By Cecilia González-Andrieu, PhD.
In my classroom and travels to speak with diverse communities recently, I have observed some trends you may have noticed too.
- Many people want to do the right thing. There’s a longing for the good within our hearts, and we feel pulled toward it.
- Many people want their lives to be meaningful. This manifests in the desire to contribute to the common good.
- Most people also realize that the current state of our world is not conducive to either of these. In a culture with more information available in one minute than our ancestors had in a lifetime, we are often paradoxically more isolated than ever, mired in disunity and heartbreakingly discouraged.
If this rings true, then I want to invite you to a conversation. Six decades ago, the Second Vatican Council provided the Church with an insight that awakened imaginations globally. In a key document, the Council bishops told us that:
“… the Church has always had the duty of scrutinizing the signs of the times and of interpreting them in the light of the Gospel. Thus, in language intelligible to each generation, she can respond to the perennial questions which (people) ask about this present life and the life to come, and about the relationship of the one to the other. We must therefore recognize and understand the world in which we live, its explanations, its longings, and its often dramatic characteristics” (“Gaudium et Spes,” 4).
The Council initiated a breakthrough identifying a host of issues affecting the world of its time. The concerns were not only about the Church’s internal workings (the liturgy, etc.), but also exposed issues from the domestic sphere (the changing role of women), the societal sphere (the scourge of racism), and the global sphere (the introduction of mass media).
Today, we live in a time as convulsive as the 1960s, and even more complicated. As Pope Francis likes to say, we are in “a new epoch.”
We are also tragically disoriented and divided.
How do we take up the invitation “to scrutinize the signs of our times” so we can discern the call of goodness and turn it into a way of living that meaningfully contributes to the good of the world? Over the next few months, I invite you to reflect with me on these questions. As people of the 21st century, we know how to break objectives down into their components, examine the ways systems work, and formulate ways to reach our goals. Let’s put this knowledge to good use.
So, to begin, I invite you to think about your uniqueness, your gifts, your voice, and your abilities. Make an abundant list. And then, I want you to take a cue from the early disciples and listen attentively to Jesus’ expectations.
One of my favorite moments in the story of the feeding of the five thousand (Matt 14:13-21) is when Jesus answers their concerns by saying, “You feed them.” Or again, in 25:40, when He declares that “whenever you did this for the least of these …” Notice the repetition of “you” in Jesus’ conversations with His friends. The Teacher repeatedly makes clear that there is a lot of work to do, and that it is work he does not intend to do alone or accomplish once and for always. And so, Jesus sent out His friends, and continues to send us out now.
Are you ready? Let’s meet in these pages in the next month for Step One of our plan to take up the work Jesus entrusted to us.
Cecilia González-Andrieu, PhD., is professor of Theology at Loyola Marymount University.
