April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
PERSPECTIVE
What we learned from Sister Simone
Sister Simone is nationally known for spearheading the "Nuns on the Bus" tour, which challenged the "Ryan budget" approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and advocated for immigration reform.
"Faith has consequences in the real world," Sister Simone said, but advocates for justice need to have peaceful hearts.
First and foremost, she said, peacemakers must open their arms and hearts in acceptance of all, even those we're tempted to think are "God's mistakes." All are loved by God. Also, Sister Simone said, peacemakers must always be "fighting for," not against.
Pope Francis, in his recent exhortation, "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), writes about working for peace. Sister Simone used his wisdom in her presentation. Pope Francis believes that time plays a role in moving together toward peace. The process works over time. Also, the pope reminds seekers of peace that unity prevails over conflict. Nelson Mandela knew that truth.
Realities are more important than ideas, Francis argues. Listen to the stories and tell the stories - the real stories of real people. That will change hearts much faster than talking about ideas. Finally, the pope writes, the whole is greater than the parts. Bring everyone to the table; gather not just the 90 percent or even the 99 percent but the 100 percent. Work for the good of the 100 percent.
The Pope begins his exhortation with the words "the joy of the Gospel." Hope and joy are at the heart of peace, Sister Simone reminded us again and again. Traveling around the country with the "Nuns on the Bus" tour, Sister Simone and her companions learned about many of our brothers' and sisters' painful realities, but all - those on the bus and those they met on their journey - experienced a spirit of hope and joy as stories were told and listened to.
The bus visited many sites of great poverty and human suffering, but hope and joy prevailed. Peace, Sister Simone said, is that place of coming together.
Though her day job is lobbying for justice in Washington as executive director of the national Catholic social justice lobby group NETWORK, Sister Simone carries a small Bible filled with scraps of paper given to her by people she meets on her daily journey. Frequently during the peace retreat, she interrupted the flow of her presentation to extract one of them and tell a story.
These scraps on the back of train tickets or torn from a notebook or a flyer, are her contacts with the real. Each time she opened her Bible, Sister Simone urged us to stay in touch with the pain around us, to know the real by listening to the stories of those in pain, to say in our listening, "I hold your concern as dearly as my own."
This, she said, will work best if we greet people with joy and hope; miserable people do not attract!
Finally, Sister Simone brought us to what underpins our peacemaking, the core values of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person, community, solidarity with the human family, the common good, the dignity of work, standing with the poor, universal access to material goods and ecological responsibility.
We learned much from Sister Simone Campbell on our retreat. May we live what we learned.
(Sister Francine lives in Albany.)[[In-content Ad]]
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