Creative solutions to sticky situations
A reflection by Br Ryan Roberts of the Mercy Justice Team
When I was in college, a modern take on the fairy tale Cinderella came out, a movie called Ever After. I haven’t watched it in quite some time, but it included exciting elements like commentary from Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, an endearing friendship with Leonardo da Vinci, and an adventurous, fencing heroine.
One scene from Ever After has stuck with me vividly all these years. The main character, Danielle, and her budding paramour, Prince Henry, have had a clandestine meeting in the woods when they are captured to be exchanged for ransom. Their captors are a group of boisterous, jovial Roma* people trying to get by in a place where they’re oppressed (by Prince Henry’s family, no less). They begin to understand each other better, and while Henry has to stay for the ransom, Danielle is given permission to leave with anything in their camp she can carry. She heaves Henry over her shoulder and begins plodding her way back to town, to everyone’s great amusement.
This week, I learned that this is based on a historical event. In 1140, Konrad III of Germany was besieging the castle of Weinsberg. Konrad granted mercy to the women within, permitting them to depart with whatever they could carry on their backs. He expected them to take valuables or food and other survival supplies. Instead, the women carried the men of the castle, which, though a ruin, is now known as “Weibertreu”, or “loyal wives”.
As so many of our advocates know, women are often underestimated and dismissed. This attitude is destructive and harmful in countless ways and obviously based in unwarranted falsehoods, and society has a duty to do better and learn better. Some progress has been made, but not nearly enough. In the meantime, those who seek justice need to use every tool available, and the opposition’s false beliefs can be turned to the service of the common good.
The political and religious leaders of Jesus’s time discounted the power of the Way and the conviction of his disciples and the early church. In my time serving among the Sisters of Mercy, I have learned and seen the power wielded by devoted women religious in the world and in the Church where they have been barred from the highest positions in the hierarchy. People across the globe and across time have recognized and wielded their power that was invisible to oppressors, from enslaved people to ethnic and religious minorities to queer folks to those with disabilities (both visible and invisible).
There has never been a time when everything was great for everyone. The harmony to which humanity is called by our creator and empowered to incarnate by the Holy Spirit is not yet evident, but it is proleptically (i.e., already and not yet) realized in the Body of Christ. By embracing God’s faith in us – the ones uniquely called “very good” in our first moments – we can find the power granted by our inherent dignity and seek the creative solutions to every sticky situation, every barrier to the harmony of love that God intends for us.
*Side note: The dialogue in Ever After uses the ethnic slur “gypsy” for Romani characters in the movie. Many folks don’t know this is a pejorative name given by outsiders and rejected by the Roma people themselves. The derivative verb, “gyp” (to swindle or shortchange), is equally offensive. I take this opportunity to help readers know better so we can do better.
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Friday alert digest
This is one in our recurring series of Friday reflections, where one of the Mercy Justice Team’s members shares some hope and encouragement, and the team gives you an opportunity to respond to any recent calls to action you might have missed. This week, you still have the opportunity via the alerts below to work for change in unjust systems. Click the link for any of the messages you might have missed this week and add your voice: