28
Spirituality and Social Transformation Janet K. Ruffing, RSM Cebu, 2009

Spirituality and Social Transformation

  • Upload
    ruffing

  • View
    1.676

  • Download
    7

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

Cebu

Citation preview

Page 1: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality and Social TransformationJanet K. Ruffing, RSM

Cebu, 2009

Page 2: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Cry, Cry ,Cry for Life

Cry, cry, cry for lifeFor the living, for the deadFor the desert, for the sea

Poisoned fish, birds with broken wingsPoets with no words

Singer without a song.

Cry, cry cry, for lifeFor the little children, fighting in the

streetsPlaying with toys, and guns and

grenadesFor mothers, weeping out of sorrow

Wondering about their children’s fate.

Cry, cry, cry for lifeFor the outcasts in their own land

From day to day, burying hundreds who die

For the refugees, exiled in diasporaOn the willow tree, hanging their harps

and sigh.

Cry, cry for lifeFor the peasants who produce our food

But go to bed with empty stomachsFor workers who keep the wheel turningBut carry heavy burdens on their backs.

Cry, cry for lifeFor the courage, for the hopeFor the forest for the stream

Bodies may die, spirit never diesIn our struggle, we burst in songs

As a new day dawns, we will shout in joy.

EATWOT Third Assembly , 1992

Page 3: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality of Life

• Sense of being moved by a spiritual energy to hold onto life and live it to the full

• Connectedness to God, to our human roots, to the rest of nature, to one another, to ourselves

• An experience of the Holy Spirit moving us and our communities to be life-giving and life-affirming.

• The Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. (Rom. 8.26)

Page 4: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality of Life

• A creative response to the cry for life, the cry for God

• Expressed in songs, rituals and symbols that show the energizing Spirit animating the community in response to God

• All existence is spiritual in indigenous spiritualities throughout the third world.

• A life of reciprocal dependence on creation• Inspires an immediate and attainable vision of

a just and peaceful world

Page 5: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality for Life

• A cry for life, a power to resist death and the agents of death

• The strength to go on with God in the struggle

• A quest for self-discovering, self-affirmation, and self-affirmation so that the whole human community can live fully as human beings.

Page 6: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality for Life

• Creates and Sustains Community

• Women’s cry for life, inclusion, dignity, equality

• The cry for balance, harmony, mutuality and reciprocity form the womb of life

• The spirit groaning to give birth to a new humanity

Page 7: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality for Life

• Is a spirituality which mirrors that of Jesus offering a source of justice, righteousness, compassion and solidarity– The Jesus who shares our joys and sorrows– Who undergoes sufferings with us– Who remains faithful to his mission to the cross– Who invites all his disciples to live the beatitudes

which express his particular concern for the little and least (according to society)

– Who taught that he is to be experienced and served in the works of mercy (the last judgment; what you did for the least, you did for me)

Page 8: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Jesus, cont.

– Who learned to include the “stranger” the “other” in his ministry and welcome the (Syrophoenician Woman)

– Who called women (from all social classes) equally into his circle of beloved apostles (Mary Magdalene– apostle to the apostles) and disciples

– Who promised his enlivening Spirit to all in the community as a result of his Resurrection

– Whose Resurrection from the dead affirmed his life, ministry, teaching, and vindicated his execution at the hands of the state.

– Whose Resurrection offers the hope and conviction that death does not ever have the last word

Page 9: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Filipino Context

• Extreme poverty – 85% of the entire has migrated for economic

reasons – Consequent erosion of Filipino values, especially

materialism – Challenges to family life – Vulnerability to exploitation and abuse of those who

migrate, especially women• The long-lasting effects of colonization

– Spaniards • Patterns of religion that maintained oppression• Patterns of social organization that pitted the elite

against the masses

Page 10: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Cont.

• Americans – Military – Economic

• Exploitation of Women and girls in the sex trade

• Widespread corruption in government and business

• Militarization and on-going civil war in the south against Muslim insurgents

Page 11: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Cont.

