THE
WITNESS OF LIFE: A FIRST MEANS OF EVANGELISATION
Evangeli
Nuntiandi of His Holiness Pope Paul VI
From
the Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii
Nuntiandi of his Holiness Pope Paul VI, on the evangelization in the Modern
World proves to be relevant and worth to be reflected on by the Church as she
continues with her mission of salvation of the souls . The text below proves to
be a point of reflection.
“…
for the church the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian
life, given over to God in communion
that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to ones neighbor with
limitless zeal” (EN.41). “Modern man listens more willingly to witness than to
teachers, and if they does listen to teachers is because they are witnesses.”(NE
41). These words deserve by all means to be reflected and indeed they need to
be taken seriously by the agents of mission in the Church as far as evangelization
is concerned. It becomes so relevant when people are interested on life witness
more than long, and well verbalized teachings and homilies on Sunday Mass or any other occasion that may
involve sharing the word of God.
In
the modern world today people have been so much concerned with the life and
moral life of the agents (the clergy in particular) of mission regarding to
their authenticity of life and moral integrity. The reason of these extra
ordinary concerns implies that there is something extra ordinary, of course not
a miracle, which is expected of them as icons of faith moral conduct in the
society.
One reality is that there is laxity in the life
of some of the agents of the Gospel. This involves immoral acts, alcoholism,
dishonest, fraud, laziness, materialism, oppression of the weak and the poor
either consciously or unconsciously, to mention but a few. These have become so
audible in the church to the extent that the preachers of the Gospel have lost
authority to teach even by words. These into some extent have given an
implication that there is a need to be more keen and sensitive with the mission
endeavors. This therefore, makes it so important for the pastoral agents to
read and put in practice the word of God, to live what they preach to people.
I
believe and trust that, the circumstances that prompted Pope Paul VI to write
the exhortation shows beyond doubt the existence of some problem in the means
or the way in which the Gospel was brought to people. He therefore proposed the
Life of witness to be the first means of evangelization. But this does not mean
that the leaving preaching as mentioned is nullified but both of them are
proper, yet the life of witness is the first.
I
would like to add the common and wise saying that ‘actions speak lauder than
words’ Also, Thanks to Mother Teresa, in
her writings she puts it that, there should be less talk: and preaching point
is not a meeting point. What do you do then? Take a broom and clean someone's
house. That says enough"."Words which do not give the light increases
the darkness" therefore, it proves that life of witness is effective than
the verbal preaching on pulpit which is not reflected on one’s life. And this calls
for the life of witness as the proper means of evangelization in the modern
world.
MISSION OF THE POOR: A CHALLENGE TO THE MODERN MISSIONARY ENDEVOUR
In the missionary spirit of the church, there is a lot
of emphasis and the concern for the poor. Also, it is well stipulated in the
Bible and in the teachings of the Church.
This reflection is based on the teaching of the Vatican II about the
Church as it refers to her as “The church of the poor”. This is very strong and famous phrase in the
teachings of the church and more so, as fundamental charism of most religious
congregations and religious orders. It has been like a song of the church: their missionary charisms, mission and
pastoral activities are rooted in the service for the poor. Questions like, who are the poor? Why and how
to serve the poor? How is the spirit and the mind of Vatican II concerning her
being for the poor in practice today? Do we really live according to what we
preach? In connection to this is the new Pope’s concern and call to people to
go back and serve the poor, it is a call of going back to the roots and renewal
of being Christ’s followers with a new zeal.
In modern times it has been an issue of how this
charism is lived among the Religious and those who publicly dedicated
themselves for the poor. There has been a lot of dishonesty of using the poor
as an individual project in which many have benefitted from it because of selfishness
and abuse of the help donated from wherever they are. More so, it has become as
behavior of its own justification since few know what really happens on the
grounds. The claim that there is misuse
or abuse of donations for the poor remains valid on the basis of increasing
mistrust from the donors and well wishers to various institutions. For the
Church it becomes a point to reflect since in many occasions we are involved in
supporting the poor through donors. It becomes a crucial point of reflection as
we embark on the mission with poor and for the poor. This is because the whole
process entails collaboration with other organization who wish to reach the
poor yet they lack channel to reach them, hence the Church in manner proper to
our mission we are the channel. This will be appropriate if we sincerely open
the door for others to enter and help the poor.
