How do we sustain this life?

On Wednesday the class attended a talk given by Jim Spickard in which his central question was: How do we sustain this life? The talk presented spiritual narratives of social justice Catholics. I found the topic to be fascinating since I had been raised Catholic but then strayed away from in high school. However, my upbringing in Catholicism is a major reason why I became passionate about social justice issues. It was inspiring to hear the stories of these Catholics and how they have used activism as a way to practice their beliefs. It was also interesting to see how some of them didn’t stick to traditional Catholic ways, but instead adopted modern ways of believing and worship. I have thought about trying to get in touch with my Catholic past, however I didn’t know how to without having to believe in some of the fundamentalist views. However, this group shows how religion works through them through activism. There was a quote that stuck out to me that someone who Jim interviewed said, “If I stop working for justice, I stop being human.” That was powerful for me because I resonated with those words. This talk allowed me to see how I can connect my Catholic past to my passions about social justice today.