S1-Day 3: God in Dirty Places: Right to dignity

The spread of corona has changed all of our life style. The celebrations, gatherings, expensive shopping, hotel foods, entertainments, outings, etc. is paused for a while. This pause is extended to spiritual gathering too. The spiritual space which is always associated with reverence, purity and cleanliness found itself locked up for days. Prayers are offered in houses, near sewage pits, in hospitals, near garbage and even in toilets. The so called ‘clean’ and modest outfits are forgotten while praying in these places. In this pandemic situation, there is a silent cry for the right to dignity among the people, suffering due to the effect of lock down and quarantine. These cries remain unheard due to the loud quarrels between politicians, alarming economic drift and so on. 

Until few days before I believed that every day brings new hope to the lives of human beings. But does it really work that way?? 

No, it does not. 

Looking at the plight of scavengers, beggars, migrant workers, rape victims, spouses of alcoholics and workers on daily wages during this quarantine period, has pushed me to question the theodicy. These people lost everything and dignity is not at all in their list. They don’t have freedom to move, eat or even dress up properly as it may end up in preventing the help from the government, churches and from the NGO’s. I am reminded of a definition that says so, “Dignity is the right of a person to be valued and respected for their own sake to be treated ethically”. Dignity has become a super imposed word or rather a word which is expected to be owned by those with well-settled background. The truth is, dignity is the right of every individual irrespective of their roles, position and gender. But how it has evolved itself into a word which demands certain grades, ranks and positions is a shameful thing. 

The activities done by some people during this pandemic are worse. One activity among them is gaining publicity through relief work. The inability of the poor to get a meal is used by the so called “volunteers” who project themselves to be super heroes. They are least bothered about the respect and dignity of the poor. By this I see that the poor are humiliated and their self-worth is diminished. Another incident which traumatized me tremendously is the train accident which happened a few days ago. It is reported that a goods rail ran over people who were sleeping on the rail track. How comfortable would it be to fall asleep on rail track?? The migrant workers who did not have money to find transport to reach their homes walked miles together without food and water. They might have struggled both physically and psychologically during the journey. With the only aim of reaching a place to survive, they forced themselves to stoop down from their dignity, costing their lives as the reward. 

According to Gewirth, “Dignity imposed on human moral requirement is not only to avoid harming but to actively assist one another in achieving and maintaining a state of well-being”. This dignity not only calls us to act morally, but also to lead a life which will help us to live for the well-being of others. It is not a call for a self-centered life but a call for a community centered life. God is not pleased with the outward cleanliness but a heart which is filled with love to help others even while the situation is not pleasing. Let us go to the dirty, shabby, and unclean people to help and feed them because that is where God dwells.

Prayer:

Dear Parent God, we come before you with a hope that you love us in spite of our dirtiness, unclean environment and unpleasant smell. Continue to love us irrespective of our situation for that love will push us further to a promising life. Help us to find our self-worth through that. May we not fall into temptation of selfish behavior but live for the goodness of the others. We pray in the name of the co-sufferer Jesus Christ our friend, Amen. 

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Author: Rev. Dn. Esther Sandhya K 

About the Author: Esther hails from Chennai. She serves the Lord as a Deacon belonging to CSI Madras diocese. She finished schooling in Chennai. After graduating from Women’s Christian College Chennai in the year 2014, she committed to full time ministry and was selected for the same by the Madras Diocese. She pursued Theological Education at UTC, Bangalore and is now ministering as a Deacon in Iruguvai Pastorate, Andhra Pradesh.