Another issue
concerns building trust and confidence in our mission endeavors. It is vital for our mission for the service
of the poor. The mistakes that involve financial scandals should not be taken
for granted. Rather a strong point of correction and management of our material
services to the poor has to be of emphasis. However, the service for the poor
should not be one-sided support rather integral and holistic development of an
individual to self sustaining person is to be the goal and focus of mission to
the poor. If this is observed then even
the poor will in future pick up and become great stake holders in the mission
for the service of the poor.
****
The dynamic mission of the church
The opening words in John Paul’sencyclical
“RedemptorisMissio” observe that Vatican II described the church as being
missionary in her nature. This statement is based on a dynamic way of
Trinitarian mission itself. This reflection paper targets in describing the
dynamism of the mission of the church basing on the various roles that the
church is in the contemporary society.
The primary mission of the church is to be God’s agency by preaching the Word
of God with the aim of evangelizing the world. In the days of the early
missionaries, the Church was viewed as God’s agency. This is because the Church
has the mission to send out workers to the various places where they would
preach the Word of God and founding churches. In this concern the church can be
compared to the farmer who goes out to sow but seeds fell on different soils
(Mat 13:3-23). In this way the mission of the church can be explained in the
analogy of different soils in reflecting the dynamism of the church. This is because
the church has many ways to do her mission and does not maintain only one way, but
it is open to the various soils that are available. Her main concern is to help
the poor soil to thrive, so that it can bring fruits abundantly.
The church is very faithful in preaching and
planting the seed of the Word of God in the world. She creates a constructive atmosphere for the
spiritual nourishment of her people. The
seeds that fall into the less fertile soil needs to be taken cared of so that
it can bring a good harvest. To trace how this dynamism works, in concrete
terms, is the fact that the Word of God cannot be preached in the same way to
the young people as to the elderly people. There has to be dynamism so that it
could have an impact to the intended groups hence they are called to create an
atmosphere for doing so. The elderly people, the youth and children may be
considered as the soils on which the seed is planted as the faith nourished by
the Word of God.
A point of reflection regarding the dynamism
of the Church is in the way that the Gospel message is handled over to the
youth who are blamed needlessly regarding their response and life style. The
Church has to design proper method of bringing the gospel to the youth. There
is a need to discern a Spirituality of the youth, “youth spirituality”. This is
because there is a big Gap that is a reality between the youth and the elderly.
The
fact is that, elder people have life experience than the young ones. There have
been a lot of disagreements and conflicts of good values present in both groups.
The fact is that, the elders sometimes fail to see good values among the youth.
They impose their values on to the youth which are fundamentally good but
incompatible with their life style. If this matter is mishandled, there is a
danger of strong conflict of values between these two extremes. Yet this does
not mean that the youth do not need help and the guidance from the elders. The
effect of mishandling will be a failure to successful evangelization of the
youth hence weakens the future Church. This issue has to be handled with a lot
of care and sensitivity especially in the spiritual direction to the youth.
A challenge to Mission
and pastoral agents today
Despite the knowledge that one becomes a member of the Church through baptism, in our Catholic Faith we have a challenge of defining clearly or making clear of who are the members of the Church. It is a challenge to the agents of Mission of the Church. It is clear in the teaching of the church that the membership is through baptism. This is so; and it cannot be compromised or taken for granted. This is because we cannot talk of the church without people and these people are the members, and it becomes so through baptism. I therefore, presume that if all humanity is eliminated from the world, the church will cease to exist, if this can be true, then when we talk of the church we must have members. This leads to a very sensitive, crucial, important area of concern in the church’s life.
The concern is the reduction of baptism into a mere
activity that is done and ends as soon as the faithful leaves the door of the
Church. There is little in continuity with the very sacrament which would make
the person grow in maturity to faith. This has also become like a fashion of
joining the biggest club of people who can be of help only when one needs
something from it like Christian burial or marriage. So in a way, people are
not seeking to experience the love of God but security in human terms, call it
social security.
