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Message of his Holiness Pope Francis for World Mission Day 2020

by
Papa Francisco

Here am I, send me (Is 6:8)

Papa Francisco

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I wish to express my gratitude to God for the commitment with which the Church throughout the world carried out the Extraordinary Missionary Month last October. I am convinced that it stimulated missionary conversion in many communities on the path indicated by the theme: “Baptized and Sent: the Church of Christ on Mission in the World”.

In this year marked by the suffering and challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic, the missionary journey of the whole Church continues in light of the words found in the account of the calling of the prophet Isaiah: “Here am I, send me” (6:8). This is the ever new response to the Lord’s question: “Whom shall I send?” (ibid.). This invitation from God’s merciful heart challenges both the Church and humanity as a whole in the current world crisis. “Like the disciples in the Gospel we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying ‘We are perishing’ (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this” (Meditation in Saint Peter’s Square, 27 March 2020). We are indeed frightened, disoriented and afraid. Pain and death make us experience our human frailty, but at the same time remind us of our deep desire for life and liberation from evil. In this context, the call to mission, the invitation to step out of ourselves for love of God and neighbour presents itself as an opportunity for sharing, service and intercessory prayer. The mission that God entrusts to each one of us leads us from fear and introspection to a renewed realization that we find ourselves precisely when we give ourselves to others.

In the sacrifice of the cross, where the mission of Jesus is fully accomplished (cf. Jn 19:28-30), God shows us that his love is for each and every one of us (cf. Jn 19:26-27). He asks us to be personally willing to be sent, because he himself is Love, love that is always “on mission”, always reaching out in order to give life. Out of his love for us, God the Father sent his Son Jesus (cf. Jn 3:16). Jesus is the Father’s Missionary: his life and ministry reveal his total obedience to the Father’s will (cf. Jn 4:34; 6:38; 8:12-30; Heb 10:5-10). Jesus, crucified and risen for us, draws us in turn into his mission of love, and with his Spirit which enlivens the Church, he makes us his disciples and sends us on a mission to the world and to its peoples.

“The mission, the ‘Church on the move’, is not a programme, an enterprise to be carried out by sheer force of will. It is Christ who makes the Church go out of herself. In the mission of evangelization, you move because the Holy Spirit pushes you, and carries you” (Senza di Lui non possiamo fare nulla: Essere missionari oggi nel mondo. Una conversazione con Gianni Valente, Libreria Editrice Vaticana: San Paolo, 2019, 16-17). God always loves us first and with this love comes to us and calls us. Our personal vocation comes from the fact that we are sons and daughters of God in the Church, his family, brothers and sisters in that love that Jesus has shown us. All, however, have a human dignity founded on the divine invitation to be children of God and to become, in the sacrament of Baptism and in the freedom of faith, what they have always been in the heart of God.

Life itself, as a gift freely received, is implicitly an invitation to this gift of self: it is a seed which, in the baptized, will blossom as a response of love in marriage or in virginity for the kingdom of God. Human life is born of the love of God, grows in love and tends towards love. No one is excluded from the love of God, and in the holy sacrifice of Jesus his Son on the cross, God conquered sin and death (cf. Rom 8:31-39). For God, evil – even sin – becomes a challenge to respond with even greater love (cf. Mt 5:38-48; Lk 22:33-34). In the Paschal Mystery, divine mercy heals our wounded humanity and is poured out upon the whole universe. The Church, the universal sacrament of God’s love for the world, continues the mission of Jesus in history and sends us everywhere so that, through our witness of faith and the proclamation of the Gospel, God may continue to manifest his love and in this way touch and transform hearts, minds, bodies, societies and cultures in every place and time.

Mission is a free and conscious response to God’s call. Yet we discern this call only when we have a personal relationship of love with Jesus present in his Church. Let us ask ourselves: are we prepared to welcome the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, to listen to the call to mission, whether in our life as married couples or as consecrated persons or those called to the ordained ministry, and in all the everyday events of life? Are we willing to be sent forth at any time or place to witness to our faith in God the merciful Father, to proclaim the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, to share the divine life of the Holy Spirit by building up the Church? Are we, like Mary, the Mother of Jesus, ready to be completely at the service of God’s will (cf. Lk 1:38)? This interior openness is essential if we are to say to God: “Here am I, Lord, send me” (cf. Is 6:8). And this, not in the abstract, but in this chapter of the life of the Church and of history.

