The Contribution of Religious

34. For religious persons, social involvement is not a personal project, it is community venture. It is the community that is inserted into a cultural context, dynamically involved in the betterment of a neighbourhood or society, and committed to the cause of justice, development and peace. The manner in which individuals in a religious community will play their role is to be worked out by the community itself under the guidance of its animator.

35. I do not want to go into the question of how far the religious should be involved directly in the struggle for justice, for example. But one thing I know: nothing that affects humanity is in any manner beyond my interest. I may not be present in Gujarat to assist the earthquake victims. But I am there; I am there in my spirit, in my love, in my prayer, in my keen interest in people’s welfare. We are there, wherever rights are violated, equality is denied, justice is distorted, family values are threatened, women are mistreated, children starve, houses leak, minorities are humiliated, nature is damaged (SL 97). Remedies are in our hearts and in our hands. There are times, indeed, when we need to be directly involved. We may need to shake off some of our eagerness for security and comfort. Risk-taking is part of religious life (SL 24,94). Often, however, it is best if we provide ideas and offer the spiritual resource needed to sustain the struggle.

36.  At no stage should the primacy of God-quest and the consecrated ‘apartness’ of the religious suffer in our over-enthusiasm for direct involvement.  “No matter, how extensive and intensive their involvement in the struggle for justice may be, and for many it is very extensive, their vocation is to be a consistent locus of that prophetic insight born of immediacy to God and social marginality, which are essential to the spiritual integrity of all action in behalf of justice. Religious Life is a theological and spiritual resource for the struggle, not just a source of committed workers for the cause ( Sandra Schneiders, IHM, Finding the Treasure, Paulist Press, New York, 2000).