“Blessed are those who remain faithful while enduring evils inflicted on them by others and forgive them from their heart.
“Blessed are those who look into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized and show them their closeness.
“Blessed are those who see God in every person and strive to make others also discover him.
“Blessed are those who protect and care for our common home.
“Blessed are those who renounce their own comfort in order to help others.
“Blessed are those who pray and work for full communion between Christians.”
When Pope Francis offered these thoughts on new beatitudes, I couldn’t help but think of us. He said, “All these are messengers of God’s mercy and tenderness,” Pope Francis said. “Surely they will receive from him their merited reward.”
Aren’t we capable of this?
- remaining faithful while enduring evils inflicted?
- looking into the eyes of the abandoned and marginalized?
- seeing God in every person and striving to make others also discover him?
- protecting and caring for our common home?
- renouncing our own comfort?
- working for full communion between Christians?
…wherever we are?
I was talking with some friends last night about how to work most effectively for a tolerant and loving society. One person talked about a friend’s PhD thesis on the matter of the history of nonviolent resistance and peacemaking in Nazi Germany. Seems that the conclusions this person came to in their work was that individual action (personal boycotts, and witnesses), while satisfying was not as powerful a change agent as joining with others. Collective action was effective, and a significant source of encouraging and giving hope to others.
Makes me think that its time to get back into organized religion and organized collective action for tolerance and democracy.