The Catholic Wise Guy has always been a word guy. He likes to learn new words and use old words in new ways.
Recently he was awakened to an old word used in a new way: “woke.”
The original meaning of “woke” is as the past tense and past participle of “wake.” Normal use would be, “I woke him up” or “I woke up.” The new “woke” is an adjective meaning one is “aware of and actively attentive to important facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice).” The woke person feels “alert to injustice in society, especially racism.”
“Woke” has been in use for many years now, and some think the term has become “overused,” even “pretentious,” especially when proclaimed by the rich and famous.
We can confidently assert that almost all of us are “woke” to the injustice in our own lives. Even the most fortunate feel the sting of being ignored and marginalized. We learn life is often unfair and unjust and even the fortunate among us feel the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
But many of us are not “woke” to the injustice suffered by others, especially those outside our circle.
Perhaps “woke” in its best truest sense applies to those empathetic to the suffering and injustice experienced by others, especially those different from us – even strange to us – because of race, ethnic group, income level, class or whatever.
The Catholic Wise Guy would like to introduce a new phrase, “Really Woke.” We are “really woke” when we waken to the Divine reality of the world, when we see the darkness of life pierced by millions of points of life. As Shakespeare wrote, “There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”
You are “really woke” when you feel deep in your heart you are have been created by the living God, the one true God. Not only has He created you, He has created you in His divine image. And not just you: all your brothers and sisters on planet earth have also been created by Him. Each of us is loved by Him and equal in dignity before his Divine presence. A healing river of balm flows from His merciful heart to heal our wounds. And helps us help others with their lives. He alone shows us how to wring every bit of sweetness and light out of our troubled lives.
You are “really woke” when the Lord frees you to care more about others than yourself.
Note: The author used the Urban Dictionary and the Merriam Webster Dictionary in writing this article.