Two months ago my Vincentian experience began with a week-long conference and training. During that training our Liverpool "community" (three persons) set goals for the year and were asked to agree upon a mission statement. Our house decided on the following: "TO SEE GOD IN ALL THINGS ...especially in those whom we serve, in those whom we live with and in those whom we encounter." It's not bad. We even threw in a little Latin at the end: AD MAJOREM DEI GLORIAM. To the glory of God. When we started our year of service we hung a framed printout of this mission statement in the main room of our community house to serve as a reminder and source of inspiration.
Now, two months later, I am starting to see the shortcomings of the idea that all we have to do is look for the image of God in others. There is more to serving than only that. Once the imago dei is identified in the other person, then what? (long pause) What form or purpose does service then take? I have begun to ask these questions more often now that the honeymoon phase of my service year has passed. Any amount of experience reveals that the natural goodness of people has to be developed in the presence of their other not-so-holy traits, especially self-centeredness.
In my case I have seen this past month the less-than-flattering truth that modern poor people are not always the victims of society. Sometimes they are poor because they have poor ways. Their habits aren't healthy or helpful or pleasing to God. Good hearts and hopeful intentions are not enough in themselves. It is a start but without any proper formation, the poor that I have been asked to serve remain "stuck" in a cycle of underachieving.
My time in England is my first experience living in a post-Christian society. Although there are definitely practicing Christians here, the society itself (the news, holidays, and general public conversation) is at best ambivalent about religious faith. People will speak of church in a clinical, detached way. When I asked kids about God or the Bible, they have heard of Jesus, Moses, maybe David. But they are unaware of the biblical stories and all share the general assumption that the church is not relevant to them. Coming from a church environment this is different and difficult for me and I now see that to not offer children some version of faith formation is to damn them to ignorance. There was a time when I wondered how effective it was to have kids memorize Bible verses or watched the cartoon versions of Bible stories, but now I see the other side, a biblically illiterate society. Both parents and children are forming lives without any real grounding in Scripture or prayer or church community. Not pretty.
There is a limit to what I can accomplish in this year, so I'm going to accept that I may not be able to turn around a group of people that isn't willing to pay attention to what faith has to offer. But I can be a good example and am learning here that the imago Dei is a privilege, not just an assumption. The gift of Jesus Christ is not automatic salvation but the chance to discover and develop the image of God in self and others...through convictions, choices, and even service.
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