on Jesus aka “Agape”
this is a list.
I grew up in an immigrant community during the 1970’s and 80’s. The main immigrant groups in my neighborhood were Italian, Polish, Lebanese, Vietnamese, and Puerto Rican. The three religions practiced by these groups were Catholicism, Orthodox, and Buddhist. Our neighborhood boasts a Buddhist temple to this day.
I thought I knew Jesus.
And that he knew me/us/we.
I learned in Sunday school and at church that Jesus ate with, healed, and traveled around with beggars, sinners, and at the end of his life he pardoned two thieves in the eyes of God.
I read the Bible over and over. It told me to forgive. It told me if I had some bread and my neighbor was hungry, that I should divide mine up and share it. I truly love doing this.
Generosity is food. Juicy. Delicious.
I give money to the houseless. I never knew my maternal grandmother. She died in childbirth when my mom was two. But I was told that she always “fed the bums” that came up from the train tracks. They would come to the door out the back kitchen and she would bring them plates of food.
Someone said “but if you give them money they’ll go buy drugs”. I said, “giving them money is a form of mercy. Have you seen what happens to someone who withdraws from alcohol or opiates?”
Jesus said that the person who has never sinned should throw the first stone. I live by that.
I was born during the middle of the Vietnam War. When my mother was pregnant with me, her and my father watched the TV at night to see if his draft number was called. It never was but many of my parent’s friends were. And several of my uncles.
At family gatherings there was always the usual health questions about the latest treatments for the long term effects of Agent Orange. One of the priests at our church acted odd. I noticed and asked my mom why. She said “he was in Vietnam, he’s shell-shocked.”
Later, when I was working as a clinical herbalist, many of my clients were Bosnian refugees who had been exposed to the Chernobyl melt down. Thyroid cancer and birth defects. I always make sure I have iodine supplements in my first aid kit. It’s a small solace. I also thought the words on the statue of liberty meant me and my people.
Now I hear people talking about deported immigrants because they’re “criminals.” Most if not all of the non-indigenous people here on Turtle Island had criminal ancestors. How many Italian Americans have an uncle or great-grandfather who fled Italy because they had committed a crime?
How many immigrants went through Ellis Island using false documents? I had a great uncle who got through using his brother’s papers.
By the way, none of them had Visas.
They didn’t come the “right way”. They sailed up on crammed ships and got stamped for work. Most didn’t become “legal” for years after arrival if ever. My Irish ancestors washed up. Refugees.
My great-grandfather from Galway worked on a ship and snuck off it at the port of Boston. He was “illegal.” He did farm labor until he got enough money to buy his own.
Why do we think there are only two choices; Roman law or mayhem?
In school I learned about the “founding fathers” and the “Boston Tea Party”. They were rebels fighting an oppressive state. It was a peaceful protest at first. They just dumped some tea at Griffin’s Wharf. 92,000 pounds. I guess the whole harbour smelled of tea. But the British retaliated and the resistance had to arm up or concede.
I’ve noticed humans would rather die than not live free.
I’ve noticed the State believes it’s ok for them to act violently.
The constitution clearly states that ALL PEOPLE within the borders of the United States, regardless of how or why they got here, are entitled to due process. What I learned from Jesus is that we are all children of God and if I had wound up on a different street corner at a different time I could be in the same shoes as anyone else. I could be that beggar. I could be that undocumented immigrant. I could be that felon. I could have been born in Gaza.
If I was born in El Salvador under the rule of a dictator I would have committed crimes there too. Who here has never committed a crime? Even a small one? Shoplifting? Pocketing a package of m and m’s?
My Irish ancestors were born in the Gaza realm. Starved to death.
I’d commit a crime in an instant to protect my family or my people. To survive. Hell yeah I would. My great-grandfather was the day guard on death row at Auburn State Prison for Leon Czolgosz who assassinated President McKinley. Czolgosz was a laborer and anarchist. My great-grandfather later wrote a letter of appeal to New York State requesting humane conditions for death row prisoners and all prisoners in general.
He wrote:
“I believe that God alone is competent to judge of the moral liability of those who commit murder. Their swift removal from society by execution in any form, before there has been time for their passions, love, and jealousies to subside and before they have had time to take a calm inventory of their moral standing with their God, and also before they are prepared to conscientiously and penitently ask God’s pardon, might do irreparable damage to the victim of the state, or possibly to both.
Those unfortunate brothers and sisters should be generously given an opportunity to seek God’s pardon, and should have a possible chance to satisfy the state of their innocence.”
He goes on to describe the way he envisions the conditions for those imprisoned should be:
“Not in a dungeon or foul place but in quarters well lighted and ventilated, with access to a library of all standard works on all religions, sciences, and arts. Also care of such prisoners to be good, and food to be wholesome and plentiful.”
Now, I never met my great-grandfather and know very little about him but I believe he knew the same Jesus I do.
None of this means I’m a pacifist.
I have a friend that says you can identify a sociopath because they are single-minded. Focused on their prey, their agenda. And the rest of us are walking contradictions. I don’t mean I wouldn’t fight back.
I’m not against armed resistance and, if I’m being honest, I don’t think our world has evolved enough yet to destroy Empire using only peaceful means. Though I do believe it’s possible.
When that kid in the neighborhood was picking on my little brother I walked up and punched him the nose. I was not expecting all that blood. I would do it again.
When I think about Jesus now, years away from my Catholic upbringing, after many of my own personal traumas, disappointments, cynicism, all of my transgressions, there is still some place in me that never goes away, that has never stopped searching the eyes of others, even the worst of the worst, for their humanity. Sometimes it’s harder to feel than others. Sometimes it’s impossible. But when it comes through I think, that’s what I learned from Jesus.
I’ve come to think of this as “agape”. Pronounced ah-gah-pay. It’s a type of love that is universal and “persists regardless of circumstances” It’s often associated with Christ and Christ imprints or consciousness. It’s God love.
The concept is described in the New Testament:
"Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37–40)
“We've all seen the man at the liquor store beggin' for your change
The hair on his face is dirty, dreadlocked and full of mange
He asks a man for what he could spare with shame in his eyes
But, ‘Get a job, you fuckin' slob!’ is all he replied
Well, God forbid you ever had to walk a mile in his shoes
'Cause then you really might know what it's like to sing the blues
Yeah, then you really might know what it's like”
~Everlast, “What it’s Like”