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Life Ways Reflections On A Street Corner ANSWERS TO CRUCIAL
QUESTIONS It is hard to be born in today’s society--if one is born at all. Kids today grow up--many raising themselves --paralyzed by national and international events that seem beyond their control, educated in a subtle way to isolation and separateness. "What could I do to make a difference?" Some of America’s citizens live only skin-deep lives, availing themselves as much as possible of America’s advantages, not daring to look around themselves too much--"How does one comfort a woman crying on the streets, hugging her children, with nowhere to go?" Others see the welfare of the state as the supreme good--"The fastest growing group of unwed mothers is girls from 15 to 17. [As one newspaper reported:] This trend must be reversed, not only for the sake of the nation’s pocketbook..." America bleeds because her children bleed. How can any of us stand tall when one of us is cut down? How do we learn to value the life that is destroyed? What is it that unlocks the cage which imprisons us, and tears down the barriers fear and isolation have created between us? The homeless, the starving, the refugees, the immigrants, the poverty-stricken, the bereaved, the ignorant, the mentally ill, the victims of violence and abuse--to what do they call us? Politicians, historians, and sociologists offer analyses of our contemporary situation. We can read them each time we open the newspapers. Editorial pages are full of people’s diagnoses of world events. Criticism flies fast and spares no one. Everyone has something to say about someone or something. You hear it in restaurants, on buses, in taxis, around the dinner table. All these analyses are illusory; the curses suggested, ultimately futile, for they know not the evil to be healed. They are based on the faulty premise: the present social life of society is a fact, and the kingdom of God (if even acknowledged) is an ideal. The opposite is actually true. This earth shattering realization revolutionizes all involvement in society. "The fullness that is Christ is indeed buried like yeast in the dough of our last times, and yet his coming kingdom is the event that is already at work, as it were kneading our societies. ‘The coming of the kingdom of God does not admit of observation, and there will be no one to say, "Look, it is here! Look, it is there?’" as though it consisted of human groups molded by structures and culture. Rather, it is among you. Human community is still an unattainable goal at the level of the couple, the nation, and the world but the kingdom of God is already here, really present as the great presence of God’s love to human beings" (The Wellspring of Worship, Jean Corbon, Paulist Press, p. 165). The presence of the Kingdom brings to light the seeds of communion and the possibility of solidarity and peace that exists in the world. At the same time the light cast by the Kingdom ruthlessly brings out of the darkness the truth about power, domination and sinful structures of oppression. It reveals the futility of whole peoples enslaved to money, production and success; the betrayal of human dignity inherent in the deadly cycle of poverty, drug abuse and alcoholism; the poverty of a society that would sacrifice anything--including the lives of children--to the god of lust, comfort and social advancement. The presence of the Kingdom is the reality that reveals to us the ambiguities of our present society and also its true reality. It is by the light of that Kingdom that we can see society for what it is; our world is loved by God but is in the power of the Evil One. It has the divine call to reflect the communion present among the Persons of the Trinity. And imperceptibly society is being transfigured "from within" to become just that. Now that the Kingdom has gained entrance through the Body of Christ into our human society, what will the result be? It is a complete reversal of the relations that control our society. Individuals as yeast in the dough of society transfer their focus from their own mortal ego to transfix it on the mystery of the other. It is a demand that is at once enticing and terrible. It is an invitation to become what we truly are and most deeply want to be: Christian--a task that our gentle Master will make both easy and light, it is terrible for it calls us into the unknown and makes us completely vulnerable, setting us on a road directly opposed to the greed, pride and lust of an insecure world. Fixing our eyes on the "other" reveals to us a person. There is nothing--no thing--in the world as important as a single person. That person can be without a home, without a job, without a country. That person could be suffering from the oppression and violence inflicted upon him or her by others. That person could be physically challenged, mentally ill or suffering the consequences of an addiction. But he or she is an unrepeatable, infinitely precious person, a reflection and revelation of the three divine Persons. And whose sin is it, if that person lives without dignity? Whose sin is it, if it is impossible to find or pay for shelter, never mind a home? Whose sin is it, if the mentally ill roam our city streets, lost and bewildered? Whose sin is it, that the only relief a person can find is in the "high" bought with the deadly coins of substance abuse? Whose sin is it...? The finest parable of divine unself-centeredness is the parable of the Good Samaritan. The "samaritan" God approaches, bends over me, lifts me up and becomes my neighbor. We each must learn to see through the eyes of the wounded man, recognize and accept the ministry of God to ourselves. In this discovery we gradually come to realize we are all wounded, all in need of healing, all responsible for the history that is daily being written. Recognizing that we have been ministered to by God and by others, we can become neighbor to our wounded brothers and sisters. The Spirit poured into our woundedness is allowed to flow into the world through our self-giving. For each of us, what becomes of ultimate concern is each other. We do not know how much responsibility we each have for the world situation, for the oppression of peoples, for the suffering in war-torn countries, for the scourge of abortion that takes millions of innocent lives, for the violence in our cities. But we do know that reversing the relations that govern our society from "me, myself and I" to an infinite respect for the other is the call of the Gospel; the answer is one that begins with ourselves. What each of us does in our own life has a profound effect on the dough of society. God has made us very powerful people; the effect of that power we will understand only on the other side of the pearly gates. One’s relationship with one’s spouse and the happiness created in one’s own family is the first place to start. Children learn to respect and value the lives of others when they see this modeled in the respect and love reigning in their home. The next generation of adults will need a tremendous capacity for mercy, understanding, reconciliation, and total self-giving, for the number of "wounded" Americans is on the increase. As our parishes and parishioners are noted more and more for their capacity for love and reconciliation, we will see men and women flocking to the Church for healing and peace. We are so used to a "fast-food" society, it could happen that we treat each other with callous indifference as objects to be used or avoided. I call this a "McDonalds Spirituality." There you have paper cups, plastic forks, plastic knives...nothing is the real thing. The Gospel today issues a call not to do something extraordinary, but to be someone extraordinary; an instrument of communion, a revelation of the reverence that should be given to all persons, a prophet of a different way of valuing creation and the goods of this world, the promise of the future Kingdom of God, a manifestation of the compassion of an all-merciful Father. "The Spirit of the promise dwells in the Church and causes it to move patiently toward the day when all human beings will be ‘his people, and he will be their God, God-with them.' On that day, ‘there will be...no more mourning, or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone’ (Revelation 21-3-4)."
Copyright © 1999-2003, Daughters of St. Paul. All Rights Reserved.
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