The Call for a Radical Solidarity Grounded in Spirituality in the Work for Justice
Book review by Andrés Dae Keun Kwon, Policy Counsel and Senior Organizer, ACLU of Southern California
As a faith-rooted community organizer, student of liberation theology, and striving rebellious lawyer, I could not recommend Victor Narro’s new book The Activist Spirit more. Victor draws from a deep well of wisdom springing from a lifetime of organizing. Using Saint Francis of Assisi as one important model and the “Prayer for Peace” as an outline, dedicating a chapter to each line in the prayer, Victor also integrates stories, teachings, and insights of other saints and sages past and present who have guided his own lifelong spiritual journey and gleans for us vital lessons. With all this, Victor helps us create space for our own contemplative practice.
The result: a compelling — and guided — call for radical solidarity grounded in spirituality. At its core, Victor’s book helps us reflect on, tap into, and continue to develop our core spiritual values and disciplines, so that we can daily practice what we preach — let our “waking do the talking.” This grounding is indispensable not only to be continually guided by our own moral compass, mindful of the why and how of our work, but also to sustain ourselves for the long haul in what often feels like pushing the rock uphill.
Service, struggle, and spirituality are all deeply interconnected. As Victor writes, “our inner spiritual disciplines are connected to our outer service in the world.” As we serve and struggle, we must guard ourselves from ego-centered action and strive towards a way of life “rooted in love, understanding, and compassion.” Revolution requires a revolution inside us — as Victor calls it, an “inner transformation of our sense of community, compassion, and love for one another.” We are not just angry about injustice, but we love the idea of justice and the “beloved community,” and we struggle out of this love, and even righteous and redemptive anger, but not hatred or violence. Our understanding of our shared dignity and humanity guides us as we serve from a relationship between equals, not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. And against the backdrop of the deep contradictions of life, we need hope: “hope is a choice that becomes a practice to develop a renewable resource for moving through life as it is, not as we wish it to be.”
In short, Victor’s book can assist us as we center ourselves daily, so that we can daily choose to love, to hope, to be compassionate, to be grateful and generous, to embrace joy, to trust our inner voice, to listen with our hearts. As we do this, we can develop spiritual disciplines, more mindful practices, and resilience. We can grow as servant leaders and “wounded healers.” I know I’ll keep coming back to Victor’s book.
To order a copy of Victor Narro’s book, The Activist Spirit — Toward a Radical Solidarity, please go to the following link: https://www.hardballpress.com/all-titles.html