New Catholic Times

A Jesuit Forum and radical hope

by Joelle Morgan

I met a wonderful priest last night.  He spoke of meeting a Jesuit when he was a young man and knowing instantly that's what he wanted to be, and as he said he's "never looked back." What an amazing gift - to have that much certainty about what you are called to be and to do in this world.

I come from a generation and live in times with much less certainty. I am content in the work that I do, but am not sure I will be doing it for my whole working life.  I have grappled with a calling to ordination; a less clear path than for my friend last night because it requires an activist's commitment to change the monolith that the Catholic Church feels to be at times.

Even that, the priest was blessed to have lived through, seen and worked with bishops who had been at Vatican II. He mentioned that those whom he has worked with more recently, co not have that sense of the freedom to make change that was opened up to those who were there and participated in those amazing, almost wheeling and dealing, dialogues.  I am a post-Vatican II baby, who was raised in a much more radical church than the one I find today.  It is frustrating.

I also met an amazing young woman last night.  She spoke of believing that we truly are in end times.  She has found a passion and joy in connecting with the earth.  She was, in fact, out planting flowers in the garden when I arrived.  She believes deeply that we must do all we can to change or slow the destruction of the planet, but ultimately this is not our home.  She feels the Apocalyptic story deeply, and lives in a generation that sees the destruction happening.  It is real.  The amazing thing is it does not lead to a state of despair.  She holds strongly that there is work to do, and she is committed to making change.

So there they were the oldest and the youngest in the circle, both committed to a radical vision of transforming this world.  Both inspired by the story of Jesus.  One of the other women in the circle, a fantastic person committed to racial justice work, spoke of being inspired by the person Jesus; by this human being who in his outrage marched into the temple and turned the tables.  She laughed and said she wanted to overturn some tables.  She wanted to have that conviction to storm in and overthrow, what St. Paul and Walt Whitman might call, the powers and principalities.

I despair at times, despite the voice of Marilla Cuthbert telling me that to despair is to turn my back on God.  I feel such intense frustration at the systems of power and violence so rampantly at work in this world.  The stories of bombings and wars foisted upon the world, the refusal (in the name of profit) of governments and corporations to reduce waste and consumption, the sense that no one it taking responsibility for the consequences of choices made, overwhelms me and I feel disempowered.

This group of people was invited to gather by the Jesuit Forum to engage and discuss.  It is a simple format to open spaces for frank and fruitful discussion.  There was no set outcome, a fluid agenda with guiding questions and simply, a wonderful space to encounter others, and see what might come of it.  I met with some neat people last night and was blessed with hope.  It was a reminder of the power of "where two or three are gathered in my name..."

I work hard to educate a future generation in order to maintain hope that we can create a better world; that we can transform systems and somehow play a role in building the Reign of God.  I was reminded last night that if not even Jesus in his 30's with all he had going for him (divine and all) could not fully transform the world and his brothers and sisters - then maybe all I can do, is what I can, feel confident in that work and not look back.

Joelle Morgan teaches young people to transform systems. She does this in Toronto.