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ࠗ༡ᒣ⚄Ꮫ࠘39 ྕ㸦2016 ᖺ 3 ᭶㸧pp. 159-179

Encountering God in the Face of the Poor
According to Gustavo Gutierrez
Tibur HELI
1.

Introduction
There are many ways to encounter God, for instance, through the beautyof nature, through prayer and meditation, or through a tremendous moment
such as St. Paul experienced on the way to Damascus. Each encounter depends
on the situation in which we live and on God who wants to reveal himself to us.
The Peruvian theologian of liberation, Gustavo Gutierrez’s option for the poor
enables him to see the Lord in the faces of the poor in Latin America. He
acknowledges that “Christ hides himself behind the faces of those whom wetend to avoid because they have little importance in the eyes of the society.” 1
For him, to be followers of Jesus requires us to walk with and commit
ourselves to the poor. In doing so, we encounter the Lord who issimultaneously revealed and hidden in the face of the Poor.
The following essay falls into three parts. In the first part I offer a biblicalfoundation that explains the relationship between God and human beings. In
the second, I consider the encounter with God. In this section, I will describe
God as the one who takes the initiative to invite us to come and follow him.
This encounter with God enables us to be in union with him and others,

1

Gustavo Gutierrez, The God of Life (trans. Matthew J. Connell), Orbis Books, Maryknoll,
New York, 1991, 89.

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especially the poor and oppressed. Union with God through the poor willtransform us so that we can give witness and we can find a new way to talkabout God or “do” theology. Then, in a third part I look at Gutierrez’s
theological reflection on Job.

2.

Biblical Foundation
Gustavo Gutierrez based his reflection about encountering God in the faceof the poor in Holy Scripture. For Gutierrez, “the Biblical God is close tohuman beings, a God of communion with and commitment to human beings[especially the poor and the oppressed]. The active presence of God in the
midst of people is part of the oldest and most enduring Biblical promises.” 2 In
the following paragraphs I will examine Gustavo’s teaching about the poor inboth the Old and New Testaments.

2.1. Old Testament
Based on the understanding that the Biblical God is close to human beings,
first of all, Gutierrez reflects on the first covenant that speaks about God
dwelling in the midst of his people. “God said: ‘I shall dwell in the midst of theIsraelites, I shall become their God, and by my dwelling among them they willknow that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of Egypt. I am Lord
their God’ (Exod.29: 45; cf.26: 11-12).” 3

The presence and the dwelling of God

among his people emphasized the relationship between God and humanbeings.

Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation: History, politics and Salvation, (trans. and ed.
Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson), Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1973, 106.
3 Ibid, 107.
2

161This relationship becomes more significant in “the history of the chosen
people in which God’s self- revelation took place especially on the mountain.
For instance, Sinai was a privileged place for meeting God and for God’s
manifestations (Exod.19). Yahweh ordered Moses, ‘come up to me on themountain’ (Exod.24: 12; Deut.10: 1), because on the mountain rested the gloryof God (Exod.24: 16-17).” 4

However, the God of Israel was not only present

on the mountain, but also in the tent and the Ark. According to Gutierrez, “thepresence of Yahweh came closer when it was linked to the tent whichaccompanied the Israelites on their pilgrimage through the desert. This was aplace of encounter with Yahweh which Moses placed outside the camp andhere he spoke with Yahweh whenever Israel needed detailed instructions(Exod. 33:7-11; Num.11: 16,24-26;Deut.31: 14).” 5 The presence of God in the
Ark is more profound because “there was even a curious identification
between Yahweh and the Ark: ‘Whenever the Ark began to move, Moses said,‘Up, Lord and may thy enemies be scattered and those that hate thee flee
before thee.’ When it halted he said, ‘Rest, Lord of the countless thousands ofIsrael’ (Num.10: 35-36; cf. also Josh.4: 5,13; Sam.4: 17).” 6
Besides these biblical passages, there are also many other texts in the Old
Testament that talk about the presence of God in the temple, the tent and the
Ark of the Covenant. In relation to the poor and oppressed, Gutierrez writes:“the Old Testament is clear regarding the close relationship between God andthe neighbor. This relationship is a distinguishing characteristic of God of the
Bible. To despise one’s neighbor (Prov.14: 21), to exploit the humble and poor
worker, and to delay the payment of wages, is to offend God: ‘You shall not
Ibid.
Ibid.
6 Ibid.
4
5

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keep back the wages of a man who is poor and needy...’ (Deut.24: 14-15; cf.
Exod.22: 21-23).” 7 Therefore, to love God and to love our neighbor means to
do justice to the poor and the oppressed.

