year of consecrated life rejoice! proclaim · 2019-12-12 · dear brothers and sisters, 1. the echo...

CONGREGATIONFOR INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED LIFE

AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE

LIBRERIA EDITRICE VATICANA

Year of ConseCrated Life

Rejoice!A letter to consecrated men and womenCod. 9325-2 € 6,00

ContemplateTo consecrated men and women on the trail of BeautyCod. 9727-4 € 7,00

ProclaimTo consecrated men and women witnesses of the Gospelamong peoplesCod. 9891-2 € 7,00

ProclaimTo consecrated men and women

witnesses of the Gospel among peoples

On the cover:Domenico GhirlanDaio, The Vocation of the Apostles (1481-1482), Sistine Chapel,Vatican Apostolic Palace© Vatican Museums, Vatican City

L E V

PROCLAIM

Inhabiting the worldin the sign of real encounterand ferial conversation,in everyday placeswhere life is spentwithout false idealities.Encountering men and womenwhere days flowin work, anxiety,feelings and desires.Going forth along new pathswith the joyous powerof the Gospel.

E 7,00

ANNUNCIATE - Francese 16 Settembre 2016 − 2ª BOZZA

ANNUNCIATE - Inglese 20 Settembre 2016 − 2ª BOZZA

Translated by CHRISTINA COOLEY

Prima edizione Agosto 2016Prima ristampa Settembre 2016Seconda ristampa ............. 2016

© Copyright 2016 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana00120 Città del VaticanoTel. 06 69 88 10 32 – Fax 06 69 88 47 16www.libreriaeditricevaticana.vawww.vatican.va

ISBN 978-88-209-9891-2


“The Church was born catholic,that is, ‘symphonic’ from her very origins

projected to evangelizationand encounter with all,

she was born ‘outward-bound’,that is, missionary”.

Pope FRANCIS


Dear Brothers and Sisters,

1. The echo of the celebration of the Year ofConsecrated Life resounds in our hearts withPope Francis’ call addressed to us: wake up theworld, follow the Lord in a prophetic way, beheralds of the joy of the Gospel. In his exhorta-tions, we are reminded of St. John Paul II’saffirmation: “The Church needs the spiritualand apostolic contribution of a renewed andrevitalized consecrated life”.1

This Dicastery has received a lot of positivefeedback on experiences that consecrated menand women from every continent had in Romeduring this Holy Year of grace for the Church:the prayer vigils that opened all of the convoca-tions and the eucharistic celebrations that closedthem, the ecumenical meeting of consecratedpeople of different Churches, the meeting forformators, the meeting for consecrated youth,the special time that called all forms of conse-

1 JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation VitaConsecrata (March 25, 1996), 13.

7


crated life into communion. The Holy FatherFrancis accompanied each event with a familiarand fraternal dialogue, indicating the broad ho-rizons and prophetic nature of a life lived in theform of the Gospel in the Church.

We give thanks to God, who is “Goodness,all Goodness, the greatest Goodness”,2 for thisevent of the Spirit. Our gratitude goes out tothose who passionately worked on planning andmaking this special time possible and to thosewho answered the convocation to the See ofPeter to be part of the event in a sign of unity.We give special thanks to Pope Francis for hav-ing given us this Year and for having accompa-nied us during this time as the Successor ofPeter and as one who, like us, is consecratedto God.3

2. Today, we continue our journey of reflec-tion embarked upon together through the Let-ters Rejoice, Keep Watch and Contemplate.Our journey stops to read the missio Dei as themystery entrusted by Christ to his Church andconfirmed at Pentecost with the power of theHoly Spirit: You will receive power when the

2 Saint FRANCIS, The Praises of God, in FF 261.3 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People

on the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November21, 2014).

8


Holy Spirit comes on you, and then you will bemy witnesses not only in Jerusalem but through-out Judaea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends ofthe earth (Ac 1:8). Every form of consecrated lifereceives, accepts and lives this call as the consti-tutive element of the special sequela Christi.Fifty years after its promulgation (October 28,1965), the final exhortation of the Perfectae Cari-tatis resounds with rich vividness: “Let all reli-gious, therefore, rooted in faith and filled withlove for God and neighbor, love of the cross andthe hope of future glory, spread the good newsof Christ throughout the whole world so thattheir witness may be seen by all and our Fatherin heaven may be glorified (cf. Mt 5:16)”.4

Pope Francis accompanies us in this revisitationwith the inspiring and performative languagethat he uses consistently, both for the universalChurch and for our form of life. Let’s continuethis dialogue that from the other Letters with allconsecrated men and women so that our intel-lect, heart and decisions may foster life and sothe insights of the Year of Consecrated Life maybear fruit.

4 VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on the Adap-tation and Renewal of Religious Life Perfectae Caritatis(October 28, 1965), 25.

9


To all of you, consecrated men and women,we express our gratitude for your dedication toGod, the ray of divine beauty that enlightens thepath of human existence.5 We also invite you tocontinue writing your story in the tongue of firein the power of the Holy Spirit. The tongue youwill use to proclaim the Good News will havewords, assonances, accents, nuances and factsthat differ from your way of living the consecra-tion. Whether in the totally contemplative life orin the apostolic religious life, in the praise of thevirgin heart, in the presence, hard work andwitness within local churches, or in the secular-ity of social environments, may you always be anexpression of the Church’s mission. Fragranceof the Holy Spirit and joy of the Gospel in thehuman city.

May Mary, “whose life is a model for all”,6

accompany our journey and intercede, Matermisericordiae, for a joyous prophetic devotion tothe Gospel.

5 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic ExhortationVita Consecrata (March 25, 1996), 109.

6 Saint AMBROSE, De virginibus, lib. II, c. II, n. 15.

10


PROLOGUE


“Evaluate the times and change with them,remaining steadfast in the truth of the Gospel”.

Pope FRANCIS


We inhabit the world

3. Our time is characterized by a profoundand continuous process of change whose fea-tures we struggle to define.

Visions of life that, placed on the same level,relativize the value of each are increasing: theperson, family, friendship, love, work, commit-ment and death are all considered differently.Ethnocultural plurality is growing; people passquickly through a variety of experiences and theavailability of endless possibilities, causing frag-mentation and dispersion. People live life as ifthey are in a large supermarket filled not onlywith things, but with opportunities, ideas, andbehaviors that all create the risk and the chal-lenge of choosing, of defining oneself, of find-ing personal reasons for one’s own behaviors.The sense of limit that accustoms people toavoiding the obstacles that normally define andoutline desires and actions is changing. Indi-vidualism, the emphasis on the self and personalneeds, makes interpersonal relationships morefragile, and it considers every bond to be chan-

15


geable, never definitive, even in the most impor-tant choices, such as a person’s state of life.

It is a cultural process that is alive and ongo-ing in which modernity, with the principle ofuniversality being crushed, sees itself as liquidpost-modernity. The sense of dissatisfaction anduncertainty that come with this pace and a con-sumeristic and competitive way of life – whereone must fend off others to take center stage –sentences us to living in the permanent uncer-tainty that is the cause and effect of emotionalprecariousness and the instability of relation-ships and values. The “liquid” characters of lifeand society nourish and strengthen each other,since neither of them is able to keep its ownshape or maintain the route towards a desiredand established destination for very long.

4. We consecrated men and women are of-ten surrounded and daunted by this process.Overwhelmed by the complexity of the times,we forget our attitude of listening to the humancry as well as the spiritual significance of pro-claiming the Gospel which, even in difficult con-texts, can reawaken “the assent of the heart byits nearness, love and witness”.1

1 FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 42.

16


We must not stop asking ourselves questionsabout the today of God and about the opportu-nities and problems presented to the Church’smission by the times we live in and by thechanges that characterize them. We are called tolabour and to the joy of listening in the cultureof our time so that we may discern the seedsof the Word, the “traces of God’s presence”.2

Listening to the hopes and dreams of our con-temporaries, taking their desires and quests se-riously, trying to understand what inflames theirheart and what, on the other hand, causes themfear and mistrust or plain indifference, so wecan become collaborators in their joy and hope(cf. 1Co 1:24).

5. We must question ourselves about “whatit is that God and people today are asking”.3

Men and women suffer from the loss of identity;they are immersed in numerous identities, oftenvirtual, that serve as masks and change accord-ing to the occasion.

During a general audience in 1969, Paul VIlet the words of the autores resound: “Tell me,


3 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People onthe Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 21,2014), II, 5.

17


Euthydemus, have you ever been to Delphi?Yes, certainly; twice. Then did you notice some-where on the temple the inscription ‘Know thy-self’? I did. And did you pay no heed to theinscription, or did you attend to it and try toconsider who you were? Indeed I did not; be-cause I felt sure that I knew that already”. Is isfrom here that “the story of the great problemregarding man’s awareness of himself” begins,the Pope continues. “The activism of today andthe prevalence of sensitive knowledge and socialcommunications about speculative study and in-ner work makes us tributaries of the outsideworld and greatly diminishes personal reflectionand knowledge of the questions that are inherentto our subjective lives. We are distracted, emptyof ourselves and full of images and thoughts thatdo not necessarily regard us intimately”.4

6. Even the attitude towards religious expe-rience and the transcendent dimension of lifehas changed. Uncertainty about solitude beingthe definitive word on human destiny bringsmen to give in to the temptation of a “spiritualdesertification” which leads to the “spreading ofthe void”.5

4 PAUL VI, General Audience (February 12, 1969).5 Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Homily for the Opening of the Year

of Faith (October 11, 2012).

18


At times, we find ourselves in front of thecomplete theoretical and practical denial of thepossibility of the Christian experience and thedenial of the value and dignity of the person.What used to be Christian identity was lost longago in the phenomenon that Weber defines asthe “disenchantment of the world”. Westernculture frees itself from a sacred vision and cel-ebrates the autonomy of man and society. Real-ity presents itself as complexity.

A vision emerges that is not only anthropo-logic and naturalistic, but historical, social, cul-tural and religious; a vision in which the indi-vidual, in his plural dimensions and numerouspossibilities, recognizes himself to be insecureand uncertain in his actions, but at the sametime, capable of journeys, recoveries, openness.In this context, the religious issue emergesas a matter of sense (meaning and direction),freedom and happiness to be read into andinterpreted.

7. Against disenchantment, which presents aworld deprived of all meaning and all possibilityof consolation, arises the re-enchantment of theworld as a different vision and provocative in-terpretation of reality, but above all, of man’sinner universe and his deep feeling: “The reac-tion against an abstract, quantified, objectified

19


universe is realized through a return to the well-springs of affectivity”.6

Against the denial of the kingdom of theinvisible, a faint return to the marvelous ap-pears. We catch a glimpse of new scenarios,even though they can appear of the ephemeral.Reading and criticizing them, interpreting theirrequests, could become space for the spirit inwhich to recognize the soul.

In this context, we must consider the inter-locutor of the Gospel proclamation and his lifein the today of history: “The great suffering ofman is this: behind the silence of the universe,behind the clouds, is or isn’t there a God? And,if this God is there, does he know us, does hehave anything to do with us? Is this God good,and does the reality of good have any power inthe world or not? Is he a reality or not? Why dowe not hear him?”.7

8. Our time calls us to create projects ofmeaning in which the culture of a new Christianhumanism can generate – in the inconsistentfluidity and ungovernable complexity of techno-

6 E. MORIN, Lo spirito del tempo, Meltemi Editore, Rome2005, 93.

7 BENEDICT XVI, Meditation during the First GeneralCongregation of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of theSynod of Bishops (October 8, 2012).

20


logical progress – the ability to give meaning toexistence and a horizon of communication, un-derstanding and values to live by. The light ofthe Good News can re-enchant the world withthe possibility of reigniting a journey towardsthe truth: “A renewal of preaching”, Pope Fran-cis writes in Evangelii Gaudium, the documenthe defined as the outline for his own Petrineministry, “can offer believers, as well as thelukewarm and the non-practising, new joy in thefaith and fruitfulness in the work of evangeliza-tion. The heart of its message will always be thesame: the God who revealed his immense love inthe crucified and risen Christ. God constantlyrenews his faithful ones, whatever their age:They shall mount up with wings like eagles, theyshall run and not be weary, they shall walk andnot be faint (Is 40:31). Christ is the eternal Gos-pel (Rv 14:6); he is the same yesterday and todayand forever (He 13:8), yet his riches and beautyare inexhaustible. He is for ever young and aconstant source of newness”.8

9. Consecrated persons are called to showthis eternal beauty to the world: “The first dutyof the consecrated life is to make visible the


21


marvels wrought by God in the frail humanity ofthose who are called. They bear witness to thesemarvels not so much in words as by the eloquentlanguage of a transfigured life, capable of amaz-ing the world”,9 “the new evangelization de-mands that consecrated persons have a thor-ough awareness of the theological significance ofthe challenges of our time”.10

We are called to inhabit human contextswith depth and radicality so we can give a faceand an expression to the traces of God’s pres-ence.11 This presence is not a superfluity of man;it his depth, his truth. It is about never distanc-ing ourselves from our own self truth or fromrelationships with others and with creation.It is about experiencing the ‘sequela’ of Christas a way of making room, thanks to Him, forhuman truth.

Blessed Paul VI observes: “The conditions ofthe society in which we live oblige all of ustherefore to revise methods, to seek by everymeans to study how we can bring the Christianmessage to modern man. For it is only in theChristian message that modern man can find the


10 Ivi, 81.11 Cf. Ivi, 79.

22


answer to his questions and the energy for hiscommitment of human solidarity”.12

At the conclusion of the ordinary session ofthe thirteenth General Synod of Bishops 13 dedi-cated to the new evangelization for the transmis-sion of the faith, Benedict XVI called for newardor and new methods: “The Church seeks toadopt new methods, developing new languageattuned to the different world cultures, propos-ing the truth of Christ with an attitude of dia-logue and friendship rooted in God who isLove. In various parts of the world, the Churchhas already set out on this path of pastoralcreativity, so as to bring back those who havedrifted away or are seeking the meaning of life,happiness and, ultimately, God”.14

12 PAUL VI, Address to the Sacred College of Cardinals(June 22, 1973).

13 October 17-28, 2012.14 BENEDICT XVI, Homily on the occasion of the Holy

Mass for the Closing of the XIII Ordinary General Assemblyof the Synod of Bishops (October 28, 2012).

23


TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH


You will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalembut throughout Judea and Samaria,and indeed to the ends of the earth.

Ac 1:8


Listening

10. “The image of Christ the Teacher wasstamped on the spirit of the Twelve and of thefirst disciples, and the command: Go... and makedisciples of all nations set the course for thewhole of their lives. St. John bears witness tothis in his Gospel when he reports the words ofJesus: No longer do I call you servants, for theservant does not know what his master is doing;but I have called you friends, for all that I haveheard from my Father I have made known to you.[…] For this reason He formally conferred onthem after the resurrection the mission of mak-ing disciples of all nations”.1 Go out to the wholeworld; proclaim the Good News to all creation(Mk 16:15). You will be my witnesses not onlyin Jerusalem but throughout Judea and Samaria,and indeed to the ends of the earth (Ac 1:8).This is the missionary mandate that the RisenChrist leaves his disciples. It is a mandate for

1 JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tra-dendae (October 16, 1979), 10.

29


every disciple, in every age. This mandate hasa universal dimension; disciples are sent toall the nations (Mt 28:19), to the whole world(Mk 16:15), to all the nations (At 1:8). The Lordassures the disciples that they will never bealone: I am with you always; yes, to the end oftime (Mt 28:20). The Gospel of Mark attests:While they, going out, preached everywhere, theLord working with them and confirming the wordby the signs that accompanied it (Mk 16:20).

