Pray Tell mourns the passing of Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez, OP, who died on October 22, 2024, at the age of 96. He leaves an enormous legacy which drew from the wells of spirituality, praxis, and the experience of the poor to inform his influential theology of liberation.
Born on June 8, 1928, Fr. Gutiérrez pursued studies in medicine before discerning his call to the priesthood. He studied at the Catholic University of Lyons, the Gregorian University, and the Catholic Institute of Paris before his ordination in 1959. His pastoral work among the poor in his Peruvian parish influenced his emerging reflections on the relation between theology and lived experience.
His most influential work, A Theology of Liberation, was published in 1971. It articulates a vision of theology as “a critical reflection on praxis” which must speak to the intertwined desires for material and spiritual liberation and salvation. Emerging from this work and now employed in Catholic magisterial documents, the term “preferential option for the poor” represents Fr. Gutiérrez’s distillation of Israel’s and the Church’s witness to God’s passionate love for the poor and suffering whom society ignores.
Beyond this work, Fr. Gutiérrez offered important contributions to spirituality (We Drink from Our Own Wells), biblical exegesis (On Job), and historical theology (his work on Bartolomé de las Casas, entitled In Search for the Poor of Christ). Fr. Gustavo’s passion for the God of life Who loves and sides with the suffering as well as his rooting of theology in experience, worship, and contemplation have affected countless contemporary theologians.
Fr. Gutiérrez became a Dominican in 1999, and his theological writing often seems to verge on preaching, as he skillfully unites the Biblical witness with the experiences of God’s beloved poor. As a testimony to this and in gratitude for all the gifts Fr. Gutiérrez has shared with the Church, we offer a brief reflection from the conclusion of his book, The God of Life, on Jesus’s healing of Bartimeaus (Mark 10:46-52):
“As Jesus of Nazareth, the Galilean preacher, is leaving Jericho, a blind beggar (a man, therefore, who is doubly poor) acknowledges him as ‘Son of David,’ as Messiah (Mk 10:46-52). […]
The blind man sees what others are unable to see. The Bible reveals to us the presence of a God who is linked to the ‘absent’ folk of history: those whom others try to conceal from sight (see v. 48), but with whom the Lord wants to undertake a dialogue. Jesus, who already has a premonition of his death in Jerusalem, has time to spare for the suffering and hopes of this man.
He says to him: ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ (v. 51). He does not hastily impose his own will on the man, nor does he overwhelm him with help; rather he asks a question and wants to listen. […] He opens a space in which this marginalized and spurned individual can take the initiative. In Jesus’ eyes, the poor are not mere objects of service or help; they are subjects of desires and rights, they are persons.
The beggar, who has ‘sprung up’ and drawn near to Jesus (v. 50), addresses him fondly and confidently as ‘my teacher’ (v. 51 NRSV: Rabbuni) and asks him for health and life. The Lord does not simply give him what he asks but also makes it clear that the blind man has played an active part in the giving of this gift: ‘Your faith has saved you’ (v. 52).
Bartimaeus […] then leaves the roadside, straightens up, and takes his place as a disciple. He follows the Lord on his way (see v. 52). The affectionate and respectful treatment given him by Jesus has caused him to be no longer a marginalized individual living on alms, but a disciple who takes charge of his own life and commits it to the teacher.
That is why Jesus came: to bring life, and bring it in abundance (see Jn 10:10); life in all its dimensions as we have just seen. This is the content of the kingdom; in it the God of life is revealed to us.”
– Gustavo Gutiérrez, The God of Life, trans. Matthew J. O’Connell (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 187.
Michael Rubbelke,Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Theology and Associate Dean for Academics at Saint John’s Seminary and School of Theology, in Collegeville, MN, specializing in spirituality and monastic studies.