Joe Xavier sj (Tertianship, Raia, Goa)

2011

Evening Prayer on Independence Day

The theme of today s special Independence Day prayer is on The HAVEs and THE HAVE NOTs . y y y What is our response to the attitude and the mind frame of the Independent and the pathetic plight of the dependent. By independent here we mean the people having all their material needs fulfilled, accumulated enormous amount of wealth, power and position. By dependent we mean those who find hard even to make both ends meet, more specially those who are deprived of their basic right to live a life of a human being on earth.

Here we are reminded of a note from Ecclesiastes 4:1 Then I looked again at all the injustice that goes on in this world. The oppressed were crying and no one would help them. No one would hep them because their oppressors had power on their side . Dear friends, many are poor. Many live miserable lives not because it is the divine will of God, not because the country India is poor, not because they are lazy, not because they are illiterate, but because the powerful few unjustly keep for themselves what legitimately belongs to all. In other words, the influential and the dominant group s have power over the lives of those who lack even the basic needs. The ruling class made up of business magnets, bankers, big landowners, bureaucrats, industrialists, politicians exercise absolute economic and political power. Politically, they influence elections, buy the candidates, and voters. With their power and authority in the legislative assemblies they ensure that bills and laws that are passed are in their favour. They also make effective use of the mass media, especially the popular TV channels and widespread newspapers. These powerful groups cajole, frighten, demoralize, divide and confuse the oppressed. They even sponsor violence among the oppressed. They monopolise the economy of the country by hoarding the essential commodities and by which creating artificial scarcity of such goods. The dominant group goes to the extent of exploiting the ignorance and religious superstitions of the masses by feeding the people myths. Because of this brain wash the affected people believe and think that their situation is permanent and unalterable. Human rights, social justice, socialism and so on are becoming a big question mark now. So at this juncture, we shall reflect on our response to the current situation of India. y As we are the bearers of God s message what could be our effective mission among the HAVE NOTs? y What are our plans to dismantle the unjust structures and build a new society? y In what concrete ways that we can challenge the structures that are operative against the divine values?

To furnish our deep reflection we shall now watch a video clipping that comes with a very basic question Amidst all these dark experiences - where are we? And what are we busy with?

Joe Xavier sj (Tertianship, Raia, Goa)

2011

You are my brother, and I love you; and love is justice with its full intensity and dignity. If justice did not support my love for you, regardless of your tribe and community, I would be a deceiver concealing the ugliness of selfishness behind the outer garment of pure love. ---- Khalil Gibran

Just as we can never be sure that we love God unless we love our fellowmen, so we are now sure that we have love at all unless our love issues in work of justice. And I do not mean works of justice in a merely individualistic sense. I mean three things: First, a basic attitude of respect for all men which forbids us ever to use them as instruments for our own profit. Second, a firm resolve never to profit from, or allow ourselves to be suborned by, positions of power deriving from privilege, for to do so, even passively, is equal to active oppression. To be drugged by the comforts of privilege is to become contributors to injustice as silent beneficiaries of the fruit of injustice. Third, an attitude not simply refusal but of counter attack against injustice: a decision to work with others towards the dismantling of unjust structures so that the weak, the oppressed, the marginalised of the world may be free.
-----Pedro Arrupe sj., Address to the Tenth International Congress of Jesuit Alumni of Europe, Valencia, Spain, July, 31 st 1973.