Chaplain’s report

A luta continua

In one of my favourite books by Dr Ilia Delio, The Hours of the Universe, she states “God is doing new things, Jesus proclaimed, but only those with new minds and hearts can see a new world breaking through the cracks of the old”. In this edition I am meant to write an article, however, I decided that would rather write a love letter to the St David’s learners (my boys) who have taught me a lot of valuable lessons over the years I have spent with them here.

I write to you, gentlemen, at a time and in a context where the majority of youth in our country are still fighting wars that began centuries ago. The promises of our constitutional democracy and freedom are unfulfilled and remain a dream. Injustices continue to be perpetuated through the systemic discriminatory practices and policies embedded in many institutions, and through what Nelson Mandela called “the steady accumulation of a thousand slights, a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments”. Where is God in all this some may ask or have asked me. And who’s prayer is God listening to? The oppressor or the oppressed? If all religions teach peace, why then can’t all religions achieve it alongside social justice?

As I have shared with most of you, my own faith quest has been, and continues to be, marked by doubt. And this at some point really scared me. Why? Well because I was convinced that faith was a matter of correct beliefs. My religious teachers, the nuns and priests in my high school taught me so: that if I did not hold the right beliefs, or at least say that I held them, I would be excommunicated from my community, the church and perhaps, after death, from God’s presence. For a while in my adult life I resented them for that. In hindsight, I think they taught us this not to be cruel but because they themselves had been taught the same thing, and they were working hard,

sometimes desperately, to be faithful to the rules as they understood them. Ironically when I first started as a priest, I tried to do the same, and I would still be doing so today if not for doubt and curiosity.

Doubt and curiosity whittled away at those beliefs, one agonising blow at a time, “revealing that what actually mattered wasn’t the point of beliefs but the clear window of faith, faith as a life orientation, faith as a framework of values and spirituality, faith as a commitment to live into a deep vision of what life can be, faith as a way of life, faith expressing itself in love”. What I have learnt and continue to learn is that doubt need not be the death of faith. For St Marcellin doubt was the birth of a new kind of faith, “a faith beyond beliefs, a faith that expresses itself in love, a deepening and expanding faith that saved his life and saved the world” hence the legacy we celebrate and honour.

So, gentlemen, some of you may ask, what should the Covid-19 pandemic and 2021 mean to me and you? Well, as Marist men it should remind you all that freedom, justice, and equality are unfinished projects in South Africa. However, I have hope for the future gentlemen. What continues to sustain that hope is you, the Marist boys and men that are positioned to understand that oppressions exist at multiple axes. I challenge you, therefore, my boys to continue to imagine radically different alternatives to the current social, political, and economic life. May your daily realities, defiance, insistence, and persistence continue to complete the circle that the class of 1976 have drawn up. If St Marcellin Champagnat was with us today, he would have rejected pity and rather demanded action rooted in love.

My thanks to the RE team/department that plays a critical role to strike the delicate balance between learning that is “scaffolded” and learning that allows for you to think and work your own way to the answers. You have weathered each storm with grace and tenacity.

A luta continua and happy holidays.

Mfundisi Ndabaningi Mhlanga

School Chaplain

Altar boys

Jonathan Fynn, Remo Ferrari, Joshua Fynn and Miles Pegg