Milton, Soto, and Kolvenbach

Danilo Seglio

 

After completing the readings from Milton, Soto, and Kolvenbach, I was able to identify some similarities that all three of them share and connect to each other. The first reading was from Milton, called “When I consider how my light is spent” which is a poem that tells a story of a man that for some reason becomes blind in his life. Becoming blind was not an easy thing for the man because he could not see himself valuable anymore to God for being blind, and physically not able to work for God. When I come to think about God and us, I truly believe that God has made us on this earth and has already given us a purpose which sometimes we cannot comprehend or understand why. In the poem, the same thing is kind of stated to me, the blinded man can still serve God with his patience and faith because “They also serve who only stand and wait” so, this means that the man does not need to worry about hard work anymore because those who believe and are faithful are also compensated by God.

The second reading from Soto called “A Red Palm”, also mentions the idea of work and it tells the story of a dad who works super hard each day to be able to provide everything for his wife and children. This description “You chop, step, and by the end of the first row, you can buy one splendid fish for wife and three sons. Another row, another fish, until you have enough and move on to milk, Bread, meat.”, strengthens, even more, the theme work because it shows how hard this dad needs to work to provide a simple meal for his family. The man quickly looks back at his past in school where he was not successful, and wonders if he had taken school more seriously, things in his life would have turned out much easier. But still, he takes this reflection from a motivational standpoint to work even harder, also, his family is the most important reason why he wakes up every single day, even though tired, and finds motivation to work.

The third reading from Kolvenbach called “The Service of Faith and the Promotion of Justice in American Jesuit Higher Education” demonstrates the consistent work towards the understanding of the service of faith and the promotion of justice by the Jesuits in order to live in an ideal environment. It shows that achieving something like that takes a lot of work, persistency, and commitment from all, but is important to highlight that there will always be something to improve and look forward next in this long process.