2008 L’Arche International Federation India

I will hear the question, “What was India like?” many times but I will never have the words or time to answer it.  As we traveled from the YMCA in Deli to Agar to Japur and then Kolkata we traveled through cultures, religions, economies and environments that run the range of the worst and best of what we can be as creations of God.  I saw great beauty, creativity,  great kindness and welcome, incredible poverty, empty deserts and the highest concentrations of people in one place that I could ever imagine.  I believe that passing through India impacts you as much as you let it—after a while I tried to be open to the experience and I will never be the same.

I never believed that I could walk past a person suffering on a street.  I don’t know how I did.  All the talk about “There is no way to change this” means nothing when you are there and you have money in your pocket that you are using to buy gifts and there is a man starving.  Do you walk around him? Eventually, I found myself walking at the back of our group so that I could give something—if I had not I would have left something else behind—my soul.  Very few people begged but passing a child digging in acres of garbage in competition with pigs asks what you are and what you will be more than the most insistent beggar.  I suppose that I was no hero—I did not do all that I could.  I found that it was hard to connect with people the way I usually do—long walks in the morning—because walking down the street was like walking through their baths, kitchens and bedrooms.  I did not take pictures of people suffering—it seemed incredibly disrespectful as some tourists snapped pictures of a father bathing his children and people living as best they could.   Even the poor had dignity and smiles and welcomed us on their streets—their home seldom with a hand out. 

We walked where Ghandi and Mother Theresa walked and worked in small ways that changed the whole world.  There is something about India that is hopeful --that they and others have sensed.  In spite of having so much of value there was no fear as we walked among people with nothing.  There is something there that says all life is valuable and beautiful and belongs to God even when conditions may make that life full of suffering and brief. 

If I could convey one thing from this experience it is that if you go to a country like India you will know that we can never live excessively and wastefully without full knowledge that there is a better choice of how to use our gifts and resources.  Just as L’Arche, through people with intellectual challenges, call us to understand our own brokenness and need for care, the poorest of the poor who can still smile and welcome and somehow not show envy or hate show us something about how we can become more.  One of the few times I was able to watch a US news broadcast I saw the anger and blame on the faces of the wealthy on Wall St.  As I turned to leave I noticed outside a couple of children playing with some cabbage leaves—flapping them like bird wings and laughing.  God gives joy and only man’s greed can take it away.

I did not come away with the level of pain and guilt that I thought I would.  Maybe that will happen if I let my commitments fade but I have never felt as much in love with people as I did looking into eyes that did not ask for help but were simply present to me.  Not pity but love.  But love dies if it does not grow and move.  I hope that I am different now and that I am able to love more here where our physical needs are not so great. ------- In just a few contacts since I’ve been back I have realized just how often we waste our energy and our good potential on petty concerns that pale in the face of simply being able to be alive the next day. 

Please know that what you may have imagined is real—trust me that it is--- and also that we in L’Arche are making amazing differences in the lives of the communities around their homes.  Signs of hope.

Writing this is very difficult.  I will write some more and, hopefully, share some pictures and information.  I was especially moved by visiting the home where Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity cared for Rani when she was a baby.  Just an amazing, beautiful place in spite of all.
God’s Peace---Mark