In my blog Civilization of Love, I have included “awareness” as one of the many ways in which we can build this “civilization of love” that the Church talks about. What do I mean by “awareness”?
Well, I had not appreciated this point until recently. I am myself an immigrant and you would think that I should have known better when I opposed illegal immigration and encouraged deportation in this country a bit more than a year ago. But I didn’t. The fact of the matter is that I was not aware of the situation in which immigrants found themselves in: how they earned less than $5 a day back home and if they stayed in their country, their children would starve and not go to school. Or how they risked their lives to come to this country and worked long hours without enjoying many of the benefits that normal citizens enjoy. Or how they were so afraid to even go to the grocery store or to the park. I just did not know. I was very ignorant. I only knew about the issue superficially, but still thought I was entitled to have an opinion about it.
Then I started reading, watching and listening the news and the stories were devastating. I felt very sorry for completely overlooking the pain and suffering of others. To understand the issue of “welcoming the stranger,” which is a principle commanded by the gospel just seemed counterintuitive.
I am sure that many good people, different than me, did not have to hear the news to feel for these immigrants and understand what was at stake and I thank God for them. However, the issue with illegal immigration is one that is happening in our own backyard and we know about it through one way or the other. But what about the good and the bad things that are happening to people around the world? How Haiti has recently seen a relief in violence and is enjoying a period of relative peace? Or how many Russian men are committing suicide because of the high rate of unemployment?
The more we learn about our brothers and sisters around the world, the more we will be aware of their joys and afflictions and, hence, the more we will be prone to pray and offer sacrifices up for them and actively speak for them when they are not heard. As Pope Benedict XVI says, “we must open our eyes!”
One of the things that I think is crucial is to raise awareness in the family in its early stages. Michael was reading to me Gerald O’Collins’ Living Vatican II where he said that his mom, since he was very young, would set up a “kitchen altar” with a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe and candles and taught them to pray for an end to racism and discrimination. I thought that was so powerful to have a family so keenly aware of those around them and moved to teach their children the need for that awareness. As I have mentioned before, in my case, my dad would always play Alí Primera’s songs that dealt with the issue of poverty and the worker and he would talk to us about the precarious conditions that many families found themselves in: such as having to live in cardboard homes.
I don’t watch much TV at all except the TODAY show in the morning while I eat breakfast, but there is not much of news worth our time offered there. I do spend quite a bit of time in traffic, so I listen to NPR quite a bit, which is very informative, because they usually cover international news as well. Although every once in a while they have a few segments about contraception or ethics that I have a hard time listening to, but for the most part they do offer good coverage. Other than that, I haven’t accustomed myself to read the newspaper every Sunday as my parents do, but when I start my own family that is something I plan on doing.
I know most of you have families which keep you quite busy, so how do you keep up with the news? How do you keep your children aware? And those of you who are single or religious/priests/seminarians, how do you keep up with the news from around the world?
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