Be a guardian to someone
Fraternity in action
Today catholic church celebrates the feast of guardian angels. I don’t want to get into the logic and theory of guardian angels. They represent the protection and accompaniment of God in our lives; or that God is not a far away, not interested in us, being.
In India, it is also Gandhi Jayanti, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. For India, and for many other ideas and people, Gandhi is a guardian, a guardian who protected the idea of country. I am not saying Gandhi is perfect or his ideas are, but along with many others like Ambedkar, Nehru, Mother Theresa, Baba Amte, Tagore, Gandhi accompanied and walked along with the country and its people, to a better future.
Yesterday, we have started another war — Israel is in war with Hamas, Lebanon; and Iran too entered the frame. War in Ukraine-Russia continues; many places in Africa including Sudan, Congo have wars which outside world don’t even recognize or speak about; we only ask why there is much migration from all these countries. And then there are other troubled areas in Latin America and Asia.
Along with all these, there is the rise of polarization in different parts of the world. Yes, people believed in all kinds of political ideologies at all times — be it left or right or centre; some are also in the extreme right and extreme left. But a common feature along the political and religious world is that difficulty of people from different sectors to speak to one another. Ideological differences always needn’t give rise to ghettos, which have no connection with other ghettos.
Along with these, there is fear. Fear of what? Fear of extremists in their own religion; fear of people trying to dilute their own religion; fear of people of different colour and religion; fear of young or the old; fear of anti-science people; fear of ecologists; fear of ideas/ideologies like LGBTQ, gender theories; fear of Artificial Intelligence etc.
War, Polarization, Fear — — deadly combination. The encyclical of Pope Francis — Fratelli Tutti brings one aspect that is interesting. We are all connected. Some may like to call it as brotherhood and sisterhood. Whether we like to use such terminology or not, it reminds us of the connections between the people; between people and creation. He also reminds us of the connection between ecological crisis and the social crisis. For me, one word that comes out strongly from his encyclical is the word of connection. (Pope Francis may not be originator of many of these ideas).
In the midst of War, Polarization and Fear — how can we promote connections? Connections at different levels — connection is also a way of being the guardians of one another. Some examples may be….
- Have connections with families which are socially, economically and culturally different from you;
- Have connection with our neighbours;
- If you are living in a city, have some rural connections and vice versa.
We, the simple human beings, may not be able to do much to prevent war, polarization and the game of fear. But we can promote connections and encourage others to promote the same; such grassroot movements from different groups may be a slow movement, but an effective movement. And importantly, we imitate the God’s accompanying and protective actions by connections with different types of people.
