Service Rooted in Justice and Love DeepMIX, Week 5 Thursday, Nov 9, 2017

Service Rooted in Justice and Love Personal reflections by Ramón Aguila Jude Kiah

Jesuit General Congregation 32 (1975) In response to the transformation of Church life called for and begun by Vatican II, GC32 resolved that… “the entire Society of Jesus was being invited by the Spirit of God to set out in a new direction. The overriding purpose of the Society [from the time of its institution in 1540], namely ‘the service of faith,’ must also include ‘the promotion of justice.’ This new direction was not confined to those already working with the poor and marginalized in what was called ‘the social apostolate.’ Rather, this commitment was to be ‘a concern of our whole life and a dimension of all our apostolic endeavors.’ So central to the mission of the entire Society was this union of faith and justice that it was to become the ‘integrating factor’ of all the Society’s works, and in this light ‘great attention’ was to be paid in evaluating every work, including educational institutions.” [Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, 2000]

“The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice” GC 32 coined this phrase “to push every Jesuit work and every individual Jesuit to make a choice, providing little leeway for the fainthearted.”

Service of Faith ”The defense and propagation of the faith” is a defining principle of the Society of Jesus. However, “faithful to the Vatican Council, [GC32] wanted [Jesuit] preaching and teaching not to proselytize, not to impose our religion on others, but rather to propose Jesus and his message of God’s Kingdom in a spirit of love to everyone.”

The Promotion of Justice “Since Ignatius wanted love to be expressed not only in words but also in deeds, the Congregation committed the Society to the promotion of justice as a concrete, radical but proportionate response to an unjustly suffering world.” “Fostering the virtue of justice in people was not enough. Only a substantive justice can bring about the kinds of structural and attitudinal changes that are needed to uproot those sinful oppressive injustices that are a scandal against humanity and God.”

Promotion of Justice Solidarity “We must therefore ‘educate the whole person of solidarity for the real world.’ Solidarity is learned through contacts rather than through concepts. When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.” “Students, in the course of their formation, must let the gritty reality of this world into their lives, so they can learn to feel it, think about it critically, respond to its suffering, and engage it constructively. They should learn to perceive, think, judge, choose, and act for the rights of others, especially the disadvantaged and the oppressed.”

To what end? “But the measure of Jesuit universities is not what our students do but who they become.” “For now, the activities they engage in, even with much good effect, are for their formation. This does not make the university a training camp for social activists. Rather, the students need close involvement with the poor and the marginal now, in order to learn about reality and become adults of solidarity in the future.”

Xavier’s Mission Statement (2012/2017) Xavier is a Jesuit Catholic university rooted in the liberal arts tradition. Our mission is to educate each student intellectually, morally, and spiritually. We create learning opportunities through rigorous academic and professional programs integrated with co-curricular engagement. In an inclusive environment of open and free inquiry, we prepare students for a world that is increasingly diverse, complex and interdependent. Driven by our commitment to educating the whole person, promoting the common good, and serving others, the Xavier community challenges and supports all our members as we cultivate lives of reflection, compassion and informed action. 

2017 Revisions to the text Our mission is to educate each student intellectually, morally, and spiritually. … Driven by our commitment to educating the whole person, promoting the common good, and serving others, the Xavier community challenges and supports all our members as we cultivate lives of reflection, compassion and informed action. 

“Educating the whole person” We aspire to transcend the education of the intellect alone – the simple conveyance of facts, or even the production of competent graduates. Even a more broadly construed intellectual education within the liberal arts tradition, one that teaches students how to think critically is insufficient by itself. Being a Jesuit Catholic university gives us the freedom as well as the duty to attend to the moral and spiritual education of our students. Being a Jesuit Catholic university in the liberal arts tradition commits us to helping our students to wrestle with what morality and spirituality mean – indeed, with what moral code each of our students may adopt and how they will explore their own spiritual lives within their own traditions, as well as in encounters they have with those from other traditions. This sort of education empowers us to challenge students not only intellectually, but also morally and spiritually. [Addendum, 2017]

“All our members” The Xavier community is a broad, diverse, and dynamic entity. It includes students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, trustees, parents, community members, and external partners. Diversity both of population and of ideas is inevitable, if we wish to "prepare students for a world that is diverse, complex, and increasingly interdependent," that is, the world they live in and will confront more directly upon graduation. Diversity and inclusiveness so understood is central to the freedom a liberal education ought to bring.

“Serving others” We are committed “… to serve our fellow human beings, especially those who suffer injustice. … Compassion cultivates solidarity with humanity, a central principle of Christian virtue and of Catholic social thought. Together, reflection and compassion compel informed action, a thoughtful engagement with the world that seeks to improve the world.”