Transforming Relationships: understanding an RSCJ perspective on Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation (JPIC)

“TRANSFORMING RELATIONSHIPS”

The threefold, circular movement, “compassion, relationships, transformation” is the dynamic that best expresses a Sacred Heart understanding of JPIC. This was articulated by RSCJ worldwide and with others who participated in the Society of the Sacred Heart’s JPIC Spiritual Journey: Lent to Pentecost in 2012.

The term JPIC comes to us from the World Council of Churches (1991). Within the Roman Catholic tradition, the most common structure for analysing issues of JPIC and responding to the signs of the times is the See, Judge, Act model (also known as Head, Heart, Feet or Head, Heart, Hands). The three-fold dynamic: compassion, relationships, transformation, offers a unique Sacred Heart perspective. It puts explicit focus on transforming relationships as the foundation of an RSCJ understanding of the See, Judge, Act model.

1. a)  Compassion: to see through the perspective of transforming relationships brings an attitude of hope to a broken world. Our founder St. Madeleine Sophie Barat was convinced of the primacy of God’s love, and through God’s love saw possibilities for the transformation of lives and social structures. In her time and place, the best means available for women to participate in God’s mission of love was through the education of girls. In contemporary times, the Society of the Sacred Heart continues to view the world first through God’s eyes of compassion. We do this infused with the same hope for transformation of individuals, and of structures that inflict suffering on the most vulnerable people and endanger all life on Earth. Today the means available for this work are multiple and varied according to context: teaching, formation, human development, promotion of justice, pastoral work, and guidance in the faith (Const. 13), to name a few.

2. b)  Relationships: to judge through the perspective of transforming relationships offers analytical and spiritual depth to the way persons participate in God’s mission. We are aware of the extent to which all kinds of human relationships of domination have wounded other persons and our Earth home (war, racism, sexism, poverty, deforestation, natural resource extraction, extinctions, patriarchy, colonialism, etc.) Needed are new models of relationships, ones that do not discriminate. Therefore, to judge through the perspective of transforming relationships involves education. This is so that new perspectives can assist decision-making and so lead to personal and structural transformation. Right relationships can happen when there is awareness and openness for the Spirit to do her creative work.

3. c)  Transformation: to act through the perspective of transforming relationships implies Spirit. Transformation surpasses human efforts. “We have come to know that transformation is not the same as change. The strategies of change come from our own initiative, while transformation is always the fruit of an Encounter” (Life Unfolding, Offering the Gift, 11). Understanding that God’s Spirit is involved comes through our experience of individual and social transformation that previously seemed impossible.

The work of JPIC is for us a work of relational transformation (personal, communal, social, ecological, planetary, and cosmic). It involves the contemplative and active aspects of our Sacred Heart charism, which remain one movement for RSCJ today. Seeing the world through the perspective of God’s compassion, engaging in education and prayerful reflection, and acting from a deep place of love, help us to understand “transforming relationships” as a value, a goal, and a way of life.