2.2. New Testament
The presence of God in the Temple in the Old Testament prefigured God’spresence in the New Testament, especially with the Incarnation of the Son of
God: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John1:14). Through this Incarnation, Christ also presents himself as the Temple of
God: “‘Destroy this temple…and in three days I will raise it again.’ And John
specifies: ‘The Temple he was speaking of was his body’ (2:9, 20). And Paultells us: ‘It is in Christ that the complete being of the Godhead dwells
embodied’ (Col.2: 9; cf.Eph.2: 20-22; 1Pet.2: 4-8).” 8 All these texts emphasize
the manifestation of God in the humanity of Christ, and through thismanifestation God committed himself to human history.
Not only is Christ the Temple of God, but all people who believe in Christ
also become a temple of God. Gutierrez describes the connection between
Christ and the Christian as the temple of God in the following words: “theChristian community is a temple of living stones, and that each Christian, amember of this community, is a temple of the Holy Spirit: ‘Surely you know thatyou are God’s temple, where the Spirit of God dwells. Anyone who destroys
God’s temple will himself be destroyed by God, because the temple of God isholy; and that temple are you’ (1 Cor.3: 16-17).” 9 The reality that every

Ibid, 110.
Ibid, 109.
9 Ibid.
78

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Christian is the temple of God helps us to understand better the closeness of
God to human beings.
Furthermore, Gutierrez underlines that “not only is the Christian a templeof God; every human being is.” 10 As evidence for this Gutierrez cited theepisode of Cornelius in Acts where it is written that “the gift of the Holy Spirit
should have been poured out even on Gentiles” (Acts 10:45). “For this reason”,
says Gutierrez, “the words of Christ apply to everyone: Anyone who loves mewill heed what I say; then my Father will love him, and we will come to him
and make our dwelling with him (John 14:23).” 11 Here the emphasis is on
loving and keeping the word of Jesus. In order to do this we need the guidanceof the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Holy Spirit does not only work in the Churchor Christians, but also outside the Church. In this sense, Gutierrez is right tosay that the temple of God is not only the Christian, but also every humanbeing.
This biblical foundation helps us to understand the relationship between
God and human beings. In the Old Testament the relationship between God
and human beings occurred on the mountain, in the temple and through the
Ark of the Covenant. In the New Testament God becomes present in the
Incarnation of the Word. Through the Incarnation, the Word made Flesh, every
person is the presence of God. Gutierrez notes: “Since the incarnation,
humanity, every human being in history, is the living temple of God.” 12 This is
the key element for speaking about an encounter with God. Gutierrez puts it
this way: “If humanity, each person, is the living temple of God, we meet God
in our encounter with others; we encounter God in the commitment to the
Ibid.
Ibid.
12 Ibid, 110.
10
11

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historical process of humankind.” 13 I will explore this topic in more detail in
the next section.

3.

Encountering God

3.1. Christ Initiates the Encounter
Encountering the Lord does not occur by our own effort, but it is an
initiative from God. The Lord is the one who takes the initiative to invite us tocome and follow him. Gutierrez correctly says: “to encounter the Lord is firstof all to be encountered by the Lord. ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you
and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit’ (John15: 16). In thisencounter we discover where the Lord lives and what the mission is that has
been entrusted to us.” 14 Although Gutierrez points out other Gospel passages
that speak about encountering Jesus 15, in this paper I only focus on the text ofJohn 1:35-42 because it is “penetrating and rich in meaning.” 16 In this text,
there are some key elements such as the questions, answer, and the time when
the disciples encountered Jesus. Jesus begins by asking his disciples: “What doyou seek?” (John 1:38). Gutierrez notes: “This formal question, direct andunavoidable, is meant to sound out the quality of the initial adhesion that thedisciples of John have just given to the following of Jesus. Jesus puts them inthe critical position of defining themselves from the outset.” 17 In other words,
this question challenges the disciples and helps them to be aware that it is notenough to just follow Jesus, but rather it requires something more, that is, toIbid.
Gustavo Gutierrez, We Drink From Our Own Well: The Spiritual Journey of a People (trans.
Matthew J. Connell), Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1984, 38.
15 For more detail see pp, 38-53.
16 Ibid, 38.
17 Ibid, 40.
13
14

