Anyone can be angry.
Anyone can be one-sided. Anyone can be in somebody else’s face. Prophecy
requires more. It requires the capacity to listen, to respect, to have critical
balance, to carry complexity, to walk in unresolved tension and to empathize
with those who do not agree with us.
Unfortunately, that’s not the current vision.
The recently concluded
presidential election cycle has troubled me for some time, precisely because, echoing
Father Rolheiser’s observation: it has focused on anger and being in somebody
else’s face. Regardless of one’s
political affiliation, I think we can all agree this election hasn’t been about
balance, the ability “to carry complexity, to walk in unresolved tension and to
empathize with those who do not agree with us.” Rather, as Father Rolheiser
goes on to note:
Today we pride ourselves instead on being one-sided, on being so on
fire about something that we refuse to consider anything else. This is true on
both sides of the ideological spectrum. Everyone, it seems, is a warrior for
truth, and few seem to recognize that one person’s freedom fighter is another
person’s fanatic. The line between prophecy and militant fundamentalism can be
very thin.
I don’t know if the American
political experience has ever veered towards balance and empathy, but I do
believe the current moment is a toxic one that will entail long-lasting
reverberations, not only for “Millennials” but also for the young people
entrusted to our care here at La Salle. Over the course of the last year, our
young people have been exposed to a steady diet of anger, intolerance for
alternative world views and an inexorable drive to castigate those who disagree
as wrong-headed fanatics. This has not been an easy time for anyone – students,
teachers and parents. I am reminded of
Yeats’ poetic commentary at the end of World War I:
Things fall apart; the
center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed
upon the world …
The best lack all
conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate
intensity.
These sentiments aren’t a
function of who won the presidential election; rather they are a commentary on
the process which produced this outcome. How did our politics become so toxic?
How did left and right ideology become so polarized that no one is listening?
How did name calling and reputation bashing become normative in our society?
How, in the words of Rolheiser, did one person’s freedom fighter become another
person’s fanatic?
These are rhetorical questions,
but they must inform how we work with the young people entrusted to our care.
Our charge is to equip them to be responsible citizens when it is their turn to
take ownership of civic, religious and social structures. How we heal the national fault line that this
election cycle rammed into place is a crucial responsibility for all of us who
hope our young people will be better able to manage the world we will leave
behind.
If Father Rolheiser is correct
that prophecy is about balance and empathy, then the Acts of the Apostles got
it right when Saint Peter quoted the Prophet Joel:
…your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions;
and your old men shall dream dreams…
Let’s help those entrusted to our
care to prophesy, envision and dream of a future which fosters the ability to
listen, to respect, to have critical balance, to carry complexity, to walk in
unresolved tension and to empathize with those who do not agree with us.
