Returning to Ordinary Time each January, after the Christmas
season, can be a bit of a letdown. But January actually is full of exciting
events: World Peace Day (Jan. 1), the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan.
18-25) and the annual March for Life (Jan. 18). World Youth Day also is taking
place in Panama City this January (22-27).
Is there a common thread running through these events and causes,
a single theme that might provide us with a positive orientation for this new
year? Let’s see what Pope Francis says.
In his theme for World Peace Day, the pope asserts that “there is
no peace without mutual trust ... When people’s rights are respected, then they
will start to feel their own duty to respect the rights of others.” Peace is
dependent on encouraging “dialogue among stakeholders in society, between
generations and among cultures,” he said.
In his message for World Youth Day, Pope Francis tells young
people that it is important to dialogue with and encounter others. “Never lose
the enthusiasm of enjoying others’ company and friendship, as well as the
pleasure of dreaming together, of walking together,” he told them. “Authentic
Christians are not afraid to open themselves to others.”
I would like to suggest that the theme uniting this month’s
events could be communion and dialogue — a “culture of encounter” — to borrow a
favorite phrase of Pope Francis. And yet, in our hyper-polarized society, true
dialogue seems more difficult than ever.
Young people — both college students and young professionals —
recently told me how hard it is to engage in dialogue or sincere debate on the
issues that matter most to them. Even on Catholic campuses they are cautioned
not to “trigger” others’ sensitivities, not to hurt others’ feelings or fail in
political correctness.
In Evangelii Gaudium, Francis wrote
that Christianity calls us to overcome suspicion, habitual mistrust and “all
the defensive attitudes which today’s world imposes on us ... The Gospel tells
us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others ... with
their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and
continuous interaction.”
“Today, when the networks and means of human communication have
made unprecedented advances,” he asserts, “we sense the challenge of finding
and sharing a ‘mystique’ of living together ... of embracing and supporting one
another, of stepping into this flood tide which, while chaotic, can become a
genuine experience of fraternity, a caravan of solidarity, a sacred
pilgrimage.”
Along with our Holy Father, the college students noted that
despite the exponential rise in possibilities for encounter achieved through
technology, our human attempts at encounter and dialogue seem impoverished.
Greater possibilities for communication should “turn into greater
possibilities for encounter and solidarity for everyone,” Francis says. “If we
were able to take this route, it would be so good, so soothing, so liberating
and hope-filled!”
“For me this word is very important. Encounter with others,”
Francis writes. “Why? Because faith is an encounter with Jesus, and we must do
what Jesus does: encounter others ... we must create a ‘culture of encounter,’
a culture of friendship, a culture in which we find brothers and sisters, in
which we can also speak with those who think differently, as well as those who
hold other beliefs, who do not have the same faith. They all have something in
common with us: they are images of God, they are children of God.”
Looking back on our congregation’s history in America these past
150 years, I have been amazed to see how generously our Little Sisters were
embraced by Americans and fellow immigrants when they arrived here in 1868. I
think the secret to this was their receptivity — they came with open hearts and
minds, welcoming the elderly without judging them, without regard for race or
religion, and accepting help from people from every walk of life with the same
receptivity and gratitude.
Our Little Sisters had a clear vision of the equal dignity of
each person created in the image and likeness of God, and of our solidarity as
God’s children — brothers and sisters to one another on this earthly pilgrimage
– despite our apparent differences. I thank God for their legacy and pledge to
foster this spirit of solidarity today.
Will you join me on this hope-filled and liberating journey?
Sr. Constance Veit is director of communications for the
Little Sisters of the Poor.