{"id":19568,"date":"2020-12-04T09:35:35","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T14:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19568"},"modified":"2020-12-04T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T15:30:00","slug":"participating-in-movement-for-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=19568","title":{"rendered":"Participating in Movement for Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:left\">Spirituality and Social\nMovements<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Participating\nin Movements for Justice<\/strong><br>\nFriday, December 4, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uOg-1JjAdGk\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>I think there are three basic levels of social ministry,\nand none is better than the other. I believe all are the movement of the Holy\nSpirit within us for the sake of others. I like to imagine a river flooding out\nof control\u2014symbolizing the circumstances and injustices that bring about\nsuffering\u2014overflowing its banks and sweeping those in its path off their feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthe first level, we rescue drowning people from the swollen river, dealing with\nthe immediate social problem right in front of us: someone hungry comes to our\ndoor and we offer them some food, or invite them inside. These are hands-on,\nsocial service ministries, like the familiar soup kitchen or food pantry. Such\nworks will always look rather generous, Christian, charitable, and they tend to\nbe admired, if not always imitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At\nthe second level, there are ministries that help people not to fall into the\nswollen river in the first place, or show them how to survive despite falling\nin. In general, these are the ministries of education and healing. Most of the\nreligious orders in the Catholic Church in the last three hundred years went in\nthat direction, filling the world with schools, hospitals, and social service\nministries that empowered people and gave them new visions and possibilities\nfor their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally,\non the third level, some ministries build and maintain a dam to stop the river\nfrom flooding in the first place. This is the work of social activism and\nadvocacy, critique of systems, organizing, speeches, boycotts, protests, and\nresistance against all forms of systemic injustice and deceit. It is the gift\nof a few, but a much-needed gift that we only recently began to learn and\npractice. It seeks systemic change and not just individual conversion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I\ndon\u2019t think most people feel called to activism; I myself don\u2019t. It was\ninitially humiliating to admit this, and I lost the trust and admiration of\nsome friends and supporters.&nbsp;Yet as we come to know our own soul gift more\nclearly, we almost always have to let go of certain \u201cgifts\u201d so we can do our\none or two things well and with integrity. I believe that if we can do one or\ntwo things wholeheartedly in our life, that is all God expects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The important thing is that <em>we all should be doing something for the rest of the world!<\/em>\u00a0We have to pay back, particularly those of us born into privilege and comfort. We also must respect and support the other two levels, even if we cannot do them. Avoid all comparisons about better or lesser, more committed or less committed; those are all ego games. Let\u2019s just use our different gifts to create a unity in the work of service (Ephesians 4:12\u201313), and back one another up, without criticism or competition. Only in our peaceful, mutual honoring do we show forth the glory of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"239\" src=\"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-04-at-10.28.51-AM-500x239.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19571\" srcset=\"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-04-at-10.28.51-AM-500x239.png 500w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-04-at-10.28.51-AM-300x144.png 300w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-04-at-10.28.51-AM-768x367.png 768w, https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Screen-Shot-2020-12-04-at-10.28.51-AM.png 1902w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spirituality and Social Movements Participating in Movements for Justice Friday, December 4, 2020 I think there are three basic levels of social ministry, and none is better than the other. I believe all are the movement of the Holy Spirit within us for the sake of others. I like to imagine a river flooding out [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19568"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19573,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19568\/revisions\/19573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}