A
common thread between Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach S.J.’s article, “The Service of
Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education” and
Martin Luther King Jr’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is how they present faith
in the context of a mission for justice. As a foundational component to
faith-infused justice missions, humility is presented as a crucial part of the
missions’ realization in the form of reevaluation. An extracted quotation from Kolvenbach’s
piece cites Fr. Arrupe who presents how important it is “to rethink all [the
Society of Jesus’s] ministries and every form of its apostolates to see if they
really offer a response to the urgent priorities which justice and social
equity call for” (Kolvenbach, 24). The humility in “rethinking…to see if they
really offer a response” signifies the willingness to accept if what they are
doing is not enough. From that reevaluation, forward movement can begin toward answering
“urgent priorities.” In a different conversation, different time period, and
different contxt, though related to “urgent priorities,” King states, “I must
honestly reiterate that I have been disappointed with the church. I do not say
this as one of those negative critics who can always find something wrong with
the church. I say this as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who
was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings
and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen”
(King, 8). King presents his stance and his relationship to the church. This is
important in how one is to read his disappointment. Disappointment should not
be an end-point of surrender, but rather an indication where change ought to happen.
The syntactical use of five fragments, put together by a mix of conjunctions, a
comma, and two semicolons presents the emotional tone and signifies the investment
King puts into his work, based heavily on his faith. King is an example of what
Kolvenbach is emphasizing: faith and justice are inseparable (Kolvenbach, 41). As
a man of the church and as an advocate for freedom and equity, King, in a
bigger picture, challenges people to reevaluate what a “just law” is, and what
an unjust law corrupts. Kolvenbach challenges his community to seek the pockets
of injustice and reevaluate the Society’s effectiveness and therefore, whether
the mission, is actually moving forward.
What
I personally relate to is the message about humility in reevaluation. This
weekend, I attended the orientation for the Tunbridge/ Govans service sites. Something
that stood out to me at the orientation was a discussion about
"otherness." I'm talking particularly about the perception created by
the freshman orientation slideshow (run by Campus Police) that use visual red
marks setting York road apart as the "other," as a dangerous place to
avoid at all times. I think Marie Anderson’s presentation unraveled that fallacious
presentation, erased those red x marks, and really put a face to the community,
bringing fairness back into perspective, eradicating the prejudice planting
tainted lenses. As a freshman, I admit, I didn’t take the warnings seriously
until two of my friends were held at gunpoint by a masked man. Still, I kept in
mind that one person’s actions should not hold a whole community/ neighborhood responsible
or demonized. Being fed more information than I ever expected to know about the
York road community, Mrs. Anderson encouraged me and my fellow peers to
reevaluate the prejudices we have and why we have them. I intend to keep in mind
her message about what community means and apply it to my walk to the site, my
work with the children, and my reflections. In connection to my pre-service thoughts, the Kolvenbach and King pieces challenge me to figure out
what it means to put faith at the center of my service learning experience at
Tunbridge.
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