We have often heard and sometimes we ourselves have proclaimed that our Movement is a “Movement of Action”, a movement for social action, catholic action and movement of reflection and so on. What is it? We are glad that we are marching ahead successfully with various programs and activities keeping in mind the above said phrases. It is also an enriching experience to be part of the life and growth of the movement. As we undertake various formation and orientation programs and involve in the life and growth of the movement we also face a lot of challenges. Here, I would like to draw your attention to these challenges. These challenges come not as a threat, problems and hindrance to our vision and mission. Instead these challenges make us analyze and study the reality and reflect deeply. What and how is our Movement? What is our Vision? What are the Impacts and Influences? What is the relevance of the Movement for today’s needs?
Look at the situation of today in the society. What is the actual situation? We live in a world of competition, individualistic culture, loss of values, consumerism, comfort and gratification, communal hatred, magnified media and information technology … These make the young confused and uncertain about their own life. And this leads to a crisis of identity among the young. Due to a lot of opportunities and choices available in the societal system, people feel that organizations and movement are no more a big need for they don’t play a role in their daily affairs too. I think this is an area where the movement should play its role. There is a need to discover an identity first. The Movement should pave way for each one to discover an identity.
We take up all sorts of issues oriented programs and activities. We create a lot of awareness of various issues in society. But we forget to deal with issues of the members themselves, of student’s reality. The movement exists in the student milieu. The specific issues of the students and members should be dealt first rather than taking common issues. The need of students, the needs of every members of the movement is our concern. Well, I don’t mean that common issues should be ignored. Take common issues and develop a deeper reflection that will relate to the students personal level. This is what I would like to stress. Through deeper reflection, find a way to link the students’ life. This process will bring out better solution and action.
Also, we have lost capacity to go into deeper awareness and reflection. I fear of a trend and the culture that analyse the reality superficially. There is a growing tendency to see the situation and reality as we like and not as it is. We are convinced of a few things already and take action accordingly. Ex. How media suppresses us? It completely suppresses our self- awareness and reflection. Likewise various thoughts, communication, preset ideas can disturb the self awareness process. We need to follow our methodology systematically.
I wish we focus on the specific issues of the students first and cultivate a culture of deeper awareness and reflection.
Fr. I. Peter SVD
Former National Chaplain