Understanding what God is saying to us at this time of pandemic also represents a challenge for the Church’s mission. Illness, suffering, fear and isolation challenge us. The poverty of those who die alone, the abandoned, those who have lost their jobs and income, the homeless and those who lack food challenge us. Being forced to observe social distancing and to stay at home invites us to rediscover that we need social relationships as well as our communal relationship with God. Far from increasing mistrust and indifference, this situation should make us even more attentive to our way of relating to others. And prayer, in which God touches and moves our hearts, should make us ever more open to the need of our brothers and sisters for dignity and freedom, as well as our responsibility to care for all creation. The impossibility of gathering as a Church to celebrate the Eucharist has led us to share the experience of the many Christian communities that cannot celebrate Mass every Sunday. In all of this, God’s question: “Whom shall I send?” is addressed once more to us and awaits a generous and convincing response: “Here am I, send me!” (Is 6:8). God continues to look for those whom he can send forth into the world and to the nations to bear witness to his love, his deliverance from sin and death, his liberation from evil (cf. Mt 9:35-38; Lk 10:1-12).

The celebration of World Mission Day is also an occasion for reaffirming how prayer, reflection and the material help of your offerings are so many opportunities to participate actively in the mission of Jesus in his Church. The charity expressed in the collections that take place during the liturgical celebrations of the third Sunday of October is aimed at supporting the missionary work carried out in my name by the Pontifical Mission Societies, in order to meet the spiritual and material needs of peoples and Churches throughout the world, for the salvation of all.

May the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Star of Evangelization and Comforter of the Afflicted, missionary disciple of her Son Jesus, continue to intercede for us and sustain us.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 31 May 2020, Solemnity of Pentecost

Franciscus

Ministeriality: an approach based on the semantic riches of biblical texts

by
La Palabra
La Palabra

Introduction

This article is intended to be a simple and brief contribution to the process of reflection and sharing on the theme of ministeriality in Biblical texts. Given that the abstract noun “ministeriality” is not to be found in Sacred Scripture, our approach will be based on the semantic plurality of the term “minister”. It is important at this point to emphasise that our text does not include all the Biblical terms equivalent to “minister”, or to study the so-called Biblical ministries such as those of priests, kings, prophets, apostles, evangelists, pastors or doctors. We will limit ourselves, therefore, to taking up some theological-linguistic elements associated with the terms and afterwards share, by way of conclusion, a brief reflection and some questions in view of possible further study of the theme.

1. A general outline of Biblical terms equivalent to “minister!

1.1 In the Old Testament

1.1.1 MESHARET

The root of this Hebrew word signified any form of service. In the context of our theme: the service of Joshua to Moses in Ex 24,13; 33,11, Nb 11,28 and Jos 1,1. In these texts, MESHARET means minister, a direct helper, a disciple. In fact, Moses would bring Joshua to his encounters with God on the mountain and in the tent. The ministry of Joshua consisted in helping Moses to understand the message of God and then transmit it to the people. Interestingly, these texts show that being a minister is a stage in the preparation to be a guide, or a true discipleship. Therefore, MESHARET goes back to the theme of the disciple-master relationship, of being able to learn in order to continue a mission or a ministry. From this perspective, the concept of MESHARET gives us to understand that, in the disciple-master relationship, the disciple learns not only from the master but from reality. In other words, reality becomes the master. This shows that the minister is a disciple both of the Lord and of reality.

1.1.2 EBED

Another term used in the Old Testament to signify ministry is EBED. This term indicates not only the common service of any person working under a master, as in the case of Naaman (2 K 5, 6), but also subordination to divine plans as in the case of the servant of God (EBED ADONAI or EBED HA–ELOHIM) in Is 42, 1-4; 49, 1-6; 50, 4-9; 52, 13-15; 53, 1-12. Even though exegetes do not all agree on the historic identity of the EBED ADONAI, the texts clearly show submission to the plans of God and the condition for realising the mission received.

