By Frans De Ridder, cicm

In the gospel of Luke we find this verse: Now…the people were filled with expectation… (Lk. 3: 15). CICM’s 14th Chapter is “behind” us…It took place in June 2011. As with all Chapters as it was with Vatican II: “now the people are/were filled with expectation…” (Lk. 3: 15)

Earlier in Lk 3: 10, we read: “The crowds asked him: What then should we do…?” I know that each one of us must answer this question personally. No one can dictate what I/we should be doing… Yet my 35 years of experiencing Marriage Encounter has taught me that there are quite some people who cannot think out of the box, can hardly think or imagine that there are alternatives.

We tend to take things for granted and think and behave as if the present way of living our missionary religious life is the only possible and “reasonable” one. I think the people John the Baptist was addressing were no exception. Hence John the Baptist is extremely down to earth in his reply:

— Whoever has two cloaks should share with the person who has none…

— Whoever has food should do likewise…

— Stop collecting more than what is prescribed…

— Do not practice extortion, do no falsely accuse anyone, and be satisfied with your

wages! (See Lk. 3:  11-14).

I will try my best to be concrete and down to earth. I do not have any particular confreres in mind and I beg those who feel offended to forgive me.

1. Food and drink.

 Something keeps bothering me for many years already. In our world the number one killer is not “cancer” or heart attack.  It is obesity: 400 million are suffering from this modern dis- ease…while in our world daily 30,000 people die of famine and destitution or over 10 million a year!

What about making an option to “practice fasting” on a voluntary basis, maybe one day a week or eating/drinking less and give the money to the poor? I love a good glass of beer. Yet do we need a glass (or more) every day? And often there is “multiple choice”. The question is no longer: “do you want a glass of beer?” The question is: “what beer do you want today?” My parents were simple farmers who had to work hard to make both ends meet every year. We had beer only on Sundays and then it felt like “feast day”. Also, a real dessert was only for Sundays.

We may also not forget that CICM has had and does have its fair number of confreres addicted to alcohol! Is daily one (or more) glass(es) of whisky or brandy really so indispensable? Reading the Gospel carefully we can understand that “fasting” is one way of reconnecting with the bridegroom (Mt. 9:15).

When our spirits are low and we start doubting about God’s real presence in our lives…fasting may be a Prayer of Body and Soul. Anselm Grun wrote a remarkable booklet by this name. Allow me to quote some spiritual guides:

If all people were to accept the counsel of fasting in order to settle their differences, nothing would stand in the way of the profoundest peace in the world. (St.Basil).

DREWERMAN.

Drewerman concludes that the human drive to eat, which tries to consume everything, is “the impulse of existence”, the desire “to fill the void of nothingness”. Because he will not recognize his own nothingness, man must devour the whole world.

Bishop Aloysius Jin of Shanghai:

I knew deeply that Communism could never destroy Christianity; history has borne this out. Yet, now I worry that what communism cannot and could never do will be done by the consumer society.

This is exactly what is happening to our world…

The Belgian China missionary Vincent Lebbe, while founding his own four religious communities, warned strongly against a “bourgeois” mentality.

Peter Van Breemen in one of his books makes the statement: After Vatican II huge groups of religious left the religious life…If now in the religious life, there is everything one can dream of, then there is no more reason to leave…Yet then there is equally no more reason to join either.”

2. Prayer life.

In the second half of our novitiate, we were introduced to a second mediation every

day. To my happy surprise I can witness to the fact that in Singapore and other parts of the world many lay people start doing that: twice a day half an hour of meditation, something the World Community of Christian Mediation is promoting (WCCM).

Be still and know that I am God. Psalm 46: 11

I know that the very  successful USA radio and TV speaker: priest and later archbishop Fulton Sheen, spent every day of his life one full hour in Adoration of the  Blessed Sacrament. For many practical reasons, I am  convinced that this one hour could be well spent doing daily meditation with a mantra (for example: ma-ra-na-tha)  twice a day; morning half an hour and evening half an hour. The words by Karl Rahner might well be prophetic here: The Christian of the 21st century will be a mystic or nothing at all.

3. Transportation and Travelling.

There are many good reasons for having a hard look at this aspect of CICM life. Cars are expensive and often a nuisance: the cost price, servicing, insurance, parking space, traffic jam, air pollution…There may be good reasons why confreres for their work ‘need’ a car. No problem for me. Yet this principle should not be a pretext for many a confrere having his own private car.

On top of it, cars “isolate” us from the ordinary people who travel by public transportation. I am at times surprised/ scandalized reading about confreres who “travel back” to their former mission or go for expensive holidays, even if that is paid by good friends. Does this still tally with our vow of poverty?

4.   Electronic gadgets.

A computer is a handy instrument in our modern world also for a missionary. Yet, do we always need to purchase the best, most expensive, the latest on the market? This is also true for confreres who buy a camera, have a personal TV in their room, hand phones etc. Not only are those things expensive…Often they are an incredible waste of time! Often too they can undermine our spiritual life, the taste for God. Our spiritual life is gradually secularized and poisoned. Our bedrooms should be places to sleep and to pray (See Mt. 6:6) and not TV halls. And let us be honest TV, — as it is for many families— is often the end of real community life. Not only do we live in the world, more and more are we of the world…though Jesus said: “they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world”. (Jn. 17: 14)

In Taiwan there are quite some inspiring Buddhist Monasteries.  Master Sheng Yan in Fa Gu Shan summarizes their spirituality in a few lines:

What we really need is not much.

