'The Good News For a Change?'
A recent new experience for me has been presenting a current affairs programme on Radio Veritas. The station's catchphrase is 'the good news for a change'. During a crit of the programme 702's Ray White pointed out a 'disconnect' between this slogan and the really bad news the show was looking at – the plight of traumatised migrants who continue to cross the border from Zimbabwe. Ray White articulated an unease I myself felt when using the phrase on air.
Another presenter countered that the good news could nevertheless still be found through the courageous and faith-filled witness of the extraordinary people that we often interview on Veritas. In this particular case it was a woman who heads a dedicated team giving comfort and practical help to Zimbabweans (including unaccompanied children) who have been robbed, raped, beaten and terrorised on their hazardous journey into South Africa.
I use the example to illustrate the difficulty of discerning the good news in the spectacularly bad. This is a particular problem for the journalist who can feel spiritually swept away under a tsunami of demoralising headlines. But it's a problem for us all and I'm told it can even be experienced while reading these reflections in the Holy Trinity Bulletin! It's all very well pointing out the problems which are part of life in South Africa and repeating what the Church teaches about them, but how do we live with them? How do we still find hope? How do we dig the good news out of the garbage of the bad?
Some people simply ignore the media because the news depresses them too much. This is not a sustainable solution, but on the other hand there may be some wisdom in limiting our exposure to the media. Almost anything can become addictive including depressing information. To exercise a measure of control over the volume of information the media injects into my consciousness is a sensible bottom line to draw if I am to remain sane.
But beyond that defensive measure, what can we do to cope with the horror headlines and even find some hope despite them or even within them? After all Ignatian spirituality is supposed to be about 'finding God in all things'.
An image may help to kickstart our reflection. A ship's ballast often consists of seawater which has to be pumped into the ballast-compartment. The more ballast-water in the compartment, the steadier the vessel sits in heavy weather. Without the ballast, the ship is in for a really rough ride or may even sink. Now, a common experience in Ignatian and other 'active' spiritualities is that an 'intake' of the ballast of a sacramental life and serious efforts in prayer, normally results in an inner stability, traditionally called 'peace of soul'. The opposite effect also experienced when the intake does not happen – inner turmoil.
Of course prayer doesn't chase the bad news away; horrifying headlines don't miraculously become 'nice' when we pray; the ship of the self must still brave the storms. And yet a sense of the presence of the incarnate, risen Lord, daily renewed in prayer and sacrament, will normally imbue a person with the practical grace that enables them to cope better, hope more, and pierce the rough surface of events to see where God is ever at work. (c.chatteris@jesuitinstitute.org.za).
(Fr Chris' Current Affairs programme is on Wednesdays from 11.00 – 12.00 am on DSTV Audio channel 170 or streaming audio on radioveritas.co.za.)