The aspect of faith is questionable because often it
happens that one person changing from one religion to another because of minor
problems that may look scandalous to the faithful. Many are baptized yet they
don’t bother to live according to their faith.
Temptation to support the saying that, big number of the corrupt people,
murderers, and immoral people in the society are the baptized is high.
People deserve to be praised when they contribute to build
a big Church, or parish hall or a house; it is worth and excellent investment
for the church and indeed needed. Church needs to give review on the issue membership.
This will enable her to invest on the faith of the people not physical
structures. However, both are important but for the sake of continuity faith is
paramount. Also, danger could be the long run effect of having good structures
without people of faith in the church.
The primary purpose should be the faith of the people
even if they pray under a mango tree, because the church is the people but not
the big, nice, decorated church or parish house. This is because faith is an
essential unity of our Church. The body of Christ or the church is the people
but not the building which has no soul and it has no place in heaven. The criteria or the manner we use to define
or evaluate the faith by pastoral agents has to be rechecked. The current trend
is to judge people’s faith by looking on few aspects such as, the big numbers
turning for Sunday mass, a lot of offerings, increasing mass intentions,
increasing number of those who receive the Holy Communion, those give a lot of
money to the parish and many other areas. Is there faith in such a charity or
donation, the motive has to be scrutiny with higher sense of sensitivity and
faith keeping method.
The dwindling faith
of countries like in Europe is a vivid example. The effect of missing the point
of focus in pastoral ministry is an issue. That is the investment was more on
physical structures than the faith of the people hence it couldn’t survive the
pressure that resulted from advancement in technology. This implies that the
Church failed to maintain her identity in the faith of the people. This is a
call even to other countries that are considered to be more Christian in faith to be watchful lest
we end up investing on inanimate things that have less to do with human
salvation. Investment on faith must and should be fundamental duty of the
Church.
****
MASSAWE ANNO 11085T
REFLECTION ON PEACE,
JUSTICE, AND RECONCILATION IN THE EYE OF AFRICAE MUNUSA reality that African people are deeply experiencing
the inner social, political, economic, and cultural injustices, which have led
African communities into conflict, is undeniable. In some societies conflicts
have proved to be destructive than constructive in practice and theory. Another
reality is that conflict is inevitable in human society so a need its
management. I would like to look at the reality of conflict and the response of
the Church towards peace, justice and reconciliation. The issue is, swhether
the Church’s response to the Africae munus as far as its prophetic duty is
concerned is being promoted, specifically in the promotion of peace, justice,
reconciliation and healing process.
Injustices are frustrating African people.
Many have no access to basic needs like food, shelter and cloth while few live
descent life. Example, Some Religious and the political leaders, note their
houses, cars they drive and the overall life style, it reflects a special class
of people! With no doubt some are obtained at the expense of the poor, who have
nasty or very poor shelter; yet they dare to proclaim human equality and
justice. Unless the Church has her own definition and understanding of human
equality, then the sin of compromising justice will never be forgiven for it is
as if she preaches water and drink wine. To me this is injustice and it
invalidates any pretence of promoting human dignity and equality, because it
brings in the idea of super human and inferior ones.
Many people are starving or
hardly get food, but some few have abundant, the church dares to come in and
challenge the system. If she dares, she must also dare to face herself before
facing the political systems that are mostly blamed. Land issue for instance,
is a witness, and the church finds it difficult to address it because in some
areas she shares big portions of land. It
will be awkward if I propose the Spiritan, Consolata or Don Bosco or Tangaza
land be used to construct houses for the IDPs.
The
efforts put by the Church over the issue of peace, justice and reconciliation
cannot be undermined. In my perspective reconciliation is possible if the
Institutions that are to be the mouthpiece of the weak and the poor avoid the
scandal of compromising the mission with comfort and luxury under the umbrella
of modernism. Many people during Sunday liturgy and good offering should be
interpreted correctly; the ministers have to differentiate between passivity,
fearful conformity and peace. People have inner bitterness due to the existing
structures that are intimidating and frustrating. The ministers of the church
must speak and be truthfully, if the Church can’t speak who will speak for the
weak unless the Mission of the Church has changed into another strange reality.
Courage and love of the entire humanity as guided by the insights from the
Africae Munus will bring difference if not compromised
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