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bear witness to life. It is interesting that in their response to the question ofJesus, the disciples also ask a question: “Where are you staying?”(John 1:39).
Interpreting this question, Gutierrez writes: “The disciples here are ‘inviting
themselves’ to intimacy with Jesus. Their question expresses their desire to betaught through sharing in the life of Jesus. Their intention to follow him is now
clear.” 18
The dialogue between Jesus and his disciples is short, but complete. Inthat dialogue Jesus clearly emphasizes the “call to follow him; he invites thedisciples to enter his own sphere, to come and see where he is staying, and toaccept the consequences of such a coming and seeing.” 19 In addition, anotherimportant element is the time when the disciples met Jesus. “It was the tenthhour” (John 1: 39). 20

According to Gutierrez, “the tenth hour conveys aprofound message, for we all have a ‘tenth hour’ in our lives, intense momentsof encounter with the Lord in which our spiritual lives are nourished.” 21 In
conclusion, Gutierrez emphasizes, “The following of Jesus is not, purely or
primarily, an individual matter but a collective adventure. The journey of thepeople of God is set in motion by direct encounter with the Lord but it is anencounter in community: ‘We have found the Messiah.’” 22 The experience offinding the Messiah will lead us to bear witness and to proclaim what we havefound.

Ibid, 41.
Ibid.
20 New American Bible translated “the tenth hour” with “four in afternoon.”
21 Ibid, 42.
22 Ibid.
18
19

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3.2. Union with God through the poor
According to Gustavo Gutierrez, “to be followers of Jesus requires us towalk with and be committed to the poor because when we do this we will
experience an encounter with the Lord who is simultaneously revealed andhidden in the face of the Poor.” 23 Since God is hidden in the face of the poor,
we cannot encounter and be united with him without our relationship with thepoor. The great mystic St. John of Cross, when he discussed the nature of unionwith God, emphasized that “God sustains every soul and dwells in it
substantially”, therefore, “the soul’s union with and transformation in God isthrough love.” 24 In other words, John emphasizes a personal relationshipbetween the soul and God. Gutierrez, on the other hand, stresses therelationship between God and his people especially the poor. For him, “thehuman person is destined to total communion with God and to the fullest
fellowship with all other persons.” 25

Gutierrez says: “we find God in our

encounter with others, especially the poor, marginalized, and exploited ones.
An act of love toward them is an act of love toward God.” 26 In emphasizingthese words he continues,“our encounter with the Lord occurs in our

encounter with others, especially in encounter with those whose humanfeatures have been disfigured by oppression, despoliation, and alienation andwho have ‘no beauty, no majesty’ but are the things from which men turn away
their eyes’ (Isa.53: 2-3).” 27 It is clear that our solidarity and commitment to theIbid, 38.
A, 2, 5, 3. This quotation taken from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans.
Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, rev. ed. (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications,1991), 163.
25 Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation, 113.
26 Ibid, 115.
27 Ibid, 116.
23
24

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poor and the marginalized enable us to encounter God who identifies andreveals himself in them.
In order to commit ourselves to the poor and oppressed, “we need a vital
attitude, all embracing, synthesizing, informing the totality as well as every
detail of our lives; we need a ‘spirituality.’’’ 28 Gutierrez notes that“spirituality,” in the strict and profound sense is the dominion of the Spirit. If‘the truth will set you free’ (John 8: 32) the spirit ‘will guide you into all truth’(John 16:13) and will lead us to complete freedom, the freedom fromeverything that hinders us from fulfilling ourselves as human beings andoffspring of God and the freedom to love and to enter into communion with
God and with others.” 29 This spirituality will guide us “along the path ofliberation because ‘where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’ (1Cor.3:17).” 30 Here Gutierrez speaks about the “spirituality of liberation” in which
the Spirit inspires us to live out the Gospel in solidarity with all human beings,
especially the poor and the oppressed.
For Gutierrez, “a spirituality of liberation will enter on a conversion toneighbor, the oppressed person, the exploited social class, the despised ethnic
group, the dominated country. Our conversion to the Lord implies thisconversion to the neighbor.” 31 The conversion he talks about is “a radicaltransformation of ourselves” that includes “our thinking, feeling and living as
Christ – present in the exploited and alienated persons.” 32 Gutierrez assertsthat “to be converted is to commit oneself to the process of liberation of theIbid, 117.
Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid, 118.
32 Ibid.
28
29

