"Anima Christi"

The following meditation, written by SOA Prisoner of Conscience Joe Mulligan while in jail in early 2004, was published in slightly shorter form in NATIONAL JESUIT NEWS (January, 2009).

“ANIMA CHRISTI”
by
Joseph E. Mulligan, S.J.

The following is from my journal written while I was in two county jails from January to April, 2004, serving a 90-day sentence for “crossing the line” onto Ft. Benning, Ga., in a November 2003 protest against the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas. The School, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), has trained thousands of Latin American soldiers, some of whom have returned to their countries to be notorious torturers, assassins, and other human-rights violators. (For information, please see www.soaw.org)


“Anima Christi”

“Soul of Christ, sanctify me.”
May the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Love, soften my heart,
helping me to be more sensitive and kinder to others
and to “speak boldly” in defense of the gospel of love and justice
as the early Christians did after Pentecost.
“Come, Holy Spirit, fill my heart and kindle in me the fire of thy divine love.”

“Body of Christ, save me.”
– Save me by preventing me from being amputated from your Body, the people.
If I fall alone into the raging waters, may your lifeline bring me back to the Bark.
– May your Eucharistic Body nourish me so that I can be a more vital community member
and enable me to assimilate you as the Word of Life,
as Ezekiel “ate the scroll” of your truth (Ezekiel 3:1-3).
– And as I break the Eucharistic bread and pass the cup of your blood to the community,
by your mercy speaking your words of self-giving,
help me to be willing to give my body to be broken and my blood to be shed
not just in one special, final moment, if that ever becomes necessary,
but every day in friendship and service.

“Blood of Christ, inebriate me.”
Gladden my heart.
Cheer me up when I’m down;
and when I’m happy,
prompt me to show it with a smile and sense of humor.

“Water from the side of Christ, wash me.”
Baptize me anew every day to wash away the dust, grime, and air pollution of our culture:
gender and nationalistic chauvinism,
racism,
anthropocentric ecological irresponsibility,
individualistic competitiveness of all kinds,
fearful egocentrism,
and clericalistic arrogance.

“Passion of Christ, strengthen me.”
May the martyrdom of Jesus
fortify us to carry on the struggle for the Kingdom
no matter what may lie ahead.
And may we come to a more complete and more personal understanding
of the prophet Jesus and his liberating work in the gospels
as the prelude and provocation of his execution,
that we may love him and his people more deeply
and follow him more closely.

“O Good Jesus, hear me.”
Mom used to say, in times of difficulty:
“God is good.”
Jesus is our good friend who always listens and accompanies us.
May the Spirit help us to listen, too, to him and to one another.

“Within your wounds, hide me.”
It is not from any vengeful anger of a cruel tyrant god
that we need to be hidden within Jesus’ wounds,
for such a seedy image is a blasphemous insult to Jesus’ and our loving “Abba,”
as Bishop Tom Gumbleton noted in his Palm Sunday sermon (April 4, 2004)
after the reading of the Lord’s passion:
“Over the past few weeks, even months, we have been inundated with talk of the film ‘The Passion of the Christ.’ The emphasis has been on Jesus being brutalized, victimized, and becoming a helpless victim who seems almost totally passive, being crushed with a kind of violence that is almost too much for most people to even watch and absorb.
“Supposedly, according to that kind of theology, this was what God demanded. God demanded that Jesus be so totally destroyed and suffer so terribly to pay for our sin.
“But if we listen really carefully to the scriptures, that’s not the message. Jesus was not a helpless victim. What kind of a God would demand that God’s only Son be treated that way and demand that kind of payment? We can almost not imagine a crueler image of God. It certainly does not fit into our understanding of who God is. God is love and only love” (The Peace Pulpit, National Catholic Reporter).

As the mountains of El Salvador hid the poor in resistance and in flight, may Jesus hide us from the all-intrusive electronic eyes of repressive governments in the service of the world’s oligarchies – so that we may, as he often did, get away to struggle another day, until the hour of death is inevitably upon us.

“Permit me not to be separated from you.”
You always say: “Do not be afraid, I am with you.”
Help me to stay by your side,
never separated from you or from your Body, the community,
for that would be the only real defeat.

“From the wicked foe defend me.”
Defend me from the enemy within –
pride, which would make me into an idol for myself,
and fear, which would reduce me to a slave.
In relation to opponents outside,
help me to hate the injustice but not the perpetrator,
and to confront opponents resolutely but respectfully,
with the relative truth I have glimpsed.

“At the hour of my death, call me.”
Grateful for my advancing years,
I pray that you continue to pour out your Spirit,
so that younger generations shall still see visions
and that we older disciples shall still dream dreams (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28)
until the hour comes when you call us once again:
“Come and see, come follow me.”

“And bid me come to you.”
in poverty of spirit
and, finally, in total material poverty as well.

“That with your saints I may praise you, for ever and ever. Amen.”
May our friendship grow in this life,
so that I may look toward an eternal conversation of love and praise
as my perfect joy.


Joe Mulligan, a Jesuit from Detroit, works with Christian Base Communities and is the In-Country Coordinator of Jesuit Volunteers International in Nicaragua. He is the author of The Nicaraguan Church and the Revolution (Sheed & Ward, 1991) and The Jesuit Martyrs of El Salvador–Celebrating the Anniversaries (Fortkamp, 1994)