11. Each of the evangelists presents missionwith a specific emphasis, and together they com-plete each other. The differing ways of the evan-gelists show how mission is called to respond tothe community’s various situations, and at thesame time, they reveal the imagination of theSpirit who blows where it pleases (cf. Jn 3:8),dispensing its charisms. Mark presents missionas proclamation or kerygma (cf. Mk 16:15).In Matthew, the purpose of mission is thefoundation of the Church and on teaching(cf. Mt 28:19-20, 16:18). Luke presents missionas witness (cf. Lk 24:48; Ac 1:8). For John, mis-sion consists in sharing in the communion be-tween the Father and the Son (cf. Jn 17:21-23).There is only one objective: confessing withPeter: You are the Christ (Mk 8:29), or with

30


the Roman centurion: Truly this man was a sonof God (Mk 15:39).2

The Acts of the Apostles show us how thedisciples will progressively focus in on theiridentities as witnesses and proclaimers and howthey will find the right lexicon and style neededto live out their missionary mandate in differentsituations and cultures. The disciples foundthemselves facing new contexts and challenges.They allowed themselves to be led by the Spiritof truth (Jn 16:13) down unknown paths sothey could preserve with love and proclaimwith joy all that the Master had said and taught(cf. Mt 28:20; Jn 14:26). This same Spirit, Jesushad assured them, would have led them tothe complete truth, opening the journey of theGospel to the things to come (Jn 16:13), in otherwords, to new existential and salvific answers inthe days ahead.

12. The missionary mandate is also definedin various ways: proclaiming the Good News toall the nations (cf. Mt 28:19; Mk 16:15); bearingwitnesses to the resurrection (cf. Lk 24:46-48;Ac 1:8); being bearers of peace and reconci-liation (cf. Jn 20:21-23); caring for the sick

2 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio(December 7, 1990), 23.

31


and helping the excluded (cf. Lk 10:1-9);being the light of the world and salt of theearth (cf. Mt 5:13-16); loving one another asJesus himself had loved (cf. Jn 13:34-35)and serving and washing the feet of our brothers(cf. Jn 13:12-15). The disciples quickly under-stood that they were to follow the mission thatJesus had announced in the synagogue of Naza-reth when he proclaimed the words of theprophet Isaiah: The spirit of the Lord has beengiven to me, for he has anointed me. He has sentme to bring the good news to the poor, to pro-claim liberty to captives and to the blind newsight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim theLord’s year of favour (Lk 4:18-19).

An immense cultural and geographical hori-zon opens up before the small group of discipleswho are still amazed by what they experiencedduring the final weeks of the Master’s life andwho are uncertain about the future; only withtime will they come to know, evangelize andinhabit this new horizon. Only the gift of theSpirit will help them understand the profoundmeaning of those words and will make themcapable of fulfilling a task which, humanlyspeaking, was beyond their abilities and whichseemed paradoxical.

32


13. Mission, as an extension of the Master’smission, is the foundation of our vocation asconsecrated men and women. Our Foundersand Foundresses heard, recognized and accept-ed Jesus’ imperative as if it were addressed di-rectly to them: Go and proclaim! (cf. Mk 16:15).Consecrated life, in all of its forms and variousseasons and in different contexts, has embarkedon a journey to “fill all the earth with Christ’sGospel”,3 placing itself on the vanguard of mis-sion and persevering with fervent, creative andheartfelt devotion (cf. Ac 11:23).

Let us assume the Gospel as rule and life,4

sent by the Holy Spirit (Ac 13:4) towards everyperiphery where the light of the Gospel isneeded (cf. Mt 5:13-16); let us assume the worldwith our hearts turned to the Lord, and let usproclaim with our life and word the Good Newsof Jesus Christ, Son of God (Mk 1:1) that is thesign of hope for all, especially for the poor(cf. Lk 4:18). This is how we will restore the joyof the Gospel that we have received by grace.5

3 THOMAS OF CELANO, The First Life of Saint Francis, 97,in FF 488.

4 Cf. BENEDICT XVI, Post-Synodal Apostolic ExhortationVerbum Domini (September 30, 2010), 83.

5 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 1.

33


Sent to proclaim

14. “The Church’s fundamental function inevery age and particularly in ours is to directman’s gaze, to point the awareness and experi-ence of the whole of humanity towards the mys-tery of Christ”.6

Jesus lives on the shore of the lake in Ca-pernaum and is in contact with many people:he attends synagogue, meets the crowd, healsthe sick. Jesus goes where the people live.7 In hismessage, in his actions and in his choices, heexpresses a dynamism that moves in the direc-tion of universal openness.

In Christ’s way

15. Let us contemplate Christ, missionary ofthe Father,8 to proclaim in His way: Jesus made atour through all the towns and villages, teachingin their synagogues, proclaiming the Good Newsof the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseasesand sickness. And when he saw the crowds he felt

6 JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptor Hominis(March 4, 1979), 10.

7 Cf. A. VANHOYE, Le origini della missione apostolica nelNuovo Testamento, in La Civiltà Cattolica, 141 (1990/IV),544-558.


34


sorry for them! (Mt 9:35-36). We must enter intothe dynamic of seeing, of being moved to com-passion and acting-attitudes that characterizedthe life and mission of Christ. Seeing meanspaying attention to what happens in the worldand being open to the reality that surrounds us,not only out of mere curiosity but in order torecognize God’s appearance in history.

Being moved to compassion means livingwith depths of mercy; it requires participationand action for those who are on the edge andwho are in need: So as he stepped ashore hesaw a large crowd; and he took pity on them(Mk 6:34). A powerful movement takes placewhich puts us in friendly accord with each per-son: While he was still a long way off, his fathersaw him and was moved with pity. He ran to theboy, clasped him in his arms and kissed himtenderly (Lk 15:20). This attitude does not allowus to pass by absently, self-righteously or fear-fully: Now a priest happened to be traveling downthe same road, but when he saw the man, hepassed by on the other side. In the same way aLevite who came to place saw him, and passed by(Lk 10:31-32). We are reminded of Christ’sjudgment of our choices and deeds: For I washungry and you never gave me food […] I tell yousolemnly, in so far as you neglected to do this to

35


one of the least of these, you neglected to do it tome (Mt 25:42,45)

We are called to experience the quiver ofthose who dissent deep down because of wound-ed and unfair justice and an arrogant violencethat kills, abuses, cancels and marginalizes:“The Church”, Paul VI affirms, “cut to the quickby this cry, asks each and every man to hear hisbrother’s plea and answer it lovingly”.9

16. We are called to act according to God’svision: I have seen the miserable state of mypeople in Egypt. I have heard their appeal to befree of their slave-drivers. Yes, I am well awareof their sufferings (Ex 3:7). We are called toattune our hearts Christ’s way, at the sight ofher tears, and those of the Jews who followedher, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh thatcame straight from the heart, “Where have youput him?”. They said, “Lord, come and see”.Jesus wept (Jn 11:33-35). We are called to carryout actions that ignite hope and tell the story ofsalvation. Without acting, seeing and beingmoved to compassion remain good intentionsand vague emotions.

9 PAUL VI, Encyclical Letter Populorum Progressio(March 26, 1967), 3.

36


The Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen byJohn Paul II said it well: “We learn from theLord himself, who would stop along the way tobe with the people, who listened to them andwas moved to pity when he saw them like sheepwithout a shepherd (Mt 9:36; cf. Mk 6:34).From him we must learn the loving gaze withwhich he reconciled men with the Father andwith themselves, communicating to them thatpower which alone is able to heal the wholeperson”.10

Contemplatives in action

17. Missionary mystique must be salvaged:“It is from contemplation, from a strong friend-ship with the Lord that the capacity is born in usto live and to bring the love of God, his mercy,his tenderness, to others”.11 Apostolic mystiquerefers us to “what is most beautiful, most grand,most appealing and at the same time most nec-essary”.12

We invite you to reread the letter Contem-plate in which we proposed an itinerary towards

10 JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Orientale Lumen(May 2, 1995), 4.

11 FRANCIS, Angelus (July 21, 2013).12 FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

(November 24, 2013), 35.

37


the depth of the mystery that lives in us, on thequest for Beauty; a new Philokalia: the transfigu-ration created by hospitable sanctity and empa-thetic nearness.13

“The missionary must be a ‘contemplative inaction’. He finds answers to problems in thelight of God’s word and in personal and com-munity prayer. […] the future of mission de-pends to a great extent on contemplation. Un-less the missionary is a contemplative he cannotproclaim Christ in a credible way. He is a wit-ness to the experience of God, and must be ableto say with the apostles: That which we havelooked upon, concerning the word of life […] weproclaim also to you (1Jn 1:1,3)”.14

18. “The Church cannot illude herself intothinking that she shines with her own light.Saint Ambrose expresses this nicely by present-ing the moon as a metaphor for the Church:‘The moon is in fact the Church: […]’ sheshines not with her own light, but with the lightof Christ. […] To the extent that the Church

13 Cf. CONGREGATION FOR INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED

LIFE AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE, Contemplate. To Con-secrated Men and Women on the Trail of Beauty (October 15,2015), LEV, Vatican City 2015.

14 JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio(December 7, 1990), 91.

38


remains anchored in him, to the extent that shelets herself be illumined by him, she is able tobring light into the lives of individuals andpeoples. For this reason the Fathers of theChurch saw in her the mysterium lunae.We need this light from on high if we are torespond in a way worthy of the vocation we havereceived. To proclaim the Gospel of Christ isnot simply one option among many, nor is it aprofession. For the Church, to be missionarydoes not mean to proselytize: for the Church tobe missionary means to give expression to hervery nature, which is to receive God’s light andthen to reflect it”.15 Without this awareness,our work and institutions cannot communicatethe Good News of the Kingdom; our formativeprograms become itineraries of professionalqualification which are more or less successful;the concerns we have about our economicmeans that we feel are limited to sustaining thelife and work of our Institutes do not differ fromthose of other human groups; we often forgetthe parameters of providence.

15 FRANCIS, Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord (January6, 2016).

39


Servants of the Word

19. Scripture, together with Tradition, is the“supreme rule” 16 of faith. Scripture and evange-lization in its many forms are closely related:“The Church’s deepest nature is expressed inher three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming theword of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating thesacraments (leitourgia), and exercising the min-istry of charity (diakonia). These duties presup-pose each other and are inseparable”.17

Go and proclaim (cf. Mk 16:15). “At the be-ginning of this new millennium, the Church’smission is to be nourished by the Word throughbeing a servant of the Word in the work ofevangelization”.18 A Word that is alive and activethat can judge the secret emotions and thoughts(He 4:12) and that is “‘ever more fully at theheart of every ecclesial activity’. […] It is essen-tial that the revealed word radically enrichour catechesis and all our efforts to pass onthe faith”.19

16 VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Constitu-tion Dei Verbum (November 18, 1965), 21.

17 BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (De-cember 25, 2005), 25a.

18 SYNOD OF BISHOPS, XII Ordinary General AssemblyThe Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,Instrumentum Laboris (Vatican City 2008), 43.

19 FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 174-175.

40


Pastoral experience shows that we cannotpresume to find faith in those who listen to us.Faith must be rekindled in those whose faith hasextinguished, it must be reinvigorated in thosewho live in indifference, with personal effort itmust be revealed to new generations, it must berenovated in those who profess it without suffi-cient conviction, it must be taken to those whodo not know it yet.

20. Catechesis, the first educational act ofthe mission of evangelization, “is intimatelybound up with the whole of the Church’s life.Not only her geographical extension and nu-merical increase, but even more, her innergrowth and correspondence with God’s plandepend essentially on catechesis”.20

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis invitesus to take a mother’s tone, a mother’s way ofspeaking.21 “Just as all of us like to be spoken toin our mother tongue, so too in the faith welike to be spoken to in our ‘mother culture’,our native language (cf. 2M 7:21,27), and ourheart is better disposed to listen. This languageis a kind of music which inspires encourage-

20 JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Exhortation Catechesi Tra-dendae (October 16, 1979), 13.

21 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 139-141.

41


ment, strength and enthusiasm”.22 We are calledto serve the Word, starting with the concrete-ness of our lives and with real words that are fullof maternal tenderness and that know how toquestion and enliven reality. It is fundamental tomeditate on the Word, to understand it in depthand to translate in into words suitable for theculture of each age, even through careful study.

21. Presumption and superficiality presentin the various forms of proclamation – homi-letic, catechetical, pastoral – are an offense tothe gift of the Word. Pope Francis insisted onhomilies and the effort they require: “Prepara-tion for preaching is so important a task that aprolonged time of study, prayer, reflection andpastoral creativity should be devoted to it”.23

Studying, done as a way to serve the Word andhumanity, helps us interpret the world thatGod loved so much (Jn 3:16) and to understandit with wisdom. Studying that does not “extin-guish the spirit of prayer” 24 is more than anacademic and rhetorical exercise, is an exercisein the meditation required to advance in theenthusiasm of the quest for the Life, the Truth

22 Ivi, 139.23 Ivi, 145.24 Saint Francis, Letter to Saint Anthony of Padua, 2.

42


and the Good (cf. Ac 17:27). Studying, the“expression of the unquenchable desire for anever deeper knowledge of God, the source oflight and all human truth”, must accompany ourlives as a valuable tool in “the constant quest forthe presence and activity of God in the complexreality of today’s world”.25

Ones who bring good news

22. How beautiful on the mountains, are thefeet of one who brings good news, who heraldspeace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation, andtells Zion, “Your God is king!” (Is 52:7).

“The characteristic of every authentic mis-sionary life is the inner joy that comes fromfaith. In a world tormented and oppressed by somany problems, a world tempted to pessimism,the one who proclaims the Good News must bea person who has found true hope in Christ”.26

Proclamation is passion given by grace andplaced at the center of our life. “To the ques-tion, ‘why mission?’ we reply with the Church’sfaith and experience that true liberation consistsin opening oneself to the love of Christ. In him,



43


and only in him, are we set free from all alien-ation and doubt, from slavery to the power ofsin and death. Christ is truly our peace (Ep 2:14);the love of Christ impels us (2Cor 5:14), givingmeaning and joy to our life. Mission is an issueof faith, an accurate indicator of our faith inChrist and his love for us”.27

Pope Francis invites us to not be dejected anddiscouraged evangelizers who look like someonewho has just come back from a funeral,28 but toconvey the joy of faith, starting with a transfig-ured existence.29

23. Messengers of the joy of the Gospel aremen and women who have received the man-date to proclaim the Good News; the joy of theGospel has filled their lives and transformedtheir hearts.30

Messengers of the joy of the Gospel are menand women who respond with generosity tothe great challenge of the Church of all ages:missionary activity.31

27 Ivi, 11.28 FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

(November 24, 2013), 10.29 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation

Vita Consecrata (March 25, 1996), 35.30 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

(November 24, 2013), 21.31 Cf. Ivi, 15.

44


Messengers of the joy of the Gospel are menand women touched by the Father’s mercy, awound of love that inflames their hearts with thepassion for Christ and humanity, and who offertheir lives for the Gospel and begin a journeythat instant (cf. Lk 24:33) to proclaim the joyof the Kingdom “to all, in all places, on alloccasions”.32

Messengers of the joy of the Gospel are menand women who take initiative,33 not allowingthemselves to be paralyzed by ecclesial introver-sion,34 to reach the peripheries of society in or-der to meet people near and far (cf. Ep 2:13),excluding no one.

Messengers of the joy of the Gospel are menand women who stand at the crossroads of lifeand experience the frontiers, welcome outcasts 35

so that their lives may be filled with the hopeand liberating power of the Gospel.

Messengers of the joy of the Gospel are menand women who “go forth” 36 and reach thewhole world (cf. Mt 28:19) to proclaim with

32 Ivi, 23.33 Cf. Ivi, 24.34 Cf. Ivi, 27.35 Cf. Ivi, 24.36 Ivi, 20.

45


creativity and the universal language of joy thatthe Gospel is the source of life and life in full(cf. Jn 10:10b)

The Church and the world need mebasermen and women, messengers of joy, messen-gers of He who comes to console His people(cf. Is 40:1).