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poor and oppressed, to commit oneself lucidly, realistically, and concretely” 33
that requires generosity, an analysis of the situation and a strategy of action.
Based on the statement that we find God in our encounter with the others,
Gutierrez describes the union with God as follows:…if it is true that, one must go through humankind to reach God, it isequally certain that the ‘passing through’ to that gratuitous God strips me
naked, universalizes my love for others, and makes it gratuitous. Bothmovements need each other dialectically and move toward a synthesis. Thissynthesis is found in Christ; in the God-Man we encounter God andhumankind. In Christ humankind gives God a human countenance and God
gives it a divine countenance. Only in this perspective we will be able tounderstand that ‘the union with the Lord’, which all spirituality proclaims, is nota separation from others; to attain this union, I must go through others and the union,in turn, enables me to encounter others more fully. 34 (Italics mine)

This description is very profound and full of meaning because itemphasizes two things. The first is that “one must go through humankind toreach God.” The second is our union with God must help us “to encounter
others more fully”, especially the poor and the oppressed. Put in another way,
we cannot love God without loving our neighbor. Therefore, the experience of
encountering God and union with God leads us to serve others perfectly.
Clearly, this union can only happen if we have really converted ourselves
to others. In this sense, Gutierrez affirms that “the conversion to one’s

33
34

Ibid.
Ibid, 119.

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neighbors, and in them to the Lord, the gratuitousness which allows me toencounter with others fully, the unique encounter which is the foundation ofcommunion of persons among themselves and of human beings, with God,
these are the source of Christian joy.” 35

In other words, Gutierrez says that

one cannot find true joy unless he or she converts to the Lord as well as to theneighbor especially the poor and the marginalized.

4.

God – Talk
If we accept Gutierrez’s statement “to attain [union with God], I must go

through others and the union, in turn, enables me to encounter others more
fully”; here I think that this statement means we have to give witness and also
to find a new way to speak about God. Therefore in this section, I will focus on
the new way to speak about God and will refer to Gutierrez’s theologicalreflection on Job.

4.1. Suffering of the innocent.
Reflecting on the suffering of the innocent, Gustavo Gutierrez notes “thebook of Job is important and classic [because] central to the book itself is: thequestion of how we are to talk about God. More particularly: how we are to talkabout God from within a specific situation – namely, the suffering of theinnocent?” 36 Job’s cries are the cries of suffering and oppressed persons
everywhere; his protestations of innocence illumine “the innocence of an
oppressed and believing people amid the situations of suffering and death that

35
36

Ibid.
Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job: God-Talk and the Suffering of the Innocent (trans. Matthew J.
Connell), Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York, 1987, xviii.

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have been forced upon it.” 37 From the concern of the innocent’s suffering,
Gutierrez then develops two kinds of theological method to talk about God.
The first is the relationship between revelation and gratuitousness. The fact is,
Christ is God’s revelation because he came to reveal God’s love as a universal
mission. “This revelation assigns a privileged place to the simple anddespised.” 38 In Matt. 11:25-26, Jesus thanks God for hiding the truth from thewise and the learned, but revealing it to the “little children.” Gutierrez
describes the meaning of the text as follows: “The words wise and [thelearned] refer to a social and religious minority in Israel: the teachers, ordoctors, of the law, the high priest, and the scribes… The ‘little children’ isrelated to the poor, the hungry, and the afflicted (Luke 6:20-23).” 39 Further,
Gutierrez goes on to explain the fact that “God hides ‘these things’ from thewise [and the learned] and reveals them to the simple is the concrete occasion
for grasping what is behind this behavior and gives it its meaning – namely, thefree and unmerited love of God for every human being and especially for the poorand forgotten.” 40 The interpretation of this passage is the key element of Jesus’
message because it shows us the Father’s goodness and love that reach out tothe poor and give them preference.
The second connection has to do with the way or method of speaking about
God. Reflecting on this theme, Gutierrez emphasizes the importance of silencein the first place, and only next comes speech. He says: “Contemplation andpractice feed each other; the two together make up the stage of silence before