1.2In the New Testament

In the case of the New Testament )NT), the following terms merit discussion:

1.2.1 PAIS/DOULOS

In ordinary language, PAIS means ‘child’. In Mt 12, 18, however, the Greek version of Is 42,1 is used in which the term PAIS is translated with the Hebrew meaning of EBED (servant), to show that Jesus is the Servant of God. With the same intuition, after Pentecost, under the Jerusalem portico, Peter declares for the first time that Jesus is the Servant of God (Ac 3,13). In effect, Peter was so moved by the image of Jesus-Servant that this became the reference point of his first preaching, after Pentecost. In this way, he presents the image of Jesus-Servant as the paradigm of any service whatever in the nascent Church. Textual proof of this is to be found in the semantic transposition made in the NT of the terms PAIS (child, servant) and DOULOS (slave, servant). Here we must be careful: addressing the apostles in Jn 15,15, Jesus qualifies his relationship with them as one of friendship and not of service or slavery. Furthermore, the term DOULOS (servant) continues to characterise the mission of the disciples. Jesus recommends that interpersonal relations be marked by the attitudes and sentiments of a servant and that they must be adopted by anyone who wishes to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 20,27; Mk 10,44). It is also worth noting that DOULOS is the title with which Paul presents himself to his communities (Rm 1,1; 2 Cor 4,5; Gal 1,10; Ep 6,6; Ph 1,1; Tt 1,1). Some Christians are called servants (DOULOI) in Col 4,12; 2 Tm 2,14; Jm 1,1. Peter, Jude and the whole Church are DOULOI of Christ according to 2 P 1,1; Jude 1,1; Ac 1,1. We may then see that the terms PAIS and DOULOS become synonymous and Jesus-Servant becomes the unique paradigm in the exercise of ministries.

1.2.2 LEITOURGOS

Three meanings of this term merit particular attention:

  1. indicates public servants and administrators who are called servants of God for the zeal with which they carry out their duties (Rm 13,6). The Christian must be submissive to them and pray for them that they may live tranquil, peaceful, pious and honest lives (2 Tm 2,2).
  • The one who announces the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him, so that they may become an offering pleasing to Him, is also called LEITOURGOS (Rm 15,16).
  • The term is also applied to Jesus to indicate his ministry as mediator between God and humankind (Heb 8,2). It is also interesting that, in the NT, by this term, the ministry of the public servant is seen as equal to that of the evangeliser because both, inspired by Jesus the Mediator, serve the same God. As we have just seen, being inspired by Jesus the Mediator means assuming and performing, within and outside the Church, the priestly dimension of the ministries. All the ministries, without exception, are clothed in a priestly dimension or, in other words, the mediation between the Creator and creation.

1.2.3 HYPĒRETES

As regards the term HYPĒRETES, we find it means only “minister of the Word” (Lk 1,2; Ac 26,16). In these texts, the experience of Christ is seen as a necessary condition for the exercise of the ministry. We need only see that the “servants of the Word”, mentioned in Lk 1,2, are eyewitnesses. Saul, in Ac 26,16, is constituted servant and witness of what he had just seen and of what the Lord still had to show him. From these passages, the idea emerges that ministries are born of the experience of Christ and take nourishment from it.

1.2.4 DIAKONOS

The term is widely used in the NT, but in different contexts and with different meanings. Fundamentally, we do well to examine the following: DIAKONOS is the person who receives the mission to serve the Church. Stephen and his friends are deacons since they carry out the charitable works of the community (Ac 6,1-6); Paul and Apollos, however much they work tirelessly in evangelisation, prefer to be considered simply deacons (DIAKONOI) of the Church (1 Cor 3,5-15); Tychicus (Ep 6,21), Epaphras (Col 1,7) and Timothy (1 Tt 3,2) are DIAKONOI since they collaborate more directly in evangelisation. Even Jesus Christ is a DIAKONOS since he did not come to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 28,28; Mk 10,45; Rm 15,8). Assistance to the neediest is considered not only a DIAKONIA (ministry, service) but a necessary condition to have a place in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 25,31-46). In particular, it is of help to highlight the texts on the inferiority of the DIAKONOS: Lk 12,37  22,26-27. The DIAKONOS is inferior to God and the people entrusted to him. In effect, it seems that this was an important characteristic of ministries in the first Christian communities.