United to proclaim

24. The whole group of believers was united,heart and soul; no one claimed for his own useanything that he had, as everything they ownedwas held in common. The apostles continued totestify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus withgreat power, and they were all given great respect(Ac 4:32-33). “The religious community has feltitself to be in continuity with the group of thosewho followed Jesus. He had called them person-ally, one by one, to live in communion withhimself and with the other disciples, to share hislife and his destiny (cf. Mk 3:13-15), and in thisway to be a sign of the life and communionbegun by him”.37 Fraternal life, mindful of the

37 CONGREGATION FOR INSTITUTES OF CONSECRATED LIFE

AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE, Fraternal Life in Commu-nity. “Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor” (February 2,1994), 10.

46


mystery that exists at its origin, is experienced as“God-enlightened space in which to experiencethe hidden presence of the Risen Lord”.38

Persevering in communion

25. The Didache outlines the features ofcommunity identity as the work of listening andformation and the knowledge of the person andof the mission of the Lord Jesus, accompaniedby signs and power (cf. Ac 2:43, 4:33). Chris-tians of the early Church listen to the preachingand the message of the apostles and so, areintroduced to the knowledge of the Gospel,bringing mature believers to a true experiencewith the Lord.

One of the concerns felt throughout the his-tory and life of the Church as well as in theexistence of various communities of consecratedlife, is about forming to the mystery of Christthat enlivens koinonía, the essence of fraternallife, and that manifests it not as an idea, butrather as material and spiritual solidarity.

26. Fraternity demands perseverance inthe breaking of the bread and in the prayers(Ac 2:42), a golden sign aimed at identifying


47


the cultish meetings of early Christians whereJesus’ gestures from the last supper are relived.This also includes the wedding feasts, Jesus’banquets with sinners, and the frugal meals con-sumed by the Risen Christ on the shore of thelake with his disciples. Early Christians prayin temples, during meals or in the privacy oftheir own homes with different forms of prayer.The persevering relationship with God is at thebase of the spiritual teaching of the primitivecommunity which prayed constantly, on everypossible occasion (Ep 6:18), in every place andlifting their hands up reverently (1 Tm 2:8).Prayer ensures community unity and helps dis-cernment; it is a gift from the Spirit and is soclosely connected to charity that Origen says,“He ‘prays without ceasing’ who unites prayerto works and good works to prayer. Only in thisway can we consider as realizable the principleof praying without ceasing”.39 We are at theheart of the missionary witness of fraternity.

27. An air of joy and of new origins reachesus and wins over the hearts of all who partici-pate in this rebuilding of a new humanity. It isan air that has always enchanted Christians of

39 ORIGEN, De oratione 12, in PG 11, 452.

48


all generations and people who are consecratedto the ‘sequela’ of Christ. “The life of that[first] community and, even more, the experi-ence of complete sharing with Christ lived outby the Twelve, have always been the model towhich the Church has looked whenever she hassought to return to her original fervour and toresume with fresh evangelical vigour her journeythrough history”.40

Missionary witness and proclamation in thesign of communion come from this air: none oftheir members was ever in want (Ac 4:34) be-cause the community was united, heart and soul(Ac 4:32). Every apostolic community that wantsto be evangelical holds the detachment frommaterial goods in their heart. It is an indispens-able prerequisite for finding accord of spirits,for reaching the goals of spiritual life and forproclaiming the good news.

28. The apostles continued to testify to theresurrection of the Lord Jesus with great power(Ac 4:33). Luke affirms that the grace of witness-ing the Risen Christ arises from fraternal life, theparable of the Kingdom, and in itself as mission-ary proclamation. The joy of proclaiming the


49


Good News is strengthened by the experienceof fraternal encounter. Pope Francis invites:“Living the present with passion means becom-ing ‘experts in communion’, ‘witnesses and ar-chitects of the plan for unity which is the crown-ing point of human history in God’s design’.In a polarized society, where different culturesexperience difficulty in living alongside one an-other, where the powerless encounter oppres-sion, where inequality abounds, we are called tooffer a concrete model of community which, byacknowledging the dignity of each person andsharing our respective gifts, makes it possible tolive as brothers and sisters”.41

The life of communion becomes a sign forall the world and a compelling force thatleads people to faith in Christ. In this way com-munion leads to mission, and itself becomesmission.42

29. In religious life, fraternal life in commu-nity, lived in simplicity and joy, is the primaryand fundamental structure of evangelization.

41 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People onthe Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 21,2014), I, 2.


50


“Fraternal communion, as such, is already anapostolate; in other words, it contributes di-rectly to the work of evangelization. The signpar excellence left us by Our Lord is that oflived fraternity: by this all will know that you aremy disciples, if you have love for one another(Jn 13:35). […] The effectiveness of religious lifedepends on the quality of the fraternal life incommon. Fraternal life is not the entirety of themission of a religious community, but it is anessential element. Fraternal life is just as impor-tant as apostolic life”.43

In the prodigy of the Pentecost

30. The first Pentecost, with the explosion ofthe Spirit and the enthusiasm of the first massconversion, ends in an unexpected way –many people begin to live a fraternal lifestyle.The Spirit pours forth and the unattainabledream of fraternity is made possible: to feel likebrothers and sisters and to live in fraternity.Of all the miracles, prodigies and signs, this isthe most shocking: people who do not know


AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE, Fraternal Life in Commu-nity. “Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor” (February 2,1994), 55.

51


each other understand each other and, by put-ting their personal goods together, speak thesame language of charity. Something that wasbelieved to be impossible is ignited in the world:the love for others becomes stronger than thelove for oneself. Fraternity, the prodigy of thePentecost, shows the Church’s true nature andbecomes the main reason for the spreading ofthe Good News. Freemen and slaves, rich menand poor men, intellectual men and ignorantmen, are all brought together around the sametable to live out the prophecy of God’s childrenin Christ, in the power of the Spirit.

31. The experience of the Spirit and of fra-ternity lived in community are at the origins ofthe Church. The Holy Spirit acts in the life ofthe apostolic community and distinguishes it, inthe seal of fire, with unity and missionarity.God’s Word, the language of the Spirit, de-scends upon man and leads the community offaith to use the human language, the means ofcomprehension of the other person, rather thanimposing His language to proclaim the GoodNews. “Whenever we encounter another personin love, we learn something new about God.[…] The work of evangelization enriches themind and the heart; it opens up spiritual hori-

52


zons; it makes us more and more sensitive to theworkings of the Holy Spirit, and it takes usbeyond our limited spiritual constructs”.44

32. This is the work of the Spirit which op-poses the flesh (cf. Ga 5:16-17), that is, theself-indulgence of man, the introversion, the re-jection of encounter and communion with oth-ers. “The movement of love between heavenand earth is guided by the Holy Spirit, and inthis way he completes the relationship, estab-lished in Christ, with Zion, Mary and Ekklesia asBride. The religious person lives in the middleof this event that wants to become reality even inhim and for him through his loving devotion tolove. His existence must always be creativetranslation, future of God permanently in theHoly Spirit”.45


45 H.U. VON BALTHASAR, Spiritus Creator, Morcelliana,Brescia 1972, 328.

53


CHURCH WHICH “GOES FORTH”


As they visited one town after another,they passed on the decisions reached bythe apostles and elders in Jerusalem,with instructions to respect them.So the churches grew strong in the faith,as well as growing daily in numbers.

Ac 16:4-5


Listening

33. Paul is the protagonist, along with Silasand Timothy and possibly other companionswho are not mentioned. The apostle is experi-encing a difficult change; he has just separatedfrom Barnabas, his protector and master, after arather violent quarrel (Ac 15:39). But he doesnot stop; he returns to visit the communitiesthey founded together on the first missionaryjourney (cf. Ac 13:5; 14:28).

We choose this key moment in the earlyChurch because, in the choices and difficultiesof Paul and his friends, we find situations verysimilar to our own and a quest for solutionsthat can guide us in facing the complexity ofproblems and uncertainties that we experienceas well.

The communities founded on the previoustrip were Derbe, Lystra, Pisidian Antioch,Iconic and Attalia, that is, the mountainous cen-tral region of present-day Turkey on the Anato-lian plateau. Paul had planned on moving northwith his friends towards Galatia and Bithynia,but more than once the Spirit mysteriously hin-

59


dered their itinerary and their good intentions.They find themselves forced to head in the di-rection of Troas (cf. Ac 16:6-8), towards un-known lands.

All of the communities they visited were inthe beginning stages of their faith and werefragile. They had been entrusted to elders on thefirst missionary journey and were aware thatthey would have to experience many hardshipsbefore entering the kingdom of God (Ac 14:22b).It was logical and wise for Paul and his friendsto go back and visit these communities so theycould encourage them on their journeys andperfect the first evangelization, increasing atten-dance as well. Yet, for no apparent reason, theSpirit of Jesus would not allow them to. Surpriseand concern lead them to roam, moving furtherand further towards Western Anatolia until theyarrive at the coast of the Aegean Sea.

We can only imagine their inner distress,their sense of frustration and the feeling of find-ing themselves in front of the unknown.

34. In many ways, this adventure resemblessituations from recent decades. The reform andrenewal that was promoted and prompted bythe Second Vatican Council made room formeaningful experiences and created, for almostall religious families, new ways of presence and

60


encounters with previously unknown culturesand places. As with Barnabas and Paul after thefirst missionary journey, with the joy of seeingthat the Lord called people who did not knoweach other to participate in charism and hisecclesial fecundity, there were many times whentensions ran high, arguments were heated andsouls were overheated (cf. Ac 15:2).

While the differences in cultures and identi-ties of the Churches of new members were ini-tially embraced with enthusiasm and wonder,over time, they caused unease and posed prob-lems regarding differences to respect, essential-ity to rediscover, right and necessary reciprocitywithin the whole of the institutional system, andmodels of incarnation of faith. With hard workand patience it was decided – through the Chap-ters and Assemblies, the redaction or revision ofConstitutions and the experimentation with mo-dels of formation and governance – to write outa summary that supports communion throughinstitutional forms suitable to the new period ofcharism. We were convinced that all we had todo to keep the journey moving forward was toinform adequately and manage intelligently thedecision that had already been reached throughmuch effort and decided upon methodically, asPaul had done when he transmitted the deci-sions made in Jerusalem (cf. Ac 16:4).

61


35. Just like with Paul and his friends, theSpirit would not allow (cf. Ac 16:7) us to enterinto the attitude of custody and maintenance ofresults. He kept us from branching out accord-ing to our plans by simply exporting preor-dained decisions and tried models.

Couldn’t the current crisis, which is makingour certainties useless and our plans uncertain,have something to do with the frustration thatPaul felt in the face of unexplainable obstacles?Could our stubbornness to persevere with whatwe have established and stabilized, with merestrategic arrangements and often by concealingthe crisis of orientation as “spiritual worldli-ness”, perhaps be considered a kairòs to leaveroom for the unpredictability of the Spirit andhis indications?

Could the evident and widespread insignifi-cance and marginality of consecrated life in theChurch and in a globalized society that is narco-tized by thousands of idolatries and ephemeralillusions, our anaemia of fresh forces and theclear anaemia of successful models for this newcontext be compared to Paul’s confusion anddisorientation at Troas? There, where nothingseemed to make sense, a new horizon and anew creative and transformative adventure willopen up.

62


The Spirit, principal agent of mission

36. God, who is Trinitarian Love, is the firstmissionary: the Church’s mission is rooted in theheart of God. There is a continuous movementbetween the three persons of the Trinity, a“dance” as Saint Bonaventure would say.1 In therelationship between the Father and the Son,the grace of love that is the Holy Spirit is given:ad extra, the Son is sent by the Father for theSpirit and the Spirit is sent by the Father and bythe Son and by the Father for the Son. In theWord made man (cf. Jn 1:14), it is God Himselfwho “goes forth” 2 and enters into the world andtakes on human form: “For He sent His Son, theeternal Word, who enlightens all men, so thatHe might dwell among men and tell them of theinnermost being of God (cf. Jn 1:1-18)”.3 Incar-nation reveals to us a God who loves humanity:“Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh,was sent as ‘a man to men’. He ‘speaks thewords of God’ (Jn 3:34), and completes the

1 Saint BONAVENTURE, Itinerarium mentis in Deo, VI, 2:this text uses the word circumincessio.

2 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 20.

3 Cf. VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Consti-tution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum (November 18,1965), 4.

63


work of salvation which His Father gave Him todo (cf. Jn 5:36, 17:4)”.4 Nothing is unknown tohim, not even sin, which is removed by Hismercy.5 For our sake God made the sinless oneinto sin, so that in him we might become thegoodness of God (2Co 5:21).

The God of history walked with his people(cf. Ex 3:6) and does not cease to walk with usthrough the gift of the Spirit. “It is the HolySpirit who gives life”: 6 He is the power of Godin history, He who points out and actualizes theWord (cf. Jn 14:26; 1Jn 2:27).7 The Holy Spirit,principal agent of mission,8 “is the principalagent of evangelization: it is He who impels eachindividual to proclaim the Gospel, and it is Hewho in the depths of consciences causes theword of salvation […] He alone stirs up the newcreation, the new humanity of which evangeliza-tion is to be the result, with that unity in varietywhich evangelization wishes to achieve withinthe Christian community. Through the Holy

4 Idem.5 Cf. FRANCIS, Spiritual Retreat on the Occasion of the

Jubilee for Priests, First Meditation (June 2, 2016).6 JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Dominum et Vivifi-

cantem (May 18, 1986), 64.7 Cf. Ivi, 7.8 Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio

(December 7, 1990), 21.

64


Spirit the Gospel penetrates to the heart of theworld, for it is He who causes people to discernthe signs of the times – signs willed by God –which evangelization reveals and puts to usewithin history”.9

37. The Spirit forms Christians according tothe mind of Christ, guides to all the truth, en-lightens, puts love in our hearts, strengthensweak bodies, opens us up to the awareness ofthe Father and of the Son and gives “joy andease to everyone in assenting to the truth andbelieving it”.10

During the ecumenical meeting in Uppsala in1968, the Orthodox Metropolitan Ignatius diLatakia had this to say: “Without the HolySpirit, God is far away, Christ stays in the past,the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church is simplyan organization, authority, a matter of domina-tion, mission, a matter of propaganda, the lit-urgy, no more than an evocation, Christian liv-ing, a slave morality. But in the Holy Spirit, thecosmos is resurrected and groans with the birthpangs of the Kingdom; the risen Christ is there;

9 PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi(December 8, 1975), 75.

10 VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Dogmatic Consti-tution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum (November 18,1965), 5.

65


the Gospel is the power of life; the Churchshows forth life of the Trinity; authority isa liberating service; mission is a Pentecost;the liturgy is both memorial and anticipation;human action is deified”.11

Like it did with Paul, the power of the Spiritdoes not allow (cf. Ac 16:7) us to stop movingforward and our logic to limit and rationalizeour missionary decisions to what we alreadyknow. When hopes dwindle, the breath of theSpirit leads us towards new horizons. “We mustovercome the temptation to restrict ourselves towhat we already have, or think we have, safely inour possession: it would be sure death in termsof the Church’s presence in the world; theChurch, for that matter, can only be missionary,in the outward movement of the Spirit”.12

Vocation and grace of the Church

38. The Church’s mission is a project bornof the love of God the Father, or amor fontalis asit is called by the Fathers of the Church, whowanted us to participate, through the Son and

11 IGNATIUS DI LATAKIA, in R. CANTALAMESSA, Il soffio delloSpirito, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo 1997, 165.

12 BENEDICT XVI, Homily on the occasion of the ApostolicJourney to Portugal on the 10th Anniversary of the Beatifica-tion of Jacinta and Francisco, Young Shepherds of Fátima,Porto (May 14, 2010).

