Hector Mondragón speaks to the Mennonites

To my brothers and sisters, the Mennonites

Blessed is he who has regard for the weak; the LORD delivers him in times of trouble. The LORD will protect him and preserve his life; he will bless him in the land and not surrender him to the desire of his foes. . . But you, O LORD, have mercy on me; raise me up, that I may repay them. I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me. In my integrity you uphold me and set me in your presence forever. Praise be to the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Amen.
Psalm 41:1-2, 10-14

To be a Mennonite for me has meant to be a mature Christian. I made my commitment to Jesus Christ before I joined the Mennonite Church. When I was in high school, I was able to participate in a Bible group and come to important conclusions about my life. Reading Matthew 25:35-45 was decisive for our commitment. We understood that we could find Christ here and now, in the hunger, the homeless, the displaced, the sick, the prisoner, and the poor, and we went to meet up with him.

Upon reading Luke 18:18-25 we questioned our concept of morality, of integrity. There, a young man that had kept all the commandments of Gods law receives clear answers from Jesus: “no one is good except God alone”; “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

We were middle class youth; we thought we were good people, but Christ warned us, only God is good, the rest are sinners. He told us not to think of ourselves as good just for not robbing, not lying, going to church, or not committing adultery; he asked more of us. He told us to leave everything for the poor and follow him. We decided to believe all this. I thanked my parents for the religious and moral formation and the life example they gave me and that they assisted me in taking steps towards this commitment with Jesus Christ. Since I didn’t have anything to sell, I decided to surrender what I had to the poor; I gave my life for the poor, with the assurance that among the poor and in each poor person was Christ. Everything I did to one of these brothers, I did to Christ himself. We learned to love and even give our lives for them (1 John 3:16, John 15:13). I have committed many errors and have many faults, but I have always been faithful to this commitment.

It is life lived through this commitment that has sustained and cultivated faith in me, despite all of my failures. Faith is not only a belief; faith that is alive is a lifestyle, resulting only from the experience of commitment to God. It is a relationship with God; it is “the foundation of things hoped for and the demonstration of what is not seen” like the Greek manuscripts of Hebrews 11:1 really say. This foundation is not established, then, by mere certainty or conviction, but means a complete test, a sufficient demonstration that results from following the Lord. It is He, then, that is given merit for allowing this experience, and not the person who receives the gift of believing in him.

I have already strange story many times how it was Jesuit priests who helped me realize that drawing close to the Mennonites would revive and mature my faith. I was faced with the sad reality of the violence in Colombia and the political debates in which I participated since 1990 and I became convinced that it is necessary to sow the fruit of justice through peace (James 3:18). One time, when I was working at CINEP (Center for Investigation and Popular Education), a priest, who is now a Jesuit provincial head, asked me to comment on a letter he had sent to defend his position of nonviolent struggle for popular rights. In the conversation, he mentioned to me that the Mennonites were coherent with the position of peace in the gospel. This led me to search out who they were and where I could find them. I knew about the Anabaptists historically, but I did not know about the Mennonites; I began to study the theme, and every day that went by I wanted to know more.

Finally, as a result of a forum about conscientious objection, an indigenous senator, with whom I had began to work in 1992, asked me to accompany him to the Teusaquillo Mennonite Church. The indigenous are very unique in Colombia in that they are not obligated to serve in the military, and decidedly support conscientious objection for the rest of Colombians. At the forum, I met the pastors Noé Gonzalía and Peter Stuckey, who upon my request to know more about the church, invited me to attend the following Sunday. I continued to attend this church without fail until October of 1998 when I had to leave Colombia because of threats to my 2 children (now I have a third son). Years earlier, I had decided to be baptized, and I was baptized on July 20th by Noé Gonzalía. In addition to being a member of the Teusaquillo church, for four months I attended the Mennonite church in Kennebeck in Maine in the United States, where I was living for the second semester of 2000. Currently, I am part of the Mennonite community in North Bogotá, established under the umbrella of the Teusaquillo church.

