Between death and life

Orange May serves to raise awareness and combat violence against children and adolescents in Brazil, more specifically cases of sexual abuse and exploitation. In this context, it's worth thinking about what's at stake when we talk about children in situations of risk and social vulnerability. As the statistics on violence against Brazilian children show, we are dealing with a matter of life and death. Although for many people this seems very dramatic or exaggerated, it's not. Yesterday (19/05), for example, we once again saw the death of a 14-year-old boy, shot by the military police in Rio de Janeiro. João Pedro was at home, playing! He wasn't involved in drug trafficking, he was an evangelical, and death took him or was thrown at him by various factors that had nothing to do with his decisions in life. In this devotional, the reader will be able to understand that when we talk about situations of risk and social vulnerability, we are talking about death and life, just as we can see in the Bible.

Life and death, in the Bible and today, cannot be measured by heartbeats or the lack of them. It is possible to be alive and still experience death. This is where the experience and situation of risk and social vulnerability come in. In ABBA's portfolio, which you can access here, we have developed a description of this condition and I will summarize some things here. For many it's just a question of poverty and life in the favelas, but it's much more than that.

The two questions we need to ask ourselves are: Vulnerable to what? At risk of what? Social vulnerability means a condition of latent susceptibility to the social environment in which one lives. Of course, we are all susceptible to our social environment. There is a difference, however, between environments that impose greater difficulties in overcoming them and environments that are less challenging. To make matters worse, more challenging environments tend to be more inhospitable to human development. In other words, the social environment affects the development of our emotional and psychological resources to acquire the necessary capacities to overcome the challenges it imposes. These challenges have to do with a lack of material resources, but also with a social environment that imposes a lack of internal resources. This is a situation of social vulnerability. Those in this situation have very few opportunities and few chances to acquire the skills needed to live a life different from the one they live in their environment.

So what is the risk? It's the risk of experiencing situations that bring them closer to financial, family, emotional and psychological collapse, and may even be life-threatening. This collapse is experienced through illness, marginalization, drug addiction, family breakdown, hunger, institutionalization, violence, etc. On a spectrum, the risk can range from a condition that seriously limits full human development to the point where there is a risk of death itself. Within this spectrum, what stands between the person and the experience of this collapse is the loss of a job, a domestic accident, an unexpected pregnancy, a divorce, etc. Often this is a situation that could be overcome without too much difficulty if there were more external and internal resources. For some, their vulnerability is deep enough that just one unforeseen event can lead them to experience the risks mentioned above. For many, death curtails their life in such a way that all it takes is a small change to take it away for good. Or, as in the case of João Pedro, it's enough to live in a certain place for death to walk through the door and strike.

All of this finds some interesting correspondences with the Bible's view of God, creation, life and death. The spectrum from situations that limit full human development to life-threatening situations could be changed to more biblical language: life on the one hand and death on the other. God is a God of life, who creates an environment that generates and sustains life, while the absence of God and his actions create an environment incapable of generating and sustaining life, therefore a place of death. This is very clear in Genesis 1, which begins with a state of emptiness and deformity, i.e. a lifeless environment, described by the Hebrew expression תֹהוּ וָבֹהוּ (tohu vabohu), and concludes with a vibrant state with life all around.

The state of death, in the Bible, is not necessarily a condition after the living being has breathed its last. In fact, it is possible to live in a state of death. An important word in the Old Testament for the place of death is שְׁאוֹל (sheol). Look at Psalm 30:3: "O LORD, you have brought up my life from Sheol; you have kept me alive so that I will not go down to the pit." Or Psalm 88.3: "My life is full of evil, my being touches Sheol". Or Psalm 116.3: "The snares of death surround me, the anguish of Sheol takes hold of me". These living conditions described by the imminent presence of Sheol are life-threatening. The context of such conditions is usually one of social disorder, violence and scarcity of resources. The presence of Sheol, therefore, is a situation of risk and social vulnerability.

Another important Hebrew word here is מוֹת /מָוֶת (mot/ mavet). This is the common term for death. However, death is not merely a state, for it has a certain personality. So much so that מוֹת (mot) is a term that refers to a god of death and the underworld in the mythologies of the ancient Near East. To understand death as a personality in the biblical tradition, we have an interesting example in Jeremiah 9:21: “For death [מָוֶת] has come up [obviously from the underworld] through our windows, into our cities, and has torn children from the streets and young men from the square.” This text is quite significant for two reasons. The first is that death has an active character. It penetrates the sphere of human life, specifically society, in order to tear people’s lives away and bring them under its dominion. The second is that Jeremiah singles out children and young people as those who are first torn away by death. Children and young people here are a group at greater risk and at greater social vulnerability, something that continues to be the reality in our context, as João Pedro's death makes clear. Even more interesting is that Jeremiah's text speaks of death coming through our windows. In our context, the death that reaches our children and adolescents is a threat that, in most cases, comes from inside their own homes. The violence suffered by Brazilian children and adolescents is, in the vast majority of cases, perpetuated by their family members and acquaintances, in the home environment. Even when this does not happen, as in the case of João Pedro who was shot by the military police in Rio de Janeiro, being at home does not mean having any security.

On the other hand, let us see how the Gospel of John uses the term life. A well-known text is John 10:10: “I have come to give you life, a life that is full and satisfying” (NLT). This “abundant life” and “eternal life” in the Gospel of John is linked to the revelation of who Jesus is. The way in which Jesus’ identity as the Son and God incarnate is revealed occurs through several episodes in which Jesus offers material supplies in situations of human need: wine (2:1-11), water (4:4-42) and bread (6:1-71). More interesting is that Jesus’ offering of material elements is more than that. Jesus himself is “the LIVING water”, the “bread of LIFE”. Jesus offers these material elements, but he himself is the gift offered. There is a convergence here between the human, material, physical reality and the divine, spiritual reality. Life is offered by the material elements that satisfy human needs, that is, that which, in fact, sustains the human body. But since this offering is made by the grace of God, in the service of Jesus as the very gift offered, these elements also result in abundant life. Materiality ceases to be mere materiality before the one who offers it as an expression of divine grace in communion with the One who reveals Himself as God Himself. And John tells us that all those who enjoy these elements, receiving the very gift, which is Jesus, receive the right to become children of God (John 1:12). Jesus, the incarnation of God, is the God who gives life, even through the simple act of satisfying the human needs of those who need it most.

Millions of Brazilians, many of them children and adolescents, live in situations of risk and social vulnerability. For them, death is a daily reality, whether through physical and sexual violence inflicted against them, or through the lack of material and internal resources. Death wants to take their lives and Sheol seems to be the environment in which they live, as described by the psalmist. This happens when one of their acquaintances or friends is shot, as happened to João Pedro; or in the marks of purulent wounds that many carry due to the lack of basic sanitation; or in the literally empty plate of nutrients, when they only have noodles to eat; or in the stream running like a torrent next to their shack; or in the punch their mother receives from her boyfriend; or when their father or mother beats them; or when a family member or acquaintance sexually abuses them; or when their boss delays paying their parents' wages; or when they are left with neighbors, still babies, because their mother went to use drugs on the street; or because they were simply abandoned in the hospital by their mother. For all of these people, the church has much to offer. As the body of Christ, we can offer the material resources and physical protection that these people need to meet their needs, to give them what they need to live. But as the body of Christ, we must do so in an environment of real encounter, of real revelation of the divine gift, Jesus himself, who manifests himself in this act, in this offering, granting these people the possibility of receiving him in these elements and having abundant life and being called sons and daughters of God.