Where there is smoke, there is a fire
With pungent
spice burns the resinous heart wood of the Montezuma pine, "ocote" in
Spanish, drawing us round the Mayan
altar. We gather, Christians and those
who profess no faith, Tseltales,
Tzotziles, Europeans, Mexicans, United Statesians, Canadians, Lebanese, called by the smell, the smoke, the candles, the
flowers into sacred space. We pray for
awakening to peace in the midst of the
political crisis and government sponsored violence, we pray for courage as the
diversity of the environment disappears around us, we pray for justice in
communities devastated by migration, alcoholism, drug trafficking. We pray for the people of the United States
to have the courage and perseverance, the wisdom and strength to stand in
dignity, as the Mayan have stood again and again, over the centuries, bending
under oppression, but not breaking, resilient and resistant. With each prayer we turn, East, West, North,
South.
I resist
opening my heart in this liminal space, the doorway between heaven and earth,
because of the smell. Thousands of miles
away, the pine plantations owned by powerful lumber companies are burning like blue matchsticks covering Chile
in a heavy gray blanket. Homes,
churches, native forests catch on fire.
A blaze near the Shalom Center threatens the 240 acres set apart by the
Pentecostal Church of Chile and the national reserve I know so well, the Altos
del Lircay. As with many of the other situations mentioned in the
prayers, there is so little I can do.
Finally, when we turn to the south, I give in: I feel the tremble of the
hummingbirds, the lizards, the condors, the foxes, the ancient trees. It is the fear of fire and the ravages of
humanity. Thousands of miles away, in
the highlands of Chiapas, surrounded by people in a place where "mercy and
truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed" (Psalm 85:
10) I fight off insidious despair and breath deep, filling my lungs with the
smell of commitment, imagination, and joy which abounds in the struggle for
Shalom. "For God has not given us
the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and self-control." 2 Tim. 1:7
Elena
Huegel
Feb. 28,
2017
