Hope. Talk to the land. Console the animals. Tell them not to be afraid, because we will purge the locusts and start anew.
The people of the Andes feel that the earth, Pachamama, is a living being, the Mother of all her children, be they animals, fig trees, vines, or locusts. Any plagues, droughts, or famines result from her sickness. And this sickness is caused by our mistreatment and misunderstanding, our alienation from the natural cycles, and our impatience with the circles in which we feel we are stuck.
We stagnate. Our fields of creativity, mercy, and love dry up. Locusts of doubt, fear, apathy, ignorance, shame, and exclusion destroy our relationships; they eat everything we had planted; they bring destruction, pain, and hunger.
But there is hope. After death comes life, after destruction comes creation, after dry fields comes rain, bringing green abundance.
What brings life? Reconciliation with death. What brings love? Overcoming fear. The locusts leave, and God repays us with a cornucopia for the time we struggled.
Jesus embodied this reconciliation, teaching us to live with justice for our neighbors, all animals, and the earth. He lived as the incarnation of hope and life. Like us and all creation, he suffered from a thousand locusts of marginalization, fear, and death. His life reminds us that God’s love does not end and every locust may be transformed into a new beginning.
Prayer
God, Sun and Son, source of creation, life, and light, help us bend the stiff lines we create into circles of renewal and transformation. Share your hope that what we see as the end is the beginning. Amen.
Alexandra Buck, Bridge of Hope Fair Trade Facilitator
Joining Hands, Peru
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