I actually believe the Jesuits are still into liberation theology. However, they are seeing it as the Church sees it. Instead of subscribing to marxist concepts, they are now training future leaders social awareness without losing sight of Christ in the classrooms. So that when they are finally immersed in the world, they will be catalysts of change in light of the Gospel.
When I first read this thread, I found it frustrating since I live in a developing country. I live and breath in a society where the rich gets richer, and the poor, poorer. I didn’t get it why some here would not get the idea. I was literally mumbling to myself, “if you were in the shoes of those in South America, maybe you’ll get it.” Then I caught myself sidestepping in the red zone the Church warned about.
I stopped and reflected further on the “Preferential Option for the Poor” and I was reminded that poverty is not exclusive to developing countries. Even in “first world” countries, poverty is prevalent even though in a different kind. Poverty is not only defined by material possessions alone and cannot be enclosed in borders. Yes, there are those who are materially poor. Yet there are also those who are morally poor. There are those who are poor in hope and faith. There are those who are poor in their dignity as human beings. Cardinal Ratzinger once commented on the issue, “We are all poor.”
In the end, we are all spiritually poor.
Mother Teresa once said about the United States, “You are poorer than Calcutta, because in your country, people die of loneliness.”
I too served in South America. I saw the material poverty. You could walk around the corner from a street lined with mansions to a suburb of huts and cardboard boxes or children sleeping on the sidewalk. The one thing that I saw there that is often lacking here is a great love for the family.
There are very few nursing homes and they are not needed. People take care of their elderly parents and grandparents, sometimes of their elderly servants.
A child, whether he’s an orphan or not, he’s everyone’s child. Someone always offers him something to eat or gives him a piece of clothing. People know who he is, what he’s doing and where he’s going. In our cities, our children are often anonymous. In our schools, the only children that get noticed are the brilliant ones or the behavior problems. That middle child falls through the cracks.
I also so how they share what little they have. I worked among the poorest of the poor. I remember the first time that I was invited to someone’s home. The young man worked for the friary. He invited me to a family gathering. The home was cramped and dark. We sat outside. They asked me if I wanted some juice. I accepted. They brought out a jar, the kind that we use for instant coffee. That was the glass. The juice was Tang. It was watered down in order to stretch it. Then they brought me a plate of food. It was a tin plate that looked pretty beat up. There was rice, a little juice from the meat and a cube of stew beef. I was very humbled and embarrassed, because of their generosity. I thought about home and how we don’t have that same sense of generosity. We would probably avoid having a family gathering, if we don’t have enough money to buy food in large enough quantities to feed everyone until they can’t eat anymore. But to them, the most important part was to get together with family, listen to loud music, tell bad jokes and watch the kids play. I went back to the community house asking myself, “Who is poorer, they or us?”
I was also stationed in the mountains of Puerto Rico, which is part of the USA. In the center of the island, you would never know that you’re in the USA. The electrical power and water come and go without notice. People live in clean, but very tiny homes with many children and an abuela (grandmother). They walk long distances just to go out and buy some milk, while we drive around the corner. But the beautiful thing that I saw was the same sense of family.
I remember having to spend the night at a home in the mountains, because I could not get back to the community house. They offered me a bed. When I awoke early in the morning to pray my breviary, I found the two oldest boys sleeping on the floor in the kitchen. I was sleeping in their bed and did not know it.
I was in charge of postulants. I remember teaching the postulants to make sure that they never let a day go by, when they did not stop to teach the people about the Holy Family and show them how their families were so much like that of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, poor but generous.
Sometimes our ignorance of the rest of the world is our greatest poverty in the northern hemisphere.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
