Sinsinawa
Spectrum
A Congregation News Magazine
Follow Me: Acting, Loving, Walking
Associates, Sisters Attend 8th Biennial Midwest Gathering at Sinsinawa Mound
by Mary Louis Russley, OP
Sr. Mary Louis Russley, OP
Inspired by the Prophet Micah, Franciscan Friar Joseph Nangle of Washington, DC, drew program participants into a day of contemplative reflection at Sinsinawa Mound. The April 25 event marked the 8th Biennial Midwest Gathering of Associates, Sisters, and Brothers. Referring to Micah 6:8 as a synthesis of radical gospel living, Fr. Nangle observed that Micah reminds us that we have been told what is good and what the Lord requires: “. . . to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.” “Following God’s word,” he said, “hauls us out of our comfort zones to live simply and effect social change.”
“Walking humbly with God is experiencing God through action. Little by little, one discovers God in and through the activity of ministry . . . slowly growing aware of an overpowering sense of God.” While a seminarian, Fr. Nangle described his being gifted to have heard prophetic voices of Tom Dooley, Medical Missionaries, Frank Sheed, and Mazie Ward “telling about God,” reflecting upon their experiences of radical gospel living. These voices were transformative lessons for Fr. Nangle. Walking humbly with God took on a profound meaning. “I believed I was destined for God and called to minister with God throughout my life’s journey on Earth.” Fr. Nangle’s transcendent God became real and personal to him. No longer remote, “I embraced a God who lived among us; God joined humanity in the person of Jesus who reveals God in human form. God is relational within the inner life of the Trinity and in community with us. God is the source of all that is.”
Fr. Nangle identified three truths that have given focus to his life. “I believe that talking about God is a fundamental idea in radical gospel living. We move, live within, and are surrounded by God. I believe I am sent and that I AM sent me. I believe in I AM, an unnamed God, who is ALL in all . . . creator, eternal, all-knowing. God is goodness, truth, beauty, creator, and sustainer.” Jeremiah instructs us: “Be still and know that I am God.”
Secondly, the mystery of redemption challenges the very core of our being as we ponder Jesus’ coming to restore right relationships among people, the powerful, and institutions. He took on sinners and social structures as recorded by Luke and defended the poor burdened with taxes levied by government decree. Jesus died because he confronted injustices of princes and principalities. He committed His life in building the kingdom witnessed in the activity of His beatitude ministry.
Thirdly, we are called by our common baptism to share in God’s life in our time and in this place, called to engage in and enter into building the reign of God on Earth.
Committed to these truths throughout his 20 years of ministry in Bolivia and Peru, Fr. Nangle spoke candidly about injustices suffered by Latin America’s poor. He felt called to a new way of “being” Church as he continued the work of Jesus wherever assigned.
The activity of walking humbly with God becomes transformative when energy flowing through relational bonds causes us to ponder “what it means to be for others.” Relationships become the link in building the kingdom for families, friends, women, and children; the ministerial poor; the ill; the young and aged; and defenseless street people struggling for life in urban jungles. Nor did Jesus fail to remind us of the importance of loving our enemies (despite the fact that broken relationships will be reconciled in eternity!). Fr. Nangle reminded us that loving tenderly challenges the inner-most core of well-defined individual and social comfort zones secured by untamed appetites for power, position, and greed. When asked “Is love enough (to build the kingdom)?” Pope Paul VI replied: “No, love must be accompanied with justice. Justice is the basis of relationship.”
Acting justly is the grist for the self-examination of consciences of both individuals and societal institutions. Fr. Nangle posed a plethora of issues and questions impacting global rural, urban, and metropolitan populations; communities; and governments; and their futures in both terrestrial and interspatial spheres. Why do we continue to tolerate the inequalities of sexism, racism, education, and health care? Why are we suffering the loss of young African men because of AIDS? Why the geometric increase of billionaires in the workplace? Why the corruption and mistrust in institutions once legendary for integrity and trustworthiness? Why the scale of hunger, obesity, and malnutrition? How long before the ecological destruction of our planet? Why do Central American countries pay enormous amounts for their needs? Why is Washington, DC, a tale of two cities? Is the Justice Department just?
Acting justly becomes an individual testimony for each person and institution: family, school, church, work place, organization, and government. We are called and sent by I AM. Talking about God and witnessing to radical gospel living is the activity of ministry in which right relationships grow and flourish. “Come, follow Me.”
Warmly and caringly, Fr. Nangle shared poignant stories of his lived experience abroad and his current work as associate pastor for Hispanic ministry near Washington, DC. We are blessed to have seen, heard, and learned at the feet of a disciple sent by I AM !