Patience, lots of it

THE thought came bursting spontaneously as I reread in toto Pope Benedict’s last encyclical “Caritas in veritate” (Charity in the truth). The challenge I saw it was presenting is indeed formidable.

In capsule, the papal document, meant to tackle today’s very complicated global crisis, is asking us to consider not only the socio-political and economic aspects, but also and mainly the spiritual dimensions.

This to me requires not only a cosmetic make-over but rather a thorough conversion of heart. In fact, in that document the Pope is asking us to have new eyes, a new heart and new energy to be able to face the challenge squarely.

I can already hear the liberals, pragmatists and other worldlings snickering in disbelief at what for sure they consider to be a naïve, off-the-mark assessment of the situation on the part of the Holy Father. This, to them, is just another fairy tale that can be listened to but never to be taken seriously.

Even the conservatives and those who more or less can be expected to hew themselves after spiritual values can be flabbergasted at the thought of the enormity if not impossibility of what was implicitly suggested by the Pope.

Of course, it’s a given among liberals to laugh at any talk on spirituality and morality in tackling world issues. Among conservatives, their problem is their inconsistency between what they say and what they do. More or less, both give the same effect when faced with a spiritual and moral challenge.

That’s why a lot of patience is needed here, the kind that should not just be passive and waiting for things to happen, but rather active, with a lot of prayer, sacrifice, ascetical struggle, study, catechizing, apostolate, etc., using means both traditional and cutting edge.

But what the Pope articulated in the encyclical is worth reiterating. Let me quote some lines:

“Development must include not just material growth but also spiritual growth, since the human person is a ‘unity of body and soul’ born of God’s creative love and destined for eternal life.

“The human being develops when he grows in the spirit, when his soul comes to know itself and the truths that God has implanted deep within, when he enters into dialogue with himself and his Creator.

“There cannot be holistic development and universal common good unless people’s spiritual and moral welfare is taken into account, considered in their totality as body and soul.” (76)

Again, these words can sound fantastic and pompous to liberals, and too basic as to be irrelevant to conservatives. But they are worth repeating and spreading, because they clarify a fundamental truth that plays a crucial role in resolving our present world predicament.

We can do a lot of things in the level of economics, sociology, environmental care, politics, etc., but if this basic requirement of spirituality and morality is not taken care of, all that fuss and buzz would just be a tempest in a teapot.

I feel that the Pope is aware of the problem besetting many people who get skeptical about the connection between the material and spiritual dimensions of our lives. That’s why in another part of the encyclical, he said:

“Knowing is not simply a material act, since the object that is known always conceals something beyond the empirical datum. All our knowledge, even the most simple, is always a minor miracle, since it can never be fully explained by the material instruments that we apply to it.

“In every truth there is something more than we would have expected, in the love that we receive there is always an element that surprises us. We should never cease to marvel at these things...

“In all knowledge and in every act of love the human soul experiences something ‘over and above,’ which seems very much like a gift that we receive, or a height to which we are raised.” (77)

What all these affirmations tell us is that the main and crucial battle to be won in our war against our present crisis is not simply ideological or economic and much less physical and material.

Itś in the heart, in our soul. Itś in seeing how our heart and soul tilt and tend towards—either to God or simply to ourselves. This is the area where greater effort has to be put into without neglecting the other areas.