66


the Spirit, in His divine life.13 Thanks to thedeliberation of the Second Vatican Council, theChurch recovered the Trinitarian concept ofmission, recognizing herself as a collaborator.Benedict XVI affirmed, “we should learn thesimplest and most fundamental lesson of theCouncil: namely, that Christianity in its essenceconsists of faith in God which is TrinitarianLove”.14 The Church finds its identity in mis-sion. Paul VI wrote, “Evangelizing is in fact thegrace and vocation proper to the Church, herdeepest identity. She exists in order to evange-lize, that is to say, in order to preach and teach,to be the channel of the gift of grace”.15

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis callsupon all People of God to live “permanently ina state of mission”.16 He comes to identify thevery life of the Church with mission; “My mis-sion of being in the heart of the people is notjust a part of my life or a badge I can take off;it is not an ‘extra’ or just another moment in life.

13 Cf. VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Decree on theMission Activity of the Church Ad Gentes (December 7,1965), 1-4.

14 BENEDICT XVI, General Audience (October 10, 2012).15 PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi

(December 8, 1975), 14.16 FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium

(November 24, 2013), 25.

67


Instead, it is something I cannot uproot from mybeing without destroying my very self. I am amission on this earth; that is the reason why I amhere in this world. We have to regard ourselvesas sealed, even branded, by this mission ofbringing light, blessing, enlivening, raising up,healing and freeing”.17 The missionary mandateof Jesus is a resonance of the communion ofTrinitarian love and an invitation to give it,under the impulse of the Spirit, a concrete ex-pression in time and space. The Church only hasmeaning as a means of communicating this love.She participates in God’s mission in this way.

39. “God himself can create his Church, thatGod is the first agent: if God does not act,our things are only ours and are insufficient;only God can testify that it is He who speaksand has spoken. Pentecost is the condition ofthe birth of the Church […] God is always thebeginning”.18

In Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis remindsus, “though it is true that this mission demandsgreat generosity on our part, it would be wrongto see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it

17 Ivi, 273.18 BENEDICT XVI, Meditation during the First Congrega-

tion of the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod ofBishops (October 8, 2012).

68


is first and foremost the Lord’s work, surpassinganything which we can see and understand.Jesus is ‘the first and greatest evangelizer’.In every activity of evangelization, the primacyalways belongs to God, who has called us tocooperate with him and who leads us on by thepower of his Spirit”.19

The Spirit decides Paul’s steps and the desti-nation of his journey. The apostle is perplexedand uncertain about a journey that seems tomove forward without developing what has al-ready been sown.

40. We are used to thinking that we havebeen sent to spread something that belongs tous, that has been entrusted to only us. Our taskis to watch out for, to sense, to recognize inhuman places the seed that sprouts and grows.It is up to us to take care of it, freeing the field ofeverything that hinders growth so that the seedscan bear abundant crop (cf. Mt 13:4-9,19-24).This is humility of missionary service. “The realnewness is the newness which God himself mys-teriously brings about and inspires, provokes,guides and accompanies in a thousand ways.The life of the Church should always reveal


69


clearly that God takes the initiative, that he hasloved us first (1Jn 4:10) and that he alone givesthe growth (1Cor 3:7)”.20

In fact, mission is not proselytism or practicalactivism, it is communication of love in thepower of the Holy Spirit. “Let us therefore pre-serve our fervor of spirit. Let us preserve thedelightful and comforting joy of evangelizing[…] May it mean for us – as it did for John theBaptist, for Peter and Paul, for the otherapostles and for a multitude of splendid evange-lizers all through the Church’s history – an inte-rior enthusiasm that nobody and nothing canquench. May it be the great joy of our conse-crated lives. And may the world of our time,which is searching, sometimes with anguish,sometimes with hope, be enabled to receive theGood News not from evangelizers who are de-jected, discouraged, impatient or anxious, butfrom ministers of the Gospel whose lives glowwith fervor, who have first received the joy ofChrist, and who are willing to risk their lives sothat the kingdom may be proclaimed and theChurch established in the midst of the world”.21

20 Idem.21 PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi

(December 8, 1975), 80.

70


Witnesses in the Church

41. Mission is more than diakonia and apos-tolic works; it covers all dimensions of our life ofspecial consecration that is called to “becomemission”,22 to become the proclamation of theGood News of the Kingdom of God and therecognition and prophecy of its silent presenceamong us. Consecrated men and women “at thedeepest level of their being are caught up in thedynamism of the Church’s life, which is thirstyfor the divine Absolute and called to holiness.It is to this holiness that they bear witness.They embody the Church in her desire to giveherself completely to the radical demands of thebeatitudes. By their lives they are a sign of totalavailability to God, the Church and the breth-ren. As such they have a special importance inthe context of the witness which, as we havesaid, is of prime importance in evangelization”.23

We participate in the Church’s mission infull, overcoming the limits of our Institutes. Ev-ery form of consecrated life is therefore called tomake what the Church endorses and indicates as



71


her mission in the modern world visible in itslife and good works.

The invitation resounds as an urgent impera-tive: recognize where the Spirit is directing usthrough the demands that the Church makes ofus and think of ways to listen and encounter soas to harmonize the charisms and projects ofcommunion with evangelical courage. All conse-crated life in its many forms – virginal, monastic,apostolic, secular – is missionary.

The origins, an invitation to the Gospel

42. In his Apostolic Letter addressed to allconsecrated persons, Pope Francis invites us togratitude, passion and hope.24 The Church’sgratitude towards consecrated persons whose“apostolate is often marked by an originality, bya brilliance that demands admiration. They aregenerous: often they are found at the outposts ofthe mission, and they take the greatest of risksfor their health and their very lives. Truly theChurch owes them much”.25 The missionary his-tory of consecrated men and women lived out in

24 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People onthe Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 21,2014).


72


religious Family, Order, Congregation and Insti-tute honors and fecundates the Church over thecenturies. Our history shines with witness ofsanctity and stories of martyrs that told and tellof the primacy of God, the creativity of theSpirit and its transformative power in the livesof people, fraternities and active collectivesmarked by the Gospel. From the cloister ofcontemplative Orders – where lives of peopleshas always resounded – to the pulpits of knowl-edge, to rural schools and provinces, from par-ish communities to places where illnesses arecured, from the chapels where we pray to thestreets of the world where we proclaim, to com-munity centers, to the forges where work makestime sacred, and from dispensaries to shelters,to the crossroads of the forgotten and the home-less, consecrated life has tried to be a sign ofGod’s nearness.

Our Founders and Foundresses, obedient tothe action of the Spirit, accepted His charismsso that his Church could shine in the world.Pope Francis affirms, “the most beautiful expe-rience, though, is the discovery of all the differ-ent charisms and all the gifts of his Spirit thatthe Father showers on his Church! […] Andwhen the Church, in the variety of her charisms,is expressed in communion, she cannot be mi-

73


staken: it is the beauty and the power of thesensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of faithwhich is bestowed by the Holy Spirit”.26

43. Within the variety of wounded humansituations, the Spirit gave rise to diakonia, initia-tive and brilliance through his charisms thatoffered the ointment of solidarity and tender-ness, dignity and hope. In their origins andthroughout their many stages of development,all of our Families have known the blossomingof unexpected mediations and of new journeysof fraternity and prophetic diakonia.

Let us not forget the grace of the origins, thehumility and the smallness of beginnings thatmade God’s work transparent in the lives andmessages of those who were full of wonder andwho set out on their journeys along unpavedroads and unbeaten paths. For us, the origins ofour history in the Church will always be aninvitation to the purity of the Good News, ablazing horizon full of the Holy Spirit’s creativ-ity, an agon by which we can measure our truthas disciples and missionaries.

The Pentecost of our origins may be far off;the sound of a powerful wind may fall silent, thetongues of fire (cf. Ac 2:1-3) may not be visible to

26 FRANCIS, General Audience (October 1, 2014).

74


our eyes of the flesh and it could seem as thoughwe are mute. Like Paul, we would like to goback to the lands and among the people wealready know. We are temped by what is alreadydone, by the quest for daily certainties, forknown journeys and for visibility that is far fromthe Gospel’s way. “I invite you to have a faiththat can recognize the wisdom of weakness.In the joys and afflictions of the present time,when the harshness and weight of the crossmake themselves felt, do not doubt that thekenosis of Christ is already a paschal victory.Precisely in our limitations and weaknesses ashuman beings we are called to live conformationwith Christ in an all-encompassing commitmentwhich anticipates the eschatological perfection,to the extent that this is possible in time. In asociety of efficiency and success, your life,marked by the ‘humility’ and frailty of the lowly,of empathy with those who have no voice, be-comes an evangelical sign of contradiction”.27

44. Consecrated life, attentive to the signsof the times and places, has known how torespond with creativity, courage and real “ge-

27 BENEDICT XVI, Homily for the Feast of the Presentationof the Lord, 17th World Day of Consecrated Life (February 2,2013).

75


nius”,28 as Blessed Paul VI wrote in EvangeliiNuntiandi, to the spiritual, cultural and socialneeds that arose, while always passing throughthe paschal mystery of the Lord. Participating inthe joys and pains of humanity has shown themost human aspect of the Church.

We have been present in places of pain, ig-norance, exclusion and lack of meaning, placeswhere the horizon would darken until finallygoing out in the night.

We have been beside those who seek the faceof God in daily life and sometimes in the tiringflow of human affairs, and in solidarity, we haveshared our bread and our time, our joy andour hope.

More than a few people have found hospital-ity and company within religious communitiesand their works that have given them the moti-vation and strength to start living again.

45. The Church’s missionary history coin-cides in large part with the history of conse-crated life. Over the course of the centuries,many consecrated persons have crossed thefrontiers of their home countries for the work ofthe Spirit, like when Paul and his friends set sail

28 Cf. PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi(December 8, 1975), 69.

76


towards Troas (cf. Ac 16:6-8). Many of themknew how to show deep appreciation for peoplethey met and their cultures. In the past, theyhelped defend them from the threats of coloniz-ers; today, they defend cultures to protect themfrom those who control the processes of global-ization out of disdain for the cultural singularityof minorities. In every age, consecrated menand women have contributed to the dialoguebetween cultures and religious traditions, foster-ing dignity and identity for many peoples whohad been marginalized and humiliated by thepowers of the time.

The various expressions of mission (initia-tives, works, options, presences, deeds) born ofthe charisms of Orders, Congregations, Societ-ies of Apostolic Life and Secular Institutes makeup the Church’s remarkable and bright patri-mony that has contributed to keeping its mis-sionary energy alive.

Aware of weakness

46. Today we are asked to welcome graceand limits with the courage of discernment.We are called to conversion. We have inheritedmany institutions and projects from the pastthat have been instruments at the service ofthe Church and society. The Lord’s call has

77


not always found its desired echo in the heartsof consecrated persons and their institutions.Our history has not always been written in thelanguage of transparency and love required byGospel proclamation, the mission entrusted byJesus to His Church. There have been timeswhen the lack of evangelical witness has de-based the message’s credibility. At times, therehas been evangelization with imposition andwith a sense of superiority, abusing human lib-erty. Missionaries have not always known howto recognize the presence of God in the culturesand traditions they found in the places theywere sent.

Our judgment, according to the Gospel, of-ten had to regret our inability to be close tothose who wanted to share their desperationand hope with us. We acknowledge with regretthat there have been situations in which ourpeople and our Communities – Orders, Insti-tutes, Societies – have let themselves be pulledinto the orbit of the powerful and rich in orderto share their ideas and style, betraying the com-mitment to the poor and the excluded. At times,the temptation of worldliness, present in many,often subtle, forms, has gained victory overour evangelical choices. Fear has blocked ourfreedom to denounce that which is opposedGod’s plans.

78


It humiliates us to think how often the mis-sionary task has been damaged by the monopo-listic and short-sighted self-centeredness ofone’s works, by the reciprocal distrust in theshared responsibility and by the idolatry of one’sfounders. It has anguished us in recent decadesto have betrayed the trust of families who en-trusted us with their children and youth forformative courses.

We listen with humility to the voices ofpeople and of events that, from the peripheries,continue to require our loyalty. The memory ofour origins can help us to regain trust in thepower of the Spirit. I have neither silver norgold, but I will give you what I have: in the nameof Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk! (Ac 3:6).

“We cannot leave things as they are”

47. The heart of Christian proclamation isinescapably social, and the Holy Spirit that“seeks to penetrate every human situation andall social bonds” 29 knows how to “untangle theknots of even the most complex and impen-etrable human affairs”.30 Therefore, “an authen-


30 JOHN PAUL II, General Audience (April 24, 1991).

79


tic faith – which is never comfortable or com-pletely personal – always involves a deep desireto change the world, to transmit values, to leavethis earth somehow better that we found it”.31

We must move forward following two guide-lines, both of which are necessary and urgent.

The first is the renewal of ordinary pastoralministry, which should be aimed at seizing everyopportunity to let the freshness of the goodnews be known. The second is made up of newmissionary proposals and initiatives to be putinto action with creativity and courage. In bothcases, we are called to show the beauty of Christin a credible way. If it is true that the Church“has never tired of making known to the wholeworld the beauty of the Gospel”,32 it is no lesstrue that, in the face of the crisis of moderntotality and the triumph of post-modern frag-mentation, it is now more urgent than ever topropose to the people of our time that whole inthe fragment,33 the beauty that saves.


32 BENEDICT XVI, Apostolic Letter in the form of MotuProprio Ubicumque et Semper (September 21, 2010).

33 H.U. VON BALTHASAR, Il tutto nel frammento, Jaca Book,Milan 1972.

80


Principles of Evangelii Gaudium

48. In his Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,Pope Francis offers four key principles to guideus in “building a people in peace, justice andfraternity” 34 and to help us put into practicewhat we have heard and learned from the Wordand from the poor. These guidelines, the Popeunderlines, “also apply to evangelization” andare valid “within each nation and in the entireworld”.35 They are guiding principles, standardsthat everyone can aspire to, in politics and eco-nomics, in society and in the Church. Especiallyin her mission to proclaim the good news.

In stating these four principles, the Holy Fa-ther starts with a vision of the Church as apolyhedron that is the union of all its parts andthat, in its unity, maintains the distinctiveness ofall the individual parts.36

49. Time is greater than space.37 Time beginsthe processes that require knowing how to wait;we need to initiate processes rather than occupyspaces of power. We must patiently favor the


35 Idem.36 Cf. Ivi, 236.37 Cf. Ivi, 222-225.

81


beginning of processes regardless of the questfor immediate results and the control that oursense of responsibility and our good inten-tions could lead us to. The encyclical LumenFidei points out that “space hardens pro-cesses, whereas time propels towards thefuture and encourages us to go forward inhope”.38 The parable of the wheat and darnel(cf. Mt 13:24-30,36-43) provides an evangelicalexample.

“Reaching a level of maturity where indi-viduals can make truly free and responsibledecisions calls for much time and patience.As Blessed Peter Faber used to say: ‘Time isGod’s messenger’”.39

50. Unity prevails over conflict.40 We arecalled to accept conflicts and to bear theirweight without washing our hands of them, butalso without becoming trapped by them, so thatwe can transform them into new processes thatallow for communion in differences and that arereceived as such. “Communion also consists inconfronting together and in a united fashion the

38 FRANCIS, Encyclical Letter Lumen Fidei (June 29,2013), 57.


40 Cf. Ivi, 226-230.

82


most pressing questions of our day, such as life,the family, peace, the fight against poverty inall its forms, religious freedom and education.In particular, New Movements and Communi-ties are called to coordinate their efforts in car-ing for those wounded by a globalized mentalitywhich places consumption at the centre, ne-glecting God and those values which are essen-tial for life”.41

51. Realities are more important than ideas.42

In his third principle, Pope Francis reaffirms theprevalence of reality with strength and effec-tiveness. This idea – as previously mentioned –is the result a thought process that always runsthe risk of falling victim to sophistry and so,detaching from reality. For the Pope, realitiesare always superior to ideas. Within our Insti-tutes, we risk formulating logical and clear pro-posals, document after document, that deviatefrom our reality and the reality of the people weare sent to. We let ourselves become caught upin the newness of projects and initiatives and weforget that the most important change depends

41 FRANCESCO, Address to Participants in the Third WorldCongress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities(November 22, 2014).

42 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium(November 24, 2013), 231-233.

