I am writing this reflection from South Africa, where Andrew Joyce and I are working on Love Must Act’s primary project, Holy Cross School in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown). The spirit of Nelson Mandela, the perseverance of democracy, Jesus’ mandate to love our neighbors, and the conflict we face in the United States with people so angry at one another is much on my heart and mind.
While walking through the school’s break room yesterday, I noticed a poster. It featured the smiling face of Mandela, (known most often known by South Africans as Madiba. The name is related to Mandela’s heritage and clan within the Xhosa tribe. It is both a term of respect and endearment. It is noteworthy, I think, that with all the facets of the legacy he left, Madiba is the name Mandela himself preferred to be called—respect and endearment.
The poster I mentioned has a quotation of Madiba that struck me as pertinent to our lives at this moment. “For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Love demands nothing less.
This is something important I’ve learned from my African teachers. It’s not about me. It’s about us. There is no true freedom that ignores the needs of others. Indeed, I think love might be understood as placing the needs of another before my own needs, maybe even giving up my right to do or have something so that another can be or have something.
It relates to another African principle, something Desmond Tutu calls ubuntu. Its meaning is complex, basically untranslatable into English, but Archbishop Tutu defines it as meaning “I am because we are.” I do not exist as if no others do. Indeed, I exist myself because and only because others do. I exist, in fact, to love those others, even when there’s a cost, even a high one. Especially when there’s a high one. The greater the cost, after all, the greater the love.
Agape,
+Stacy
Bishop Stacy Sauls
Founder and President
Love Must Act