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Recipe for Building a Fire

Simple formulas can build great things. Fr. Cedric Prakash, SJ, the recent Wade Scholar at Marquette University offers seasoned guidance for a sustained commitment to the Jesuit mission to serve faith and promote justice. Simply stated, it is the 5A’s for faith-justice and he adds two more A ingredients for Jesuits. These A’s, inter-related and in equal parts, nurture the Ignatian call to be a fire which kindles other fire.

Fr. Prakash is the founder and director of the Prashant Centre for Human Rights, Justice and Peace in the state of Gujarat in northwestern India. According to Fr. Prakash: "Faith and justice dimensions are inseparable in the life, the vocation, the mission." His recipe, shared in an interview you can watch on-line, follows:

Awareness. Awareness comes from the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. He always wants us to be aware of ourselves, our surroundings, where we are. But very often, we are not aware of what is happening in our own country. We are not aware of what is happening in other parts of the world. Today, in a world with a tremendous amount of technology, we are communicating all the time. But sometimes we are really not aware of, what I would call, the real reality. We see what is happening in Sri Lanka, Rwanda or Bosnia or Iraq. It becomes like a movie serial which we have become addicted to. Can this awareness be a possibility for us to discern? To see that something is happening, that is a reality. Those are poor people being killed; those are people being raped in a particular culture. And everybody says it is all right. Am I aware of what is happening?

Articulate. The articulation could be to talk about it to others in a small group discussion or to my peers, my friends? Can I write about it in a magazine or letter to the editor? Could I write an essay or a paper on it? Can I do a presentation on it as a high school student, as a university student? The need to articulate a particular reality is very important. When we articulate something we are making others aware of it. Articulation can be done very simply and very effectively today.

Attitude. Am I comfortable having a neighbor who is not like me? Maybe it is someone who wears a scarf or a burqa in my society. Am I comfortable having friends who belong to different cultures, religions? How do I develop an attitude of respect, of tolerance, of listening, of attentiveness? This is what St Ignatius called in his last exercise, the contemplation to obtain the gift of love. To be attuned to the other in a way that changes my attitude. Are we pushing people to the brink because of our own attitudes? We institutionalize these attitudes and say it is all right.

Analysis. We need to do a constant analysis of what is happening in society. Why are people still poor? What is the outlay of social spending of my particular government? How much is it spending on arms and ammunition? And how much is being spent spending on health care? What about the role of multinational corporations? What are these companies doing in countries across the world? Why are some brands of medicine not allowed in this particular country, but the same producer is able to send it to another country? What about this climate change? We are having a big United Nation conference shortly in Copenhagen. Everyone is concerned about climatic change, but am I doing a sufficient analysis to realize that even higher degrees of consumption of consumerism is also affecting the ozone layer. Am I doing the real analysis to see that I am also responsible for what is happening in my society?

Action. I need to act because this is what St. Ignatius and my Jesuit and Ignatian Spirituality is all about, action. St. Ignatius wanted us to act and that is why, right from the start of the Society, he talked about being a contemplative in action, to be able to respond. We don’t have to become reactionaries, but if I want to change the world for the better, if I want to be an instrument of the Lord’s change, I need to act. It can be in small ways. I don’t have to do anything sensational, but I have to do concrete action. As a Jesuit I also have to look at two others:

Availability. Apostolic availability is the hallmark of my life as a Jesuit. St. Ignatius wanted us to be available. This universal dimension should characterize my Jesuit vocation. Being available to go where the need is the greatest. To go, to be able to cross boundaries, to cross frontiers, to do pioneering work, to enter into areas where people dare not go.

Authenticity. I must be an authentic as a person - a very genuine person. I cannot be artificial; I should be very human. This authenticity, as one author said, being fully human, being fully alive, should be the charism of my Jesuit vocation. I think this authenticity, in a nutshell, will help us greatly if we are going to live in a world where we should be engaged in advocacy, which is the all embracing, umbrella A. We need to look towards a world in which we are able to advocate for change for greater justice, peace, love, compassion and harmony."

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