WORDS OF WISDOM FOR ALL OF US

E. J. Dionne, a writer for the Washington Post, was the graduation speaker at Allegheny College this year. I like Dionne’s writing and especially his politics. Many, of course, do not. But all of us can agree with his closing words of wisdom and challenge to those graduates. He said: “Never lose your desire to transform charity into justice, division into civility, selfishness into generosity, cynicism into hope.”

Dionne assumed hopefully that the young men and women gathered before who were now ready to leave the safe confines of college life and set out into that confusing and sometimes terrifying and often selfish and divisive world would do what they could to change this world for the better and not become like so many: cynics who have lost all hope that any kind of change for the better is possible.

The status quo is unacceptable, not only for those graduates but for all of us who call ourselves Christians. Yes, as Dionne attests, we are charitable people. It is part of who we are, namely, children of a good God, who innately want to help those in need. We give of our abundance and sometimes, like the poor woman in the Gospel, even give sacrificially. We need to do more.

So many of those in need in this world suffer because of social injustices that are beyond their control or their ability to change. And unless and until justice reigns, as kind and generous and charitable as we are, that unjust suffering will continue. We need to transform our world into one where justice for all and not just for some is the rule and the way of life.

And, yes, there are divisions in our world and in our country. There are those who agree, for instance, with Dionne’s politics and there are those who disagree. Nothing wrong with that. We, as a society, should be about unity and not uniformity. No two people think, believe or act alike. Each of us is unique, meaning that we will disagree about issues, small and great.

Our disagreements, however, do not have to degenerate into uncivil discourse as it has and as it is quite evident in this political season we are now enduring. If we cannot agree with one another, at least we can agree to disagree civilly. Dionne doesn’t think that is too much to ask and neither should we.

Yet civil discourse comes difficultly when we our mindset is “It’s about me.” When our wants and our desires don’t take center stage, we can become quite disagreeable and make that feeling very evident in the way we talk. It is also hard to be generous when the only needs we see are our own. 

The world into which Dionne, with his words, was sending those young men and women could make them quite cynical and lose any sense of hope that they could make the world a better place for all, a world where justice for all, civil discourse and generosity were the standards. Let’s hope not and let us help them make those needed changes.