by Leela Ramdeen, Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice
“…a society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through ‘compassion’ is a cruel and inhuman society.” (Saved in Hope, Pope Benedict XVI, 2007)
How long will it take before we become a compassionate society/world? At a recent Heads of Department meeting, Fr Joe Harris challenged me to “dream”. I was bemoaning the fact that at the end of 2010, progress in making a dent in building a just society/world this year has been slow.
Fr Joe reminded me that the kind of change we would like to see might not occur during his or my lifetime, but in God’s time. However, this should not stop us from dreaming and from striving to make our dreams become a reality. I drove home with his voice booming in my head. I remembered the words of Mother Teresa who said that God does not ask us to be successful, only to be faithful.
In today’s Gospel (Matthew 1:18-25), which tells us about the virginal conception of Jesus and about His birth, we also read about a faithful man, Joseph – “a man of honour”. What a role model he is for all of us. “After the angel spoke to him in his dream, he did what the angel of the Lord had told him to do.”
The prophet had said, “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel – a name which means ‘God-is-with-us’.” All of us who work to build God’s kingdom of truth, justice, peace, love and freedom here on earth, must bear this in mind: God is with us. When the going gets tough; when we become frustrated by the slow pace of change, just remember this and keep on dreaming. As Woodrow Wilson said:
“We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
They see things in the soft haze of a spring day
or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening.
Some of us let these great dreams die,
but others nourish and protect them;
nurse them through bad days till they
bring them to the sunshine and light
which comes always to those who sincerely
hope that their dreams will come true.”
There are certain characteristics that we must have as “dreamers” e.g.
• Faith (in God and in His infinite mercy, in ourselves and in God’s people).
• Hope. It is Christian hope that motivates us to achieve our goals. Read Pope Benedict XVI’s encyclical, Saved in Hope, for a true understanding of Christian hope. Inter alia, he said: “…we need the greater and lesser hopes that keep us going day by day. But these are not enough without the great hope, which must surpass everything else. This great hope can only be God, who encompasses the whole of reality and who can bestow upon us what we, by ourselves, cannot attain.”
• Vision/imagination (like our Archdiocesan mission statement and CCSJ’s vision statement).
• The ability to ACT on our vision. We’re supposed to be DOERS of the Word, not HEARERS only. Time to come out of our comfort zones! Using the See-Judge-Act process/the Pastoral Circle can assist us in planning, reviewing and evaluating our plans.
• Courage.
• Patience
• Persistence (“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again”),
• Willingness to suffer for what one believes in. Interestingly, one of the core values embraced by the Heads of Department in our Archdiocese is “martyrdom”. In Saved in Hope the Holy Father tells us: “the capacity to suffer for the sake of the truth is the measure of humanity,”
• Prayer. Underpinning all our actions must be a life of prayer, which Pope Benedict XVI calls the “school of hope”. We will only develop a spirituality of Justice if we immerse ourselves in prayer – incessantly.
So, Fr Joe, I’ll keep dreaming and, as Geoffrey Schmitt advises, I’ll pray for “wisdom, guidance, discernment, and courage”. Let’s all dream the same dream – that God’s will be done.
