Why Justice is Important in Jesuit Higher Education - Essay Example

Jesuit is Roman Catholic sect of religious men well known for its missionary, charitable and educational work. It was once perceived by many as the main agent of the Counter-Reformation, and afterwards became a leading figure in modernizing the church. Jesuit institutions of higher learning have a commitment of promoting justice and faith through creative cultural engagement and interreligious dialogue. This dialogue involves strengthening the Jesuit and catholic identity. There are several ways of achieving this, such as mission and leadership, campus culture, academic life, integrity, and service. It can also be achieved through a Jesuit presence of administrators, leaders and faculty. This essay looks at why justice is important in Jesuit higher education.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Jesuits are of the opinion that Christianity demands an obligation to justice. This commitment involves confronting the structures of this world that propagate injustice and poverty. In its 32nd General Congregation that took place in 1975, the religious order stated that its mission is all about the service of faith. A top requirement of the mission is the promotion of justice. This mission takes a number of forms such as works of justice, service, advocacy and dialogue across the world. All in all, it has come at a steep price given that over 45 members of the order have been murdered for their services to the marginalized and poor since 1975.

The order has an associated flagship program known as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. It is popular among university students that have recently graduated, and its volunteer spends some time working on various anti-poverty projects both inside the United States and in a number of countries across the world. The Jesuit spiritual orientation, also known as charism has also inspired an upcoming group of Ignatian justice organization, a notable one being the Ignatian Solidarity Network. The network directs advocacy and outreach efforts to do with justice among Jesuit educational institutions, parishes, and other establishments. In addition, high schools and universities associated with the order incorporate the justice aspect into their students educational experiences. For example, there is an inner-city youth development and training organization in New Jersey known as Hopeworks. It role is to tackle violence and poverty by imparting skills such as online business, liaising young graduates with employers and clients, and providing trauma-oriented psychosocial care. There is another Jesuit-led organization in Los Angeles called Homeboy industries whose aim is to end violence among young people by forming startups in industries such as landscaping, tattoo removal and baking. These two and other groupings employ former criminals and gang members, in the process giving them hope as well as alternatives to poverty and a life of violence.

The Jesuit Refugee Service, abbreviated as JRS, is probably the most well-known social justice outreach of the order. It was formed in 1980 as a way of dealing with the predicament of the Vietnamese Boat People that had fled their country after the Vietnam War broke out. Nowadays, JRS operates in over 50 countries to cater for the urgent needs of individuals that have been displaced by force. A notable example of those needs is the education of children living in refugee camps. As is the case with all Jesuit social ministries, the service of helping refugees has deep roots in Ignatian spirituality that seeks Gods presence in everything. Individuals who follow this calling perceive themselves as witnesses to the notion that God has always been present in the entire human history. The presence also includes the tragic events whereby people are displaced from their homes due to war, famine, persecution, economic injustice, or disaster.

The concept of performing justice in order to fulfill a certain calling has been practiced throughout the history of the Jesuit order spanning almost five centuries. The orders traditions of justice as well as higher education were influenced by Ignatian spirituality. Its institutions of higher learning were founded on models of Ignatian justice and spirituality. Tutors working in Jesuit schools should capitalize on this rich tradition to enable them serve students and communities better. The commitment to justice inspired by Jesuit spirituality is both inclusive and specific. Ignatius was just a layperson when he came up with The Spiritual Exercises. Hence, the basis for Ignatian spirituality is accessible to lay men and women, and appeals to non-Catholic Christians as well as individuals of ethics and faith traditions. It is the power of this spirituality that makes it possible for people to better understand themselves and others. It nurtures deeper community and self-awareness in Jesuit campuses and places of worship together with a much deeper relationship with this world.

The call for Jesuit institutions of higher learning to be present where they are needed has always been crucial to the articulation of Ignatian justice in higher education. A Christian institution should put into consideration the Gospels preference for less privileged members of the society. It should intellectually be available where it is needed, such as to provide science for those without it, offer skills for the unskilled, and be the voice for those without the academic qualifications needed to legitimate and promote their rights. The Ignatian justice mentioned above involves strengthening academic excellence through immersion and service programs as well as community-based research and learning. Academics can also be boosted through the Ignatian spirituality that animates and inspires the obligation to justice.

Cura personalis happens to be the motto of Jesuit education. Another role of Ignatian justice is to deal with individuals and their deepest needs and joys as well as ideas and their most forceful outcomes. Its fullest expression in higher education may probably take place if tutors respond to this call. Lecturers are at the heart of the educational institutions that are given the responsibility of molding ladies and gentlemen for others together with bringing college resources and knowledge to combat ignorance, social divisions, poverty, ignorance and destruction of the environment. They are at the periphery of institutions mandated with recognizing that the injustices and inequalities of this world are as a result of the actions of humans and what they have chosen not to do. Tutors are tasked with promoting justice as a radical, concrete but impartial response to an unfairly suffering world. Merely nurturing the virtue of justice in individuals is just not enough. Substantive justice is needed to induce the attitudinal and structural changes necessary for doing away with oppressive injustices perceived to be a scandal against God and humanity. Such is the kind of justice that is gotten from Ignatius inspired vision, and which strengthens the practical work that lecturers do in higher education.

A university, especially a Jesuit one, has a role to play in creating ladies and gentlemen from others. Such an institution is tasked with the responsibility of preparing its students for a life of service. When talking about justice, it involves both individual and social justice. Institutions of higher learning need to find ways of making students appreciate and cultivate the two aspects, and then finding means of applying it to their communities. Irrespective of what they learn, they will always come up with queries even after they graduate. Hence, it is also important to teach them reflection on justice and the subsequent course of action since there is no denying that questions to do with justice are always evolving.

It is worthy looking back in time to the formation of the Society of Jesus as well as the evolution of higher learning over the past two centuries or so. According to the bible, God is always on the side of the less fortunate members of the society as well as the marginalized. It may have been clear that Christianity asked its followers to help the individuals whose voices could not be heard. However, there was also this perception that a dichotomy existed between service to the poverty-stricken and university life. Universities were perceived as a relatively easy life that involved studying as opposed to providing services. Graduates were not expected to serve or do something for the various issues concerning justice in the world. It just was not perceived as the aim of university education. Life in these institutions was not one in which students wished to get their hands dirty. All in all, this perception within Jesuit universities was changed by the initiatives 32nd General Congregation for the Society of Jesus between 1974 and 1975. Obligation to social justice has initially been implicit in Jesuits tradition. However, it went on to become explicit with the advent of Jesuit higher education. What has been learnt by now is that educational institutions have been among the most successful when it comes to promoting social justice. This is not restricted to Jesuit higher education as it also applies to other institutions offering higher education.

References Arrupe, P. (2013). Art and the spirit of the Society of Jesus. Studies in the Spirituality of Jesuits, 5(3).

Behuniak, S. M. (2003). In the First Person: On" Where and With Whom is My Heart". Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education, 24(1), 9.

Brackley, D. (2004). The university and its martyrs: Hope from central America. Centro Monsenor Romero, Universidad Centroamericana," Jose Simeon Canas,".

Kolvenbach, P. H. (2008). The service of faith and the promotion of justice in American Jesuit higher education. A Jesuit Education Reader: Contemporary Writings on the Jesuit Mission in Education, Principles, the Issues of Catholic Identity, Practical Applications of the Ignatian Way, and More, 144-162.

Pope, S. J. (Ed.). (2015). Hope and Solidarity: Jon Sobrino's Challenge to Christian Theology. Orbis Books.

Sobrino, J. (2015). Principle of Mercy: Taking the Crucified People from the Cross. Orbis Books.