Authentic power is the ability to act from the fullness of who I am, the capacity to establish and maintain a relationship with people and things, and the freedom to give myself away.
+Father Richard Rohr
This is what is so remarkable about the spirit of leaders like Nelson Mandela and Desmond Titu, who are undoubtedly skilled at protest and resistance. While they carried a great burden about gaps of injustice, they radiated conviction and not condemnation, redemption and not final judgment, embrace and not rejection. The truly prophetic nature of their work in South Africa was pursuing justice with a quality of mercy that shaped a quest for communion with enemies and strangers.
+Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice in Reconciling All Things, 2008
THE QUALITIES OF MERCY AND FORGIVENESS are sorely lacking in our world today as evidenced by so much turmoil in our families, cities, governments, politics, and religious and educational institutions. Whole nations are in conflicts that seem impossible to resolve anytime soon. I personally cannot remember any time in my life where so many things were going wrong in our world. This may be because I was only a little child when WWII was ending. I suspect that folks during that time were as perplexed as I am today about just what is happening to the world. We can look back at those times now and see how some of the conflicts were resolved, and we see even to this day how some of them have continued to smolder and even break out into rage and new wars because the issues at the heart of the conflict have not been peacefully solved.
If memory serves me right, the solution to some of the conflicts was an act of violence so horrific, that fear of it ever happening again has kept things at bay.
How much longer will that work? I don’t think it takes too much imagination to see that violence of any kind simply does not solve problems. War, terrorism, school shootings, and shootings in just about any place these days lead to more conflict, more issues to resolve, more need for mercy and forgiveness. It seems quite obvious to me that those who will be able to really solve the problems and challenges of our day will need to be persons with the authentic power that Father Rohr writes about. The police, the judges, the lawyers, the teachers, the clergy, the counselors, the parents, those who we look to for help in solving our issues need to really know who they are and have “…the capacity to establish and maintain a relationship with people and things, and the freedom to give (themselves) away.” Father Rohr acknowledges that this “Sounds like pure Gospel to me.” We might say that it raises the question, “What would Jesus do?”
I pray that we support those people in our midst today who can resolve the issues we are dealing with in so many areas of our society. May those who are called to be a Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, or Martin Luther King, Jr. answer the call to be leaders who can “…pursue justice with a quality of mercy (and forgiveness) that shapes a quest for communion with enemies and strangers.”
Sister Mary Thill is a Sylvania Franciscan Sister. She can be reached at mthill@sistersosf.org. ✲
