“The Promotion of Justice:” Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

This is the third time I have read Peter-Hans Kolvenbach’s “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education,” and with each reading, I am afforded new perspectives on what it means to receive a Jesuit education and the responsibilities I have, as both a student and person, to advocate for the injustices I encounter. (Wow, so many thoughts, where to start). I am always so focused on the justice piece. And yet reading Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” has had me reflecting on what the “Promotion of Justice” means without faith.

“Despite the opportunities offered by an ever more serviceable technology,” Kolvenbach writes, “we are simply not willing to pay the price of a more just and more humane society” (32). I often leave conversations about injustices today, my subconscious fighting between feelings of overwhelming disappointment and frustration, and motivation. I see a glass half empty; I see non-existent progress; I see people so full of hatred and narrowmindedness. I know I am not alone in these feelings. Sometimes it just feels impossible to continue fighting and advocating for change when we fail to see the results we desire. In this day and age, Kolvenbach reiterates, “we face a world that has an even greater need for the faith that does justice” (31). 

When I say “faith,” I am not only referring to its role in a religious context. Yes, Kolvenbach and King were both members of the Church, and yes, both of their pieces engaged the role of religion in the pursuit of justice. I am writing of faith, however, in a broader context. If we are to extend the conversation about the promotion of justice to everyone (as should be done), we must acknowledge that faith looks different for everyone. 

So much about King’s writing is inspiring, the circumstances even more so. He is writing from a jail cell… A JAIL CELL! No matter how frequently, how extensively he has been kicked down, King refuses to lose faith. “Maybe I was too optimistic,” King says. “Maybe I expected too much… I am thankful, however that some of our white brothers have grasped the meaning of the social revolution and committed themselves to it” (4). Even with the horrible hand he was dealt, King finds a way to look at the glass half full.

Please do not misunderstand, I am not suggesting that anyone should merely view the (slow, frustrating) progress through the lens of a glass half full. I am team glass half empty all the way! We should not be satisfied when so much inequity still exists. We must view the pursuit and promotion of justice, however with a good attitude, with faith. Without fighting to maintain this positive perspective… well, you know.

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