by Dan Masterton
As Donald Trump has taken office and begun to enact some of the promises he made on the campaign trail, it has been beautiful to see the advocacy and solidarity expressed by so many people in so many ways, from the small gestures made by neighbors and community members to vulnerable people to the profound events of the women's marches in so many places.
It's clear that the dignity and value of human life will continue to be under attack from many angles, even in ways that peel back the progress we have recently made socially. While some aspects of abortion may be further restricted, new executive actions and the momentum of this administration and Congress have already targeted many groups and issues with fresh or renewed discrimination.
I'm not sure what the political, social, or economic solutions exactly are, but I know one thing we can do consistently and do better: pray.
I won't claim that prayer will fix everything. I will attest that prayer will focus us in order to more clearly understand God and His will. And I will affirm that prayer is strengthened and intensified when it is manifested in action.
So, to help root us in prayer that can lead us to right and just action, today I simply want to offer a prayer that I wrote last year and began praying with my students. This is my Litany for the Marginalized, which invites us to acknowledge various people we often forget about (and creates a framework for you to add more groups in need of prayer). I hope you'll consider praying it with your friends and family as we seek to enflesh fuller solidarity with our brothers and sisters who we marginalize:
Jesus says,
“I pray… for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20-21)
For people with mental disabilities… That we may be one.
For people with physical disabilities…That we may be one.
For people who are homeless… That we may be one.
For people who are refugees… That we may be one.
For people who are elderly… That we may be one.
For people who are in prison… That we may be one.
For people who identify as LGBT… That we may be one.
For people who are unemployed… That we may be one.
For people with social disorders… That we may be one.
For people who are unborn… That we may be one.
For people who are very sick… That we may be one.
For all people who we have marginalized… That we may be one. Amen.
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Dear Dan,
ReplyDeleteVery nice of you to share your faith with us and you do to your students! It’s very difficult for young people to pray nowadays – they know in their minds that it’s God’s will as to whether their prayers will be answered, and that makes it difficult to sense God’s presence in the world around them. To immerse your students more deeply in the faith, I’d suggest you rework the Johannine preface, if not the whole litany, as an affective prayer in conversational dialogue with Jesus. This reworking gives your students the opportunity to not only treat Jesus more like a living, breathing person (and less like a dead historical figure) but to also approach the Eucharist as the Real Presence as opposed to an imaginary abstraction at mass. Allow them to see the Commander who gives us the commandments, the Father who gives us the Son, the Spirit who gives us another, better, truer kind of comfort.
With all that in mind, I am concerned that this litany allows for the expression of divisive partisan beliefs more than it does for the unitive Christian faith. Though the need to rectify injustices is just as perennial in importance as it is in existence, there is no use in addressing that need unless we first overcome the obstacle that is the widespread disagreement on what justice looks like. For instance, the casual reader may take your claim that “progress we have recently made socially” to be a statement of a left-wing viewpoint rather than a faith-based assessment. Similarly, your consideration of the women’s marches as events of “advocacy and solidarity” could be taken as a reassurance that average marcher knows “what the political, social, or economic solutions exactly are.” The way I see it, the politics of today is more like the religion of yesterday – that means your students need less catechesis and more evangelization, not mistaking the echo of politicians for the voice of Jesus.
Peace be with you and your students,
Vita Sua
Thanks for your comment! I agree that the Scripture becomes beautifully animated for students when set in such a dynamic way.
ReplyDeleteAs to the post and prayer, the introductory paragraphs are my own thoughts from my conscientious perspective as a believer. I am a moderate and an independent, and I don't subscribe to the ideologization of faith as liberal or conservative.
The prayer then is there to be utilized for grounding our reflection in Jesus' hope from the Gospel and giving voice to the ideal of human unity. I believe such a prayer is fairly straight-forward in sharing Gospel truth and contributing to a foundation of prayer that can stimulate us to action. I think it fits with the Church's call to be politically active and influential but to not be a political entity in and of itself.
God bless,
Dan
Thank you for your understanding, Dan! As a catechist, I also take an incremental approach to teaching prayer, knowing that the best I can do is to show people the door that Christ offers to walk through with them. In my experience, introducing people to the social dimension of the gospel awakens better prepares them to seek to understand its fuller meaning, especially since the “prosperity” aspects tend to get more warped. My hope is that we, as a Church, can guide people in going from being political in a conventional sense (calling our ideas “Good”) to being so in a more classical sense (seeking the Greatest Good) so that people know what we mean by the Greater Glory of God.
DeleteAll I was trying to do in my reply was nudge things rightwards towards the happy mean when they seemed to be veering off to the left. Your response to me, in my eyes (and, I bet, in the eyes of most people), was just about smack dab in the middle we both want to draw near. I feel humbled, and I thank you for doing that so faithfully.
Praying that Christ continues to be your Light,
Vita Sua