Script: Discipleship in a Global Society
This script is intended to be used as a guide for presenting the power point portion of “Discipleship in a Global Society.” The presenter is invited to personalize the presentation with personal stories or facts. Usually the power point presentation lasts for approximately twenty minutes. However, it is possible that the presenter will want to shorten or lengthen the following script.
Slide #1 – Hearts as Wide as the World
This (evening, afternoon, morning) I would like to introduce to you a wonderful woman, Sister Dorothy Stang. Sister Dorothy was a missionary who was murdered in Brazil in February, 2005. Usually when we think of a murder victim, we think of someone whose life was taken. But that is not the way it was with Sister Dorothy. Her life was not taken. She gave her life as a disciple of Jesus. She gave her life all of her life. Each of us shares with Sister Dorothy the call to give our lives to build a society where people live the Gospel values of peace, justice and reverence for all of creation.
Sister Dorothy gave her life willingly and generously because she was a disciple of Jesus. Before viewing a film where you will meet Dorothy, we are going to spend a few minutes reflecting about what the call to discipleship means in our lives today.
Discipleship is what we are all about as Christians. And because we live in the third millennium, we need to be aware of what it means to be a disciple in a global society. Jesus lived his life in Palestine. His disciples carried the Good News to the ends of the Roman Empire. We who live in the Third Millennium are called to live our discipleship beyond the borders of our nation, beyond our continent. We are called to have hearts as wide as the world.
And we need to realize that whenever we stretch our hearts, some pain will be involved, but that is what growth is all about.
Slide #2 – Our Magnificent World.
Hearts as wide as the world!
How gifted we are to live in this magnificent world. Magnificent and unique. There is no other planet quite like our planet Earth. In the beginning God created the special circumstances that have resulted in the Earth that we know today, an Earth capable of developing and sustaining such marvels of nature and science, an Earth capable of sustaining human life made in the image and likeness of the Creator.
Slide #3 – Picture of Earth
Our Earth is tough, having sustained the rigors of evolution through the eons, the storms, volcanoes, the formation of mountains and seas. At the same time, our Earth is fragile. Humanity has the power to destroy it. We will talk more about that, but for right now
let’s just wonder at the magnificence of so much life on this one small globe.
These are the words of astronaut Sultan bin Salman al-Saud, who was part of an international space crew:
“As our ship left the earth, the first day we all pointed to our own countries. The third day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were all aware of only one earth.”
Another astronaut, American Rusty Schweigert says this:
“From the moon, earth is so small and so fragile and such a precious little spot in the universe that you can block it out with your thumb. Then you realize that on that one spot, that beautiful warm blue and white circle, is everything that means anything to you – all of nature and history, music, poetry and art, birth and love and death, tears, joy, prayer, dancing – all of it right there in that little spot that you can cover with your thumb.” When you realize the mystery and magnificence of the Earth, you are changed.
Slide #4 – It is One World
Yes, our Earth is one interconnected world. We experience the interconnectedness of our world in ways that the generations before us never experienced.
Cyber connectedness. We relate with people all over the earth through cyberspace. Just imagine the earth we have just seen encircled by a web of communication. This is cyberspace. We learn, we plan, we relate, we work with people all over the earth through cyberspace. Recently I read about the CEOs of an international corporation – one located in New York, a second in London, and the third in China. They meet each morning to review the previous day and to plan their upcoming day’s work as a team. Their office is cyberspace!
Global trade. Yes, we all have personal experience of global trade. What do the labels on our clothes say? On our appliances? Food is grown in one part of the world, processed in another part and eaten by people in totally other parts of the world. The products we use, the food we eat, most are globally interconnected.
Movement of People. A generation ago when we saw an Asian or an Arab person on the street or in our church, we stared. They were strangers. Today we take for granted the presence of peoples from all over the globe on our streets, in our schools, in our churches.
Such factors as hunger, drought, genocide, political and religious persecution are causing masses of people to leave their own lands and move to other parts of the globe. Sometimes, it is just a matter of improved opportunities for a better life.
The climate has always been a witness to global interconnectedness. Today more than ever we feel that interconnectedness. The factories of the industrial world cause a weakening of the Ozone. What effect does that have on Africa and Asia? More deserts, less rain, more people starving and dying. In Brazil, Africa and Asia the rain forests are being cut down. What effect does that have on the northern hemisphere. Global warming.
Slides #5, 6, 7 Move quickly through these slides. As disciples of Jesus, we do not want this to be our gift to future generations.
Slide #8 – Beautiful Field
We love and value the beauty and richness of our earth!
Slide #9 – Discipleship in an Interconnected World – called to realize that loving…
In today’s world, more than ever before, the challenge to love our neighbor goes beyond our family, our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens. We are called to love our brothers and sisters throughout the world. Why? Because in a global society, we cannot ignore anyone. Our lives are interconnected. We are kin to one another.
When Cain had murdered his brother Abel, God asked, “Cain, where is your brother.” Cain answered rather curtly, “I am not my brother’s keeper.” Cain had it WRONG!
God calls us to responsibility to our brothers and sisters in the human family.
Slide #10 – Discipleship in an interconnected world – called to acknowledge…
Remember St.Paul’s famous words about the mystical body of Christ, “If any part of the body is suffering, the whole body suffers.” The same is true of the body of the earth.
We suffer, we are diminished, feel less of a person, when we witness the terrible poverty in our cities and throughout the world. We are diminished by the violence in our cities, in such places as Rwanda, Dafur, Iraq. We see those pictures on our TVs and we are affected if we are at all human. If the rights and dignity of any person in the world is at risk, my rights and dignity are at risk. I hurt when my brother or sister any where in the world suffers.