83


on us and our desire and ability to make ithappen. The logic of incarnation (1Jn 4:2) is theguideline of this principle. “Not to put the wordinto practice, not to make it reality, is to buildon sand, to remain in the realm of pure ideasand to end up in a lifeless and unfruitful self-centeredness and gnosticism”.43 This is evenmore valuable in our digital society that is inun-dated with words, information, facts, imagesand intellectual chatter that often reduces faith,politics and personal and social relationships tomere rhetoric.

52. The whole is greater than the part.44

We are called expand our vision so as to alwaysrecognize the greater good. This principleshould be understood according to the imageof the polyhedron that composes differences.These differences must be supported by a cul-ture of dialogue as a laborious quest for thegeneral interest: we are invited to find ties andrelationships to articulate that which is non-homogeneous on different levels (from morelocal to more global) and in different environ-ments (from more material to more spiritual).

43 Ivi, 233.44 Cf. Ivi, 235-237.

84


Raising questions

53. Charisms in consecrated life, primarilyfounding charisms, must shine with this ecclesialparadigm. Presently, it seems as though conse-crated life has lowered the missionary anchor inports that are tried, safe, private. This is howsailing is abandoned on Peter’s boat: althoughrisky, and at times, in the middle of the bil-lows, it always has the security of Jesus Christ’spresence (cf. Mk 4:35-41). Effort and the graceof discernment are needed so that foundingcharisms pose questions about the emergenciesin history that require a response. Identifyingproblems, questions and responses is the deci-sive starting point for every form of consecratedlife. Our missionary responses cannot be basedsolely on the criterion of efficacy and efficiency.Instead, they should be based on the evaluationof the credibility and evangelical reliability ofthe gift of the Spirit entrusted to us for the goodof the Church. “Are our ministries, our worksand our presence consonant with what theSpirit asked of our Founders and Foundresses?Are they suitable for carrying out today, in soci-ety and the Church, those same ministries andworks? Do we have the same passion for ourpeople, are we close to them to the point ofsharing in their joys and sorrows, thus truly

85


understanding their needs and helping to re-spond to them?”.45

Our mission is space of creativity producedby the encounter of charism with history.A charism that excludes itself from ecclesialcomparison and from history, thereby limitingitself to a closed circuit, risks transforming com-munities into a space for only initiates of allegedstrong identity. In reality, it sentences itself to aweak identity focused on itself, without horizon.

We invite you to look at your own charis-matic and missionary experience with truth sothat it is not just a name that identifies theInstitute, but the relationship that was born be-tween the Founders, the times that followedthem, and history, creating the history of salva-tion. The present does allow closed horizons.The mission must be reevaluated, not onlywithin the horizon of communio Ecclesiarum, anecclesiological given of no return, but especially,in the awareness that today other horizons in-vade and segment ours.

45 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People onthe Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 21,2014), I, 2.

86


A pedagogy of reliability

54. Charismatic identity becomes missionwhen it transforms into a personal, collectiveand ecclesial project. We are invited to raiseand pose questions without the demand for im-mediate answers, which leave us with the rest-lessness to question ourselves again. It is theroot of a mission that projects beyond our hori-zon. When individuals and fraternities practi-cally remove the desire and the tension to posequestions to themselves, they experience a phe-nomenon of domesticated resignation whereroutine becomes quiet life and diversities loseimportance.

Motivation and demotivation. In the Westernworld an inevitable reduction in numbers and anew demand for apostolic reliability are takingplace. The first, in many cases, has slowed downthe regeneration of resources: lack of new voca-tions, decrease in numbers, increase in deaths,casting off of property and cessation of apostolicwork. The second, while less perceived, is aprocess of progressive demotivation of the indi-vidual consecrated persons or fraternities andcommunities that generates indifference to-wards any kind of change. Motivation is theresource par excellence that allows us to identifypossible ecclesial synergies for shared service,

87


even when resources are scarce. Motivationcombined with the realistic assessment of re-sources clarifies the chance of supporting orien-tations of change and requires functional deci-sions. Being able to evaluate expectations of thefuture – avoiding alarmism – helps prepare pos-sible strategies.

Diffusive process. Planning is ideation, that is,a diffusive process: ideas are transmitted by con-tagion. An attitude of open-mindedness, andespecially of conversion, is needed: let us reworkour common patrimony of norms, values andmental maps to revive it.

Without accepted and shared motivations, itis unlikely that individuals, communities andInstitutes will develop visions and have capabili-ties for the future. We can say that a motiva-tional conversion of the group is taking place ifthe time of indecision is seen as collective dam-age and if it is willing to converge towards acommon denominator.

Reliability. In assemblies of participation andconsultation, consecrated men and women oftenpromise more than they can deliver. This is anunderrated dimension in which the group’scapital of reliability is at risk. Everyone is calledto willingness, which translates into understand-

88


ing and sharing through attitudes that are re-peated and confirmed over time. This is howstable trust and cooperation arise.

55. In response to the decided signs ofchange taking place in consecrated life, we seenostalgic reactions, the repression of problemsand resignation emerge. The time for opportu-nity is missed. We invite you to a renewed peda-gogy of reliability. The decisions and choicesare the near missionary future “capable oftransforming everything”.46 They call upon usto work together in the territories we are in.The creativity required by this new evangeliza-tion will be fruit of the Spirit who createdcharisms and can recreate them and make themliving agents of evangelization on communionaljourneys.

By itself, no religious institution can have thelight and strength to deal with the complexity oftoday. The fecundity of the relationship bet-ween hierarchical and charismatic gifts is per-ceived: the Holy Spirit “brings about that won-derful communion of the faithful. He bringsthem into intimate union with Christ, so that


89


He is the principle of the Church’s unity”.47

The coessentiality between the episcopate andcharisms, and between the Petrine and Marianaspects, indicates to us another fundamentalplace of communion for the mission “with allthose who in the Church are involved in thesame undertaking, especially the Bishops”.48

47 CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH, LetterIuvenescit Ecclesia to the Bishops of the Catholic ChurchRegarding the Relationship between Hierarchical and Char-ismatic Gifts in the Life and Mission of the Church (May 15,2016), IV, 13.


90


OUTSIDE THE GATES


One night Paul had a vision: A Mace-donian appeared and appealed to him inthese words, “Come across to Macedoniaand help us”.Sailing from Troas we made a straight runfor Samothrace; the next day for Nepalis,and from there for Philippi, a Romancolony and the principal city of that par-ticular district of Macedonia. After a fewdays in this city we went along the riveroutside the gates it was the sabbath andthis was a customary place for prayer.We sat down and preached to the womenwho had come to the meeting. One ofthese women was called Lydia, a devoutwoman from the town of Thyatira whowas in the purple-dye trade. She listenedto us, and the Lord opened her heart toaccept what Paul was saying. After sheand her household had been baptised shesent us an invitation: “If you really thinkme a true believer in the Lord”, she said,“come and stay with us”; and she wouldtake no refusal.

Ac 16:9,11-15


Listening

56. Holy Scripture offers us many possibili-ties to inspire, enlighten and guide the dynamicof going forth in our existence. We have chosena page from the Acts of the Apostles (16:1-40):Apostle Paul’s crossing into Macedonia. This iswhere the evangelization of the worlds and cul-tures of the Roman Empire begins. It takes placeduring Paul’s second missionary journey withSilas and Timothy. Let’s take a close look at themain events while underlining the most impor-tant aspects.

After the Council of Jerusalem and the solu-tion of tensions in Antioch (cf. Ac 15:22-35),with the encouraging help of Judas and Silas,Barnabas and Paul stay in that community wherethey taught and proclaimed the Good News, theword of the Lord (Ac 15:35). Later, they decideto go back and visit all the towns where theypreached the word of the Lord (Ac 15:36). How-ever, a disagreement about Mark immediatelyinterrupts their collaboration: Barnabas goesto Cyprus, and Paul goes towards Syria and

95


Cilicia with Silas (Ac 15:39-41) and later, withTimothy as well.

In Asia Minor, they visit the communitiesfounded on the first missionary journey and passon the decisions reached by the apostles and el-ders in Jerusalem (Ac 16:4). But strangely, theyare not able to travel inland: they are mysteri-ously hindered by the Spirit, the unpredictableprotagonist. They decide to head north towardsTroas. It is in this context that Paul has thevision during the night of a Macedonian whoappeals: Come across to Macedonia and help us!(Ac 16:9). Once he had seen this vision we lost notime in arranging a passage to Macedonia, con-vinced that God had called us to bring themthe Good News (Ac 16:10). It is perhaps adream or a nightmare, but it is seen as a callthat they answer, losing no time (Ac 16:10-11),by setting sail.

This is how the evangelization of the Euro-pean continent begins: with the city of Philippiwhich inhabited by Roman settlers and armyveterans and has no stable synagogue or otherorganized religious structures. The preachers,who had relied upon the synagogues for the firstproclamation, now find themselves forced toinvent new opportunities for encounter.

96


57. We went along the river outside the gatesas it was the sabbath and this was a customaryplace for prayer. We sat down and preached to thewomen who had come to the meeting (Ac 16:13).Being familiar with the religious practices andregulations of the time, the missionaries expectto find people along the river, outside the gates,or near the springs for the ritual ablutions.In fact, running water was necessary. No un-usual signs can be seen, everything is normal:sitting, speaking and conversing with some ofthe women present. Paul, who had a rabbinicformation and had been taught to not wastetime on women, must adapt: We preached to thewomen who had come to the meeting (Ac 16:13).

Familiar style, informal conversation: a seedsown in hope.

One of these women was called Lydia, a de-vout woman (Ac 16:14). Among the womenpresent, there is a woman who works in thepurple-dye trade, Lydia of Thyatira, a cityknown for its textile production and which isalso mentioned in the Book of Revelation(cf. Rv 1:11; 2:18-19). This woman is open to theJewish religious values: the text says seboménêton Theòn, worshiper/devout woman of God(v. 14; cf. 13:43; 10:2). Luke likes to point out asexamples certain people who are at the thresh-

97


old of faith: Lydia is “listening” (present con-tinuous) with her friends to what Paul is saying.

The Lord opened her heart to accept what Paulwas saying (Ac 16:14). The initiative for theconversation, in the sincere willingness of anattentive heart, comes from the Lord; it is Hewho opens the heart up to faith, kindles it andconvinces it (cf. Lk 24:45). God’s action is ex-pressed using bold words: the Greek verb(diènoixen) refers to the dilation of a woman’suterus so that life can be born. For Lydia, whowas already a devout woman, it means lettingherself be led to life in full, “coming to thelight”, “leaving the womb”. Also, the verb toadhere (prosékein) indicates to hold on to, toseize, to find solidity. Lydia reaches the solidground of faith, stable maturity.

58. After she and her household had beenbaptised she sent us an invitation: “If you reallythink me a true believer in the Lord”, she said,“come and stay with us”; and she would takeno refusal (Ac 16:15). The hospitality thatLydia insists on offering to the missionaries con-firms the fullness of her adhesion to the faith.The woman feels that it is her duty to put intopractice what she has accepted and what she islearning: to share one’s possessions. Thus, herhouse becomes a place of meeting and prayer.

98


Paul, who is attached to his autonomy schema,is “compelled” to accept a serious change in me-thod (cf. Ac 18:3; 1Th 2:9; 2Th 3:8; 1Co 4:12;9:13-15; Ph 4:15-16). The word forced us (para-biàsato) [to stay] (v. 15) also refers to this. Lydia,charmed by God and given life, now charms andinstills strength: welcoming prevails.

59. Let’s look briefly at the development ofthis community founded on prayer. While theywere going to prayer (v. 16) a slave-girl, who wasa soothsayer and exploited by her masters, keptfollowing Paul and his friends, shouting to ev-eryone that those foreign men were servants ofthe Most High God (v. 18). Paul loses his temperand drives the spirit of divination out of her.In doing this, he ruins the business of the wom-an’s exploiters who then begin spreading wordthat the new preachers are subverting religiouspractices. The magistrates believe them withoutmaking many inquiries; they have the missionar-ies flogged and put into prison.

Despite the suffering and injustice, Paul,Barnabas and Timothy continue singing God’spraises, while the other prisoners listened (v. 25).While they are praying, there is a kind of earth-quake; the chains fall and all the doors fly open.The gaoler, awakened by the event, thinks theprisoners are escaping and wants to kill himself.

99


Paul reassures him, and the gaoler begins caringfor the prisoners and washing their wounds, inthe end agreeing to be baptised with his house-hold and offering to host the celebration at hishome (vv. 26-34). Paul discovers friends anddisciples where he least expected. Another fam-ily becomes a protagonist in the construction ofthe community at Philippi, which is built, be-yond any plan or expectation, between thehouse of a matron and a gaoler. The next day,Paul is set free. Although an injustice had beencommitted against him as a Roman citizen, civisromanus, it is prudent for him to leave the city:They came and begged them to leave leave thetown (v. 39). But first, Paul passes by Lydia’shouse; he meets the brothers and they encour-age each other before he leaves for Thessalonika(v. 40). The missionary adventure continues.

60. Agreeing to be hosted at Lydia’s housefree of charge, which had been a forced deci-sion, becomes a providential resource. Paul willcontinue to pay special attention to the commu-nity at Philippi: as his letter to the Philippiansreveals. He will learn of their developments andcrises from Timothy and receives support forhis work only from them (cf. Ph 4:15-16).Apart from his nostalgia and affection, he givesthem an extraordinary Christological hymn

100


(Ph 2:6-11), interpreting the sentiments withwhich he had been welcomed and helped.We can draw many inspiring values from thisepisode that can guide us in our situations andmissionary adventures.

61. Without a doubt, Philippi was an un-known and a risk, but if one knows how to readGod’s signs – the vision of the Macedonian inthe night is seen as a call from God (cf. v. 10) –he can see new opportunities that call to explorenew lands. The lack of stable institutions sharp-ens the imagination, and missionaries sensewhere to find someone to start with: along theriver outside the gates (v. 13). Paul sows byimprovising, but it is the Lord who opens heartsto the adherence of faith and who inspires cer-tain forced actions: constraint is fruit of Lydia’sgenerosity, but also of her coherence with thepracticed faith. Two families are involved in thisfirst adventure: the family of the rich and boldmatron and that of the gaoler, a man accus-tomed to abuse and transformed by the surpriseof grace in witness of acts of tenderness andgenerosity.

Difficulties, risks and wounds have becomesymbols and mediations of newness, whichare only later understood. It is a challenge tobreak the mold, an exercise of faith and com-

101


munion with no guarantees or definite re-sources. This was a transition into maturity withhuman wisdom, but also with parrhesia andboldness, which allowed new paths to the Gos-pel to open in a different culture and with dif-ferent protagonists.

62. Going outside the gates remains a symbolof all of the goings forth of our Founders andFoundresses who we remember, praising theircourage and genius. We have learned how toremember the fragile experiences, the condi-tions of poverty and unjust suffering and therisky improvisations experienced in our originsby Founders and Foundresses. It is not onlyabout the moving memory, we cannot reduceeverything to golden legends, but about recover-ing the state of invention and charism in statunascenti. Opportunities that we must always re-cover and experience, with boldness, but alsowith concrete willingness. Even a nightmare canreveal itself to be a “call” from God!

In the mindset that generates and transforms

63. Paul’s apostolic journey outlines a newgeography of Christian proclamation. The mis-sionaries, who are prepared to change directionaccording to the compass of the Spirit, follow a

102


path that leads from Jerusalem to new territo-ries, cultures and peoples. They cross Phrygia,Galatia, Mysia, Bithynia and travel to Troas,they try to travel to Macedonia, sail towardsSamothrace and Neapolis, and arrive in Phil-ippi. They stay there, but they do not stop.There is another path to take: the one that leadsfrom the gates of the city along the river.

