Courtney McGrailReligious all over the world are working to change the unjust social order, writes Sr Sheila Curran
Sr Sheila Curran
Before discussing why religious should be involved in social justice, it is important to say that justice is a constitutive part of being Christian and therefore, all of us who call ourselves Christian need to be involved in social justice.
The Christian imperative is to love. The biblical idea of love has no limits. In his first letter John (4:10) reminds us that it was God who loved us first, so it is a gratuitous love. God sent Jesus as an expression of that love and as we know from the Second Testament Jesus had to incarnate that love and live it out in his own life. It is out of this concept of a gratuitous love that we, through our baptism, are called to love God and one another. This implies that we treat our world and its peoples with dignity, equality, respect and reverence. Our love of God requires us to collaborate with God in bringing aboutGod’s reign. This reign is trying to burst forth into our world but it cannot do so unless we choose to participate in bringing it about. This demands that we look at the world from a different perspective, with different values than those presented by the dominant culture.
For religious women and men who opted for a vowed life, this implies that:
“The evangelical counsels in religious life inspire a way of living which has a social impact. Social protest is not the purpose of the vows, but there is no doubt that the living of them has always offered a witness to values which challenge society just as they challenge the religious themselves. Religious poverty, chastity, and obedience can speak forcefully and clearly to today's world which is suffering from so much consumerism and discrimination, eroticism and hatred, violence and oppression.” (Essential Elements in the Church’s Teaching on Religious Life as Applied to Institutes Dedicated to Works of the Apostolate)
So what does it mean for religious to be involved in justice, challenge society and to exercise this love for others in a tangible way? The Bible shows us how to do this. For example, in her Magnificat, Mary (Luke 6:20-26) describes the signs of the reign of God in detail:
“God has brought down the mighty from their thronesand exalted those of humble estate; God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.”
This implies the reversal of social, economic and political conditions, the uplifting of those who have been down trodden or devalued and the option for those who are poor, the majority of which are mainly women and children. Again in Matthew 25: 31-46, the judgement scene, we are given concrete examples of those who will inherit God’s reign: it is those who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit those who are ill or in prison and those who welcome the stranger.
Many of those who founded religious congregations, (Catherine McAuley, Nano Nagle, Edmund Rice, Ignatius Loyola, Vincent de Paul, Francis and Clare of Assisi) to name a few, responded to this call of promoting God’s reign. For them it was not a romantic dream, their congregations grew because of their witness and concrete actions among those who were poor or excluded. Each of them in their own way sought a more just and equal world, just as their members do today.
To be involved in social justice can often be difficult and dangerous as it means going against those in power. It is a constant struggle to be faithful to who God is. Many religious have lost their lives as a result of this. I worked for many years in the continent of Latin America and I am conscious of the many religious who along with the people were martyred because of they tried to change the unjust social order.
I think of Sr Dorothy Stang,a Notre Dame de Namur sister who was murdered in Brazil, Irene McCormick, a Josephite sister, Joan Swayer, a Columban sister,Michael Tomaszek and Zbigneo Strzalkowski Conventual Friars Minor murdered in Peru, Ignacio Ellacuria and his Jesuit companions, Maura Clarke, Ita Forde, Maryknoll sisters and Dorothy Kazel, an Ursuline sister, in El Salvador along with the many religious men and women throughout the world who have lost their lives for standing on the side of those who are on the margins.
These people did not set out to be killed. They were killed as a consequence of being faithful, to fulfilling their call to witness to God’s reign through challenging the unjust systems and for being in solidarity with those who were being exploited and excluded.
As instructed by Vatican II, religious continue to adapt their lives to the “signs of the times”. The “signs of the times” are never static, they are constantly evolving just as God is evolving. Globalisation is causing the emergence of new expressions of injustice. These are the cry of our Earth, our changing eco systems, displaced peoples, migrants, victims of violence, stateless peoples, refugees, victims of human trafficking, victims of violence, victims of sexual exploitation, landless peasants, to name a few. Religious women and men continue to be faithful to the Gospel as they struggle to respond to the call to bring about God’s reign limited though it may seem at times.
Pope Francis calls on Religious to “wake up the world”. Being involved in social justice is one way in which religious can do just that.
SrSheila Curran RSM is the coordinator of the IMU-CORI Justice Desk.