The Tenacity to Stay Committed

During my undergraduate years, I had truly formative opportunities to get involved in social justice education and advocacy.  Specifically, as a student at a Jesuit institution (Canisius College – now University), I attended several teach-ins coordinated by the Ignatian Solidarity Network (ISN). Between 2005 and 2009, I made my way, more than once, to Columbus, Georgia for the annual ISN teach-in. While the lessons were expansive, we learned, in particular, about U.S. militarism and our complicity in devastating civil wars in Central America in the 1980s.  Alongside the teach-in, we took part in the solemn vigil in front of Fort Benning, calling for the closure of the School of the Americas (SOA). We remembered the thousands of people killed or disappeared by military and death squads in Latin America –  many trained at the SOA. We called out, “Presente!” 

Another time, I traveled to Los Angeles for a teach-in on immigration, where we learned about the precarity, fear, and violence facing immigrant communities.  Together, we called for comprehensive immigration reform at a federal level. Yet another time, I traveled to New Orleans. We learned how structural racism has shaped the material conditions and lived realities of Black and brown residents in New Orleans – communities hit worst by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. We called for justice and transformative social change. 

It’s been 20 years since many of those experiences. The U.S. military budget continues to balloon, as does the country’s imperialistic, deadly exploits in other nations.  Our immigrant neighbors are being abducted off the streets and killed on their way to work. Black and brown communities continue to be disparately affected by environmental harms – from dirty water to AI data centers.  

On one hand, I recognize much has changed and developed over the past couple of decades. On the other hand, UGH. 

I think that the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel serves as a powerful inspiration for these times. She calls out to Jesus, desiring him to heal her daughter who is “tormented by a demon.” Now, I’m sure the theologians in the house could get more in the weeds about Jesus’ replies, but to my everyday person’s ears, he’s fairly dismissive: “It is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.”  Yet, this woman gives it right back to Jesus. She is not just persistent. She is fiercely tenacious. She knows who she is fighting for. She is moved by a potent love for her daughter. She is driven by a belief in what Jesus can do. 

The Canaanite woman is a model for us, in these times.  While we are disheartened and dismayed, we must know who and what we’re fighting for – love for our communities and people and faith in what is possible. Like the woman in the Gospel, we are powerful – truly powerful.  In the face of apparently unceasing injustice, may we, like her, exercise our power. Let us, like her, be truly, fiercely tenacious in our commitment to another, beautiful world.

Today's Readings