Ibid. See also Robert McAfee Brown, Gustavo Gutierrez: An Introduction to Liberation
Theology, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, New York,1990, 76.
38 Ibid, xi.
39 Ibid, xii.
40 Ibid, xiii.
37

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God. In prayer we remain speechless; we simply place ourselves before theLord. To a degree, we remain silent in our practice as well, for in our
involvements, in our daily work, we do not talk about God all the time.” 41
Further, silence can also become a good time for us to meet and to experience
God’s presence. Gutierrez writes: “The time of silence is the time of loving
encounter with God and of prayer and commitment; it is the time of ‘staying
with him’ (John 1:39).” 42 Finally, he concludes his discussion about these twokinds of theological methods in the following way: “Gratuitousness andrevelation, silence and speech: these are two presuppositions of the effort atunderstanding our faith.” 43 These two theological methods are the key
elements to talk about God in prophetic language and in mystical language.

4.2. Prophetic Language
The prophetic language emerges from Job’s struggle with his friends who
tried to comfort him with the doctrine of temporal retribution that “Godpunishes the wicked and rewards the upright.” 44 Because of this doctrine, hisfriends believed that Job has done something wrong or committed sin; that is
why God punished him. Yet, this explanation does not convince Job, who
continues to assert his innocence in the face of his suffering. He does not claim
to be sinless, but “he finds no sin that merits so great a punishment.” 45
Gutierrez affirms that “Job likewise feels sure, not of a doctrine but of his own
experience of life. However much he roots around in his conscience and his

Ibid.
Ibid, xiv.
43 Ibid.
44 Ibid, 21.
45 Ibid, 24. Cf. Robert McAfee Brown, 80.
41
42

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past life, he cannot find a sin that deserves the terrible suffering he isenduring.” 46 It is clear that the theology of his friends does not help Job
because their theology “does not take into account concrete situations, like thesuffering and hopes of human beings.” 47 Further, Gutierrez argues that “thefriends believe in their theology rather than in the God of their theology.” 48 In
other words, the friends of Job only focused on the doctrine of temporal
retribution and forgot to see God who is love and who has always sufferedwith his people.
Yet, even though the theology of his friends does not help him, theirdialogue does help Job to “see more deeply into his own experience andrefines his thinking. An important point is reached in this process when herealizes that he is not the only one to experience the pain of unjust
suffering…[Here] Job begins to free himself from an ethic centered on personal
rewards and to pass to another focus on the needs of one’s neighbor.” 49 In
doing so, Job finally realizes that “poverty and abandonment are not his lot
alone. For he sees now that this poverty and abandonment are not something
faced, but are caused by the wicked, who nonetheless live serene and satisfied
lives…The wicked are both rejecters of God and enemies of the poor – twosides of one coin.” 50This is another way that Job finds to account for themisery of the poor and oppressed.
It should be noted that when Job begins to focus himself on the need of
one’s neighbor, he eventually “realizes that his own situations is that of theIbid, 27.
Ibid, 29.
48 Ibid.,
49 Ibid, 31.
50 Ibid, 32. Cf. Robert McAfee Brown, 80-81.
46
47

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poor” and “to be related to God also means to be related to the poor and to
struggle on their behalf: God wants ‘uprightness’ or justice (sedekah) andjudgment (mishpat), and Job always practices these in relation to the unjust
situation of the poor of the land. He sees the poor as God’s friends; ‘to give tothe needy is therefore to give to God.’” 51

