“Living in union with [God] means we must learn to live in union with our wives, our children, our parents, our neighbors, our community. We should demand that our so-called ‘leaders,’ demonstrate that they are experts in creating unity—between races, regions, economic groups.”
Our Quote of the Week is a spiritual call to unity for our leaders and for all of us. We offer these words for reflection as the holiday season approaches.
This week’s speech is from Sargent Shriver’s 1982 Address to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Catholic Teaching and the American Economy, a speech in which Shriver blends the spiritual and the material, the joyous and the critical, to make some important points about humanity’s needs. Since he is speaking to a predominantly
Christian—and specifically, Catholic —audience, he does not hold back on stressing the ways in which faith leaders can exert influence in society:
“Our Church could take a lead in showing how our Lord never cast any stones, let alone, the first one, never sought revenge, never attacked those who sought to do Him harm. And always ought to unify everyone under the Fatherhood of God: sinners, prostitutes, moneychangers, army officers, tax gatherers, Samaritans, Gentiles, Jews, and even lawyers.”
(Sargent Shriver was a lawyer by profession.)
It is from this impulse to be Christ-like that Shriver encourages his audience to be “in union” with everyone around us—and to demand the same of our leaders.
We take Sargent Shriver’s words to heart we head into Thanksgiving week in the United States. Whatever our spiritual beliefs, may we focus on our human impulse to come together and to be connected to something greater than ourselves. And may that impulse take us through our days so that we may create a more unified world community.
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