Developing and Nourishing A Spirituality for JPIC

Introduction

In my contribution I want to explore ways in which we can continually nourish our own spirituality for justice and peace and through our various roles encourage others to do so. One of the challenges in religious congregations is that the whole area of JPIC can come to be seen as a specialist area for activists or a module that you follow as part of a formation program or theological studies rather than an intrinsic part of the Christian vocation and of religious life. This is not an optional extra, remembering the words of the 1971 Synod of Bishops that "action for justice and participation in the transformation of the world is a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel" (# 6). I also call to mind the words of Paul VI "we have to be converted to become the church of the poor". Other challenging phrases from the church’s teaching call us:
– to have a passion for the earth and its peoples;
– to promote justice, peace and the integrity of creation;
– to enter into solidarity with the victims of injustice;
– to have a love of preference for the poor.
The approach that I take when working with religious is to say that developing and nourishing a spirituality for JPIC is like responding to a call within a call. Each person has a unique way of responding to the call and that there any ways of responding to the call. This is a framework for living life and not merely a preparation for working for justice and peace. It links the challenge of the gospel and the various ways in which the charism of our orders call us to engage in the transformation of human society.
Model and Method of Formation
The elements for formation for JPIC are contained in the model for pastoral praxis developed by Joe Holland and Peter Henriot, SJ. These help provide a framework for developing a spirituality for justice and peace.
1. Experience
2. Social Analysis
3. Theological Reflection –
4. Action
Scripture and & Charism
I see these four elements like four doors – some people are more at home in the beginning when they enter through one particular door but the challenge is to move on and build these four elements into a way of living. Put simply an experience of oppression should challenge us to question and do analysis, looking for the causes in the light of the vision contained in scripture and church social teaching (CST) moving us towards various types of action. Ultimately these elements can lead us at both personal and social levels to conversion of heart, change of attitudes and new ways of being and acting in solidarity with those on the margins.
Reflection is at the heart of the process
Reflection is a way of making our learning conscious; it gets to the heart of the matter, to the truth of things. It helps us to go beyond the surface meaning and get to the deeper meaning of what it means for me and for us. Reflection deepens experience, knowledge and action. It allows each of us to imagine new possibilities and to risk becoming creators of a new way of being and acting. It is important then to approach each of the elements of the model is a reflective way:
a) Experience and reflection;
b) Social analysis and reflection;
c) Theological reflection;
d) Action and reflection.