Slide #11 – Discipleship in an Interconnected World – as disciples in a global….
The boundaries that keep people from relating as brothers and sisters are not God given. They are products of our own making and we can tear them down. When you look at people who are different from you, which boundary keeps you from relating? Is it gender?
Is it race? Is it economic status? What can we do to tear down these boundaries that prevent us from living our discipleship in the global society?
Slide #12 – Picture of Interconnected People
Maybe this is the way God wants to see the world. Maybe this is what we mean when we say “Thy will be done.” Jesus prayed “that all may be one.”
Slide #13 – Moral Imperative
The focus on the interconnectedness of our world is not just a secular phenomenon or a popular trend. It has moral and religious implications. The worldview of a disciple in a global society has to be grounded in our relationship with God, grounded in our religious belief. In his statement for the World Day of Peace in 1990, Pope John Paul II emphasized the responsibility of every person to do something about the ecological crisis of our global society.
Today Pope Francis is even more emphatic. He, who seldom speaks of sin, calls environmental destruction a social sin of our time. “Creation is not a property which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is it the property of only a few. Creation is a gift; it is a wonderful gift that God has given us. We must care for it. We must use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.” (Quoted in America magazine, Catholics and Climate Divestment, An Update)
Slides #14-17 The Contemporary Paradox
We do love our Earth.
Move quickly through nature scenes #15 - #18, during first two sentences below.
We love the beauty of the changing seasons, the majesty of the oceans and mountains, the tranquility of lakes and streams. We are grateful for this wondrous gift. Yet, in spite of all our appreciation for Mother Earth, the fact is that humanity is ravaging the natural world. How can this be? We are good people. We do not set out to destroy the wonderful gift of our Earth. This paradox exists because we do not fully realize what is happening.
Slide #18 – Over Consumption
The Earth is being destroyed because we humans, just one part of all of creation, over-consume, or at least some of us do. Do Americans over-consume? Just look at the national problem of obesity, the need to have more than we need, the discarding of things that can still be used, our over-use of the car. Do we over-consume? Who is that 18%?
Slide #19 – Limits
We have all seen and heard the projections of population growth. What is important here is not to focus on numbers but rather on expectations. We are not talking here about birth control; rather the emphasis is on life-style expectations.
If 8.2 billion people in 2030 expect to live according to the present standard of living of the average American, the resources of the Earth will be quickly depleted. The Earth can hardly sustain the demands of today’s population; what will happen in 2030 when the population will have increased by nearly six billion people?
Slide #20 – Interconnectedness
If the four billion more people expect to live the same lifestyle as that of today’s 18% (and why wouldn’t they?) Then …
The ozone will continue to be seriously depleted.
Pollution of air and water will continue. .
The forests of the southern hemisphere disappear.
Areas of fertile soil will become deserts
Rivers and lakes will become cesspools of waste
Global warming will affect our lives in ways that we can hardly imagine
Slide #21 – Three Ways to Respond
Sister Elizabeth Johnson suggests three ways for a disciple in a global society to respond to the contemporary challenge to Christian life:
1) with the heart
2) with self-discipline
3) with self-giving action
Slide #22 – A Heart Response
Karl Rahner, a great theologian of our times, has said the Christian of the future must be a mystic. What does it mean to be a mystic? Mysticism is the awareness of and reverence for the presence of God in all of creation. Mysticism is the deep sense of the oneness of all creation. We all can do this! We can love our earth. We can love the people who make up our human family. We can learn to really care!
Sister Dorothy knew how to do this. She loved everyone she met. Seems impossible, but it is true. She loved her people in Brazil, she loved us, the “bad” Americans, she even loved and blessed her killers the night before she died. She saw God in all of creation. That kind of love comes out of a life of prayer. Dorothy prayed the prayer of loving presence: “When I pray, I light a candle and I bring all of the people with me to God.”
Slide #23 – A self-disciplining response
You might say that Sister Dorothy’s discipline was to give up the good life. She lived in huts that let in the bugs, bats and snakes. She ate rice and beans every day. She had no TV, no modern recreational viewer opportunities. She lived the life of a poor person. That sounds pretty morose, yet she was so very happy. The more simple her life became, the more fully alive she was to God’s presence. Her possessions were the beauty of the people and the beauty of the land – and she was happy. Her friends and family say that she was the happiest person they have ever met. What is essential for happiness?
Slide #24 – A self-giving response
Sister Dorothy was a woman of action. She not only converted herself from a consumer lifestyle, she also called others to do the same. She knew how to address poverty. She helped the people with whom she worked find a better life, farming their own land. She was totally against the violence that she experienced in Brazil and she deplored the wars that plague our modern world. She never used the words “cultural diversity” – she just lived cultural diversity. Each person was simply a person to her, a person with dignity and the rights of a child of God. And she certainly knew how to be a good steward of the earth. She died protecting the gift of the Amazon Forest.
This woman of God was a woman of action.
Slide #25 – Picture of Dorothy
It always helps to have a model, someone whose life shows that our discipleship is doable. That is why the Catholic Church has saints. We are about to see a film made by two British students who visited Sister Dorothy in 2003. In this film Sister Dorothy herself tells us what her mission was all about. She worked as a missionary in Brazil for 37 years. During the last years of her life she worked with peasant farmers and their families who were being thrown off their land by illegal loggers. Because she helped them, she had enemies among the forces of greed and violence. Therefore she was called to give her life, a life that was one of continual giving of herself in the following of Jesus, in discipleship. Sam Clements and James Newton, two young men studying in London heard about Dorothy and, because they were majoring in sustainable development, they decided to visit her. The film begins with the student Sam’s search for Sister Dorothy.