Dispositions

"Real progress is not measured by power, speed, or efficiency, but by our ability to live in communion with others - listening with openness, seeking wisdom and choosing unity over division" Pope Leo XIV quotes this from the ‘Compendium of the Social Teachings of the Church’ by John Paul II in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas.

That is quite different from what our time has been telling us over and over again. Isn’t the mantra our time and our world have been telling us over and over again about individual freedom, power, speed, and efficiency? However, it should be noted that the expression that the Pope is presenting emphasizes three things. The first is “listening with openness.” "Listening with openness" includes the will to accept, absorb, and renew oneself. Its basic presupposition is that we aren't perfect either. Respect for others and humility in oneself also are included in it.

"Seeking wisdom" is not seeking information or seeking knowledge. What is to "seek wisdom"? 'Seeking wisdom' is going inward, ignoring superficial appearances. Many knowledgeable and learned people stumble over 'data' that is on the surface level, that gives a lot of facts, feels like reality, and can lead one to hasty judgments. If this shouldn't happen, then, as Indian philosophers say, we will have to go "beyond the names and forms" of things and problems. Thus, going into the depths of reality is what the Bible calls "seeking wisdom." No matter how much knowledge one has, one may not be able to do that. Or why on earth should Jesus cry out, “Father, I praise you that you have hidden these things from the wise and learned and revealed them to babes”?

The third element is “Choosing unity over divisions.” Difference is the naked reality. Who would believe that there is no difference between men and women? Who would think that there is no difference between blacks and whites? Who would think that there is no difference between Hindus, Christians and Muslims? All our methods of science are based on differences and distinctions! Differences distinguish. Even when there are similarities and harmony in a hundred things, if one element is different, we recognize it as different.

Embracing unity over divisions is a choice. Something that one has to make conscientiously. Just as love is a choice we make. We cannot love if we go by external reasons. The same is true of unity. We cannot be in unity if we go by external reasons. It takes a special intelligence (quotient) to do that. Not everyone has it. The only thing that can be done is to strive for it and to choose to dwell on the unifying factors over the divisive ones at all times possible.