Pope Francis, May 2021 - Laudato Si’ Action Platform

Pray, Reflect and Act; Pray, Reflect and Act and keep going

One way of looking at life is that it is a never ending circle.  We are people of habit, making the same mistakes, continually acting in the same old, known ways.  History repeats itself over and over.  We may ask if we ever learn.  However, habit and routine do serve a good purpose, for they allow us to assume a manageable way for approaching life. The older I get, the more I appreciate that routine matters.  We may apply this paradigm for living life to a better purpose, for achieving better, life giving and desired outcomes.

  

The pandemic is showing up our world for what it is and what is lacking in it.  This makes us realize that this is a time not simply to wait and regroup when it is over.  Rather, as Pope Francis is pointing out, this time of the pandemic is calling forth overdue and needed change for the sake of humanity, is calling forth the new era.  

Change is possible but it is not easy for it challenges us to step outside of our routine.  This is risky stuff.  Maybe change could be defined as our creating new routines or as our being flexible with life routines.  So do we just undo how we normally do life and do life in new and better ways?  This may sound easy, but it is not.    

How then to reform for the new era?  Apply the cyclical nature of human behaviour to a new paradigm that can become our new routine?  Adopt and live the Pastoral Cycle?  Let our life's circle of routine be spiritually and radically reformed to be one of praying, reflecting, acting.  Think about it.   

Who would ever have thought?

We "embrace the imperfection and even the injustices of our world, allowing these situations to change us from the inside out.  This is the only way things are changed."  (Richard Rohr ofm)  

During this pandemic which has highlighted so poignantly how our world is plagued by so many other pandemics of injustice and violence, I am mesmerized by the view that this is not simply a time for change in our world but to change our world.  I wrestle with this.  Is it possible or not?  This is a question that vexes me, while I ever hold dearly to hope for real change in our world?  Then I read this from Richard Rohr.  

My hope is not unique.  Pope Francis is my inspiration as he continually pushes that this pandemic will definitively change our world.  He plainly says: "We do not come out of a crisis the same, we either come out better or worse."  He clearly points the way to our being on the verge of  entering a new era.  I believe in my heart that we are but is that just me being me?  Will our world be better or worse following this pandemic?  All this, Francis would posit, is up to us.    

Being an idealist, I hope we enter into a new era where all will be better.   The realist in me sees ongoing divisions, injustices, conflicts and catastrophes in our world, and I wonder if it is possible.  

Idealist or realist is not the point.  What matters is who I am.  My life is rooted in the experience of looking after the little guy who has no one to look after them, to give those going nowhere a hand.  Justice is key to who I am.  It has made me who I am.  My times of failure to put that into action have taken away from who I am.  I must never forget that I became who I am in the Church because she is truly my Mother, having given me life and opportunity in real ways and through real people when I was most vulnerable.  

To live a life based on a sense of giving back is not lifelong nourishing or sustaining.  Justice and the people in my life who live it, the Oscar Romeros, nourish and sustain me, making me who I am in life - a priest and religious - even in my knowing how I fail and fall short.   That is what my life is about.        

As Kierkegaard (1835) so aptly captures it:  "What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die."  

Integrity matters.  Live who I am.  Failures and risks challenge.  Never compromise my integrity.  Who would ever have thought that a pandemic would challenge so much fertile matter for life?

Our First Response to Trouble is Criminalization?

Following the Australian issue I raised last week, there has been a significant development with protests and challenges being made from many significant quarters, even within the government, against their current ruling prohibiting Australian citizens in India returning home during the present pandemic catastrophe there.  That is good news as it confirms all people matter and have rights.  That is good news because it confirms I do not stand alone.  

My question then is why are we so ready to demonize the other, when difficulties and differences arise?    Demonize the other because they are not acting as we would wish or command, because their actions or possible actions threaten us?  Is it that simple?   

We see this demonization all the time in migration.  People are on the move to escape conflict, violence, poverty and hardship; to find a life and a living.  That is their right and need but, in doing so, they may disturb us or make us uncomfortable.  To their plight, what is more and more an ever ready response of the mainstream world?  They are the other.  Are they?  They should not be doing that.  Really? So we go on to victimize them, even criminalize them.   

This is happening too often in our world on the big issues.  We can cope with that.  Can we?   On reflection, what arises for me as being truly frightening is how we do the same in our own little worlds.  We see a crisis, we see a threat and our first reaction is fear.  The walls go up.  We keep out the other, demonizing, victimizing, criminalizing in our little ways.  Why?  Couldn't we do better?  

Think about it as do I.  I assure you, I do.  Happy reflecting.    

What about me?

In these extraordinary times, I matter too.  Or better put, we all matter, whoever we are and in whatever time.  Where does this line come from?  

It is spurred on by news from Australia that, with the present Covid catastrophe in India, the Australian government has made it illegal for citizens to return home from there.  If they land back home, they will be subject to a hefty fine and imprisonment. 

I cannot use a photo this week as it is a news story and I will not break copyright.    

As an Australian living long term outside my country, I have my views.  I do appreciate the seriousness of the situation and agree totally on looking after life but this is not achieved by sacrificing the few for the sake of the masses.  Every life matters. 

To achieve the desired outcome of safety for all and caring for all, there must be other options available than simply consigning the few to staying in a dangerous environment.  

This pandemic is affecting the world's citizens, all of whom deserve our attention and care.  So one may ask some questions in response to such a specific initiative.  Where is our concern for humanity?  Is it lost in our concern solely for ourselves?  

We all have rights.  There are declared rights that inherently belong to all and can never be denied.  One such right is the right to citizenship and a home.  To deny this right or any such basic right, even in a crisis and temporarily, is a grave matter, setting a dangerous precedent.  Once a precedent of this nature is set, it can reappear and be used against less powerful and more vulnerable people to uphold the rights of a privileged class.  

The three point Mission Statement that I name as set by the pandemic - respect, responsibility, solidarity - says it all.  We are in this journey of life together for the good and the bad, for better or worse.  Together we stand.  We all have rights that matter and that cost us all.  They act to safeguard life for all, no matter who we are.  

We all matter