Women and non-binary people are invited to join Catholic writer, contemplative activist, certified spiritual director, and previous TAC contributor Leslye Colvin for a free virtual daylong retreat on Saturday, November 7. In preparation for the Season of Advent, participants will gather in community to reflect on the lifelong and intergenerational work of decolonization and anti-racism through Leslye’s writing, guided reflection, and creative contemplative practice.
Together, participants will consider the ways we continue to be formed by colonization and racism, while exploring how our baptismal call invites us to resist these interconnected systems and imagine more faithful ways of living in relationship with one another. The retreat will offer space for prayer, reflection, creativity, and honest conversation within a thoughtfully held community. The retreat is free, with donations gratefully accepted.
Leslye has studied at the Living School of the Center for Action and Contemplation and the Guild for Spiritual Guidance. For more information, visit her website or email her at leslyeslabyrinth@icloud.com. Click here to register. The poem below, published here for the first time, will serve as one of the guiding texts of the retreat.
Come Down Jesus in a White Body
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
Come down
from the cross.
You exist only
in artistic form, never
as The Word
of God made flesh.
You were created
to imitate the One
living 1400 years
before those craving
wealth and dominance
racialized skin color.
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
Systems bleached your skin
to mute the Asian ancestry
of the Palestinian Jewish man
who walked the earth
as Yeshua, the Nazarene.
Come down
from the cross.
You affirm beneficiaries
of cruel colonized systems
that dehumanize and oppress
as they privilege a construct
of racialized whiteness.
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
For six centuries
you have been a prop
to assuage any guilt
for denying the imago Dei
in human beings identified
as black, brown and colored.
Come down
from the cross.
Seeing beyond the facade,
we know the truth
and recognize the beauty
of God’s diverse creation
in the hues we wear.
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
Guilt, shame, and
social sin are not yours
as you are only another
breathless and soulless
manufactured product.
Come down
from the cross.
Imagine the world
if explorers had
embraced the Nazarene;
respected the people
of the lands; and
sought new ways of being.
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
How can those familiar
with the oppression
of the Nazarene’s people
under the Roman empire,
seek to establish empire?
Come down
from the cross.
In this empire
of United States,
you are marketed
to deny religious freedom
by promoting the heresy
of white christian nationalism.
Come down Jesus
In a white body.
You are an archetype
for untruths and oppression –
the same that resulted
in the killing and death
of the Nazarene and so many
in the communion of saints.
Come down
from the cross.
The significance of the work
to be done is revealed
by the discomfort and rejection
of seeing the Nazarene
in bodies that are not white.
Why is the norm whiteness?
Come down Jesus
in a white body.
A lifeless form,
it is rhetorical
to say come down
as only the faithful can
take you down,
Jesus in a white body.
Only the faithful can
take you down.
After wrestling
with how the history and sins
of colonization are present
here and now, they will learn
to see anew with clarity.
The faithful will take you down
Jesus in a white body.
Metanoia and sacred curiosity will lead
to asking new questions and
to having liberating encounters
with their neighbors
and transformation.
They will take you down
from the cross.
Seeing the pain inflicted
by the systems you bless,
they will weep in solidarity
with those wounded
by exclusion and grieving
because of hate.
They will take you down,
Jesus in a white body.
Desiring healing, wholeness
and holiness will lead them
to consider the truth you
were created to deny.
They will take you down,
Jesus in a white body
from crucifixes, creches,
stained glass windows,
hearts and minds.
Until the faithful see Christ
in siblings of different hues,
they will not see the rejection
of Christ in systems, will remain bound
by whiteness and will not be liberated
so as to be known for their love.
We will take you down
Jesus in a white body.