REFLECTION

 

 

IMMOBILITY, CHANGE AND THE GOSPEL

Martí Colom

 

Brother Roger Schutz, the founder of the ecumenical community of Taizé, used to say that “God does not condemn anyone to immobility.”[1] It is a beautiful saying from someone who understood that we are made to advance and evolve, someone who was always concerned about the lack of horizons in the lives of people and institutions and who wanted to live, as he put it, in a state of permanent uninstallation.

 

One of the paradoxes of our age is that we experience quick changes and a constant acceleration of the pace of life and at the same time there is a significant immobility under the surface of things. The technology to which we have access evolves so rapidly that it is often hard to keep up with it. What a few years ago was unthinkable has become normal, and yet will soon be dated in order to give way to new tools and devices that will fill up our lives and allow us, among other things, to communicate in new, faster and more precise manners. We experience the permanent uninstallation of our daily habits, since yesterday’s routines (how we shared information or accessed it, how we bought a book or a train ticket, how we learned a language, how we took notes in a meeting…) have been radically altered by the new media, which have even modified the way we relate to each other. Yet, it would be a mistake to presume that this constant acceleration makes us immune to immobility. For, as we stated before, it is a shallow transformation, a change of what’s external, of the outer “bark” of our lives, which is quite possible to manage in such a way that our inner core, our substance, remains untouched.

 

It is in the realm of our intimate choices and ideas, of our personal and collective system of values (and there technology’s impact isn’t that critical) where immobility should be a concern; for it is here in our core where immobility usually reigns and where it is at the same time more harmful. In spite of the rapid technological transformation our age does not see an equally fast evolution of our mentalities. On the contrary we, as individuals and societies, continue by and large to be entrenched in a variety of small ideologies and beliefs that very often create conflict, or promote old antagonisms, prejudices, suspicion, and an incomprehensible absence of dialogue with those with whom we disagree.

 

This immobility is harmful because in the rigidity of our spirit we lose the greater opportunities to move on and to identify new ways of mutual understanding; the inflexibility of our ideas cripples us. Immobility, in short, is really a condemnation because it hinders our growth. Cardinal Newman said it well, more than a century ago (in a phrase later made famous by Winston Churchill): “In a higher world it is otherwise, but here below to live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”[2]

 

In the vibrant moment in which we find ourselves in the Church today, in the midst of what some are calling “the spring of Pope Francis,” it is important to remember the voices of people like Schutz and Newman. Without ever forgetting the richness of tradition they invite us to mistrust rigidity, and to see ourselves as a people in motion, members of a pilgrim Church, of a dynamic community, spirits on the move that do not want to be sentenced to immobility. As Christians, we know that we should never forget our roots but rather to deepen, every day, in the wealth of Jesus’ message. John XXIII said it perfectly: “It is not the Gospel that changes: it is us, who begin to understand it better.”[3] Ultimately, we will only advance in such a new understanding of the faith if we let go of immobility in our hearts.

[1] K. Spink, Hermano Roger. La vida del fundador de Taizé. Herder, Barcelona, 2009, p. 80.
[2] J.H. Newman, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine. Longmans, Green and Co., London/New York, 1900, p. 40.

[3] Quoted in G. Gutiérrez, “La recepción del Vaticano II en Latinoamérica”, in G. Alberigo;  J. P. Jossua (eds.), La recepción del Vaticano II. Cristiandad, Madrid, 1987, pp. 213-237; quote in p. 217.

 

REFLECTION 

BUILDING GOOD BRIDGES

Michael Wolfe

This past Sunday, Pope Francis wrapped up his visit to the United States.  The whirlwind tour was full of many firsts: not only was it the first time that he had ever visited the country, but during his days in Washington DC, he addressed Congress during a joint session, the first pope ever to do so.  Recognizing the significance of Pope Francis’ visit to the Unites States as a whole, and especially the historical event of his address to Congress, I’d like to share with you some of what I consider the salient points of that address in relation to our readings from Mass this past Sunday[1] (which was the last day Pope Francis’ celebrated Mass in the U.S.).  I do so in large part because Francis himself made it very clear that he was not only addressing the legislators present, but the entire people of the United States.  And of course, his content is applicable to all people of faith.

GRADUATION: CELEBRATING THE DIGNITY OF THE CHILDREN OF THE PRESCHOOL PROGRAM IN SABANA YEGUA (DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) 

During the Summer, 45 children graduated from the preschool programs in La Sagrada Familia Parish. We celebrated a formal graduation ceremony (even though the children are very young) to recognize the participation of these kids in the program and their educational advances during the last year, and also to bid them farewell, since in September they will move on to primary school. Our children’s preschool program is conducted at three sites throughout the parish (in the towns of Sabana Yegua, El Ganadero and Los Negros) and it provides initial education for 180 children, from two to five years of age. The little ones go daily to the centers, where they receive education, a nutritional balanced diet (breakfast and lunch) and medical monitoring. Importantly, the preschool program also requires the active participation of their parents. This involvement of the parents includes not just getting the children to and from the school, but also attending meetings and talks about subjects like health and nutrition.

The children in this program of preschool childcare come from families of scarce means who live in marginal towns and settlements within the parish. The poverty and need in which these families find themselves seems at times to strip away their dignity. To conduct a well-organized, formal graduation was a way to restore a bit this dignity, at times lost due to their adversities. The parents came to the graduation dressed elegantly and participated with pride in the different activities, while the children were showing off proudly all of their advances. We hope that these children grow with confidence and the dignity necessary to be good men and women in our society.