Paul and Silas inhabit the world in the sign ofreal encounter and ferial conversation, in every-day places where life is spent without false ide-alities and where it regenerates. Pope Francisinvites us to experience reality: “We have poli-ticians – and even religious leaders – who won-der why people do not understand and followthem, since their proposals are so clear andlogical. Perhaps it is because they are stuck inthe realm of pure ideas and end up reducingpolitics or faith to rhetoric. Others have leftsimplicity behind and have imported a rational-ity foreign to most people”.1 Paul and Silas meetmen and women in places where life flows withits baggage from work, anxiety, feelings anddesires, and tell them of the passion that inhab-its them. This inner vision does not fear discus-sion and concreteness; it becomes a new mind-


103


set that is capable of generating new horizonsand new opportunities and therefore, capable ofacting and transforming. It becomes generativemovement.

Pedagogy of secularity

64. The secularity of culture, which will de-grade in secularization, poses a question that isstill valid today for theological reflection, forwitness and Christian proclamation and espe-cially, for formation to mission. We could say itis a pedagogy of secularity, that is, an attentionin which the entire person educates himself toexperience the world with a Christian soul,searching for the creative mark that God has lefton him. This process, which we can define as aprocess of wisdom and as generative of evangeli-cal life, should be part of the formation of con-secrated men and women according to theirspecific form of life.

In Evangelii Gaudium, the following questionis quietly present: Is secularity, a complex andcontradictory phenomenon, unrelated and op-posed to Christian faith, or on the contrary, is itconsistent with its essence? The Church recog-nizes the secular entity of the world entrusted byGod to man’s responsibility. At the same time,the Church exists in open solidarity with it, not

104


to make it sacred but to make it the seed ofsanctification. Experiencing the world, there-fore, is an archetype to combine the propheticmission of the Church with. According to thedoctrine of Gaudium et Spes which talks about alegitimate secularity of society, worldly and pro-fane realities have their own autonomy and rea-son for being. “For by the very circumstance oftheir having been created, all things are en-dowed with their own stability, truth, goodness,proper laws and order”.2 Deeper involvement inthe secular world can be a way to God because“earthly matters and the concerns of faith derivefrom the same God. Indeed whoever labors topenetrate the secrets of reality with a humbleand steady mind, even though he is unaware ofthe fact, is nevertheless being led by the hand ofGod, who holds all things in existence, and givesthem their identity”.3

65. Mission requires delicate balance: code-termining the path of the secular world withoutwanting to determine it.4 The Church, Pope

2 VATICAN II ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitutionon the Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes (De-cember 7, 1965), 36.

3 Idem.4 Cf. K. RAHNER, Riflessioni teologiche sulla secolarizzazi-

one e sull’ateismo, in Nuovi Saggi IV, Paoline, Rome 1964-1985, 244-257.

105


Francis affirms, “stands by people at every stepof the way, no matter how difficult or lengthythis may prove to be. It is familiar with patientexpectation and apostolic endurance” while it“consists mostly of patience and disregard forconstraints of time”.5

The Word was the true light that enlightensall men; and he was coming into the world.He was in the world that had its being throughhim, and the world did not know him (Jn 1:9-10):this Word is fulfilled in secular conditions.The paradigm of the theology of God in theworld, incarnation, can only be expressedthrough secular categories.

Secularity has been indicated as “the properand specific character” of that form of conse-crated life incarnated in secular institutes.6 To-day, the relationship with the world interpellatesall forms of consecrated life in every dimension:our existence and our attitudes of dialogue, wit-ness and mission. Paul walks out of the gatesand along the river; he immerses himself in secu-larity, confronting his faith and allowing themeeting to educate him in the newness of the


6 PIUS XII, Motu Proprio Primo Feliciter (March 12,1948), 5.

106


Spirit. The Church is called to enter into thishermeneutical process to witness the effort ofthe search and the bliss of a beyond: “The hu-man experience is not only an experience of thisand that, an experience well-defined in its con-tents, but it is an experience of the finitenessthat leads to an infinite horizon”.7

66. Passion makes us friends with life andfriends with men, part of humanity that dreamof a more just and fraternal future. It is nice tothink about a consecrated man in a secular in-stitute who turned his work in the world into amissionary song: “Our ‘programme’ of sanctifi-cation has been upset; we believed that the silentwalls of prayer were sufficient! We believed thatclosed within the internal fortress of prayer wecould stay apart from the problems that weretroubling the world; […] a situation that tells usthat Jesus’ cry: go and proclaim the Good Newsto every creature, or rather take up your crossand follow me is not a mere expression of piety.We have to change society! […] we have to getinvolved, sharpen our tools; we need reflection,culture, word, work, etc., as well as plows toplow the field of new effort and weapons to fight

7 K. RAHNER, cit., in R. GIBELLINI, La teologia del XX se-colo, Queriniana, Brescia 72014, 241.

107


our battle of transformation and love. We musttransform the flawed structures of the humancity; repair the ruined houses of man, accordingto the principal commandment of charity”.8

Such incarnation becomes a formative necessity,a continuous pedagogy to implement withoutconsidering it in any way fulfilled.

The generational relationship

67. The crisis of the relationships and com-munication between generations is a significantphenomenon of our time. The widespreadconfusion regarding identity, age, role and feel-ings that conditions the exchange between gen-erations defines our society as adolescentric.The crisis we are experiencing in relationships atevery level is closely related to the concept ofpersonal freedom. The personalist principle ofconditional freedom was replaced by the per-missive principle of unconditional freedom,which today is understood as the simple possi-bility to do something, as opposed to the possi-bility to choose to do something. We are expe-riencing a crisis of proposed values: there are noreferences to the fundamental rules shaped onthe nature of human beings.

8 G. LA PIRA, Le città sono vive, La Scuola, Brescia 2005.

108


The young men and women that we welcomewith us in the ‘sequela’ of Christ and in missionare the post-modern generation. Their experi-ence gives us questions. All of us, but especiallyyoung people, are the result of cultural pro-cesses at work; in particular, the idea of theindividual who is debased, deprived of thesubstantiality that philosophers and theologiansattributed to him up until the modern age.This nihilistic premise creates a man who isdeprived of his individuality and who is repli-cated in multiple identities suited to a widerange of situations. The young generation doesnot know how to describe their malaise; theyexperience, with unperceived suffering, emo-tional illiteracy that keeps them from recogniz-ing their own feelings.

68. The new digital culture, this culture thatinvades personal, collective and social spaces,accelerates these processes. It contributes to themixing of beliefs, opinions, trends and choices,challenging people, agencies and designatedplaces to instill knowledge and values, theChurch included. “The means of social commu-nication”, as Saint John Paul II writes in hisencyclical Redemptoris Missio in 1990, “have be-come so important as to be for many the chiefmeans of information and education, of guid-

109


ance and inspiration in their behavior as in-dividuals, families and within society at large.In particular, the younger generation is growingup in a world conditioned by the mass media”.9

Through technology, codes of transmission andlanguages, the new digital culture builds upand tears down man’s identity, his ages andthe idea of the world, in an unresolvable crisis.The forms and figures of social relationshipsare redefined. The processes of mental con-struction and representations of the world, inother words, the very idea of reality, are reset.The digital culture that makes available to usand connects us to infinite possibilities of infor-mation and relationships opens up, with clearambivalence, to the deconstruction of the socialbonds that our identities are founded on. We goabout without values and without points of ref-erence, incapable of communication betweengenerations and genders, creating imaginary andfictitious worlds.

69. The generational crisis becomes a gen-erative provocation to construct real placeswhere, in the sign of encounter, we can grow inthe responsibility of the world and in it, ecclesial


110


mission: “Every generation has the task of en-gaging anew in the arduous search for the rightway to order human affairs; this task is neversimply completed. Yet every generation mustalso make its own contribution to establishingconvincing structures of freedom and of good,which can help the following generation as aguideline for the proper use of human freedom;hence, always within human limits, they providea certain guarantee also for the future”.10 Bene-dict XVI points out a problem which is at thecenter of international debate: intergenerationalresponsibility.

We invite you to accompany young conse-crated men and women by creating bonds ofknowledge and affection. They “call us to re-newed and expansive hope, for they representnew directions for humanity and open us up tothe future, lest we cling to a nostalgia for struc-tures and customs which are no longer life-giving in today’s world”.11 Constant listeningand frank dialogue between generations be-comes a place for encounter between the provo-cations of the modern world and consecrated

10 BENEDICT XVI, Encyclical Letter Spe Salvi (Novem-ber 30, 2007), 25.


111


life, a hermeneutical and creative space for newmethods and languages. A pedagogy of man andhis mystery of relationship: “It is helpful to lis-ten to young people and the elderly. Both rep-resent a source of hope for every people.The elderly bring with them memory and thewisdom of experience, which warns us not tofoolishly repeat our past mistakes. Young pe-ople call us to renewed and expansive hope, forthey represent new directions for humanity andopen us up to the future, lest we cling to anostalgia for structures and customs which areno longer life-giving in today’s world”.12

Comparison with reality

70. We are invited to experience the worldwith a commitment to encounter, to enter intorelation. Reality is structured through meaning-ful relationships and interactions and guidingvalues. Today, there is talk about meaningfulrelationality that does not exhaust with familybonds, but rather expands to the point of creat-ing a universal bond. It is through this mindsetthat John Paul II won over young people, com-municating commitment and hope, and thatPope Francis invites to a dynamic reality to-

12 Idem.

112


wards the most distant peripheries which hebrings from the margins and unknown fringes ofthe world back to the center and beyond inplanetary harmony: “We need to pay attentionto the global so as to avoid narrowness andbanality. Yet we also need to look to thelocal, which keeps our feet on the ground”.13

This prevents polarization. People can live“in an abstract, globalized universe, falling intostep behind everyone else, admiring the glitterof other people’s world, gaping and applaud-ing at all the right times” or they can become“a museum of local folklore, a world apart,doomed to doing the same things over and over,and incapable of being challenged by novelty orappreciating the beauty which God bestows be-yond their borders”.14

71. Pope Francis continues, “What calls usto action are realities illuminated by reason. For-mal nominalism has to give way to harmoniousobjectivity. Otherwise, the truth is manipulated,cosmetics take the place of real care for ourbodies”.15 And, “we constantly have to broadenour horizons and see the greater good which will

13 Ivi, 234.14 Idem.15 Ivi, 232.

113


benefit us all. But this has to be done withoutevasion or uprooting. We need to sink our rootsdeeper into the fertile soil and history of ournative place, which is a gift of God. We canwork on a small scale, in our own neighbour-hood, but with a larger perspective”.16

72. Reality requires creative conversion sothat we are not giving answers to questions thatno one is asking, thereby leaving the existentialquestions of men and women today withoutadequate answers; the ways of proclamationmust be reinvented. Creativity, and the boldnessthat it requires, makes us watchmen of themorning (cf. Is 21:11), capable of risking, of“abandon[ing] the complacent attitude thatsays: ‘We have always done it this way’”,17

of “rethinking the goals, structures, style andmethods of evangelization in their respectivecommunities”.18

Rethinking the structures will sometimes leadto taking existing structures, that are no longersuitable for transmitting the beauty of the GoodNews, out of consideration.19 Renewing the lan-guage is urgent for the comprehension of the

16 Ivi, 235.17 Ivi, 33.18 Idem.19 Cf. Ivi, 27.

114


Gospel. Putting the Gospel, the Church’s Mag-isterium, into words, images and symbols thatare meaningful in contemporary cultures is anarduous task even because of the limited Chris-tian memory many of our people have: few con-cepts and the absolute lack of framework.

The patterns and customs that we speakwith and through which we show the identityand values of consecrated life risk being her-metic and incomprehensible for most people.Pope Francis says, “I hope that all communitieswill devote the necessary effort to advancingalong the path of a pastoral and missionary con-version”.20

Plural conversion

73. Throughout the centuries, consecratedlife has been one of the realities of the Churchthat has had to face cultural diversities morethan the others: it cannot stop today. The pathof conversion that calls upon consecrated life tocreate fruitful relationships continues.

“It is easy to realize how strong the bond isthat unites the Church’s mission with the cul-ture and cultures”.21 Interpreting the Gospel re-

20 Ivi, 25.21 JOHN PAUL II, Message to Italian Bishops gathered in a

General Assembly in Collevalenza (November 11, 1996).

115


quires cultural decentralization. Is living theGospel in the encounter with cultures a paththat can renew consecrated life? Perfectae Cari-tatis invited us to a movement of updating.This led to greater familiarity with the world, inparticular with the poor and marginalized, andevangelical simplicity. Today, the interculturalreality demands that we continue this renewal.Evangelization cannot occur without a respect-ful approach to cultures, just like contact withcultures cannot occur without the abandoningof the self in the name of the Gospel. The futurethus calls us to two tensions: stability andchanges, it calls us to be a place of interactionbetween the particular and the universal.

We are invited to learn the difficult art ofrelating with the different and of cordial col-laboration to build together. Solitary commit-ments and efforts have no future because theyexclude us from the mystery of the Church ascommunion. Koinonìa is strengthened in theplurality in which God’s comprehensive wisdom(Ep 3:10) shines.

This is the great conversion that provokes usin practical choices as well. “I also hope for agrowth in communion between the members ofdifferent Institutes”. Pope Francis invites us togo forth “more courageously from the confinesof our respective Institutes and to work to-

116


gether, at the local and global levels, on projectsinvolving formation, evangelization, and socialaction. This would make for a more effectiveprophetic witness. No one contributes to thefuture in isolation, by his or her efforts alone,but by seeing himself or herself as part of a truecommunion which is constantly open to en-counter, dialogue, attentive listening and mutualassistance. Such a communion inoculates usfrom the disease of self-absorption. Consecratedmen and women are also called to true synergywith all other vocations in the Church, begin-ning with priests and the lay faithful, in order to‘spread the spirituality of communion, first of allin their internal life and then in the ecclesialcommunity, and even beyond its boundaries’”.22

With the peripheries in the heart

74. The consecrated life is called to carry outits mission in new ways and in new contexts, out-side the gates and along the river (cf. Ac 16:13).We feel called to be present, for evangelicalelection, in situations of misery and oppression,doubt and discomfort, fear and loneliness, to


117


show that God’s tenderness and his grief for thesuffering of his children know no limits.

Jesus invites us to go beyond, to take chanceson new paths, to collaborate with every man ofgood will to care for and watch over the seed ofhis Word so that it grows strong. This meanscoming out of indifference; it means bring-ing those who have been discarded from hu-manity’s journey out of anonymity and humilia-tion; it means not letting comforts, prejudices orpresumptuous improvisation have control overus. Ultimately, it means assuming the deepesthumanity, as Jesus Christ did. Paul and hisfriends did it by inventing new ways of reachingthe women and men of their time, living withthem in the ordinariness of life.

In the outposts

75. “The Church must step outside herself.To go where? To the outskirts of existence,whatever they may be, but she must step out.Jesus tells us: Go into all the world! Go! Preach!Bear witness to the Gospel (cf. Mk 16:15)”.23

One of the characteristics of Pope Francis’ mag-isterium: the invitation to shape a Church that

23 FRANCIS, Address of the Holy Father on the occasion ofVigil of Pentecost with the Ecclesial Movements (May 18,2013).

118


goes forth, in a manner of mercy, nearness andsolidarity. Being careful not to surrender to in-timism and giving ourselves the people, activeand responsible, with the oil of hope and con-solation, of every fragility and unrest, disap-pointment and joy. “It is a hermeneutical ques-tion: reality is understood only if it is looked atfrom the periphery […] we need to move awayfrom the central position of calmness and peace-fulness and direct ourselves to the peripheralareas. Being at the periphery helps to see and tounderstand better”.24

Immersing ourselves in Pope Francis’ poly-hedral mindset gives us another opportunity tolook at reality from the peripheries. One con-stant of consecrated life has always been itspresence in the frontiers, all the way to theoutposts of the mission, assuming the greatestrisks with courage and genius.25 Today, duringthis time of epochal change, we are called to thesame thing. Looking at reality from the periph-eries is also the courage to face new challenges,try new ways, to play a part in “elaborating and

24 A. SPADARO, “Wake Up the World!”. Conversation withPope Francis on Religious Life, in La Civiltà Cattolica, 165(2014/I), 6.

