greed, from humiliation and all other causes of enslavement.

It is a harvest day. The haves and have-nots will enjoy the providence of Allah in a most plural fashion. 

It is a day of forgiveness. True Muslims assemble in the congregation of the Day, wholeheartedly pray for forgiveness and strength in faith. They would be deeply impressed by the brotherly and spiritual assembly. They would find moving along with others responding to the spirit of the Day to purify his heart and soul. In any case, he would forgive those who might have wronged him because himself would be praying for forgiveness, and would do his best to acquire it.

It is a day of peace. A Muslim establishes peace within his heart by obeying the Law of God and leading a disciplinary life, he has certainly concluded a most invioble treaty of peace with God.