Action Now

     It is interesting how King and Kolvenbach connect. In each, they are calling for action now. Both address their fellow people, King is writing to black people and supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, and Kolvenbach is speaking to Catholic, Jesuits.

In his speech, “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education,” Kolvenbach acknowledges that a huge component of the Jesuit faith is learning and education. Jesuit institutes have developed greatly and are creating groundbreaking discoveries and new technologies. Education is great but it is nothing without applying it. If learning was all that mattered, there would not be these impressive institutes. Now Kolvenbach is not saying that education is unimportant or worthless, but rather that it is not enough. And just like how education is not enough, so too is faith. It is all fine and dandy that you believe in God’s word and the teachings of Jesus Christ, but you are cutting yourself short and not being a full Christian. God calls us to love our neighbors, help the poor, and spread the faith. There is no better way to teach someone something than by setting a good example. Kolvenbach writes, “Saint Ignatius wanted love to be expressed not only in words but also in deeds, the Congregation committed the Society to the promotion of justice as a concrete, radical but proportionate response to an unjustly suffering world. Fostering the virtue of justice in people was not enough. Only a substantive justice can bring about the kinds of structural and attitudinal changes that are needed to uproot those sinful oppressive injustices that are a scandal against humanity and God. This sort of justice requires an action-oriented commitment to the poor with a courageous personal option (27).”

King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” responds to a statement made by eight white religious leaders in the South. Their statement calls for people to stop protesting and to wait for the courts to change the oppressive laws. King greatly disagrees with this sentiment and wants to dissuade people from passively waiting for change that cannot be achieved without action. King expresses how everyone needs to act because “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere... Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly (1).” Action is necessary for change, and you cannot wait for the legal system to make change because those who can make those decisions are privileged and are not going to give up their ideology which gives them power without outside pressure. King makes others aware of this unflattering truth when he writes, “My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. History is the long and tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. (2).”

Therefore, action now is necessary to remove injustices from the world and to replace them with love and kindness.