1.2.5 OIKONOMOS

The OIKONOMOS is the administrator who looks after the property of his master. It must be noted that, in the Pauline and Petrine traditions, all Christians are called OIKONOMOI since they administer the graces of God (1 Cor 4,1-2; 1 Pt 4,10). The symbolism of the administrator of the house is indeed striking as it insists on the duty of every Christian to have a ministry. In this way, the ministers are seen as a way of administering the OIKOS (dwelling, house) of God (1 Cor 3,5-9).

Buon_Pastore

2. Reflection

The semantic riches which we have already mentioned are not to be seen as mere linguistic research, for its own sake, of Biblical authors but as clear proof of the diversity of ministerial experiences among the people of Israel and the first Christian communities. In the same way, these semantic riches serve as a foundation and inspiration for the continual contextualisation of ministries.

2.1 A diversity of ministerial experiences

From what we have said above, it is clear that the various experiences of ministeriality recorded in the sacred texts are of interest to hagiographers to present, through them, a God who raises up ministries at the service of His house. We bear in mind that, in the NT, house of God (OIKOS TOU THEOU) indicates, strictly speaking, the Church of Christ (1 Tm 3,15; Heb 3,6) and, in a broader sense, the entire universe (At 7,44-50). The inherent complexity of the concepts shows the importance of deepening not only the meaning of the expression “house of God”, but also the ministries required for its integral administration. The house of God is so complex that it is not possible to administer it without a vast range of ministries. It is urgent, therefore, to stimulate the birth of new ministries within and outside the Church. In this sense, the Comboni Missionaries are called to animate this process that today, more than ever, seems to be a conditio sine qua non for the evangelisation of the contemporary world.

2.2 Contextualisation of ministries

The various experiences of ministeriality in the Bible are accompanied by a process contextualisation, making ministries fit for a given context. For Comboni Missionaries, contextualisation brings with it two intrinsically interdependent processes: the process ad intra and the process ad extra. Ad intra because it requires a re-think of ministries and missionary commitments in light of the internal situation of the Institute (number of confreres, academic formation, vocational geographics, the financial situation, etc.). Ad extra because it challenges us to identify, in the context in which we work, people, means and methods to promote, with and through these, new ministries or the actualisation of those already in existence. Both processes require realism, courage and optimism. It is to be noted that, in the process of the contextualisation of ministries, assumed either individually or as a group, the contextualised reading of Sacred Scripture plays an irreplaceable role. For this reason, it is fundamental to re-learn the Bible, starting from the context of the contemporary listener. Only in this way will it be possible to discover the ministries more suitable for each situation.

3. Study questions

a) In what does the “inferiority of the minister” consist, as applied to Comboni missionaries?

b) Do we see the need for new ministries in the Church and Institute today? Which ones?

c) The house of God is immense and complex. How is it to be administered integrally?

d) Have we succeeded in contextualising the Comboni charism and the ministries associated with it?

e) Have we succeeded in contextualising our hermeneutics of Biblical texts, for the purpose of arousing ministries fit for the situation? What difficulties did we find?

Recommended Bibliography

COLLINS, J.N. (2014). Diakonia Studies: Critical Issues in Ministry. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

COMISSÃO Teológica Internacional. (2002). Da Diaconia de Cristo à Diaconia dos Apóstolos.

GUIJARRO, S. (2017). La Aportación del Análisis Contextual a la Exégesis de los Textos Bíblicos. Cuestiones Teológicas, 44 (102), 283-300.

KING, N. (2019). Ministry in the New Testament. New Blackfriars, 100 (1086), 155-164.

MĂCELARU, M.V. (2011). Discipleship in the Old Testament and Its Context: A Phenomenological Approach. Pleroma, 13 (2), 11-22.

Fr. José Joaquim L. Pedro, mccj

Virtual Missionary Pilgrimage with Comboni

by
peregrinacion
peregrinacion

Dear friend,

Do you have your backpack ready? We have prepared a virtual missionary pilgrimage. Don’t be afraid, we are not going to walk 30 km every day (well if you want to…). What we will need are minds and hearts full of passion, can we count on you?

[I have to inform you that the pilgrimage will be in Spanish]

WHAT IS A PILGRIMAGE?

Pilgrimage: From Latin. Peregrināri. 1. A person’s saying: To walk in strange lands. 2. intr. To go on a pilgrimage to a shrine for devotion or for a vow…

WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

– Visit virtually 7 places that marked the life of St. Daniel Comboni, starting in Italy and ending in Sudan.

