Networking “in an Apostolic Sense”

During the 50 anniversary on the Social Apostolate at Rome, Fr. Orobator had a really appealing talk on jesuit networking when responding to a panel on networks. Here you have some of the most interesting excerpts:

On the spiritual dimension of networking. Ignatian spirituality advocates seeing reality as a whole – not as discrete and isolated parts. As we see in the contemplation of the incarnation (Spiritual Exercises, 101ff), God’s vision of the world encompasses “the great extent of the circuit of the world, with peoples so many and so diverse.” It is a connected and highly networked world, where, diverse though it may be, birth intersects with death, laughter intertwines with lamentation, health coexists with sickness and peace is threatened by war. Viewed through this “Ignatian lens,” networking appears as an invitation to see and actively take part in bigger processes.

On the purposes of networking. It is clear that networking happens for a reason. We engage in networking for an apostolic purpose, in order to make a difference in the world, especially in those instances where human dignity is undermined or distorted, such as in situations of conflict, displacement, oppression, denial of rights, and failure to protect our common home. These days Greg Boyle offered a more persuasive account: “to be reached so that the people can make a difference.” These situations present opportunities for networking because they challenge us to join purposes and processes with other people who seek to make a difference and transform our world.

On the capacity for imagination. If the desire to expand our vision and scope beyond the limitations of our situation is important to networking, so is the capacity for imagination. It is the exercise of the imagination that allows us the opportunity and gives us the ability to see the world as God sees it, that is, to hold everything together, to see the joy but also the pain, to see the despair but also the hope, to see the challenges but also the possibilities, the wounds but also the tenderness. Imagination is not fantasy. It is about seeing the concreteness of the human reality, engaging with it and envisaging alternatives. As collaborators and partners in mission, if in our processes and enterprises of networking we couldn’t imagine a world that is different from what we are faced with, then our initiatives would be delusional and futile. The reason why REPAM, JPIC, GCCM, GIAN, Lok Manch, ISN and others do what they do is the compelling vision of the possibility of a different world. By the grace of imagination, we know that the world we see could be other than the way we and others experience it, especially in its painful and dehumanizing aspects. From the perspective of social apostolate, our efforts at networking serve no meaningful purpose if we couldn’t imagine the possibility of a more just, healed, reconciled and peaceful world.

On an attitude of humility.  Although networking connects our strength, realistically we participate with an attitude of humility, perhaps even woundedness. And this is a real challenge especially for Jesuits. Alone and by ourselves we can’t change the world. The mission of the Society of Jesus is “big and global, but Jesuits are small.” So, how do we fulfil our mission effectively if not in connection and through interdependence with others? How do we become women and men for others if we are not humble enough to be women and men with others, behind others? This is the key challenge of networking for everything we do, especially in the social apostolate. We will not always be in pole position, because we are small in resources and in our reach. We connect with others in order to expand our apostolic scope of influence and to do so as co-workers, who don’t always retain leadership roles. To imagine ourselves as this minimal Society is both a challenge and an opportunity to realize that whatever we can achieve, we almost always have to do it by collaborating – playing subsidiary and supporting roles in networking initiatives such as we have been introduced to today.

On Collaboration with others. Collaboration is the hard currency of networking. Collaboration confers on all of us the status of subjects. In other words, we are collaborators, we are not simply permitting other people to join us. No. We are engaging with people. There is a quality of mutuality here, the realization that we are all in this together. Whatever Jesuits have achieved across the centuries, they have been at their best when they have been collaborating as partners with others. If you want to go fast, walk alone; if you want to go far, walk with others.

On the narratives of networking. Sometimes when we think “networking,” we think “structure,” and “institution”; we think parts that fit together. We almost build rigidity into our thinking—this part fits here, that part fits there, and once we have all the parts together, we say we have a network. Pope Francis calls this “occupying space.” But the moment you do that, you lose the sense of networking. Networking thrives on flexibility. Networking is spirit- and mission-driven. How we engage in networking is highly dependent on and influenced by the changing contexts of our mission. “Context provides purpose and purpose keeps people working together.” Initiatives of networking remain open to change and transformation because the situations in which such networking operates are constantly evolving. Flexibility and creativity in our strategies of networking are critical for the sustainability of the processes of networking.

On networking in an apostolic sense.  There is a difference between networking in a digital sense and networking in an apostolic sense. The first represents impersonal processes, highly intelligent, no doubt, but like Pavlov’s dog, they are artificial and couldn’t tell you their father was a poor but honest man. For us, networking must mean more than parts that fit together, machines that work, or ideas that are mutually compatible. In our social apostolate, networking is about how we are connected, with whom we are connected and for whom and for what we are connected. It is who we are and what we can do as individuals, as communities, that matter. Networking is a function of the quality of our relationships. We have a proverb in Eastern Africa: “Mountains don’t meet, but people do.” We can create all the structures and processes of networking; but, in the final analysis, those structures and processes would amount to little more than a self-serving exercise, unless they enable us to enter into an experience of profound solidarity with and radical witnessing to “the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted….” (Gaudium et spes 1).

As I see it, therefore, networking is a process whose purpose is apostolic; we are networking to connect our strengths in order to place ourselves at the service of the least and most vulnerable peoples and communities – or what Jon Sobrino calls “Crucified People”. Let’s not forget that and let’s not forget them.