Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters

Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters Jesuit Education and Faith That Does Justice EditedbyWilliamJ. O'Brien GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY PRESS Washington, D.C. Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown OCT152008 © 1993 by Georgetown University Press All Rights Reserved Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Let justice roll down like waters: Jesuit education and faith that does justice / edited by William J. O'Brien. p. cm. ISBN 0-87840-547-X 1. Christianity and justice—Catholic Church. 2. Sociology, Christian (Catholic) 3. Church and social problems—Catholic Church. 4. Jesuits—Education. 5. Jesuits—Spiritual life. I. O'Brien, William James. BX1795.J87L48 1993 261.8—dc20 93-14602 Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown Contents Introduction v Julio Giulietti, SJ. Contemplative Hearts, Compassionate Hands: The Ignatian Vision of Justice 1 Brian McDermott, SJ. God in the Corner of Your Eye: Ignatian Spirituality, Authority, and Leadership 19 Jon Fuller, S.J, M.D. Faith Serving Justice Day by Day: Reality or Romantic Idealism? 37 Alice Hayes, Ph.D. Food for Thought: A University Responds to Feeding the Hungry 57 Howard Gray, SJ. Journey Without End: The Contemporary Refugee Situation 77 Alan Mitchell SJ. Looking to the Interests of Others: Friendship and Justice in the New Testament Communities.... 99 ill Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown Introduction The present volume is the fifth in a series of explorations of the Jesuit vision of education. Central to that vision is a commitment to justice, a commitment which has received renewed emphasis in recent years and which has been eloquently articulated by Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Superior-General of the Society of Jesus. In remarks delivered on the Georgetown University campus in the summer of 1989, Father Kolvenbach stated emphatically that "the service of faith through the promotion of justice... is profoundly linked with our preferential love for the poor"and must be "opera- tive in our lives and in our institutions." Several of the essays which follow probe the spiritual foundation of the thirst for justice that is central to Jesuit education. Three examine facets of contemporary existence which call for a just response from individuals and from institutions: HIV/AIDS, hunger, and forced dislocation. In the opening essay, Julio Giulietti, SJ. locates the source of Jesuit spirituality in the experience of the order's founder and in the life of the early Society of Jesus. He explores three principles of that spirituality and describes the contemporary mission of the Society in relation to the Ignatian desire to help others. Relying on the work of Irish theologian Donal Dorr, he then identifies fourteen major issues which together constitute the social justice agenda today. Finally, he suggests steps a university might take to address justice issues and criteria by which its efforts might be evaluated. Brian McDermott, SJ. understands that for an institution to deepen its faith perspective and increase its commitment to social justice it must accept a challenge to "adaptive change" which may occasion strong resistance and distress and complicate the exercise of authority and leadership. Again the Jesuit tradition has something to contribute. The Jesuit dictum to become Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN LIKE WATERS contemplatives in action corresponds to the recent emphasis in the professions on becoming reflective practitioners. The point in either case is to meet the challenge to adaptive change by deepening the reflective space one occupies in the midst of action when there are no routine solutions to the problems at hand. In the professions, students are trained to move "from the dance floor" (the scene of the action) "to the balcony" (a vantage point from which to observe the action). Those trained in Jesuit spirituality might describe the same process in terms of glimpsing God in the corner of the eye, as one regards the happenings of one's life in relation to the God who makes room for all of them. He then explores five ways in which Jesuit spirituality can come to the aid of persons in authority who must meet the challenge of adaptive change. First, essential to this spirituality is the belief that God ultimately contains all that goes on in the mix of life and is a final source of meaning on whom one can rely. Second, as God allows room for all the dissident parts in a person that are to become part of a later whole, so persons in authority can work to include rather than suppress those whose voices create tension—after all, that tension might be creative! Third, while one might have to take some heat for allowing this process to go on, if one sees God in the corner of the eye, one can understand that each person involved in the process is being created then and there in the gaze of an infinite lover. Fourth, from the perspective of the balcony, one can understand some of the paradigmatic roles participants in the process are playing and be alert to potentially destructive dynam- ics. Finally, one can realize that the deepest longings of the participants—to belong to a larger whole and yet not lose identity in the process—exist in paradoxical tension in all of us. Simply to know that and to be willing to abide that tension can enable one to be refreshed and to "stay with the common good that is seeking to emerge as fruit of our efforts." In sum, institutions that resolve to deepen their faith perspective and increase their commitment to VI Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown INTRODUCTION justice have in Jesuit spirituality substantial resources to meet the challenges of adaptive change that will surely create tension but which may also enrich the lives of all. Not all responses to new situations take place at the institutional level. Others are quite personal. Jon Fuller, SJ.,M.D. understands the challenge to be contemplative in action as consis- tent with the perennial Jesuit challenge to "become fully immersed in the world without being overcome by its values," for it is in the world that God is to be found. Most especially God is to be found among the poor and marginalized who desire full incorporation into the human community. In this light, Dr. Fuller regards his residency at San Francisco General Hospital just when that hospital opened the world's first dedicated AIDS inpatient unit as providen- tial. There and later at the AIDS Clinic at Boston City Hospital he has had an opportunity to be among a new class of outcast and to learn firsthand the demands of justice in their care and treatment. In a world in which 20-40% of physician and medical student populations believe they are justified in refusing to care for persons infected with HIV, the contribution of the spirituality of Ignatius as it is embodied in those who have followed in his footsteps is clear. As Dr. Fuller sought in the circumstances of his life an opening for participation in God's ongoing creation, so Alice Hayes found an opportunity first as a scientist and later as a university official to respond to the call for justice coming from the world's hungry. In the laboratory, she worked to increase the capacity of plants to feed populations. As a university official, she addresses the public to inform and influence opinion. She sees a fundamental generosity in the response of affluent nations in times of crisis, but she notes that that response has been crisis-oriented despite an abundance of information that would make long-range planning possible. Individuals and institutions should continue to contribute food and funds, and they do well to volunteer time and Vll Content made available by Georgetown University Press and Digital Georgetown LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN LIKE WATERS talents to relieve those who suffer hunger. But universities are uniquely situated to educate the communities they serve about the size and scope of the problem of hunger and to train professionals of all kinds—scientists and health care providers, as well as humanists and social scientists—to tackle the problem systemati- cally and comprehensively. Furthermore, through applied re- search, universities can build on the advances already made in meeting the challenge of feeding the earth's population. The role of the Jesuit institution in this regard is simply "to develop men and women who see their lives as Ignatius of Loyola saw his, as an opportunity to serve God by serving others." Howard Gray, SJ. trains his attention on the plight of refugees, not merely as described in reports but as he has come to know it firsthand while serving in a Cambodian refugee camp. His experience there was life-transforming, and the patient unfolding of his own story dramatically testifies to the power of God even in the midst of human heartbreak. His is not a message of giving from one's abundance, but of finding life and meaning and friendship in the midst of the suffering and pain of those who have nothing that they can call their own. Not in pity, but in learning how to grieve in solidarity with refugees does one cross the lines of class and caste and discover the common ground of one's humanity. In the concluding essay, Alan Mitchell, S. J. searches for the historical basis of the Jesuit desire to be a person for others, a friend to others.

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