11.28.06 Tuesdays Reflection

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=220 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <IMG SRC="13eb8750.jpg" border=0 width="184" height="117" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> <B>"We, who have received the love of Christ through the Spirit must not contain it..."</B></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMMUSA)"><U>Home Page</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesdays Reflection"><U>Tuesdays Reflection</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mission Statement"><U>Mission Statement</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id215.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Vision Statement"><U>Vision Statement</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id25.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Ways You Can Help Us"><U>Ways You Can Help Us</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="All About VMM"><U>All About VMM</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Application Qualifications"><U>Application Qualifications</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id29.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Discernment Process"><U>Discernment Process</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="application.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Application Form"><U>Application Form</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Related Links"><U>Related Links</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id24.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Bridges Newsletter"><U>Bridges Newsletter</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id33.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Letters from the Missions"><U>Letters from the Missions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Adobe Printing Instructions"><U>Adobe Printing Instructions</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U>Contact Us</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networkforgood/donate.jsp?ein=36-3153581" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.guidestar.org/partners/networ"><U><IMG SRC="1887e300.gif" border=0 width="126" height="48" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></U></A></div> <bR> <div>  <form method="get" action="http://search.atomz.com/search/"> <input size=15 name="sp-q"><br> <input type=submit value="Search"> <input type=hidden name="sp-a" value="sp10020180"> <input type=hidden name="sp-f" value="iso-8859-1"> </form></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FF0000" FACE="Arial" ><I><B>Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMM-USA)</B></I></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Volunteer Missionary Movement (VMMUSA)"><U>home</U></A></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="id51.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Tuesdays Reflection"><U>Tuesdays Reflection</U></A></div> <div> 11.28.06  Social Justice                    </div> <bR> <div> Last Tuesday, I gave a presentation to a tri-parish social justice group. I got so taken up by the stories behind the twenty or so slides I showed that I didn't have enough time for the reflection I had planned. Here it is now:</div> <bR> <div> What did you feel as you watched these slides?</div> <bR> <div> In Nicaragua and other CA countries, the richer people despise the "indios", the campesinos. There is discrimination against those of darker color or less education. It is felt that they are contributing nothing to the prosperity of the country; that they are the cause of the country's backwardness. We try to hide them. We build high fences around slums. We raze the slums when the Olympics are staged. We forbid begging, using parks or other public areas.  </div> <div> After watching some of these same slides, a viewer's first reaction</div> <div> was: Why do these people have so many children? I had not mentioned anything about the birthrate. The high birth rate is the result of poverty, not its cause.</div> <bR> <div> In Edmonton, it seems even easier to blame the poor, to judge them, Us vs. They. They are poor because they want to, because they are lazy.</div> <bR> <div> How can we open our hearts to the poor among us? What are our biases?  </div> <div> We must begin with awareness. We must ask for help as St Ignatius of Loyola asked in the examination of conscience: Lord reveal the ways I have closed my heart to you and others this day?</div> <bR> <div> Love is in the eye! We see things properly and objectively only when we see them through the eyes of love because then we see them the way God sees them. Love gives us compassion. Jesus calls us to be instruments of his revolutionary love in our world today.</div> <bR> <div> Compassion/empathy. We need to look on all with compassion. We need to listen. Our primary commitment is to listen to the experience of people in our times. It is in the process of listening that the space is found for healing to start. Jean Vanier says that we must meet people. It's not a question of doing for, but of listening to their stories. It shakes up our certitudes, shakes up questions of values.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> To continue working for justice, we also need hope. Hope is a commitment to build a civilization of love, a world that is more just.</div> <bR> <div> How am I involved to create a better world? Wherein lies my source of hope?</div> <bR> <div> It is easy to let ourselves be influenced by the media that report many events of failure, violence, horror and create doubt there can be a better world. We can overcome fear, sow joy, cherish all living beings with loving hearts and radiate goodness and compassion in the world.</div> <bR> <div> Cecily</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>