Respect, Responsibility, Solidarity! These are the key words that remain with me arising out of the pandemic. Hopefully, humanity has learnt much from Covid. Otherwise, it has all been somewhat in vain, just another world crisis, waiting for the next one. Well, the next one did not take long to come with the onset of a war in Ukraine.
I easily feed into the big issue. No matter how righteous the issue may be, it remains out there without my making any dent on it, except letting out a lot of hot air. Better I step back?
Yves Congar, a great theologian of last century, reflected there was no need to create another church, just to create a different one. In line with this, there is a line attributed to St Augustine - "Ecclesia semper reformanda est". This is the living principle that the church is ever reforming itself. Maybe I better focus my energy on reform, instead of ever falling into the trap of being the campaigner getting nowhere.
Our world so badly needs a new paradigm. In line with Pope Francis' insight that the earth and its peoples are crying, let's listen to what they are saying. It is obscene to see how we are fighting each other and the earth, and the extent to which we are doing so. Our present paradigm isn't working. Our world so badly needs a new paradigm.
The RRS Paradigm for our new era?
Respect - We are all created and loved by God. Everyone has their God given worth, dignity.
Responsibility - We all have our role, our place in the world. Live it out!
Solidarity - Through the one creator, we share a deep and unending bond.
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