It is true that too often we jump to action without thinking or listening. Asking, "What next?" or "What do you want me to do?" is an eventual necessity, but also often used as a preemptive strike when in the midst of controvery in order to simply move on. Before asking the question we must listen, study, analyze, and attempt to understand whatver we seek to take action on, but if we halt there and we only analyze and critique we remain "humpty-dumpty" people--able to take apart and understand, but no ability to put back together again in new and helpful ways. Contemplating, "What then must we do?" moves us beyond deconstruction into reconstruction, and integrity demands that if we know what we must do, then we must incarnate it in our lives.
Doubt, however, causes us to be double-minded when it comes to our options. Even the simplest of issues can be fought over with different philosophies and ethics brought to the table. Forging ahead half-heartedly or suspiciously is sometimes acceptable because we want to be active in pursuing something, even if it means meanandering toward our goal rather than walking the straight line. Good intentions, however, will only take us so far without a solid strategy for the long-term. Hope, perhaps, is better than good intentions, for hope at its most virtuous is always active and participating in that for which it longs. It seems to me that this then is the crux of the issue for the generation who so desperately wants the world to be a better place and has not bought into the morality of absolute moral tolerance (think of the outrage over Enron, Catholic pedophilia, military spending and torture, etc.), but is leary of signing on the dotted line of a particular community's doctrine and cosmology no matter how much good they are doing. Just as we are becoming increasingly aware of the multi-layered aspect of our identity, so too our faith and beliefs pull from a variety of sources, which is at once the seed-bed of doubt and the bedrock of a full and deep faith.
Kindly, we are not left without resources and ways forward. Left to our own devices, we might throw our hands up in the air, and walk away, but even the ability to do so is a position of privilege. More and more of us, however, are finding that our faith compells us to act in compassionate ways and to work for justice. No longer can these two be separate for compassion without justice is ultimately narcissistic and justice without compassion does not incarnate the love of God and proclaim the good news of God with us. On the one hand compassion is helping hurting people, on the other, justice is working to stop that which is hurting people in the first place. Probably, what I am describing is an ideal, but I think we can no longer be satisfied with simply, for example, feeding hungry people, without also asking why it is there are hungry people to feed. Quickly, one thinks of Archbishop Romero, who is quoted as saying, "If I feed the poor, they call me a saint; if I ask why there are poor, they call me a communist." Regardless of what theological, political, or philosophical outlook one brings to an issue, confronting the problem behind the symptom we are treating is overwhelming and easily leads one to despair. Staying the course on an issue one feels called to engage will require self-care, the ability to say yes to the things you can do and no to the things you cannot, integrity, honesty, a good community who wants to bring out the best in you, and a belief in some power and resource beyond this world (which for me as a Christian is the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.) There should also be an intentionality about celebrating even the small successes so that much of the emotional and spiritual drain of the struggle is replenished.
Ultimately, as we have just come through Christmas we must realize that Jesus nor our faith remain in the manger. Very quickly the gospel of Luke proclaims that this birth will have world-wide ramifications. "What then must we do?" is the question raised over and over by the hearers of the Baptist's message in Luke 3 and exemplifying this word is Jesus' first teaching in the synagogue in Luke 4, which is all about compassion and justice. Yearly, we hear the story of Jesus' birth, but so quickly do we forget its follow-up. And so with zeal we must follow up our season of gifts to our beloved close ones with gifts that reach even the unknown global neighbor.
