June 8

Matta El Meskeen, Gustavo Gutiérrez, and Roland Allen

Author

David Barnhart
June 08, 2025

Downpatrick, Ireland, 2022. Own photo.

Today marks the death, in 2006, of Matta El Meskeen, a coptic monk who oversaw a modern renaissance of monastic life in Egypt, reclaiming the ancient tradition of the desert fathers and mothers He renounced the wealth he had accumulated as an entrepreneurial pharmacist and turned to a life of prayer. 

Today marks the birthday, in 1928, of Gustavo Gutiérrez, author of A Theology of Liberation, who died just last year. He was an important voice in the formation of liberation theology, which focuses on God’ preferential option for the poor and on God’s concern for this-worldly injustices of oppression and economic exploitation. In his theology, “sin” was not just bad things individuals do, but structures and systems that create poverty and oppression, and the love of Christ is manifested in concrete actions and policies. 

Today is a feast day, in the Episcopal Church USA, for Roland Allen, missionary and author, who died on June 9, 1947. He was one of the many modern missionaries who sought to disentangle mission work from colonialism, believing that churches should be self-sustaining and self-governing and free from the interference of Western churches. He served primarily in China and Kenya. 

Today is also United Nations World Oceans Day. It is a day to remember how much those of us who dwell on land depend upon the oceans.

Reflection: 

Gustavo Gutiérrez wrote:

“But the poor person does not exist as an inescapable fact of destiny. His or her existence is not politically neutral, and it is not ethically innocent. The poor are a by-product of the system in which we live and for which we are responsible. They are marginalized by our social and cultural world. They are the oppressed, exploited proletariat, robbed of the fruit of their labor and despoiled of their humanity. Hence the poverty of the poor is not a call to generous relief action, but a demand that we go and build a different social order.”

and

“To be converted is to know and experience the fact that, contrary to the laws of physics, we can stand straight, according to the Gospel, only when our center of gravity is outside ourselves.”

Roland Allen wrote: 

“St. Paul's churches were indigenous churches in the proper sense of the word; and I believe that the secret of their foundation lay in his recognition of the church as a local church (as opposed to our 'national churches') and in his profound belief and trust in the Holy Spirit indwelling his converts and the churches of which they were members, which enabled him to establish them at once with full authority.”

and

“St. Paul did not baptize uninstructed converts apart from a system of mutual responsibility which ensured their instruction.”

Prayer: Light of the World, too often your Church’s efforts to share your good news has been co-opted by capitalism and colonialism and other forms of oppression instead of serving your self-giving, abundant love. Help us share only a gospel which liberates and leads to flourishing for all your creatures. Amen.