For all the saints who went before me

For Oscar Romero, Camillo Torres, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jr. and the thousands of brothers and sisters who have suffered and died for others because they believed in the resurrection.

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Why? Well...

Sometimes we in the 'West' like to believe that it is right to do something only when we feel compelled. i.e. that truly "authentic" action is an expression of our inner desires.

For example, a common explanation for tattoos is that it "expresses something inside me... my inner self... etc". The 'inner self' works its way out.

Sadly, this is true of how many people see Christianity; you shouldn't feel like you MUST do something until you are convinced it is good.

As I watched the Israeli campaign in Gaza on TV, I felt sick. Having followed the apartheid and suffering in Gaza unfold over the last few years, this was another layer of death on top of the many who have already died in that part of the world. The Israelis near the Gaza border live in constant fear of rockets raining down on them; the Palestinians are alienated from the world and live in what is practically a giant refugee camp.

Oh how I longed for the kingdom of God, that both grace AND justice might heal that fractured place.

So I got inked.



I didn't do it because I am a person who naturally cares always about others; I didn't do it because I am always seeking the kingdom of God; I didn't do it because inside I always weep with the oppressed, get angry at brutality and, confident in my union with Christ, throw myself into those places where people are being crucified. I don't always desire these things.


I got inked because I want to be all those things.


(Saba Mahmood's book about the piety movement within Egyptian Islam taught me that much: that contrary to the 'West', these women understood that the outward act is done in the hope that the inner self will learn to conform to it)


I hope that this outward act will conform my inner self.


In a world that is still in exile, Camillo Torres puts it plainly:


I chose Christianity because I felt that in it I had found the best way of serving my neighbors. I was elected by Christ to be a priest forever, motivated by the desire to devote myself full-time to loving my fellow man.

I feel that the revolutionary struggle is a Christian and priestly struggle. Only through this, given the concrete circumstances of our country, can we fulfill the love that men should have for their neighbors...


"He who loves fulfills the law," says St. Paul. "Love and do what you will," says St. Augustine. The surest sign of predestination is love of neighbor. St. John tells us: "If someone says he loves God, whom he does not see, and does not love his neighbor whom he does see, he is a liar.


Those who hold power constitute an economic minority which dominates political, cultural, and military power, and, unfortunately, also ecclesiastical power in the countries in which the Church has temporal goods. This minority will not make decisions opposed to its own interests... The power must be taken for the majorities' part so that structural, economic, social, and political reforms benefiting these majorities may be realized. This is called revolution, and if it is necessary in order to fulfill love for one's neighbor, then it is necessary for a Christian to be revolutionary."

Not because we feel like it, but because we must.