Praying with Evangelii Gaudium, Day 14: Being Church

                                                        The greatest hope of the Church?

In the last entry, we were reminded again, how renewal is the focus for Francis in this document. The challenge that he faces in his papacy, and that we face as a universal Church, is that renewal is a theme that terrifies many people in the Church. Those who respond to change and renewal with fear, are people who assume that our whole identity as Catholics revolves around tradition which we must defend and hold on to for dear life. Francis has already suggested in the past that our traditions will continue to be a great tool for all the faithful,  but we should not be afraid to use it as a tool of change and renewal.Turning to the tradition to help renew the Church is what I believe helps him remain optimistic, despite the struggles that lie ahead. This optimism is expressed in EG 28, as he reminds us that the reason why parishes, and the Universal church (and therefore,all her traditions)  do not become outdated and inconsequential, is because of the missionary creativity of the pastors and the parishioners. Thanks to this creativity, parishes can be flexible (EG 28), and can  even adapt themselves to integrate a new approach to ministry. It’s that flexibility, that ability to adapt that allows the Church to live ‘in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters’ (EG 28; Christifelis Laici(JPII) 26).

 I struggled a little bit with that quote from Christifelis Laici. I know the Church, as bride of Christ, has wonderful teachings and a beautiful way of looking at the world, which has the capacity to live in the midst of the homes of all people. Unfortunately, the truth is that these days,  many households live lives that are disenchanted with the Church and many of her social positions.  So how is it that Francis can assert with so much confidence that the Church ‘really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people’ (EG 28)?  Well, what I had to remember is that, although the Church doesn’t necessarily speak to many people in Quebec, other places in the West, and Australia, it still remains a relevant presence in the lives of many families around the world, whether they be rich, poor, or middle class, immigrants, refugees, or permanent residents of a country. Furthermore, the Church, as Francis sees it, is something that is making a lot of people talk, possibly because his vision of the Church is so radical. It’s exactly what the world needs right now. Because of that, many may describe Pope Francis as the greatest hope for the future of this Church.

 But as we know, Francis on his own, is not the Church, nor is he the only hope that this Church has for Her future. He needs the Bishops to be that Church, and he needs us to do the same. We forget, just how much it is that we can offer to the world through the work we do in our parishes: All the growth, the charitable outreach, all the opportunities for a community to gather together and celebrate, all the conversations we can have with people (EG 28). Yet, the sad realization that Francis makes that all this wonderful work won’t always bring us closer to the people or make parishes the “ environments of living communion”  (EG 28)  that they are called to be. Thankfully, there are ‘movements’ and community based endeavors that do fulfill the task of creating a living communion in our parishes. The challenge Francis sees is that some of these movements work sometimes independently of the parishes (EG 29). The time for division has passed. We’ve heard Francis say all week long (during the week of Christian Unity) how much of a disaster division was in our Christian Churches,  but we should also remember that they exist in our parishes too, and that this is unacceptable. We should no longer be concerned about who gets credit for this or that work, or who benefits more from it etc.... Everything we do is for the greater glory of God. It really matters not who does it. We're not there yet, but we seem to be moving towards that.

 There is indeed a wind of change in the Church, as Francis and others continue to push Christians to live their faith with a deeper sense of love, and affection for others. However this change  cannot come from Francis alone. We need to live past our pettiness and our pride, and to embrace the call to unity, love and compassion that our Lord and Savior gives us daily. This is how we will prepare our Church for the 21st century, and beyond.

28. The parish is not an outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only institution which evangelizes, if it proves capable of self-renewal and constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the homes of her sons and daughters”.[26] This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration.[27] In all its activities the parish encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a centre of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to make them completely mission-oriented.

29. Other Church institutions, basic communities and small communities, movements, and forms of association are a source of enrichment for the Church, raised up by the Spirit for evangelizing different areas and sectors. Frequently they bring a new evangelizing fervour and a new capacity for dialogue with the world whereby the Church is renewed. But it will prove beneficial for them not to lose contact with the rich reality of the local parish and to participate readily in the overall pastoral activity of the particular Church.[29] This kind of integration will prevent them from concentrating only on part of the Gospel or the Church, or becoming nomads without roots.

