Carla glanced down at the table and noticed some initials carved into the table. She traced the carving with her finger and then looked up.
“Do you know that there are graveyards along the All American Canal where people are just dumped without any identification? Their own families will never know what happened to them. They don’t even have a table with their initials on it.”
“It feels so far from my world,” said Al. “I’m not even sure what I can do, let alone our presbytery.”
One of our professors pointed out that it was a foreign lay person, not the religious leaders, who responded to the need of the one who fell among the robbers.”
“I know it sounds defensive, but these pastors are not bad people, Carla. Most pastors I know genuinely want to be faithful and respond to human need but they feel a lot of pressure to compromise when it comes to speaking out. How did you get to be so courageous?”
“I don’t feel very brave, Al. Most of the time I’m scared but am not sure I have any choice. It’s like these unknown people are crying out to me from their graves.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“Did I ever tell you about how I came to understand God’s call in my life?”
“Isn’t it ironic?” Al said.” Seminarians spend three years in seminary preparing for the ministry and I don’t recall any conversation during that time about God’s call in our lives. I guess you always seemed so focused and I was so busy sorting out my own life that I never stopped to ask.”
Carla looked up at the ceiling as if to compose her thoughts. “I wasn’t always so focused. My father was a union organizer with Caesar Chavez.”
“So that’s where you got your interest in politics?”
“Yeah, it is in my blood, I guess. I went to the University of New Mexico with the assumption that I would become a lawyer. I didn’t have the guts that my father had, but I thought maybe I could work behind the scenes and help out in some way.”
“Carla, ever since I’ve known you, you’ve been on the front line of all the social justice issues. I would hardly say that you lacked courage. In fact, that always intimidated me when I was around you.”
“You, intimidated? I always saw you as the guy with all the answers. Did you ever get anything less than an A in any of your classes?”
“Grades came easy for me, but I always knew that I was just a scared little boy hiding behind my books. I was like the tin man in the Wizard of Oz.”
Carla smiled. “I guess neither of us knew what was behind each other’s curtain.”
Al tasted the cold coffee in front of him and grimaced. “So how did it change for you?”
SMcCutchan