Do we have the moral courage to speak out when we should? Do we have the moral courage to act when we should? Recently the American Jesuit Provincials published a document in which the issue of personal responsibility in the corporate reality of institutions was challenged. Here is what the Provincials' wrote about American's accepting moral courage as a principal of their faith: Yet some of that [U.S.] faith is nominal and domesticated, often inclined to ignore the cross as it focuses on self-fulfillment and the protection of privilege…Yet this status [unequalled power of the U.S.] has not engendered a broader sense of solidarity with the rest of the world, but rather a pervading disregard for the realities and urgencies of the poor and disenfranchised.
The first sentence seemed to grab my attention. 'Tis very easy to let our faith become nominal and domesticated. I would like to react in a way that could make that thought go away. But, it is, I fear, too real in many corners of our churches. Is our faith something that we use for our own self-fulfillment and the protection of privilege? This is surely an easy temptation to let come to life in our hearts.
