The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” This famous line from Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” drives home the message that human freedom, which allows us to make a choice, is what matters over our so-called “fate.”

 

Our readings this Sunday remind us of this “power” to choose with complete freedom. The choices we make and the actions that flow from these determine our doing wrong or good.

 

Scripture scholar William Barclay points out that this was one of Christ’s most radical critiques of the hypocrisy of the religious authorities of his time. Barclay is spot on when he wrote: “There is a fundamental cleavage here—the cleavage between the man who sees religion as ritual, ceremonial, rules and regulations, and the man who sees in religion loving God and loving his fellow men.”

 

Faith imperative

 

This is core of the faith that does justice: to do good and love one’s fellow men and women, and to love and serve God. This remains a faith imperative.

 

This has gone through much discussion, reflection and articulation through the social teachings of the Church from 1891, the year Rerum Novarum was issued to the rise of Liberation Theology in the 1950s-’70s.

 

In a more complex and globalized world, the challenge has become “simpler” because it deals with the basics. For this, I go back to the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

 

The gives us core principles, basic and fundamental to the work of justice. One, it reminds us of our shared humanity, to discover what unites us rather than what divides us. The Samaritan reaches out to and helps the victim, who is presumably a Jew, thus an “enemy,” while the Jewish priest and Levite ignore and even avoid him.

 

Two, the parable highlights sharing as the basic act of justice. The Samaritan shares his time, his effort, his resources. It is the sharing that kicks off the healing process for the victim.

 

Three, beyond sharing, the Samaritan builds a network of compassion. He enlists the help of his animal and the innkeeper.

 

Core principles

 

These are the three core principles: discovering our shared humanity, always looking for and establishing common ground; sharing; and building a network of compassion. I raise three issues for our consideration and reflection using these core principles.

 

These are simply personal choices—and not necessarily the most important ones.

 

First is the great disparity in the distribution of wealth or income worldwide. We need not belabor this reality. Various studies and reports show that the trend is toward a widening gap, with a few success stories of efforts to reverse the trend.

 

Second, the ongoing crisis in Philippine education that focuses on one aspect—the disconnect between skills taught in schools and jobs the market needs. This is compounded by the slow response to the crisis by the educational system.

 

With regard to these two issues, there are many admirable efforts being done by various groups. This gives us hope, but  more must be done.

 

Tulong Dunong

 

In 1975, Fr. James O’Brien, SJ, started a program for 4th year high school students of Ateneo de Manila called Tulong Dunong. The seniors went to a nearby public elementary school once a week for the whole school year to tutor, around an hour and a half each time, graduating Grade 6 students.

 

They worked with eight students throughout the year, and one of the key goals of the program was to “give poverty a face” through their students and through the relationships the “kuya,” the seniors, developed with their “kids,” the students. (The terms in quotation marks are the terms used by the program.)

 

This is the discovery of the shared humanity we need. Beyond simple charity, it is also “giving poverty a face” by entering the lives of one another in a personal way.

 

Thus sharing becomes a way of life, not just giving out of our surplus but also out of our substance, even out of our poverty.

 

The living together based on our shared humanity and sharing as a way of life further deepens and strengthens the building of a network of compassion.

 

Crisis

 

The third issue is the present crisis in the Catholic Church, as shown by the latest Pennsylvania sexual abuse report. The healing of and care for the victims and/or their families is the first concern, and the serving of justice by acting to make those guilty of the act and the cover-up accountable.

 

This begins the healing for the whole Church. On a deeper level, we, as a Church, need to go back to core and enter into a conversation to rediscover our common ground as Christians. We need to carry the conversation based on the common ground. It is time to be a community.

 

It is time to share in each other’s life based on commonality and clearing obstacles. For instance, being too clerical and hierarchical. In this sharing, we build a network of compassion where we enter and understand each other’s life. In the words of Pope Francis, “making the I and the you an us.”

 

These are not new thoughts. But what we need is to make choices to rediscover and live in our shared humanity. Choices to make sharing a way of life. Choices to build networks of compassion. We need choices that lead to action and to a way of being, individually and as humanity. —CONTRIBUTED