On July 21, 2004, Fr. Schlegel spoke to the B’nai B’Rith Jewish Federation of Omaha over lunch. The topic was a book project he participated in while President of the University of San Francisco. The text that follows is a much fuller description of the speech he delivered while still in California. July 21st comments were excerpted from the following.

 

Building Wisdom’s House: A Book of Values for our Time, is the focus of these remarks. It was a collaborative effort - priest, rabbi, bishop, sociologist - Protestant, Catholic and Jew.

 

It was conceived in conversation and delivered in print; it is based on the understanding that we are all in the struggle together and that we will find our own individual good in the good of the whole community.

 

As the co-authors noted at the end of this slim volume: "We could have written separately, following our single tradition. Together, though, our voices are stronger. We live together in an American community. We live together, Christian and Jew, black and white, Latino and Asian, rich and poor, man and woman, north and south, urban and rural, gay and straight. New comer and founding family." (p. 206)

 

It is about this sense of community and cooperative efforts that I speak.

What follows falls into two parts: A few words about the making of the book, followed by some comments about two of the themes that provide a leitmotif throughout the book: compassion and community building.

This all began as informal conversations whenever Rabbi Pearce and I met. We decided to expand our discussion to include Bishop Swing and to put these conversations and observations into a more permanent and formal form, not just cocktail party chat.

 

The book grew out of a year-long series of breakfast conversations focused on the social challenges of our community - health, education, immigration, welfare, and so much more. We did that from the perspective of our different faith traditions. We acknowledged up-front that we were all frustrated by the misuse of religion and the marginalization of religion; others stealing our religious traditions for political gain.

 

We are convinced that religion has a positive role to play in the public square that was not being realized. We also hope that our approach could serve as a model for other inter-faith groups or inclusive discussion groups, enriched by a mutual respect for differences.

 

We were all active believers in our respective religious traditions and we discovered that we had more in common when discussing the issues of the day than first anticipated. So we set off to reclaim our shared tradition openly and with a public voice.

 

It must be noted that we did not always agree. But our search for agreement was not empty civility; it was an honest act that had great importance as we sought for what the economist John Kenneth Galbraith calls a more "humane agenda." We did not agree on everything (p. 18), but we agreed where it counts, on our goals for America’s society: a more compassionate, egalitarian, inclusive, peaceful, better-educated society (p. 107).

 

We believe the values set forth in this book belong to anyone who will claim them. We believe that religion will serve our better impulses when it shows us how to approach other people in a better spirit, not how to run from them. To that end we employed the symbolism of a journey - across rivers, over mountains, through forests.

 

It is, we believe, a uniquely American journey touching on the issues that every one of us care about - be it affirmative action, immigration, the environment, the homeless, breast cancer or AIDS. This was to be a uniquely American journey filled with uniquely American issues.

 

As such it reminds us of two things: one, historically our institutions, both religious and political, have always aided the impoverished, dislocated, and endangered. And second, we insist, in one way or another, that we are all travelers on this journey together through America at the end of the American century.

 

We traveled through these subjects as pilgrims, searching for the things we valued, but also as exiles, holding fast to the ideals and ideas that give us strength.

 

"And we carried our hope. Journeys all require hope because anger and bitterness will not get any of us very far. Hope is the essence of the Christian life because the Christian life is essentially prospective, forward looking, a venturing into the unknown."

 

"Hope is not static; it is not simply sitting around and wishing things would happen; it is not passive. But rather like faith and love it is dynamic, a quality of living that ceaselessly moves in the patterns of our lives (p. 9)." Hope in the future is one of the things we share - be you Jew, Catholic, Protestant, or non-believer.

 

And it is you, as hopeful individuals, who dispense hope when you carry out the many community service activities.

One of the features of the book that is most appealing is our use of stories, antidotes, and folk tales - both common and esoteric. Two themes represented in the book - compassionate care and the need for community - are themes found in many of these stories. I will comment on both of these themes.

 

All of our religious traditions are filled with legends and lessons about the poor and the needy; about the hurting, the lonely, estranged; the weak and the frightened.

 

Both the Hebrew scripture and the Christian gospel remind us that the needy are our neighbors. Nowhere is this more eloquently presented than in the popular "good Samaritan" story in the gospel. In this setting, Jesus tells us to care for our fellow human being. One reason the poor and the impoverished figure so prominently in our history and our beliefs is that they have a special relationship to God.

 

The poor and the needy are holy in our scriptures because they deliver God’s message. When you reach out to the sick, the poor, and the needy, you embrace God’s messengers and God’s message of hope and healing. You give meaning anew to the time honored story of the good Samaritan.

 

This also is found in Jewish tradition. Their story that the Messiah might appear as a poor and needy traveler, like the prophet Elijah; and the fate of humankind hinges on the welcome he receives. Hence each impoverished soul must be treated as if he were Elijah announcing the coming of the Messiah - for he might be. To believe in that, is to develop a profound respect for the individual, each individual you meet.