All this time in the church has helped to mature my faith, and I am very thankful not only to those who are part of the congregations to which I have belonged, but also to all Mennonites, beginning with those who, in the 16th century continued the church of peace that Jesus founded, in which and for which the Christian martyrs of the first three centuries, Prisciliano, the Waldensians of the 7th to the 15th century, and so many more Christians all died.

Upon reading “The Martyrs Mirror” I strengthened my commitment to and witness for the poor and I solidified my decision for nonviolence, unconformity with the world’s system of selfishness (Romans 12:2), following Jesus Christ on the path of love for the enemies (Matthew 5:44), accepting the way of not fighting evil with evil nor facing violence with violence but overcoming evil with good (Romans 12:21), and fighting for peace through new social relations based on love and not on money.

Reading “The Martyrs Mirror,” which Peter Stucky lent me to read during a recuperation period after a surgery was illuminating. It prepared me for the new persecutions that were coming and allowed me to deeply reflect about those of the past, about my torture in 1977, the death threats that I received and continued to receive (dozens between 1988 and 2004). So, without wavering, I renounced defending my life at the cost of others, and ever since then I have lived only because God wants me to and has allowed me to protect myself without harming anyone.

Jesus does not promise that we will not be persecuted. On the contrary, he repeatedly announces that they will persecute us. He tells us that we will be blessed when they persecute us and say bad things against us because of his name (Matthew 5:11). By chance, is the cause of Christ not the cause of the poor? Well, clearly it is, for everything that we do for the poor, for those brothers, we do for Him. We cannot forget that; the cause of Christ is the cause of the poor, and for that reason they persecute us and say bad things against us. In the same way they persecuted the prophets (Matthew 5:12), about whom we can read how much they fought for the poor (for example, Isaiah 1:11, 5:8, 58:7, 61:1; Jeremiah 5:28, 34:8-22; Ezekiel 16:48-49; Amos 4:1, 5:12, 8:4-6; Micah 2:1, 3:3).

The Scripture says it all. Everyone who wants to follow Christ will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12). A student is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household! (Matthew 10:24-25). I cannot be surprised now that they slander me out loud after having looked for a way to kill me for 20 years. It hurts me to know that my family has suffered and still suffers. If it was announced to Mary, the mother of Jesus, that a sword would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35), then those who follow Jesus also suffer great pain, the pain of those who love, the pain of their loved ones.

“A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all” (Psalm 34:19). God does not promise that we will be free from affliction, but that He will deliver us from them. I can say, like Paul, “the persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them” (2 Timothy 3:11), until God wants me to be with Him forever. Jesus Christ triumphed over this same death with resurrection; he delivered us from this same death (1 Corinthians 15:28). Those that want to kill our body will not be able to take our life (Matthew 10:28); those that now want to kill the word, will not be able to keep it from living in a society of solidarity, in every hungry person that eats, in every displaced person that receives his land, in every indigenous town and afro community that lives the alternative of love, in every worker that has justice in his/her job and for his/her kids, in everyone that will love, putting an end to violence.

Nevertheless, I live in anguish, like any persecuted human being. The Lord himself in his anguish had sweat like drops of blood (Luke 22:44). “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” All of the terrible mental burden that I carry because of the torture I suffered has awoken again, and I have traveled to confront the anxiety and to confront the slanderers.

I have been able to begin this new period of witness writing about “My choice for civil resistance,” and this terrible situation has been an opportunity to give testimony about nonviolence, against violence, for justice for the poor. Because we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) even the worst things. The persecution brings us to the testimony, and this testimony means that the Word reaches more hearts and changes lives.

Please pray. Pray for me, for Colombia, for those who govern us that they will cease the persecution and we will have peace and justice, because God wants all humans to be saved (1 Timothy 2:2-4). “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. . . The prayer of a righteous man is powerful” (James 5:13,16). The fruit will be harvested (James 5:7). Lord Jesus Christ, we wait for your return, with love, patience, and humility.

September 15, 2008