Church Development Work

Furthering New Evangelization in Development Work

I have been away this week at a Caritas Thailand workshop aimed at improving our working together in our shared mission of social development.  As I joined the gathering for three days, I reflected how we so often emphasize our differences because we live in a different culture or country but I wonder how different are we really.  

What I see living here time and again is that our common humanity joins us together much more strongly than any cultural or other differences may be used to highlight our separation due to an inherited sense of uniqueness.  Yes, we are unique but we are also part of humanity and that cannot be undervalued and that is at the root of our identity.  .
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The lesson at hand was to see issues being faced and the way they were being faced.  They were human issues arising from people working together within a history and an organization or community.  This was a coming together of good people doing good in the world but they are people all the same - fragile and vulnerable.  So there are the successes and the joys but also the hurts and felt failures as well.

For my part, I cannot act as if I am divorced from this reality, speaking from afar.  Here I reflect from my experience of Church and people in a number of parts of the world.  The lesson I kept before me this week as we faced issues together was that we are not all so dissimilar.  To appreciate our common humanity is to give a healthy sense of perspective.

As we are immersed in the Church's social development work, so we are just as much immersed in our own personal development work.  The two go together.

What a great spot to consider development..

We are at the bottom of a dam.  Just hoped it did not burst. A sign?