The Power of Being Helpless
Alfred Kwok
April 1, 1997
"What remains incontestable is the fact that, in spite of what is reported about his curing the sick and raising the dead to life in Galilee and other places, Jesus displayed on the cross nothing but utter helplessness and weakness. Nowhere does the passion narrative depict Jesus except in this utterly powerless image. The reason is that love, in terms of this world's values, is forever vulnerable and helpless. The two political criminals, insofar as they were both political and criminal, were forever in pursuit of power and its tangible rewards. Politics itself is the quest for material power and worldly success. But Jesus, powerless on the cross, is the symbolof love—nay, the very incarnation of Love."
—Shusaku Endo,
A Life of Jesus
I read Endo's book when I was in the hospital two weeks ago. I was in New York City attending a laser conference at the Marriott Marquis and I had to have an emergency appendectomy. The quote eerily reflected some of the thoughts I had before I was taken into surgery, and spawned new questions that made me shudder.
I was in a hospital in downtown Manhattan that serves Chinatown and other needy people in nearby neighborhoods. The equipment is old and the hospital does not enjoy a good reputation. When my friend James, who took me to the hospital, heard that I needed surgery, he strongly urged me to change hospitals. I had to ask myself if I really had the "right" to try to move to a better facility (the nyu or Cornell medical centers, for instance). Other people without insurance probably would not have the right (including James, a poor minister). Chinese from Chinatown who don't speak the language probably wouldn't have the right either! These are the helpless, the vulnerable. Shouldn't ...
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