Praying with Evangelii Gaudium, Day 13: Dreaming of renewal

                  Is the Church being renewed and given new life by Pope Francis's dreams and visions?

In the last sentence of point 25, we saw how Pope Francis drove home one of the most important messages for our Church today,:  “Mere administration” can no longer be enough for the Church. Throughout the world, let us be “permanently in a state of mission”. (Quoted from the Aperecida document of the Fifth general Conference of Latin American Bishops in 2007; EG 25). This call to be in a state of permanent mission is also a call to renewal (a word that appears a lot in this document!). Renewal is something many pontiffs have encouraged the people with over the years in the hope that Christians develop a better understanding of who they are as  a community of disciples of Jesus. Quoting Paul VI's encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam,  Francis continues this task by reminding us that the Church's purpose is to ponder the mystery of her own being.We do this because the image of how the Church represents Herself is not always the image of the Church portrayed in scripture.(EG 26) 

That's because what we find in scriptures, as Francis reminds us, is an ideal. It's what Jesus yearned to see us do. His dream, if you will, that each and every of his followers would become so committed to the heavenly father and to each other, that such ideals would be a second nature to us.  As we know, things didn't quite turn out that way, and perhaps it's  for the best that we never become that perfect, spotless bride scripture often calls us to be(Ephesians 5:27). Failing to achieve this ideal could be one of the things that keeps us humble. That being said, our attempts to achieve this ideal should never stop, nor should our efforts to deepen our self-awareness which opens the door to our renewal.

 As the Second Vatican council document ' Unitatis Redintegratio'  stated, the conversion of the Church, which implies a renewal, is of the essence, as it opens the door for us to following Christ with greater fidelity ( Unitatis Redintegratio, 6). Francis goes even further though, in naming this renewal, as the life which sustains the positive structures within the Church that can help any of our missionary work (EG 26).  This brings us back to the idea that began this entry: The administration of the Church is key to the survival of our Universal Church, but it is nothing without the renewal of the faithful that brings pure air into the lungs of this institution. The pastoral activity of the Church are empty without that air, without that life, without that personal conversion of the faithful .

This renewal is key to Francis, because,  through this process, there can be much transformation of the Church.(EG 27) But to secure this transformation, there also needs to be a 'missionary option' or impulse that will be central to the Church and to everything She is and does. It's the only way to create authentic change within the Church. Francis reminds us that any renewal of the institution, the structure and even the self understanding of the Church can only occur as part of an effort to make them more mission oriented. (EG 27) This again, is not strictly Pope Francis' vision, but it's definitely his dream for this Church. Of course, what's making Francis so unique is that he is working hard to ensure that these dreams are brought to life.  Let us pray that this dream of a Church with a missionary impulse continues to help transform not just the Roman Catholic Church, but the entire world!

II. PASTORAL ACTIVITY AND CONVERSION

26. Paul VI invited us to deepen the call to renewal and to make it clear that renewal does not only concern individuals but the entire Church. Let us return to a memorable text which continues to challenge us. “The Church must look with penetrating eyes within herself, ponder the mystery of her own being… This vivid and lively self-awareness inevitably leads to a comparison between the ideal image of the Church as Christ envisaged her and loved her as his holy and spotless bride (cf. Eph 5:27), and the actual image which the Church presents to the world today... This is the source of the Church’s heroic and impatient struggle for renewal: the struggle to correct those flaws introduced by her members which her own self-examination, mirroring her exemplar, Christ, points out to her and condemns”.[23] The Second Vatican Council presented ecclesial conversion as openness to a constant self-renewal born of fidelity to Jesus Christ: “Every renewal of the Church essentially consists in an increase of fidelity to her own calling… Christ summons the Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual reformation of which she always has need, in so far as she is a human institution here on earth”.[24]

There are ecclesial structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization, yet even good structures are only helpful when there is a life constantly driving, sustaining and assessing them. Without new life and an authentic evangelical spirit, without the Church’s “fidelity to her own calling”, any new structure will soon prove ineffective.

An ecclesial renewal which cannot be deferred

27. I dream of a “missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with him. As John Paul II once said to the Bishops of Oceania: “All renewal in the Church must have mission as its goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.[25]

Praying with Evangelii Gaudium, Day 12: Going forth in joy!

The Shepherd leading his sheep forward. in joy...

