From: CIOFS Bulletin, 2004, N. 5 [CIOFS is the International Council of the Secular Franciscan Order in Rome]

        An Alternative Model for Society, Inspired by Minority
Luis Carlos Susin, OFMCap.
 

1. A different world is possible

"Another world is possible" became the great slogan of the Word Social Forum, first held in 2001 in Porto Alegre. [...] After the first three meetings in Porte Alegre, in January of this year it took place in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), in India. It is now called the "Movement of Movements", since it brings together an increasing number of non-governmental organizations, bodies and movements working to promote the dignity and rights of humanity and of creation, a more just ordering of international relations, an improvement in the quality of human life on earth, etc.  The World Social Forum came about as an alternative to the World Economic Forum, which has been held in January each year in Davos, Switzerland ever since the seventies. The World Social Forum aims to affirm a type of globalization that gives first place to societies rather than to the economy, and sees the latter at the service of the former and not vice versa. Meanwhile, its phenomenal rate of annual growth, its methodology and scope have already surpassed the initial aims. As well as the World Forum, forums are held on a regional and continental basis to prepare for it, to ensure grass roots participation and to spread the ideals. From being a network of ideas, it has become a large showcase where initiatives and organizations gain visibility and find creative forms of expression, particularly those that have sprung up in the last twenty years and which remained relatively isolated and invisible amid the noisy triumph of neoliberalism and the ideology of the "single issue".  Defying this one-dimensional, anthropologically perverse ideology - like other ideologies of the recent past - the World Social Forum presents a utopian horizon: the possibility of another world.[...]

The following reflection is directed towards the effectiveness of minority, against the background of the thousands of entities and persons that make up the World Social Forum, with its own social and utopian horizons. It may be appropriate to reaffirm clearly something which is prior to any efficacy: namely, that minority, at its heart, in its most secret and mysterious depths, lives and moves in the sphere of gratuity, of grace, of gift given without measure and without calculation. In this sense, too, the humanist generosity and gratitude of the thousands who are part of the World Social Forum are impressive. Could we not recognize here the work of the Holy Spirit? [...]

2. Minority: an identity in relationship

When Thomas of Celano recounts the moment when Francis named his group of brothers, perhaps we ought to think of it in somewhat biblical terms: "I want this fraternity to be called the Order of Lesser Brothers" (1Cel 38). [...]  In biblical terms, the name denotes a vocation, a call to become that identity. Now, because of "minority", this identity is paradoxical, there is something contradictory about it, it is an "inside-out" identity, even a scandalous one. Until the shock has interrupted the journey towards identity and turned it penitentially inside out, the adventure of being a lesser brother cannot begin. [...]

In showing us that the journey towards the Order's identity would be one of minority, Francis' words are essentially related to ourselves, and he speaks from a place that has nothing comfortable about it. We all know what it meant, in the society of Francis' day, to belong to the stratum of the "minores", and we need not stress the point now. I would just like to underline something even more obvious: that the word "minor" points to a relationship rather than to an identity. The identity is defined on the basis of a foundational relationship. And that it is comparative relationship: it presupposes that there is someone "major". [...]

3. Minority: a necessary relationship that grows from other people

It is useful to recall what Francis wrote at the beginning of his Testament: "The Lord gave me, Brother Francis, thus to begin doing penance in this way: for when I was in sin, it seemed too bitter for me to see lepers. And the Lord Himself led me among them, and I showed mercy to them. (Test. 1).

[...] This foundational experience first of all had a de-structuring, one might say even destructive effect, and provoked a moment of uncontrollable emptying of self, a kenosis. [...]  The kenosis involved in the foundational experience of Francis is not purely mystical. It arises from the revelation of the other as "leper", in his humanity. This association of that which is deformed, ugly, painful, repugnant - initially felt as a threat from which one instinctively recoils - with defiant, fragile humanity in all its purity, is the place where the Lord turned Francis into a "minor" among minors. [...]

To be "minor", therefore, is not a voluntaristic act or a calculated decision made under the control of reason; it is not a project matured with full awareness. No-one becomes lowly or empties himself or serves others without that shock or scandal which alone transforms bitterness into sweetness and vice versa. This transformation is not in our power, and does not begin in us. Minority begins in a necessary relationship - one that imposes itself - beginning with other lowly people, as a grace that is beyond our nature, something truly super-natural where Creator and creatures are lovingly associated. [...]

Minority, therefore, is a gift we receive from God through the presence and mediation of others, of the little ones of this world. Without this foundational experience the rest is rhetoric. Building on this foundational experience we can hope to make an adequate contribution, as "lesser ones", to the evangelization of the world through the good news of justice and peace. [...]

4. The inevitable experience of the proximity of another "minor"

Francis, after his foundational experience, which was both mystical and ethical at one and the same time - like Jesus himself at his Trinitarian baptism among the humble - finding himself in the same place and in the same body with the lowly and with God, was filled with enthusiasm and went about asking for goods and alms, but he continued to give, remained in a state of poverty and abnegation. [...] Itinerancy and poverty flow from minority which, in turn, is a relationship that stays close to, in encounter with and in service to the lowly, who move from place to place because they have no guaranteed place of their own. One receives the vocation to minority and itinerancy in order to be with the lowly ones, to share the condition of minority, to give what one has and do what one can to serve. It is a form of wandering service, service on the move. Without service - without mission in minority, in other words, without a mission that means washing feet and healing wounds out of compassion, itinerancy becomes an exercise of power over others. [...]

Finally, a "minorite" identity can be defined: it is to persevere on the risky journey of coming close, with sensitivity, compassion and humanity, whose only value, meaning and foundation comes from other lowly people, from the world of the "little ones" and the poor, from those who have fallen along the way. [...]

The foundational experience of minority is a "non-place", it is beyond everyday experience. One cannot be on the edge, on the outside, in chaos and in total deconstruction, every day. The foundational experience can only be an extra-ordinary event, in which the foundation is built above the chaos and becomes the profound secret that sustains the everyday. Its truthfulness and strength, meanwhile, can and should lend significance and creativity to the everyday. We are involved in everyday realities not just when one person falls down in front of us but many; we are involved in the crowds on the street, in the city. In the harshness of daily reality there is a multiplicity of faces, cries, needs, diversity, all calling for urgent choices. And so we are thrown back onto the system, the resources of the economy, of politics, of labor, of projects, words and ideas. God's greatest glory is to be humble.  Proximity and mercy, the grace received and given among little ones, now needs to be transformed into the realities of everyday social life. [...]

But, in time, under the pressure of everyday life, minority becomes weighed down with complexity and even sophistication, apparently abandoning the simplicity of its founding moments. And, despite the nostalgia, it incorporates the necessary mediations in order to remain efficient. Efficiency means rationality, a project, resources, funds, communication, technology, association with people at different levels, policy implementation, entrepreneurship, investments, travel: in a word, everything that can strengthen the network of solidarity based on a few basic options. [...] In any event, whether in abundance or in want, there is a new aid available to us today to help us resist identifying service with success. In ecclesial terms, this is inter-congregational cooperation: collaborating with organizations inspired by others, or again, collaboration with bodies or networks that are not specifically Catholic, which might be ecumenical, interreligious or simply civil organizations. All of these help to place us in "our" place as the lesser brothers of everyone, associated with a service given by many for the good of all - the other possible world.  

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