 

A question for all of us is how differently would we treat one another if we valued one another differently? For we respond differently when we see the other as possessing inestimable value importance. This is a real challenge as one walks the streets of San Francisco or jogs in Golden Gate Park.

 

Challenging as it is, it is an admission that we share a commonness with one another. We laugh and we cry with a sameness. How often have you come back from a service project reflecting on what wonderful people your colleagues are or how wonderful were the recipients of your service efforts?

 

For when all is said and done, we share a commonness across make of car, cut of clothes and abundance of table. It takes courage to see that and to acknowledge that we really are all cut from the same cloth, albeit the fabric design is different, the dye is different, the texture is different. But it is cloth by whatever description.

 

And because you care, you make a difference and you take that all important first step towards building community.

 

A second theme is our shared religious traditions value community.

 

That means that the software engineer who works for a Japanese computer firm can live alongside a car salesman who is in business for himself. They can pool their ideas, share their resources, and help build a stronger community and hence, a stronger country.

 

Two societies, powerful and powerless, black and white, recent immigrant and established immigrants, are not half as good as the other American model: one society, free and equal. All three of our religious histories embody a sense of local responsibility and community involvement.

 

Some religious traditions actually define human life as "life in society;" there is no fully human life without community. The human person needs to live in society.

 

Again, all of our ideas of community go beyond achieving individual needs. They carry a particular message of service to others. It is not a whim, but a duty to be a neighbor to others, especially the disadvantaged. To seek the common good is a basic tenet of American Protestantism as it is in other religions. It is an abiding theme in the founding documents of our democracy.

 

As abstract as "human life as community" sounds, it serves to describe all kinds of groupings made up of unique individuals, each one recognized as important and contributing to greater sense of community.

 

The kindergarten teacher who serves her community by dealing with twenty fascinating, little people; the hospice nurse who helps the terminally ill, sees his job as comforting individual persons in need of human kindness. Social service work of all descriptions is service to the human person. Hence the idea of community is not abstract at all; it is a natural part of all of our lives. And I suspect, all of you in your own way contribute to this sense of community.

 

A major ingredient of developing a genuine sense of community is that the enterprise is inclusive. No one is to be excluded. Diversity and inclusiveness have always been strengths of America. Any attempt at community building must be viewed in the light of race and immigration.

 

These issues define who we are and how we live. Our cities, our laws, our work and our leisure, our cuisine, our movies, music, scholarship, and sciences all come out of our particular blend of peoples. As it has been, so it is today and must remain in the future. For example, you drive a German made car to a Chinese restaurant before watching an Italian movie. Diversity is part of the space we all share.

 

A final note on community: renewal and community go together.

We sometimes forget that America is a country endlessly reinventing and renewing itself. In doing that, it works the alchemy that turns "them" into "us."

 

The immigrant holds an important place in our history and in the understanding of who we are. The majority of us here today are the product of the choices made by earlier generations within our families to migrate to the United States with all of its promises, choices and opportunities. We are all the beneficiaries of those decisions of our forbearers.

 

Immigrants renew our population as your great grandparents did, adding young, strong workers to an aging country. Immigrants renew the economy of our cities, adding small businesses and revitalizing neighborhoods. What is more, immigrants renew our image of ourselves, helping us discover new aspects of America, and in doing that reminds us to rededicate ourselves to the ideals we hold.

So in our shared tradition we seek out actions and behaviors that will keep our hearts open and expand our community. Out of a sense of history, justice, and a hope for renewal, we seek a more open and inclusive American community. A community open to the abundant talents and the new ideas of our newest citizens. From that we will all participate in an enriched and revived community.

 

As I draw these comments to an end, I hope I have not over-stepped the line between objectivity and sectarianism. That certainly was not my intention. Like the book - the process and the message - these comments were intended to be totally inclusive.

 

Let me end this sermon-like talk with a passage in the last chapter of Building Wisdom’s House that summarizes what I hoped to convey and, more importantly, what I believe to be part of the inspiration for service organizations such as we all belong.

 

It goes like this ... "We have tried to show here a personal and human side to American religious institutions. Ours is a history of emotion, from transcendent joy so great that one’s life is remade, to a single tear of sadness, so small that it is immediately lost in the fold of one’s cheek fold. Sometimes the church doors look big and the edifice impenetrable. This book says that these institutions are yours. They are as strong as your courage and as weak as your despair. Love them. Care for them. We say the same for America’s institutions. America is more than a piece of land. We are blessed with a people so diverse, almost anywhere you turn you can learn from your neighbors and grow wise together." (p. 206)

 

So in some ways each of you here today are helping to build wisdom a house.

John P. Schlegel, S.J.
President