What we want/desire is by far too much.
Go only for those things we really need.
Most of the things we want/ desire are not important.

Justice is giving away what we do not need ourselves. It belongs to the poor!

Charity is giving away from what we need for ourselves.

Summary.

St. Teresa of Avila often said: The one who has God, nothing s/he shall want!

I am convinced that this is precisely the very essence of religious life: to live a life for God, a life with God. God the joy of our hearts!

Show me the path of life, In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore! (Psalm 16: 11)

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By Timothy Atkin, cicm

A new word: “post-truth”

Recent electoral campaigns and referendums have introduced us to a new word, “post-truth”. The Oxford Dictionary even selected post-truth as its word of the year for 2016 after the contentious “Brexit” referendum and an equally divisive U.S. presidential election caused usage of the adjective to skyrocket.

The word “post-truth” is attributed to an American Author, Ralph Keyes, who coined it for the title of his 2004 book “The Post-Truth Era”. It refers to blatant lies being routinely accepted as truth all across society. Keyes writes: “In the post-truth era, borders blur between truth and lies, honesty and dishonesty, fiction and nonfiction. Deceiving others becomes a challenge, a game, and ultimately a habit.” 

In the recent campaigns, we have seen that politicians can lie without condemnation. This is different from the cliché that all politicians lie and make promises they have no intention of keeping — the cliché still expects honesty to be the default position. In the post-truth world, this expectation no longer holds.

Transparency and

accountability

What does it mean when a politician can say: “I didn’t really mean what I said, I just said that to get elected?” Does this mean that someone can say anything to get ordained or to receive a particular assignment whether it is true or not? Just think about the consequences for religious formation, or the sanctity of marriage if our freely given consent comes with the qualifier that whatever was said or promised may have been said or promised simply to get what I wanted and not any real conviction on my part. How can anyone ever know anyone or trust anyone when transparency and accountability are so totally disregarded?

Lovers of wisdom and truth

Most of us were trained as philosophers. We are ‘lovers of wisdom’ who were taught to seek the Good, the True and the Beautiful. We also studied theology and have been sent to announce a Gospel of Truth. The fact that emotions and personal beliefs are often at war with the truth is nothing new; lies and prejudices have been with us for eons. But the fact that they can be so easily expected and accepted is disturbing. How are we to live and accomplish our mission when facts and truth have less influence on people than their emotions, personal beliefs, and prejudices? By staying engaged, that is how!

Faithfulness to CICM

charism

Now, more than ever, is a time when the elements of our CICM charism like, closeness to the people, working for justice, formation of the laity and solidarity with the poor should be brought to the fore. Lies and prejudices are not fought primarily by building buildings or celebrating rituals, but by well-planned sessions of formation, thoughtful homilies, and being present in certain places and in certain situations even when our presence makes us or others feel uncomfortable.

Over the course of the last five years, I have made many canonical visits. I have visited most of the countries where we are working and visited most of the confreres where they live. I have seen many instances of confreres who are engaged in mission in ways that bring them close to people’s daily lives; engaged in ways that invite people to reflect and to follow their own minds and hearts. Some of these confreres may seem a bit strange to many of us; too fixed on one cause, too radical in their ideas, too peculiar in their lifestyle, and yet, these are the confreres who are my heroes. These are the confreres for whom I am truly happy to get up in the morning and to spend my day doing the little that I do, so that they can do the marvelous things that they do.

In the course of my visits, I have also met confreres who are extremely busy. They rush from place to place “doing my Father’s business” they tell me; visiting chapels, administering sacraments, re-organizing what has already been organized and re-deciding what has already been decided. These confreres are busy but are they engaged?

Article 10 of our Constitutions tells us that: “The Institute places itself at the service of the particular churches”. This is well and good, but it does not mean that we should become diocesan clergy or limit ourselves to the concerns of the particular churches. Article 10 goes on to say that: “We strive to respond to these needs (the needs of the particular churches) while remaining faithful to our own identity”. The General Directory, which comes after Article 10, gives us 6 articles, Articles 10.1 to 10.6, which contain some practical points which can help us to be faithful to our identity while serving the particular churches. But our chief concern must always be for the universal mission, both “within and beyond the boundaries” of the particular churches (Article 11).

Creativity and engagement

After years of visiting Provinces and confreres, I begin to ask myself: “Are our missionary engagements increasing or decreasing?” I am not talking about the number of our engagements but their quality. When I meet two confreres, each living alone because the Bishop wanted to divide the parish where they had been working together, I am sure the Bishop and the people are happy, but I ask myself: “Are these two confreres still engaged in giving a witness of teamwork and community living?”

When a confrere tells me that he has 20 Basic Christian Communities in his parish and that he celebrates mass in all of them at least twice a month, I am sure the Bishop and the people are happy, but I ask myself: “When does he have time to form all of these lay leaders or to visit the communities outside of liturgical celebrations? Does he have any idea at all of what the lay leaders are preaching and teaching when he is not there?” More masses and liturgical celebrations are not necessarily a sign of greater creativity and engagement, they can also be a sign of escaping into routine because we don’t know what else to do or are afraid to try something new.

To have an “eye for mission”

In a post-truth world, more than ever, we need to have an “eye for mission”. We need to see and go to those places “within and beyond the boundaries of the particular churches”, where the truth needs to be heard and witnessed to. In a talk given at a recent meeting of Superiors General, one of the speakers said, “The truth has of power of its own to bring hope and change”. I would add, that the only way for us to tap into that power to bring hope and change is by staying engaged.