2015-16 GD CAPSTONE MEETING 5- COMMITTED
TO DOING JUSTICE
Meeting 5 – Committed to Doing Justice
Leader: Let’s quiet ourselves and invite God into our space today
ALL:
O Lord, join us as we pray and as we share.
Leader: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
ALL:
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.
Petitions (Have the students speak aloud prayers and intentions that they are carrying with them.)
Grad at Grad – COMMITTED TO DOING JUSTICE
Regis Jesuit graduates acquire the awareness, skills, and motivation necessary to live as Men and Women with and for
Others who are leaders through service in imitation of Christ Jesus. For example, Regis Jesuit graduates:
• Realize that their own selfish tendencies are obstacles to doing justice and replace those attitudes with
understanding, acceptance, generosity, and compassion for others.
• Are committed to justice that is grounded in the knowledge of the roots of injustice in social institutions, attitudes, and
customs and understand the values of a consumer society can be in conflict with the demands of a just society and
the Gospel.
• Express their empathy for others and a commitment to doing justice by voluntarily engaging in service.
Reading: Excerpt from Pedro Arrupe, S.J.’s speech, “Men (and Women) For Others”, March 1974
We are commanded to love God and to love our neighbor. But note what Jesus says: the second commandment is like unto
the first; they fuse together into one compendium of the Law. And in his vision of the Last Judgment, what does the Judge
say? “As long as you did this for one of the least of my brothers, you did it for me.”3
As Father Alfaro says: “Inclusion in or expulsion from the Kingdom proclaimed by Jesus depends on our attitude toward the
poor and oppressed; toward those who are identified in Isaiah 58,1-2 as the victims of human injustice and in whose regard
God wills to realize his justice. What is strikingly new here is that Jesus makes these despised and marginalized folk his
brothers. He identifies himself with the poor and the powerless, with all who are hungry and miserable. Every person in this
condition is Christ’s brother or sister; that is why what is done for them is done for Christ himself. Whoever comes effectively
to the aid of these brothers and sisters of Jesus belongs to his Kingdom; whoever abandons them to their misery excludes
himself or herself from that Kingdom.”4
Love and justice meet - Just as love of God, in the Christian view, fuses with love of neighbor, to the point that they cannot
possibly be separated, so, too, charity and justice meet together and in practice are identical. How can you love someone and
treat him or her unjustly? Take justice away from love and you destroy love. You do not have love if the beloved is not seen
as a person whose dignity must be respected, with all that that implies. And even if you take the Roman notion of justice as
giving to each his due, what is owing to him, Christians must say that we owe love to all people, enemies not excepted. Just
as we are never sure that we love God unless we love others, so we are never sure that we have love at all unless our love
issues in works of justice. And I do not mean works of justice in a merely individualistic sense.
Reflection Questions on Back…
2015-16 GD CAPSTONE MEETING 5- COMMITTED
TO DOING JUSTICE
Reflection Questions:
• What does Committed to Doing Justice mean to you?
•
What stands out to you in the above excerpt from Fr. Arrupe’s speech?
•
What was your experience during Service Projects (this year or last year)? What did you do for the people you
served? What did you receive from them?
•
Where are you most challenged by the call to be Committed to Doing Justice? And where have you grown in your
commitment to justice during your time at Regis Jesuit?
•
Who are examples of people in your life who emulate this Hallmark in a tangible way? Why do you think of these
people?
Discussion of Reflection Questions
Closing Prayer: Prayer for Generosity (St. Ignatius)
Lord, teach us to be generous
To serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing that we are doing your will.
Amen.
Upcoming Dates and Reminders:
February 25, 2016 – Meeting with Mr. Onstott and Ms. Meyerrose during Academy Period
March 8, 2016 – 1 page proposal is due to Mrs. Kraus in Academic Support – also sign up for Presentation time
March 9-24, 2016 – 1:1 meetings with facilitator (schedule now if you are able)
April 11-27, 2016 – Capstone Presentations
May 5, 2016 – Capstone Presentations to underclass advisements during Academy Period