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In a world suspended between crisis and hope, the
consecrated life is called to be the witness and the builder of a
society able to dialogue, beyond any barrier. However, in order to
achieve this objective, we need a change of mentality, a serious
revision in the area of formation and, above all, to start afresh from
Christ. Fr. Bartolomeo Sorge, director of the review "Aggiornamenti
Sociali", a Jesuit who will contribute his intervention to the 52nd
National Assembly on the theme "Consecrated Life in the multi-ethnic and
multi-religious reality of Europe", says that these are the three
challenges to be overcome, if we want to be ferment and leaven in an
ever more demanding and de-Christianised world, yet needful of God.
"It is a must to start with the analysis of the world's
actual concrete situation, more than with theoretical premises. We find
ourselves living, historically, a time in which, at the end of the
world's balance, of a world, that had been broken into two by the wall
of Berlin, humanity is in the search of a new structure, which will
probably, within a few years, appear to all to be based on a multi-polar
balance. We are called to realise the presence of consecrated life, the
service to the Gospel in this transitional phase, above all in Europe.
What impresses us most is the crisis of hope, which
afflicts the Old Continent today, after the fall of the ideologies,
which had aroused the hope of man's liberation through his own hands. We
witness also the crisis of the enlightenment culture, which expected
to solve all the problems with the reason and which, instead, faces the
crisis of a weak thought and of nihilism. Meanwhile, at the same time,
we witness an aspiration to the Supernatural, an overbearing return to
the desire of God. There are signs of the time, which make us
understand how the consecrated life, which proclaims prophetically the
Christian hope, is a favourable message. This is proved by the fact that
peoples speak among themselves. A new European conscience is being born:
all accept the democratic method. These are clear messages of a world in
crisis and in the search of a new hope. It is here that the prophetic
testimony of consecrated life inserts itself.
Therefore, we must try to be witnesses and builders of
liberation in a world ever more desirous of hope. It is a liberation,
which starts here and now, among us, in our history, though we are aware
that the authentic liberation will be fully realised in the Kingdom of
heaven. If we really want to proclaim the Gospel of hope, we are
supposed to commit ourselves to the work of overcoming the lacerations
of sin and of the social unjust structures. At this historical moment, I
can see a twofold mission of Consecrated Life: on one side it has to act
as a mirror, on the other side it must never lose its prophetic
function.
The first case means that it has a critical task, in the
sense that before the various hopes of liberation, before the different
currents of modern thought, before the frontiers of modern technologies
and derived moral problems, we must be a critical conscience. We are
called to enlighten, carrying on our service to humanity according to
the project of God. The second case means the proclamation of the saving
journey, by the Word of God, but also by the very presence of the Risen
Lord in our time. This must necessarily take place in a multi-ethnic and
multi-cultural society through dialogue. The way of the new
evangelisation, therefore, is the dialogue.
To start an intercultural dialogue is indispensable. In
this context, it is important for the consecrated persons to see what
unites the different cultures. This is to be done because there is no
alternative among them. They are not divided into series "a" and series
"b", just as there is no division into races. The testimony of the
Gospel Beatitudes, proposed by the consecrated life, is the cement among
the cultures. This is the source of the specific dialogue, which the
consecrated life can start among the different cultures. The same thing
can be done in the religious field. The Pope has always believed, as we
do, that the religions, believing in the unique God, can reach there
where the ideologies, which presumed to create a peace based on atomic
weapons and missiles, could never arrive. The dialogue among religions,
therefore, can become the foundation of peace. Thus, the consecrated
life has to face challenges, which it cannot ignore.
The first thing to be done is to change mentality. The
picture, the theatre within which we move, is so very different as we
can't go on reasoning like before. This calls for a real apostolic and
pastoral conversion. We can no longer carry on the same works, the same
traditions, the same way of giving testimony, the same apostolic service
as in the past. Practically, this means a new formation. To me, today's
fundamental challenge to consecrated life is the revision of formation.
Women and men are to be prepared in such a way as they may be enabled to
put together true holiness with a deep spirituality and professional
skill.
Today, it is not enough for the consecrated persons to be
holy: they are expected to be competent, capable of giving a service of
witness and of human promotion. Using an expression, which is dear to
the Pope, this means "to start afresh from Christ". We are to
re-discover a spirituality of the street, as I like to call it, namely,
to be contemplative in action, to witness to the Beatitudes in our
service to man, mainly to the poorest and most needy, so that he may
find the journey of hope which does not disappoint, especially after the
fall of hope in a better world.
When you speak of the dialogue among the religions, our
thought goes straightaway to the three great meetings in Assisi, wanted
by the Pope, to implore the gift of peace in the world. How to translate
into our daily life, through common gestures, these three meaningful
moments of faith?
"The daily experience of Assisi means a gesture of
welcome. For instance, opening the works we have, as consecrated, with
the presence of followers of different religions. It means also respect
for the conscience of others, as Mother Theresa of Calcutta did. The
miracle, which has attracted the attention, has a non-Christian as
protagonist. She is surely a symbol of this welcoming attitude, for
which we are all children of the same Father. The dialogue is not only a
method, it is the very essence of the Christian Revelation. We are
supposed to have a big heart, like that of God, to feel brothers and
sisters, children of the unique Father. All this reflects strongly from
our work. This implies the knowledge that we have something to give, but
also to receive. There are truths also outside our Christian faith,
whose bearers are the famous germs of the Word, according to Vatican II.
These germs are present also in non believers, not only in the Christian
confessions of faith. We need to have the big heart of God, to witness
to the Gospel, to proclaim the Word to all, because Jesus has died for
all. We must welcome whatever good and valid we find in those whom we
meet. This at action level, at a non theoretical dialogue around a
table, but of testimony, of service to peace and justice, to the poor,
to the great values of human life and family. All this to be lived in an
inter-religious and inter-cultural spirit.
You say that it is necessary to change mentality and to
revise the formation. No doubt, this is a complex question, a not easily
soluble question. According to you, is it sufficient a formation that
walks with the times in order to answer the exigencies of today's world?
"When I say that it is necessary to change mentality, I
mean a new conscience. The change has been so very strong, as the
eternal Gospel, the unchangeable Truth of God, is to be mediated in the
new situations. When we do the catechesis or we are committed to the
school activities, we are no longer before Christian evangelised
generations. Many do not even know who Jesus is. Therefore, we can no
longer work with a mentality of being in a Christian context. We are in
a world, which, in some aspects, is post-Christian. We live no longer in
a static or mono-cultural society. To proclaim the message of Christ in
an open and multi-cultural society, we need new strategies. It requires
a change of mentality, which has not yet been realised in many
consecrated institutions, which are in danger of remaining closed.
We must commit ourselves to translate into practical life
the proposal of walking with the Church, our teacher and our guide. The
example of the Pope, who has entered the Mosque and the Synagogue, helps
us to be broad-minded in our work. This demands a new formation in the
Parish as well as in the seminary. We are aware of not being prepared
before the enormous changes of these years, particularly before the
globalisation. We are to commit ourselves strongly to a pastoral
revolution. I would be scared to be in a static church. The prophetic
mission of the consecrated life could be just that of moving before the
Church, of preceding her with the example and stimulation, helping her
to journey on this way.
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