• The negative effects of globalization• Widespread corruption in government and public life• Ecological Degradation • Popular movements of reform people power I and II

– Learning and practicing strategies of non-violence– Hope for political and social reform (still unrealized)

• Church’s commitment to become a Church of the Poor– Commitment to lay participation– Church sponsored base ecclesial communities

• New appreciation for indigenous peoples• Women’s desires for an end to gender discrimination in

both church and society

Page 12: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Spirituality that Does Justice

Church Teaching“Action on behalf of justice and participation

in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as constitutive dimensions of the preaching of the gospel, or, in other words, of the church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation”

1971 Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World

Page 13: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Faith-filled Citizenship

• Responsibility of citizenship is not to the state but to the civic order and to fellow/ sister citizens (the common good)– Will defend a fellow/sister citizen against injustice at

the hands of the state– Reads “the signs of the times”

• Recognizes greed, manipulation, bullying, cheating, violence

• Witnesses to truth rather than just collaborate• Can criticize one’s own society as well as support

it.

Page 14: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Citizen Mystic

• A fact (I am a citizen by birth)

• A moral imperative (I ought to behave like a good citizen)

• Good Citizenship requires:– Altruism– Self-Transcendence

• Rejection of ego-ism • Overcoming prejudices

Page 15: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Overcoming Prejudices

• Transcend origins: Our very sense of self, at first, unconsciously embodies the prejudices of our own culture.

• Shift the self from center to margin• Spirituality of solidarity

– With fellow citizens (especially not our own class)– With all of humankind

• Mature believers recognize:– Commitment to ethical citizenship– Commitment to practice of the Gospel as well as

piety

Page 16: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Prayer

• Required to support a faith that does justice• Returns to the Gospel over and over again, reflecting

on it “contextually”• Cultivates a personal relationship with Jesus that

sustains the suffering entailed in work for justice• Sustains a grounding in the experience of God’s

presence (however, we pray) that keeps us connected to God’s Spirit acting in us

• Involves communal reflection on the situation and prayer for mutual support

Page 17: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Social Structure of Grace

• Individuals bring a self shaped by relationships and social forces to interpersonal encounters

• We experience God precisely in groups– This experience illuminates signs of the kingdom of God

already present and at work in our communities and world– It also manifests the darkness and sin of our social order and

calls us to social transformation

• We experience God in a privileged way in the poor

Page 18: Spirituality and Social Transformation

How to Do This in a specific Context?

Page 19: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Social Sin and Social Grace

• Experience of God always occurs within history and within a network of social relationships.

• Thus, it will also have social effects that are humanizing and liberating– Structures that promote human dignity– Characterized by justice– Promote individual acts of goodness– Empower spiritual life within and works of mercy for the

community– Marked by the evident gifts of the Spirit

Denis Edwards

Page 20: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Theological Perspective

• What is Social Sin?

• What is Social Grace?

Page 21: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Social Sin

• also takes place within a social history and social relationships

• Its effects are: – oppression, – dehumanization, – violence, – and often under conditions of massive

poverty, premature death

Page 22: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Social Sin

Refers to: 1. Structures that oppress human beings,

violate human dignity, stifle freedom, impose gross inequality

2. Situations that promote and facilitate individual acts of selfishness

3. The complicity or silent acquiescence of persons who do not take responsibility for the evil being done.

Page 23: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Experience of God in the Poor

An experiential insight has emerged with this option for the poor in liberation theologies.

When the privileged (wealthy, education, powerful, etc.) relate to and begin to take the side of the impoverished masses, they often encounter a surprising grace.

Page 24: Spirituality and Social Transformation

The Poor

Tend to receive them in such a way that they recognize their common humanity and God/ Christ is experienced in this exchange, solidarity with, and accompaniment of the poor.

Page 25: Spirituality and Social Transformation

A New Way of Loving Emerges

Page 26: Spirituality and Social Transformation

Experience of God in the Poor:Darkness and Light

DARKNESS• Experience of a guilty conscience• Our helplessness before the power of oppression• Loneliness and failure

LIGHT• Gifts that come with the poor• Experience of solidarity and otherness in struggle for justice• Experience of taking action that makes a difference

Both the experiences of darkness and of light can be Ignatian Consolation leading to greater faith, hope, and love.

Page 27: Spirituality and Social Transformation

What Happens to the Poor in Response To this New Experience of Solidarity and Accompaniment?

Page 28: Spirituality and Social Transformation

• Hope• A witness to their suffering, accompaniment• An opportunity to reflect and tell their story• May experience beginnings of empowerment

to change their own situation• May notice how their situation is connected to

other suffering persons• ???????? What is your experience????