Moreover, the understanding of“the poor as God’s friends”, also leads Job to acknowledge that “God does
justice to the poor; that is why those who oppress the poor turn their backs on
God and understand so little of God’s ways – that is, of the conduct that God
requires of believers.” 52 Gutierrez affirms that “this relationship with God andthe poor is at the very heart of the prophetic message. The Lord is everwatchful and ready to hear the voice of the poor, even though attentiveness tothem may at times take an unobtrusive form.” 53 In fact, Job has allowed
himself to doubt this concern on God’s part, but the dialogue with his lastfriend (Elihu) has prepared him to listen to God. Through this dialogue, Job
finds the way to talk about God in prophetic speech as follows:To get out of himself and help other sufferers (without waiting until his
own problems are first resolved) is a way to find God…He now begins to seethat he may not yet let his own unjust situation be an obstacle to immediate
commitment to the poor. The needs of others cannot be left in abeyance until
everything has become clear. 54

Robert McAfee Brown, 81.
Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job, 47.
53 Ibid.
54 Ibid, 48. Cf. Robert McAfee Brown, 81.
51
52

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Job’s understanding of the need to get out beyond his own suffering andcommit himself to the poor is an important advance in talking about God. Yet,
it is still not enough. In other words, Job needs another language to help him
address himself to God. That language is called “the mystical language.”

4.3. Mystical Language
If in the prophetic language Job argues with his friends, in the mysticallanguage on the other hand, “he enters into a spiritual struggle with God.” In
this struggle, “he finds that he needs God in three ways.” 55First, he needs anarbiter who can mediate between himself and God, but the only such arbiter
can be God himself,

because Job is instituting a “lawsuit” with God. Second,

he needs a witness because in that spiritual struggle it will be a direct debate
between himself and God. Since the witness is in heaven rather than on earth,[third] he finally needs “a liberator or defender, a go’êl, through whom Job canhope to receive vindication.” 56 These three ways explain that Job’s faith andhope are gradually increasing.

He started from the need for the presence ofan arbiter, then he continues to the need for a witness, and finally he arrives tothe need of a liberator who will come to rescue him from his suffering.
Gutierrez describes the situation: “The spiritual struggle with himself, with his
friends, and above all, with God brings him to a conviction, that for the time
being, amounts to no more than a cry of hope: that he will see his liberator, hisgo’êl, with his own eyes, and will be able to look upon him as a friend.” 57

Robert McAfee Brown, 82.
Ibid.
57 Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job, 66.
55
56

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Furthermore, Gutierrez continues to discuss the idea of God as a liberator
at greater depth in “The Mysterious Meeting of two freedoms.” 58 These two
freedoms can be summarized as follows:

The first is God’s freedom, God’s gratuitousness, God’s freedom fromhuman constraints, and God’s freedom to love indiscriminately in working forjustice. The second is human freedom, which establishes Job’s freedom tocomplain and rebel. Job is free to encounter God directly, without the need ofintermediaries; God is free to exercise the gratuitous love that is the foundationof the world, within which justice must be exercised. 59

It is clear that these two kinds of freedom emphasize the link between
justice and gratuitousness. Gutierrez asserts that “the true relationship…between justice and gratuitousness …is the key to the interpretation of theBook of Job.” 60

To clarify his statement, he reflects on the final speech of Job

in 42:1-6, and affirms four things as a conclusion of Job’s encounter with God.
That is, “an acknowledgement that God has plans and these are being carriedout; a discovery of previously unrecognized aspects of reality; a joyous
encounter with the Lord”, and “the abandonment of his attitude of complaintand sadness.” 61 Gutierrez concludes that these four elements “give a better
understanding, represent a high point in contemplative speech about God.” 62

Ibid, 67-81.
Robert McAfee Brown, 83.
60 Gustavo Gutierrez, On Job, 82.
61 Ibid, 83.
62 Ibid, 87.
58
59

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Therefore, “the truth that [Job] has grasped and that has lifted him to thelevel of contemplation is that justice alone does not have the final say about
how we are to speak of God.” 63 Here Job has moved beyond justice and begun
to learn “to situate justice within the framework of God’s gratuitous love.” 64
Because only through accepting this gratuitous love can it become possible tounderstand God’s preferential option to the poor, which is “a key factor inauthentic divine justice.” 65

4.4. One Language, not two
In explaining the connection between justice and gratuitousness, Gutierrez
also emphasizes that “two languages – the prophetic and the contemplativeare required, but they must also be combined and become increasingly
integrated into a single language…Both languages are necessary and therefore
inseparable; they also need each other.” 66

In particular, Gutierrez strongly

demonstrates these two languages in a negative and positive way. In a negative
way, he says:

Without the prophetic dimension, the language of contemplation is indanger of having no grip on the history in which God acts and in which wemeet God. Without the mystical dimension, the language of prophecy cannarrow its vision and weaken its perception of the God who makes all things

Ibid.
Ibid, 88.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid, 94. Cf. Robert McAfee Brown, 84.
63
64

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new (Rev.21:5). Each undergoes a distortion that isolates it and renders it
unauthentic. 67

And in a positive way he writes:

The language of contemplation acknowledges that everything comes fromthe Father’s love unmerited by us, and opens up ‘new horizon of hope’ (Puebla,#1165). The language of prophecy attacks the situation– and its structuralcauses – of injustice and deprivation in which the poor live, because it looks for‘the suffering features of Christ the Lord’ in the pain–ravaged faces of an
oppressed people (Puebla ##31-39). Both languages arise, among the poor in
Latin America as in Job, out of the suffering and hopes of the innocent. 68

It is important to notice that Gutierrez’s theological reflection on Job also
leads him to see the connection with the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. He
writes: “For poverty and unjust suffering are in fact the situations of the
majority in Latin America. Our theological reflection thus starts from the crossand death as well as from the joy of resurrection and life.” 69

In this sense,

Gutierrez claims that the prophetic language and the contemplative language
are “the language of the cross that Jesus, prefigured by Job, uses in speaking of
the Father’s love…The author of Job directs us toward that gratuitousness ofthe Father’s love that will be the heart of the proclamation and witness of Jesus
Ibid, 96. Also see Gustavo Gutierrez, The Truth Shall Make You Free Confrontations,(trans. Matthew J. Connell, Orbis Books, Maryknoll), New York, 1990, 17. Cf. Robert
McAfee Brown, 84.
68 Ibid, 97; Gustavo Gutierrez, The Truth Shall Make You Free Confrontations, 16; Robert
McAfee Brown, 84.
69 Ibid.
67

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Christ.” 70 Moreover, Gutierrez also notes “the language of the Cross, which isa synthesis of the prophetic and the contemplative and [is] the only
appropriate way of talking about the God of Jesus Christ.” 71
Finally, Gutierrez concludes that “the aim of these two languages is tocommunicate the gifts of God’s reign as revealed in the life, death, andresurrection of Jesus. This is the heart of the message we are now discoveringin the setting of our own reality. It calls us together as community, a church,
within which we attempt to think our faith.” 72 As a community we are called
to bear witness to the resurrection of hope and the victory over the prematureand unjust death of the poor. This is the meaning of doing theologicalreflection or talking about God in the situation of suffering, marginalizationand oppression.

5.

Conclusion
Gustavo Gutierrez’s teaching on encountering God in the face of the poor

is very profound and full of meaning. Based on the understanding that the
Biblical God is close to human beings, he explicitly points out the centrality ofthe poor in the Bible’s teaching. In the Old Testament the relationship between
God and human beings took place on the mountain, in the temple and the Ark
of Covenant. In the New Testament God becomes present in the Incarnation of
the Word. Thus through the Incarnation, the Word made Flesh, every person is
the God of presence.
In this sense, Gutierrez helps us to recognize the presence of God in thefaces of the poor and the innocent. Since God is hidden in the face of the poor,
Ibid.
Ibid, 100.
72 Gustavo Gutierrez, The Truth Shall Make You Free Confrontations, 17.
70
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he also invites us to union with him through the poor and the oppressed. This
union will lead us to love God more and to encounter others more fully. This
union also will enable us to bear witness and to find the new way to talk about
God. Gutierrez names this new way the prophetic language and the mysticallanguage, or action and contemplation. “Without contemplation, prayer,
thanksgiving to God, there is no Christian life, any more than there is withoutcommitment, solidarity and love of neighbor.” 73 These two ways are notseparated and they need each other. The integration of these two approaches isthe best way to link justice and spirituality. Since we cannot approach God
without carrying the longing of our brothers and sisters with us.

73

Gustavo Gutierrez, “From Exclusion to Disciples”, in Mysticism and the Institutional
Crisis (ed. Christian Duquoc and Gustavo Gutierrez), SCM Press Ltd and Orbis Books
Maryknoll, New York, 1994, 81.