25 Cf. PAUL VI, Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi(December 8, 1975), 69; JOHN PAUL II, Post-Synodal Apos-tolic Exhortation Vita Consecrata (March 25, 1996), 76.

119


putting into effect new initiatives of evangeliza-tion for present-day situations”.26 We mustknow how to sense and “to create ‘alternatespaces’, where the Gospel approach of self-giving, fraternity, embracing differences, andlove of one another can thrive”.27

76. Pope Francis continues to ask us to wakeup the world through our life and ministry.28

Accepting with boldness, compassion, and ever-renewed genius, the risk of new people who arenot chosen for one’s own convenience, but arefound through exploring new geographical, cul-tural, social and existential peripheries, in therejects of history and of globalized indifference,among the thousands of figures of disfiguredfaces and crushed dignity. Let’s reread our letterKeep Watch and its urgent call to discernmentand to move forward towards disregarded hori-zons.29 These human places, which at times go



28 A. SPADARO, “Wake Up the World!”. Conversation withPope Francis on Religious Life, in La Civiltà Cattolica, 165(2014/I).


AND SOCIETIES OF APOSTOLIC LIFE, Keep Watch. To Conse-

120


unvisited, call to missionary conversion: He hassent me to bring the good news to the poor, toproclaim liberty to captives and to the blind newsight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim theLord’s year of favour (Lk 4:18-19).

Walking with the poor

77. We are called to act justly, to love ten-derly and to walk humbly with our God (Mi 6:8).Consecrated men and women are always on thefront lines defending threatened life, proposinganother possible and necessary way of living.Few things evoke admiration, surprise and inter-est like seeing consecrated men and women be-side people who have nothing, beside those whoare considered to be the last, the rejects of soci-ety, and they go where others do not want to be.The preferential option for the poor that config-ured the life and mission of Jesus (Lk 4:18)is one of the basic principles guiding discern-ment in the Orders, Congregations and Insti-tutes of consecrated life and the Societies ofApostolic life. All of us are asked to have atten-tion that goes beyond sociological analysis andto invoke passion and compassion. “Serving thepoor is an act of evangelization and, at the same

crated Men and Women Journeying in the Footsteps of God(September 8, 2014), LEV, Vatican City 2014.

121


time, a seal of Gospel authenticity and a catalystfor permanent conversion in the consecratedlife, since, as Saint Gregory the Great says,‘when charity lovingly stoops to provide evenfor the smallest needs of our neighbour, thendoes it suddenly surge upwards to the highestpeaks. And when in great kindness it bends tothe most extreme needs, then with much vigourdoes it resume its soaring to the heights’”.30

The familiaritas cum pauperibus has alwaysbeen the feature of every new “beginning” andreform. “Solidarity […] is not a feeling of vaguecompassion or shallow distress at the misfor-tunes of so many people, both near and far.On the contrary, it is a firm and perseveringdetermination to commit oneself to the commongood; that is to say to the good of all and of eachindividual, because we are all really responsiblefor all”.31

For an integral and solidary humanism

78. A prophetic sign is composed of a newlifestyle into which we work to integrate justice,peace and the safeguarding of creation. Pope


31 JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Sollicitudo Rei Socialis(December 30, 1987), 38.

122


Francis reminds us in the Encyclical Letter Lau-dato si’: “An awareness of the gravity of today’scultural and ecological crisis must be translatedinto new habits. Many people know that ourcurrent progress and the mere amassing ofthings and pleasures are not enough to givemeaning and joy to the human heart, yet theyfeel unable to give up what the market setsbefore them”.32 This commitment at the per-sonal and community levels, connected with allof the organizations that work to bring theseGospel values to life, allows us to promote anintegral and solidary humanism. Our lifestyles,in the various forms of consecration, have thestrength to oppose the paradigms of the domi-nant culture and the economistic concept thateverything is measured by the parameters ofproductive income and profit in the logic of themarket. They are able to represent a real alter-native to the culture of waste, in the dynamismof gratuitousness and solidarity, out of respectfor otherness and in the sense of mystery, opento the unpredictable and to what cannot beplanned. We must recognize their beneficialchoice of austerity and the refusal of wastage bycommunities and individuals. This allows us to

32 FRANCIS, Encyclical Letter Laudato si’ (June 18, 2015),209.

123


escape the dynamics of consumerism that createthe incapacity to distinguish true needs fromthose needs which are purely induced and fromthe mere exploitation of nature. In this frag-mented world, which is incapable of makingdefinitive choices and is characterized by manydifferent levels of uncertainty, the totality of ourbelonging to God becomes a hospitable placefor humanity and all of creation. Contemplation,devotion and fecundity, and prophetic witnessare missionary experience for an integral hu-manism.

For non-violent action

79. In Octogesima Adveniens, Pope Paul VIaffirmed: “It is not enough to recall principles,state intentions, point to crying injustice andutter prophetic denunciations; these words willlack real weight unless they are accompanied foreach individual by a livelier awareness of per-sonal responsibility and by effective action”.33

Many consecrated men and women are calledto live out their missions in areas under seriousthreats of violence and terrorism, of the recru-descence of religious and idealogical fundamen-talism, of exploitation of the environment and

33 PAUL VI, Apostolic Letter Octogesima Adveniens(May 14, 1971), 48.

124


sensitivity towards other situations and forms ofhuman conflict, often giving their lives to thepoint of martyrdom. We are called to open ourhearts to make room for the people who do notshare our faith, our values and our culture.

At the heart of this encounter is commoncommitment, in a culture of respect, tolerance,reconciliation and peace, but also collaborationin protecting those who are weakest, in par-ticular, women and children, in prevention andin guaranteeing adequate punishment for theguilty. We must develop and exercise our cre-ative capacity: propose alternatives, create hori-zons, imagine possible worlds. Capable of anaction that is lucid and a bearer of hope, disen-chanted and open to the future, critical andvital, that sees the real and imagines the future,in order to echo today the paradoxical word thatis the Good News when it proclaims that the lastwill be first, those who mourn are blessed anddeath is overcome.

In the everyday of family

80. To begin the Year of Consecrated Life,Pope Francis stressed: “I thank the Lord thatthe Year of Consecrated Life coincides with theSynod on the Family. Family life and conse-crated life are both vocations which bring en-

125


richment and blessings for all. They are spaceswhere human growth comes about through re-lationships, and they are also places of evangeli-zation. Each can help the other”.34 Family andconsecrated life recognize themselves in thefreedom of the Spirit and in the communion ofthe Church: this joyous confession is daily sup-port in the common journey of devotion.

The Holy Father reminds us again that thefamilies we encounter daily “with their faces,their stories, with all their complications arenot a problem, they are an opportunity thatGod places before us. An opportunity that chal-lenges us to generate a missionary creativity ca-pable of embracing every practical situation[…] Not only those that come or that are in theparishes – this would be easy, more or less –,but being able to go to the families of ourdistricts, to those who do not come”. Our ca-pacity for nearness and boldness “compels us togo beyond the declaration of principles so as toenter into the beating heart of neighbourhoodsand, as artisans, setting ourselves to mouldGod’s dream in this reality, something that canbe done only by people of faith, those who do

34 FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated People onthe Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (November 21,2014), III, 2.

126


not close access to the action of the Spirit, andwho get their hands dirty”.35

Paul and his friends will meet Lydia’s hospi-table family who will accompany them withtheir generosity along the missionary journey.They will also meet the gaoler’s family whobecomes a sign of hospitality and solidarity forthem (cf. Ac 16:13-15,25-34).

On educational frontiers

81. The Church is a narrating communitythat represents God’s love in Jesus Christ. Suchnarration is essentially educational.

Struck by her teaching

The manifestation of Christ’s mystery con-cerns the whole of human life in all of itsareas, and it aims to bring every man and thewhole man to a new way of being and living(Ac 22:8-10). A consistent Western tradition de-fined the educational process as the progressivedirecting of the person towards complete self-realization. The Church embraced this idea witha new hermeneutic. The mission of the Churchcan therefore be properly considered in peda-

35 FRANCIS, Address at the opening of the Pastoral Con-gress of the Diocese of Rome (June 16, 2016), 1.

127


gogical categories: my children! I must gothrough the pain of giving birth to you all overagain, until Christ is formed in you (Ga 4:19).

The believer perceives the inner logic of thelife of faith and understands the educationaldimension of its humanity. The connection be-tween the Christian message and the educa-tional experience leads to the development of apedagogical doctrine. Not from doctrine to life,but from life to doctrine.

Consecrated life in its many forms has beenan educational agent throughout human andChurch history, and it is called to continue onthis journey with genius and dialogue with theworld. We cannot limit our missionary pres-ence, vision and charity to only the first relief ofindigence, but with brave ability we must ac-company the Church’s proper educational task.It is a contribution that we cannot disregard, inthe life of the Church or in civil society.

82. The educational task throughout ourmission questions our way of looking at andexperiencing existential peripheries and our wayof providing them with company, relief, merci-ful encounter and embrace. We must direct per-sonal stories of faith in educational encounter.We must accompany and shed light on the

128


doubts that torment, and the shadows and fearsthat block.

We are called to the indispensable pedagogi-cal path that the Church has always followed inthe world, watching Jesus the Master with thehumility of the disciples: He taught in their syna-gogues and everyone praised Him; they were as-tonished by the gracious words that came from hislips. He taught them on the sabbath. And Histeaching made a deep impression on them be-cause he spoke with authority (Lk 4:15,22,31,32).Our every missionary and diaconal action af-firms or denies the educational act: it encountersthe story of every person, doubts, faith, opacityand beauty. Educating Christ’s way resounds asa prophetic task that the Church entrusts to us:“Recalling and serving the divine plan for human-ity, as it is announced in Scripture and as itemerges from an attentive reading of the signs ofGod’s providential action in history”.36

In the cultural peripheries

83. The service of knowledge, the diakoniaof culture, calls us to new and fruitful work ofmaking faith culturally responsible in order torevitalize, in a critical and creative way, the old


129


and dialectical relationship between faith andculture. Peter Hans Kolvenbach, former SuperGeneral of the Jesuits, affirmed in his interven-tion at the 12th General Assembly of the Synodon consecrated life: some consecrated personsassume, in a more special way, this ecclesialmission to remind cultures of their ultimategoal; they work in the very heart of these cul-tures, in their places of research or artistic cre-ation, in academic institutions and diffusioncenters of the means of social communication.

Vita Consecrata highlighted this point: “Theneed to contribute to the promotion of cultureand to the dialogue between culture and faith isdeeply felt in the Church today. Consecratedpersons cannot fail to feel challenged by thispressing need”.37 We remember in particular theconsecrated persons and Institutes called bythe Spirit to become interpreters of the greateducational narration in contemporary cultures.We invite you to not abandon the inclination tothe educational that is so necessary in the weakculture of today, in the culture of fragments, inthe fictitious constructions of the virtual and inthe unstoppable flow of anything goes.

37 Ivi, 98a; b.

130


84. Today, in the peripheries of culture, con-secrated life, in line with the old and fruitfultraditio – in respectful and sympathetic dialoguewith all cultural agents – is called to engageon two fronts: experiential and speculative.The first invites us to live our witness of life inthe furrow of the Gospel narrative, which ispossible at any age and in every period of life.The story gives life to the educational act andintroduces into the actuality of the encounterwith Christ.

The second calls us to deep reflection oncontemporary man for an integral humanism.This prophetic challenge requires the dedicationof intelligence, passion, intuition and resources.The Church needs to have contexts, spaces, andforms of education that help the deep freedomof the person to achieve a movement that issymmetrical to that of the cultures of consump-tion: the generative movement.

For a formative embrace

85. We invite you to recover the attitude ofimitating Jesus the Master through the humbleservice of culture and discernment in relationwith the Truth, extended to all aspects of hu-man life.

131


We currently sense that many adults havequit giving new generations reasons and rulesfor living with freedom and responsibility. Re-awakening their binding educational responsi-bility is valuable to all areas where consecratedpersons are present.

We can also rethink our willingness to offerplaces and environments of reference and be-longing, tangible spaces of human sharing in theface of emergency of situations, even dramaticones, of loneliness and uncertainty. Places thatare capable of meeting the needs of friendship,experimentation and discussion to help not onlychildren and young people, but even adults, toovercome their narcissistic concentration onthemselves. The challenge, therefore, of pro-claiming to today’s man the wreckage of loneli-ness and the good news of the founding rela-tionship with the Mystery of God that revealsitself as Love, is decisive. In this perspective,there is a need today for creative planning, aneed to research and to try new paths.

We also invite you to focus your attention onthe plurality of educational contexts: the pluralguiding values, cultural belongings, ways of fam-ily life, educational figures, knowledge andsources of knowledge. We must know how torecognize new educational and pastoral oppor-tunities and the knots that these phenomena

132


bring with them, and understand that we areasked to make effort to find new paths of edu-cational unity within the plurality. This requiresthe launch of new educational professionalism,in addition to traditional professionalism, be-cause the potentialities offered by pluralization(migrants, increase in cultural minorities, multi-culturality of scholastic curriculums, new de-mands on proclamation and catechesis) risk re-maining unfulfilled or spent only on emergen-cies of social services. The Church communityand consecrated life itself will accommodatethese new needs by developing a new educa-tional commitment.

In ecumenical and inter-religious places

86. We invite you to read the phenomenonof migration that requires new pastoral aware-ness and attention from us regarding ecumenismand inter-religious dialogue.

Vita Consecrata provides very concrete indi-cations: the sharing of the lectio divina, partici-pation in common prayer, dialogue of friend-ship and charity, “cordial hospitality shown tobrothers and sisters of the various Christian con-fessions, mutual knowledge and the exchange ofgifts, cooperation in common undertakings ofservice and of witness: these are among the

133


many forms of ecumenical dialogue […] No In-stitute of Consecrated Life should feel itself dis-pensed from working for this cause”.38

No less is required of us to foster inter-religious dialogue. Two fields can inspire ourpractical response: “The shared concern for hu-man life, extending from compassion for thosewho are suffering physically and spiritually tocommitment to justice, peace and the protectionof God’s creation. In these areas, Institutes ofactive life especially will seek an understandingwith members of other religions, through that‘dialogue of action’ which prepares the way formore profound exchanges. A particular field forsuccessful common action with people of otherreligious traditions is that of efforts to promotethe dignity of women. In view of the equality andauthentic complementarity of men and women,a valuable service can be rendered above all byconsecrated women”.39

In places of the Spirit

87. We invite you to revisit the old formsthat monks and nuns, men and women religious,and all consecrated persons gave life to in an

38 Ivi, 101.39 Ivi, 102.

134


attempt to actualize an alternative project ofsociety and the creation of places in which livingthe Gospel gives meaning and direction andbecomes living witness of fraternity that knowshow to encounter cultures and peoples.

The sign of evangelical novelty can expandacross broader structures of evangelization:places of pilgrimage, often supported or ani-mated by consecrated men and women, arespaces of conversion and contemplation; mon-asteries are places of welcome and dialoguethat are open to ecumenism and also to non-believers who often rediscover the meaning oflife inside. Consecrated life, which, in the past,knew how to create and manage works inspiredby the logic of the Gospel, is today called torethink, reinvent, and recreate places where theGospel can be read in its possibilities, inspira-tions and fruits, and where one can see andtouch God.

