A challenge for all of us these days, regardless of where we fall on the political or religious continuum, is to stay grounded. Feet and soul firmly planted on terra firma. We are buffeted about by so many opinions, orders, actions and reactions– mostly framed in menace and threat — that our emotional and spiritual balance seems permanently out of whack.The ground is right there, right beneath our feet, but our lives today are such that we don’t think we can find it, given that we are caught in a maelstrom of malice. And for millions of people, the ground that they have been standing on is literally being pulled out from under them as they are whisked away to some other place on earth. Whisked away from food, healthcare, jobs.
The Latin word for ground or earth is humus. It is also the root of the words humble and humility.The New Testament puts a prime value on humility, of being on the ground. For Jesus, humility is a choice, a choice for wholeness, and a chosen pathway to a different kind of power: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 14: 11)
In this current climate of venality, choosing humility can seem like a gesture of self-destruction.That is because it has become harder to distinguish between being humble and being humiliated, a term which also is linguistically connected to humus. If humble means to be grounded, humiliation is being ground down into that ground. Crushed.The Spirit broken. Which increasingly seems to be the intent of President Trump and the many who are acting on his behalf. Find the enemy, which is turning out to anyone and everyone who disagrees or stands in opposition to his chaotic if not incomprehensible actions, and stomp them down or throw them out. An ongoing cycle of humiliation.
There are several common reactions to being humiliated. One is to capitulate by accepting the message, however delivered, of worthlessness. Another is to try and hide under the ground. A permanent retreat. Yet another is to react by humiliating the humiliator. In my experience that doesn’t work, primarily because the humiliator is more practiced in engaging in acts of humiliation, and in the case of President Trump, the humiliator holds so many cards. From what I have seen, there has been no demonstration of humility on his part; his primary focus, seemingly his only focus, is to grind his opponents down. He is very effective at it.
The challenge for us is to move beyond reactions to a response.To move beyond being ground down to rising up. But not to mirror the humiliation with menace and arrogance, but with truth and creativity. I keep drawing on the extraordinary genius of Jesus who demonstrated amazing insight and creativity during his three-year ministry. One does not need to be a practicing or believing Christian in order to embrace his wisdom. Jesus lived during a time of grinding oppression, a period when humiliation was the governing ideology of the Roman Empire.
Jesus offered several responses to the politics of humiliation. “Turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39) at first seems like a charge to submit to humiliation, to present oneself as Rome’s doormat. It isn’t. People were often hit, usually with the back of a hand by the person in power. The slap was humiliating, but the back of the hand demonstrated the conferred power of the striker.To turn the other cheek meant that the next hit (which was often to come) would be made with the palm of the hand, and would indicate that the cheek turner was claiming a level of level of dignity, if not a degree of equality.
“If they ask you for your coat, give them the shirt as well”. (Math 5:39) This is not an act of obsequiousness. In the first century, the shame was not on the person who was undressed (as it is today), but the humiliation was visited on the one who gazed at the nearly naked person. “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” (Matthew 5:41) Roman soldiers had protocols to follow. They could require locals to carry their equipment for one mile, but not for two. A willingness to go the extra mile would get the soldier in trouble, and would be a demonstration of power, however limited, to the one forced into service.
Jesus offered strategies, strategies and responses that were expressions of a modicum of personal power, in the face of overwhelming and unrelenting earthly power. They also were strategies to retain one’s dignity, and a refusal to be cowed or defeated by repeated acts of humiliation. Over the centuries these and other strategies have been picked up by others who have lived under the boot of oppression. Gandhi. Martin Luther King. Desmond Tutu. Nelson Mandela. Strategies that exposed the humiliating forces and the cowardice behind them, strategies that were rooted in nonviolence, responses that claimed, retained and promoted the dignity of every human being. Strategies that have a different and vital dimension of power.
In a story from the book of Exodus, when Moses was called into leadership by a voice coming out of a burning bush, he was told to take off his sandals because the place on which he was standing was holy ground. (Exodus 3:5) Moses found the ground. It gave him strength and purpose. May we find the ground. Claim both our humility and dignity. Stand up to humiliation by claiming our dignity and protecting the dignity of all of us who share the same humus.