 As we enter 2014, I am inclined to reflect a little more deeply about this blog and where it's going. Believe it or not, it's not about the number of hits I get (although that does bring me some source of pride!!You know, the good kind of pride! ) What drives much of my work here is the question " how can I best appropriate for myself this lengthy document?" I don't have a full answer. No matter how much I pray with it, I still won't do it full justice with my little commentaries:  I am likely  to  miss out on some details, or will misunderstand the true meaning of the Pope's message in some way. However,I think that at the end of the day, it will remain healthy for me to do these segments, because it will give me SOME insight on what the Pope is inviting us to, which is to know the joy that our God offers us everyday, and to let our lives be guided by that joy. Of course, that`s only a rough summary of what he`s saying...there`s much to unpack.

 What will be important for me, is to continue looking back at the document, both my reflections and the Pope's words. This will help me reflect on what's been said, and to have a deeper understanding of where Francis is trying to lead us with his exhortation.Yes he wants us to return to the joy of faith, but how? What are the challenges? What are the hopes we can have to help us carry on? There are many questions, and not always many answers. However, as I mentioned there will be some kind of understanding, and that is important. That understanding is one step we can take in responding to the Pope`s exhortation to renewal. 

 This exhortation to the universal Church is what has moved me the most about this man: He's not afraid to challenge  ALL OF US.  I don't think this is new to Francis, but there is a certain genuineness in how he invites us to this call that seems to empower many people in their efforts to take his challenges seriously. All over the world, there seem to be little sparks of responses to Francis that reflect the true depth of our faith, a depth Francis is not afraid to explore! Even those 7 points that he proposes to speak about in this document (EG 18) bring us back  to how we can move forth in our faith  in this New Year. They pave the way to that amazing encounter with God`s love which allows us to blossom as human beings, and be freed from self absorption. This is that wonderful point when  " We become fully human...even...more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being".(EG 8) 

 I know this may seem like a bunch of pretty ideas to many people out there, and as Francis points out, pretty ideas in documents have a tendency to be forgotten (EG 25).  But to me,  hearing Pope Francis call all Christians and people of good will to attain the fullness of our being and seeing how people are responding to this call  gives me hope that this Church is going forth..not because it`s the right thing to do, but because God`s love has taken the initiative and it continues to spur us on forward...encouraging us to be more creative with our faith, to become more involved with our communities, to take the first step towards spiritual and personal growth. (EG 24)  This is not something that should be seen as an arduous task, but the full blessing of God`s fruit coming into blossom. But the bottom line is that it will be challenging, and we will be pushed. There will be resistance to living out that joy both from within the Church, and from outside it. This will slow us down, dishearten us even...but it should not stop us in our efforts to permanently in a state of mission (EG 25).


 I pray that we may be open to what the Pope is invitingus to as we continue to unpack this document, and continue to receive the blessings and challenges of the new year!!




Taking the first step, being involved and supportive, bearing fruit and rejoicing

24. The Church which “goes forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast (E-G). Such a community has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take the first step and to become involved. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet. He tells his disciples: “You will be blessed if you do this” (Jn 13:17). An evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives; it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.(e) Evangelizers thus take on the “smell of the sheep” and the sheep are willing to hear their voice. An evangelizing community is also supportive, standing by people at every step of the way, no matter how difficult or lengthy this may prove to be(e). It is familiar with patient expectation and apostolic endurance. Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of time. Faithful to the Lord’s gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient at the weeds. The sower, when he sees weeds sprouting among the grain does not grumble or overreact. He or she finds a way to let the word take flesh in a particular situation and bear fruits of new life, however imperfect or incomplete these may appear. The disciple is ready to put his or her whole life on the line, even to accepting martyrdom, in bearing witness to Jesus Christ, yet the goal is not to make enemies but to see God’s word accepted and its capacity for liberation and renewal revealed. Finally an evangelizing community is filled with joy; it knows how to rejoice always. It celebrates every small victory, every step forward in the work of evangelization. Evangelization with joy becomes beauty in the liturgy, as part of our daily concern to spread goodness. The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source of her renewed self-giving.
II. Pastoral activity and conversion
25. I am aware that nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as they presently are. “Mere administration” can no longer be enough.[21] Throughout the world, let us be “permanently in a state of mission”.[22]