Luigia Tincani, foundress of an apostolic re-ligious institute, writes, “Along our commonjourney towards the full age of the children ofGod, all that I can do for my brothers is just,ultimately, make myself living matter in whichthey can see the idea that I would like to seeflourish in their journey realized. This is so thateducation may be seen as the true art and poetry

135


of life. The only thing I can do is offer them theconsistency of my mind, my heart, my actionsand my words, as an artist offers the work inwhich he has put the living thrill of his art.Because the truth is this: we can only do goodaround us, we can only be educators, for meritof our moral value, for the strength of our con-victions, for the reality of actualization that ourideal moral reaches within us. Therefore, if wewant to become educators, it is more importantto concern ourselves with bringing these desiredideals to life within ourselves, rather than inother people”.40

In the time of hope

The Church is here

88. At the beginning of these pages, weheard to the promise that resonates in the Acts:You will receive the power when the Holy Spiritcomes on you, and then you will be my witnessesnot only in Jerusalem but throughout Judea andSamaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth(Ac 1:8). Jesus entrusts his last message to theword witnesses. For the apostles, being wit-

40 L. TINCANI, Lettere di formazione, edited by C. Broggi,Studium, Rome 2009 (1923).

136


nesses means having been with the Lord, havingparticipated in his passion and resurrection.Witness does not come to them through per-sonal decision. It is God who chose them andwho sent the Spirit to make them capable ofdoing that which they could never think aboutdoing on their own: The Spirit of truth whoissues from the Father, he will be my witness.And you too will be witnesses, because you havebeen with me from the outset (Jn 15:26b-27).John the Evangelist weighs the Master’s wordsabout the witness that the disciples were togive Him in the world, in spite of the fearthat some of them felt, the forgetfulness ofothers and the betrayal that was possible at anymoment.

Throughout history, there is always a struggletaking place between darkness and light (cf. Jn1:4-11), and present in this confrontation is themystery of rejection that can affect even thoseclosest to Christ, who asks the Father: I am notpraying for the world but for those you have givenme (Jn 17:9). The context is dramatic, but thereis great serenity in the words of Jesus who nei-ther keeps quiet about evil nor expresses anycondemnation for it; he is worried about hispeople, so that they may live the times comewith knowledge and trust.

137


89. Like every century, our time is one ofstruggle between light and darkness. It is a timewhen relationships between nations, culturesand religions are reshaped. It is a time in whichroads widen their intersections in spaces wherepeople are forced into acceptance or rejection,even violent rejection. It is a time in whichChristians are asked, with arrogant violence,about the reasons for their hope, and conse-crated persons continue their story as witnessesto the Light. In the sign of charity to the end(cf. Gv 13:1), consecrated men and women haveborne witness to Christ the Lord with the givingof their own lives. There are thousands of themwho, having been forced into the catacombs ofpersecution by totalitarian regimes and violentgroups opposed to missionary work and actionsto defend the poor and to assist the sick andmarginalized, lived and live their consecration inprolonged and heroic suffering, often sheddingtheir own blood, perfectly configured to theCrucified Lord. A woman missionary writes:“I am now almost in my 80s. On my last visit toItaly, my superiors were uncertain whether to letme leave. One day, during Adoration, I prayed,‘Jesus, thy will be done, but you know I stillwant to go’. I clearly heard in my head thesewords. ‘Olga, do you think you will save Africa?Africa is mine. Nevertheless, I am glad you are

138


going: Go and give your life!’. From that mo-ment on, I no longer doubted”.41

Witness to the point of bloodshed is thedistinguished seal of Christian hope: the singu-lar glory for the Church. “I only want a place atthe feet of Jesus. I want my life, my character,my actions to speak of me and say that I amfollowing Jesus Christ. This desire is so strong inme that I consider myself privileged whenever– in my combative effort to help the needy, thepoor, the persecuted Christians of Pakistan –Jesus should wish to accept the sacrifice of mylife. I want to live for Christ and it is for Himthat I want to die. I do not feel any fear in thiscountry”.42

Among Christian martyrs, consecrated menand women mark an ascendant and impassionedparable: the Church is still the Church of JesusChrist who announced persecution for his dis-ciples. Consecrated life and the reality of mar-tyrdom show us “where the Church is”.43

41 From the unpublished writings of Olga Raschietti(Montecchio Maggiore, August 22, 1931 - Kamenge, Septem-ber 7, 2014), Missionary of Mary, killed in Burundi.

42 Cf. C. SHAHBAZ BHATTI, Cristiani in Pakistan. Nelle pro-ve la speranza, Marcianum Press, Venice 2008.

43 Cf. J. RATZINGER, Perché siamo ancora nella Chiesa,Rizzoli, Milan 2008, 26.

139


Dreaming like Christians

90. The final message, given to us by theexperience and wishes of those who participatedin the Week in Communion that closed the Yearof Consecrated Life, invites us to be glad in thehope that is so scarce and fragile in contempo-rary cultures and among us. We need to revivethe theological reason for our hope to let it livein the Church.

The vision of hope is generative; it joyouslyadheres to what the Spirit is fulfilling today.A woman religious tells us: “Now I am returningto Burundi. Though at my age I am physicallyweak and limited, inwardly, I think I can saythat my drive and desire to be faithful to Jesus’love expressed in the mission is very muchalive. The mission helps me to tell Him in myweakness, ‘Jesus, look, it’s my gesture of lovefor you’”.44

Welcoming the Spirit enables us to be cre-ative and bold as we live our sequela Christi indifferent cultural contexts and new anthropo-logical paradigms: “We need to nurture in our-selves a gaze of sympathy, respect and apprecia-tion of the values of the cultures, traditions of

44 From the unpublished writings of Lucia Pulici (Desio,September 8, 1939 - Kamenge, September 7, 2014), Mission-ary of Mary, killed in Burundi.

140


the people we meet. Despite the complex situa-tion and conflict in the countries of the GreatLakes, I seem to sense the presence of a King-dom of love that is being built, growing like amustard seed given to all. At this point in myjourney, I continue to serve my African broth-ers, trying to live with love, simplicity and joy”.45

We are able to lead new generations towardsthe future in hope by trusting in the spring rains(Ho 6:3), so that young consecrated persons canbe genius and original protagonists of newchange in the freedom of the Spirit.

91. Hope is the Christian dream that enliv-ens and illuminates life in the Church. “I lovetruth, which is like light, and justice, which is anessential aspect of love. I like to tell everyonethings as they are, good to good and evil to evil,without calculation, with the only calculationthe Gospel mentions: do good because it isgood. God will take care of the consequencesfor the good that is done”.46 “I only have onevocation, structural I would say: even with all of

45 From the unpublished writings of Bernadetta Boggian(Ospedaletto Euganeo, March 17, 1935 - Kamenge, Septem-ber 8, 2014) Missionary of Mary, killed in Burundi.

46 G. LA PIRA, « Speech on September 24, 1954 » in the CityCouncil of Florence, in A. SCIVOLETTO, Giorgio La Pira, Stu-dium, Rome 2003, 159.

141


the shortcomings and unworthiness possible,I am, by the Lord’s grace, a witness of theGospel: you will be my witnesses”.47 GiorgioLa Pira continues in a letter to a consecratedfemale friend: “Reverend Mother, am I a bit of adreamer? Maybe. But all of Christianity is adream: the sweet dream of a God made intoman so that man could become God! If thisdream is real why would the other dreams es-sentially connected to this dream not be real?But it seems to me that these are not dreams,this is called Christian virtue, it is called hope”.48

The Eternal, denied by present cultures, spreadsits dimension in the world also through thereasons for our hope.

47 G. LA PIRA, Letter from November 27, 1953, in CaroGiorgio... Caro Amintore... 25 anni di storia nel carteggioLa Pira-Fanfani, edited by S. Selmi and S. Nerozzi, Poli-stampa, Firenze 2003, 190-195.

48 G. LA PIRA, La preghiera, forza motrice della storia:lettere ai monasteri femminili di vita contemplativa, edited byV. Peri, Città Nuova, Rome 2007, 64.

142


Hail, Virgin of the Cenacle

92. The Mother of Jesus and the apostlesunited in prayer show the nascent Church asan admirable example of concord and prayer.In the atmosphere of waiting that fills theCenacle after the Ascension, Mary implores thegift of the Spirit. The Pentecost is also the fruitof the Blessed Virgin’s incessant prayer, which isaccepted by the Paraclete because it is an ex-pression of her motherly love for the disciples.“The Holy Spirit bestows the fullness of hisgifts on the Blessed Virgin and those present,working a deep transformation in them for thesake of spreading the Good News. The Motherof Christ and his disciples are granted newstrength and new apostolic energy for theChurch’s growth”.1

Between the Annunciation and the Pentecostthe fecundity given to Mary by the Holy Spiritspreads out: “In the redemptive economy of

1 JOHN PAUL II, General Audience (May 28, 1997).

143


grace, brought about through the action of theHoly Spirit, there is a unique correspondencebetween the moment of the Incarnation of theWord and the moment of the birth of theChurch. The person who links these two mo-ments is Mary: Mary at Nazareth and Mary inthe Upper Room at Jerusalem. In both cases herdiscreet yet essential presence indicates the pathof birth from the Holy Spirit”.2

So it is for us: from come and follow me to themandate go and proclaim. From the acceptanceof the call to missionary fecundity. On the newpaths of the Spirit.

O Father,as the Blessed Virgin was at prayerwith the Apostles in the Cenacleyou poured out on her in abundancethe gifts of the Holy Spirit,grant that the Churchmay persevere unanimous in prayer,that Pentecost may be everlastingand that the holy firemay consume every evil,and eliminate ugliness,loneliness and burning bitterness.

2 JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Mater(March 25, 1987) 24; cf. PAUL VI, Apostolic ExhortationMarialis Cultus (February 2, 1974), 28.

144


Holy Father,hear the prayers that your good Spiritplaces in the hearts and on the lipsof those who confide in you:deliver us from the burden of sinthat saddens and extinguishes the Spiritdescended upon the Virgingiven in the Cenacleand may the Church always shinefor new fruits of sanctity and graceto bring the good news of salvationto the world.

Vatican City, June 29, 2016Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

João Braz Card. de AvizPrefect

✠ José Rodríguez Carballo, O.F.M.Archbishop Secretary

145


FOR REFLECTION


93. Provocations from Pope Francis

Are our ministries, our works and our pres-ence consonant with what the Spirit asked ofour founders and foundresses? Are they suitablefor carrying out today, in society and theChurch, those same ministries and works?Do we have the same passion for our people, arewe close to them to the point of sharing in theirjoys and sorrows, thus truly understanding theirneeds and helping to respond to them? 1

• “‘Who is Jesus for the people of our time?’The world needs Christ more than ever:his salvation, his merciful love. Many peoplefeel an empty void around and within them-selves; others live in restlessness and insecu-rity due to uncertainty and conflict. We allneed adequate answers to our questions,to our concrete questions. Only in Him, inChrist, is it possible to find true peace and the

1 Cf. FRANCIS, Apostolic Letter To all Consecrated Peopleon the Occasion of the Year of Consecrated Life (Novem-ber 21, 2014), I, 2.

149


fulfillment of every human aspiration. Jesusknows the human heart better than anyone.This is why he can heal, giving life and con-solation”.2

• “Let us ask ourselves: Is our faith fruitful?Does our faith produce good works? Or is itsterile instead, and therefore more dead thanalive? Do I act as a neighbour or simply passby? Am I one of those who selects peopleaccording to my own liking? It is good to askourselves these questions, and to ask themoften, because in the end we will be judgedon the works of mercy. The Lord will say tous: Do you remember that time on the roadfrom Jerusalem to Jericho? That man whowas half dead was me. Do you remember?That hungry child was me. Do you remem-ber? That immigrant who many wanted todrive away, that was me. That grandparentwho was alone, abandoned in nursing homes,that was me. That sick man, alone in thehospital, who no one visited, that was me”.3

• “The gift Jesus offers is the fullness of life fora hungering mankind. Jesus satiates not onlymaterial hunger, but the most profound

2 FRANCIS, Angelus (June 19, 2016).3 FRANCIS, Angelus (July 10, 2016).

150


one, the hunger for the meaning of life,the hunger for God. Before the suffering,loneliness, poverty and difficulties of so manypeople, what can we ourselves do? Com-plaining doesn’t resolve anything, but we canoffer the little that we have, like the lad in theGospel […] Who among us doesn’t have‘five loaves and two fish’ of his own? We allhave them! If we are willing to place them inthe Lord’s hands, they will be enough tobring about a little more love, peace, justiceand especially joy in the world”.4

• “What does it mean for our communities andfor each one of us to belong to a Churchwhich is catholic and apostolic? First of all,it means taking the salvation of all mankindto heart, not feeling indifferent or alien infacing the fate of so many of our brothersand sisters, but open and sympathetic towardthem. It means, moreover, having a sense ofthe fullness, the completeness, the harmony ofthe Christian life, always rejecting partisan,unilateral positions, which close us withinourselves. […] And here I would like torecall the heroic life of so very many mis-sionaries, men and women who left their

4 FRANCIS, Angelus (July 26, 2015).

151


homeland in order to go to proclaim theGospel in other countries, on other conti-nents. A Brazilian Cardinal who works quiteoften in Amazonia, was telling me that whenhe goes to a place, to a village or a town inAmazonia, he always goes to the cemeterywhere he sees the tombs of these mission-aries, priests, brothers, sisters who went topreach the Gospel: apostles. And he thinks:all of them could be canonized now, they leftall in order to proclaim Jesus Christ”.5

• “Evangelizing the poor: this is Jesus’ mission.According to what he says, this is also themission of the Church, and of every personbaptized in the Church. Being a Christian isthe same thing as being a missionary. Pro-claiming the Gospel with one’s word, andeven before, with one’s life, is the primaryaim of the Christian community and ofeach of its members. […] Jesus addresses theGood News to all, excluding no one, indeedfavouring those who are distant, sufferingsick, cast out by society. Let us ask ourselves:what does it mean to evangelize the poor?It means first of all drawing close to them, itmeans having the joy of serving them, of

5 FRANCIS, General Audience (September 17, 2014).

152


freeing them from their oppression, and all ofthis in the name of and with the Spirit ofChrist, because he is the Gospel of God, he isthe Mercy of God, he is the liberation ofGod, he is the One who became poor so as toenrich us with his poverty”.6

6 FRANCIS, Angelus (January 24, 2016).

153


IN D E X

Dear Brothers and Sisters . . . . . . . . 7

Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

We inhabit the world . . . . . . . . 15

To the ends of the earth . . . . . . . . 25

Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Sent to proclaim . . . . . . . . . . 34

In Christ’s way . . . . . . . . . . 34

Contemplatives in action . . . . . . . 37

Servants of the Word . . . . . . . . 40

Ones who bring good news . . . . . . 43

United to proclaim . . . . . . . . . 46Persevering in communion . . . . . . 47In the prodigy of the Pentecost . . . . . 51

Church which “goes forth” . . . . . . . 55

Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Spirit, principal agent of mission . . . 63Vocation and grace of the Church . . . . 66Witnesses in the Church . . . . . . . 71The origins, an invitation to the Gospel . . 72Aware of weakness . . . . . . . . 77

155


“We cannot leave things as they are” . . . 79

Principles of Evangelii Gaudium . . . . 81

Raising questions . . . . . . . . . 85

A pedagogy of reliability . . . . . . . 87

Outside the gates . . . . . . . . . . 91

Listening . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

In the mindset that generates and transforms 102

Pedagogy of secularity . . . . . . . . 104

The generational relationship . . . . . 108

Comparison with reality . . . . . . . 112

Plural conversion . . . . . . . . . 115

With the peripheries in the heart . . . . . 117

In the outposts . . . . . . . . . . 118

Walking with the poor . . . . . . . 121

For an integral and solidary humanism . . 122

For non-violent action . . . . . . . 124

In the everyday of family . . . . . . . 125

On educational frontiers . . . . . . . 127

Struck by her teaching . . . . . . . 127

In the cultural peripheries . . . . . . 129

For a formative embrace . . . . . . . 131

In ecumenical and inter-religious places . . 133

In places of the Spirit . . . . . . . . 134

In the time of hope . . . . . . . . . 136

The Church is here . . . . . . . . 136

Dreaming like Christians . . . . . . . 140

156


Hail, Virgin of the Cenacle . . . . . . . . 143

For reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

Provocations from Pope Francis . . . . . 149

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155

157


D PRINT − ROMA


year of consecrated life rejoice! proclaim · 2019-12-12 · dear brothers and sisters, 1. the echo...

Documents