REFLECTION

WHO DO YOU SAY JESUS IS?
(From the Gospel of the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time)
José Nieto

Can you imagine Jesus asking this question to you in front of everybody else at church on a Sunday mass? What would you say? Most probably we would give an answer like Peter’s - "Jesus you are the Christ! Jesus, you are the messiah, the King!"

And there is no reason why Peter or anyone of us would not answer in this way, unless Peter’s concept of messiah would be the wrong one. Could we also be wrong about what kind of messiah Jesus is?

Indeed, Peter is mistaken about Jesus’ messianic identity. It is true, of course, that Jesus is the messiah, the Christ. But when Jesus explained the suffering and the road to the cross he would have to undergo, Peter’s idea of a triumphant messiah becomes an obstacle for Peter’s understanding. For him, the idea of suffering and dying does not belong to the idealized messiah that he confessed just few verses before.

Like Peter, we can also be caught up with the wrong idea of Christ. Sometimes we can even accommodate Jesus’ role to our convenience, thinking according to our logic but not as God would. A clear example is when we think of Jesus as a judge and not as a merciful Lord. It may happen that our logic would demand to think of Jesus as a punishing judge for those who do not follow the law. This would be the way of human logic. But in God’s mind, human judgment falls short compared to his infinite mercy and love. Sometimes our way of thinking demands a logical consequence for a cause. But in God’s eyes, we are always seen as his most precious creation, those who were made in his own image. When thinking about Jesus, and who he is, we should always be aware that his love will always overcome any of our human expectations.

So, before we get the wrong idea of Christ, we should ask ourselves - Am I thinking like God does or as humans do, when answering the question, who do you say that Jesus is?

GRADUATION OF STUDENTS IN SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Jansel Corcino, of Sabana Yeguar, is proud of having graduated from the Computer Science Degree at the University UTESUR of Azua (Dominican Republic). Another student from Sabana Yegua, Hugo Alquejay, also graduated, in his case from as an Agricultural Engineer. We rejoice in the fact that he completed his studies with Honors.  Both Jansel and Hugo are examples of the more than 70 young people who have received scholarships from La Sagrada Familia parish. The success of this program gives us great satisfaction, since we know that to invest in education is the best we can do to offer a future filled with hope to the young people in our region.

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR THE CARE OF CREATION

Pope Francis has instituted September 1st as the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. We thus join the Orthodox Church in prayer for the future of nature and everything that inhabits it. In line with his last encyclical Laudato Si', on “Caring for Our Common Home,” the Pope invites us to join in conscious and active protection of the Mother Earth. With the encyclical he adheres to concerns from environmental groups, researchers and various groups for our environment.

This is then opportunity to review our thinking and our actions regarding the care for Creation. Are we aware of the practices and policies harmful to the environment? Can we commit to transforming this situation? Can we change prsonal habits in order to reduce consumption of water or energy, use public transport or car pool, not waste food, recycle ... Some of our habits can be changed to be more consistent with a more sustainable environment.

REFLECTION

THE BREAD OF LIFE DISCOURSE (II)

Martí Colom




“Is this not Jesus?”

 

Following the meditation published a few days ago, we continue reflecting on the Bread of Life Discourse, which extends itself for most of chapter six of John’s Gospel and we have heard at Sunday Mass during the past few weeks.

In verse 6:24 we are told that one of the resistances that Jesus found in those to whom he proclaimed the Good News was based on nothing less than in his closeness to them. He identified himself as bread from heaven and they responded murmuring, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Do we not know his father and mother?”

They ask themselves, filled with wonder, how can he bring us something new if he belongs here, if we have always known him, if he is one of us?

Beyond these questions (which begin with the mention of Jesus’ name, as if his well-known identity was the strongest argument to discredit his message), there is a deeply rooted tendency not just of those who listened to him 2,000 years ago, but even of many today: the tendency to think that when God manifests Himself in our lives this will necessarily happen by way of extraordinary signs and spectacular events completely foreign to our daily experience. We refuse to accept that God may come to us tip-toeing, through ordinary people, through those we have closest. Yet, this is exactly what happens.

Perhaps many of us are more in debt than what we would like to admit to superstitious and magical ways of thinking, out of which we automatically associate God’s presence to the super-natural and everything that is grandiose, foreign and incomprehensible. It seems to us that our daily experience simply cannot be the scenario or the means for God’s action.

Jesus, of course, comes to challenge this mentality and to claim back the richness and sanctity of everything ordinary, and to suggest that his own closeness to those he lived with (in short, his humanity) it was not, neither then nor now, an obstacle for him to be living bread for all.

If we try to be his followers we must understand that each and every one of us is also called to be bread of life for others: from our simplicity, from our rootedness to our own cultures, from our personalities more or less integrated, even from our many limitations, from our fears and hopes.

A careful reading of this passage, finally, will help us to discover God’s footprint in places where we perhaps were not looking: in the father and the grandfather that give me advice, in the children who question my ideas, in the wife whom I love, in the sick person that I visit, in the friend to whom I open my own heart, in the neighbor that helps me, in the coworker I see every day, in the brother with whom I pray together and in the poor person who I perhaps tend to ignore instead of finding, in him as well, my bread of eternal life.