(a) Experience and reflection
When thinking about experience in life and reflection on experience I am often challenged by the words of the prophet Isaiah "there are none as blind as my servants, none so deaf, they see and they do not see, they hear and they do not hear". I feel that we take it for granted that to experience something is easy. We can block out experiences for all sorts of reasons and with our modern instant communications systems we can suffer from a kind of experience fatigue when we see images of injustice, suffering and oppression. I remember reading that when the American put a man on the moon for a second time, after 5 minutes about 20 million people turned off their TV sets. How to really develop our capacities to see, hear, touch, taste and smell poverty and oppression? How in the words of Harper Lee in the book To Kill A Mocking Bird can we " get inside the skin of another human being and walk around?" When this happens the experience becomes a kind of subversive memory that remains part of us and long afterwards haunts us to change and to act. I can still remember the loud wails of a woman in a market near Thika on Christmas Eve. She had saved for weeks to come to buy a chicken and now the price of the chicken has gone up. The woman wailing in the market place highlighted the oppression caused when the principles of supply and demand operate and that challenges me to speak out. Equally I recognized that the woman’s cries are in another sense my cries – for I too am needy. Reflection on experiences of poverty and oppression can be graced moments allowing me to tap into my own needful life and come before the Lord with hands outstretched. For many years I lived in a very deprived inner city area where in the words of the song " the words of the prophets were written on the subway walls and tenements halls". The smells of vomit and urine spoke of a lack of dignity and self belief of "feeling like dirt and being treated like dirt’ by society’s systems, structures and policies. This situation was like a mirror being held up for society to examine itself and for me also to acknowledge my own poverty and blindness.
(b) Social Analysis and reflection
In Octagesima Advenians Paul VI said: "It is up to the Christian community to analyse with objectivity the situation which is proper to their own country, to shed on it the light of the Gospels’ unalterable words and to draw principles or reflections, norms of judgment and directions of action" (#4).
Social analysis contains within itself implicitly or explicitly a theology of life. It is a way of getting a more complete picture of a social situation by exploring the historical and structural relationship inherent in it. Social analysis can focus on issues, policies, structures or systems. Social analysis can then happen at different levels within the system: primary groups, local communities, national level, trans-national and trans-regional groups.
• Issue (Person
• Policy as it affects (Unit - family
• Structure (Local community
• System (Sub-group
• (Region ( Nation ( World
Social thinking and social practice inspired by the Gospel must show a special sensitivity ....towards those who are most in distress, those who are extremely poor, those suffering from all the physical, mental and moral ills that afflict humanity, including hunger, neglect, unemployment and despair… you will also want to seek out the structural reasons which foster or cause the different forms of poverty and injustice in the world so that you can apply the proper remedies (John Paul II – Yankee Stadium).
There are simple ways of undertaking social analysis and it is helpful to have some practice in undertaking analysis so that we can focus on our experiences of oppression, seek the underlying causes, expose structures systems and policies that require change otherwise the situations of injustice will remain. We need to constantly ask ourselves – from whose perspective am I getting this information? What perspectives are missing? It is particular important that we undertake this kind of searching discernment from a pastoral and apostolic perspective in our local ministry situations. This reflective analysis will help us to make Gospel based decisions. One religious congregation that I know ask when making a decision they ask themselves: "will the poor rise up and thank us for making this decision?"
(c) Theological Reflection – Scripture; Catholic Social Teaching and Charism
It is helpful to look at the biblical themes of justice/righteousness, the just person and the related themes of oppression, salvation, mercy, compassion, steadfast love and faithfulness. These help us to clarify our own particular call within JPIC. I just want to mention some key ideas that may help give pointers to the kind of reflection that the scripture invites:
A: Old Testament
i) In the OT where a central theme is the revelation of God’s justice and righteousness, to act justly is „to help sustain the life of the community".
ii) One of the marks of the exodus community is „a sharing of beliefs which issues in the sharing of goods, which is expressed in the sharing of a meal" (Van Rad).
iii) Oppression (9 different words) in the OT for the experience of feeling hemmed in, suffocated, cornered, having to endure outrage and exploitation
iv) Salvation in the OT means giving each person and each group breathing space, room to choose, grow and develop
v) The God of Israel is a God of justice and compassion who strengthens, sustains and assists the oppressed, the marginalized, the weak, the strangers and the debtors in their unequal struggle against their oppressors. (Ex. 3: 7-12)
vi) A person cannot be just before the covenant God unless we take on the cause of the poor and oppressed. This is said gently in Hosea 2:19: “I will betroth you to myself for ever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love.” and in a more demanding way in Isaiah 58:6-8: “Is this not the sort of fast that pleases me- it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks, to break unjust fetters and undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke, to share your bread with the hungry and shelter the homeless poor, to clothe the man you see to be naked and not turn from your own kin.”
vii) If we are to act justly we must
– see that there are no poor among us (Deut 15:4);
– love our neighbor as ourselves (Lev 19:18);
– work for the liberation of captives (Lev 25: 54-55);
– care for the poor, orphan and widow (Pr 29:7);
– be good stewards of the land- rest for the land, animals and humans (Ex. 23: 10-12);
– delight in the whole of creation (Genesis);
– allow the poor to liberate us ( Zeph 3: 11).
This last reference from Zephaniah is particularly significant because it sees a role for the poor and oppressed themselves as the chosen instruments in God’s struggle for justice. It reveals the role that God allots to "a people humble and lowly" (Zeph 3:11) because as Jeremiah reiterated again and again God can work through broken, poor, oppressed, miserable, violent and angry people. Hans Reudi Weber (WCC) expresses that reality as follows: …only when human pride is broken, when our resources are spent, when we stand with empty hands…are we fit to participate in God’s work.
In the OT the core of Israel’s faith is equated with the doing of justice. To know Yahweh is to take to heart the cause of the poor and needy.
B: New Testament
In the NT, while there is no explicit reference to justice, the whole notion of the Reign of God spells out how the process of transformation enables fullness of life for each person and group. There are some significant moments and themes which call us to reflection:
– Jesus is the parable of God’s justice; he comes as one who serves;
– The reign of God is the power of God active in the world, transforming it and confronting the powers of darkness;
– Riches often distance the wealthy from the poor who occupy a privileged position in the Kingdom (Lazarus);
– Salvation depends on a person’s attitude towards the poor and afflicted (Sermon on the Mount);
– Christians are called to enter into solidarity with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the naked and the prisoner. This solidarity means that it is Jesus whom we encounter in the person of the oppressed (Last Judgment);
– The sharing of wealth seems humanly impossible but becomes a reality when salvation comes ( Zaccheus);
– Worship of God without justice to the neighbor is condemned as empty and worthless;
– Followers of Jesus are asked to give away two coats instead of one and to go two miles instead of one.
C: Charism
In each of our congregations the focus on JPIC has a particular meaning and significance in the context of the charism. The IBVM founded by Mary Ward has the Constitutions of St. Ignatius, the spiritual exercises and Ignatian spirituality as a guide for life. I spell out the links with key aspects of the charism — the Just Soul, finding God in all things, the values of freedom-justice-sincerity. There are also links which need to spelled out with the Constitutions and Chapter mandates.
D: Action and Reflection
There are many types of actions which flow from experience, analysis of situations of injustice and oppression, and theological reflection. Action calls for further reflection:
1. Indirect Support: This means providing material and/or financial helps or support by letters, appeals and by affirmation of those in direct support by encouragement and trust. It can also mean telling stories of transformation and liberation.
2. Direct Support: We take part in direct programs to help the victims of social injustice.
3. Compassionate Prayer: We meditate and pray/fast over the experiences and issues.
4. Advocacy: We make a cause our own cause. We speak out and demonstrate and lobby. We make clear to all that we are willing to suffer to whatever degree necessary to achieve justice.
5. Conscientization: Being informed and informing others.
6. Solidarity: We are one with the wounded, the forgotten, the ugly, the naked, the dying poor. We live with them, work along with them, speak out with them.
7. Knowledge: We are well informed on the issues and know what is going on.
Conclusion
I believe that formation for JPIC means answering a call within a call. It invites us to continual personal conversion and to act in solidarity with those who suffer injustice and oppression for the transformation of society.
The existence of the poor and oppressed raise questions about what it means to be a Christian and a religious. In a sense they are the subjects and agents of the judgment of God because by their very existence
– they condemn our hardness of heart and our superficial living;
– they are a corrective force in the life of a Christian;
– they invite us to a new way of living;
– they are mirrors of the human condition for they remind us that we are all poor and need to stand with open hands before our God;
– they are prophetic because they disturb the powerful, denounce the fearful and unsettle the comfortable.
They remind us that ultimately God saves us through the chinks and holes in our armor, through our poverty, our weakness, our suffering and our many deaths in life. When we can acknowledge this then we can stand in solidarity with those on the margins, leave our world and our security and take the risks necessary to live and work together for the transformation of the whole human community.

March 2002
By Pat Murray, IBVM