WATERmeditation July 2024
Follow-up to WATERmeditation with Jeanne Christensen
Monday, July 1, 2024 at 7:30pm EST
Notes by Mary E. Hunt
Warm thanks to Jeanne Christensen, RSM, for sparking our meditation with the reality of human trafficking and the ways in which persons involved name the Holy. The video can be accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxvWazRY1x4&t=11s&ab_channel=WATERwomensalliance. It was a special chance to learn about a hard subject and carry the images into contemplation as a first step of action.
Introduction
I met Jeanne through the Sisters of Mercy when I was privileged to be part of their Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee. She lives in Omaha, Nebraska after having worked in Kansas City, Missouri for many years. According to her bio, “Since 2011 she has served as the Justice Advocate against Human Trafficking for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. She is a founding and board member of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking: Founded and Supported by U.S. Catholic Sisters. She serves on their advocacy working group and development planning committee. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the College of St. Mary in Omaha, Nebraska and is a member of the Academic and Student Affairs and Strategic Planning Committees.”
Jeanne says that she “met her first survivor of human trafficking in 2002 in Kansas City, where she served as a consultant and a member of the board of directors of a small non-profit serving victims and survivors.” Since then, she has been a faithful witness of and advocate for those who are trafficked, a tireless supporter of their dignity and the justice they deserve.
Jeanne’s Input
Jeanne was so generous as to share her notes with us:
“God Is Everywhere, Takes All Forms, Has Many Names and Is in All of Us”
Trafficking victims, who have been exploited by commercial sex trafficking and/or labor trafficking, are incredibly resilient. They are of any age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, economic status – most are at risk in one or more of these designations. They have suffered violence, abuse, discrimination and disrespect.
When we reach out to them, who do we see? Can we identify with their suffering? No, but we can reach out to them with truly felt compassion. Assistance, care, understanding and interaction must be offered without judgment. For some, their experiences are too painful to share; for others, they want to share so other victims/survivors can find courage to transition out and rebuild their lives.
As a Mercy woman of faith, I am called to respond to the needs of these victims/survivors. My response in ministry leads me to depend on God and to integrate contemplation and action. I often reflect on who God is for me; but more importantly, who is God for victims/survivors?
How does their endurance of daily repeated physical, emotional, sexual and labor-related abuses shape their image of God? The trauma that trafficked women experience is extraordinarily complex. How do I help them understand the love of God? Remind them that they are spiritual beings worthy of being loved by God? I needed to ask and understand how they see or experience God. So, I asked a small group of exploited women served through The Justice Project’s Willow Tree, in Kansas City, Missouri.
Here is what some of them said about God:
- God is my protector.
- God is good all the time.
- God is REAL love, not fake love.
- God always found me when I was lost.
- God reached into hell and pulled me out.
- God is a spirit who always loved me when no one else did.
- I used to think God was punishing me but now I know I just didn’t let Him help me.
- Without God, I would be dead.
Conversation with the women also brought out that they don’t like the God-name “higher power” because it’s too abusive. They might consider “deeper power.”
A Native American transgender woman talked about the native belief that God is everywhere, takes all forms, has many names and is in all of us.
The belief that God is always with us, but that we have the choice of what to do was voiced by almost everyone in the group.
The overall belief is that God is a loving God, but that God is very capable of, in their terms, “kickin’ your ass.”
Which of these descriptions of God most strikes you? Why?
What do these women’s reflections about God say to you?
Victims and survivors amaze me, especially their courage in making the transition out. To fully respond in ministry with them, I must simply walk with them until I understand. It is a slow and arduous journey that I began more than 20 years ago. My journey with them continues.
I pray:
Compassionate, tender God, You desire that all might have fullness of life and you invite us to care for all persons you have created. You are present, and we are in awe of your grace which strengthens us to confront the tragic reality of human trafficking. May we respond as You would. Amen.
To learn more about human trafficking and actions you might take, visit the Alliance to End Human Trafficking, formerly known as the U.S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, at https://alliancetoendhumantrafficking.org
You may also contact me at jchristensen@sistersofmercy.org, for information, resources, conversation or assistance.
Originally published as “Mercy Walks with Trafficked Women” on September 12, 2023 (adapted)
By Sister Jeanne Christensen, RSM
Original art by Celeste Nuttman, RSM
—————————————————————————————————-Questions for reflection
She invited us to reflect on these questions:
Which of these descriptions of God most strikes you? Why?
What do these women’s reflections about God say to you?
Dialogue
These were some of the insights shared in the period of dialogue following the silence:
- One colleague remarked on the “suffering of the innocent” and the need to lend love and dignity to women who are most oppressed.
- Several people had issues with the “God” question, not quite comfortable with the framing, and sensing that being touched by another person is one way to name God. It is complicated to accept other people’s sense of the Divine when it is articulated in ways that might make it seem that God caused, willed, or even allowed their suffering especially as a way for them to be faithful. Much to think about here!
- Rejecting “higher power” for “deeper power” made sense to one person who rejected any hint of that relationships human-divine, human-human, etc. are transactional, one aspect conditioned on another like buying/selling.
- A longtime WATER friend spoke of a house in Canada where she supported women who had been trafficked, one more example of religious women standing with their sisters who felt safer on the streets than in their own homes.
- Another colleague said that she kept circling back to the question, “What is being asked of me?” which was the focus of her meditation.
Jeanne concluded by saying that religious women, who have been so much a part of this work, can’t do it by themselves. She invited all of us into the efforts.
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WATER thanks Jeanne Christensen for her work and all that she brought to us in this session.
WATER will be closed for August, so the next Meditation will be in September 2024.