– Get to know the Comboni Mission and St. Daniel Comboni, its founder

– Discover his passion for Christ, for the mission of the Church and for the African people.

– To have moments of silence, prayer and meeting.

– To ask ourselves what is our mission wherever we are.

WHAT IS THE JOURNEY?

1. Limone Sul Garda (Italy)

2. Verona (Italy)

3. Holy Land

4. Rome

5. Nile River

6. Malbes (Sudan)

7. Khartoum, Sudan.

peregrinacion

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

All those who wish to participate.

HOW ARE WE GOING TO DO IT?

– You must register in the pilgrims’ registry. When you do so, you will be able to access the content of the first stage.

– In each one of them you will be able to enjoy: virtual tour, missionary testimonies, reflections, prayers, some history, many stories? and a very good atmosphere.

– Before moving on to the next stage you will have to answer a brief questionnaire. This will give you the key to access the next stage.

WHAT IS NEEDED?

– A computer or a cell phone

– At least one hour every day (x 7 days). The pilgrimage is designed to be done in 7 days, but don’t worry, if you need more time, the materials will be available.

– And above all, a lot of desire to live this experience.

DO YOU HAVE TO PAY ANYTHING?

– God’s grace is FREE! But if it has helped you, invite others, don’t keep it just for yourself!

AND WHY EMBARK ON THIS?

Because it is worthwhile to live an adventure with Jesus and with Daniel Comboni. The missionary and prophet who went beyond his time and his land. He gave up everything for the mission and consecrated his whole life to an ideal: “To save Africa with Africa”.

What better travel companion than someone who travelled through 3 continents in the 19th century without a plane! He sailed the Mediterranean Sea; he crossed Europe by train; he travelled the African deserts by camel and the Russian steppes by sledge; he even saw the crocodiles of the Nile up close and travelled on foot many of the roads of Africa! And why all this? Because Daniel Comboni lived with passion the call to make Christ known to those whom history and society had left out.

Are you ready to embark with him on this adventure?

STARTING THE MISSION: 3, 2, 1…!

If you are interested in participating:

Web: https://t.co/oZmuYlfOVE

Registration: https://t.co/ge6WNoxD5t

Rural Family House of Açailândia: a history of struggles

by
CFR Brasil

By Zé Luís Costa. From the MST website. (Edited by Fernanda Alcântara)

CFR Brasil

The Rural Family House [Casa Familiar Rural (CFR)] of Açailândia, in the state of Maranhão, was constituted as an association in 2001 after a small group of social activists met and began to discuss ways to improve the issue of rural education for the local reality.

From the beginning, the entities that started the proposal of the family house entered the debate of this political and social project, such as the MST, which had just settled in the city, the institute of the Comboni Missionaries, the Center for the Defense of Life and Human Rights and the Union of Workers and Rural Workers of the city.

The experience of this type of school is already old in the world and in the state of Maranhão they are present in several different cities. In other parts of the world this type of school is known as “Family Agricultural School”.

From the first discussions, the interested organizations held several meetings, even in cities on the outskirts, as Xoan Carlos (CLM) reminds us. “We held a series of meetings in the communities. There were another 60 meetings in the municipalities of Açailândia, São Francisco do Brejão, Itinga, Bom Jesus das Selvas. And finally the association was formed”.

He continues: “From there we obtained a piece of land, given by the Catholic Church. But we could not afford to build the building or pay the employees. So it was a few more years of struggle and articulation in the search for projects, and where we got some international support”.

CFR Brasil

Later, in 2003, the organizations involved in the idea managed to start what they dreamed of for the city and its surroundings, in view of the large number of settlements and rural communities they had in the vicinity of the city, now with 110,000 inhabitants. It was a dream for the distant future.

The pioneers of the idea achieved, with much struggle, agreements with the city council, as Xoan Carlos states. “In 2005 we started the first activities of the CFR. We started with an elementary school course, we had managed to structure several productive units in agriculture, beekeeping, cattle raising, pigs… Governor Jackson Lago had the intention of doing a high school course integrated to professional education, and a new moment started for the CFR”, he concludes.

With these articulations, in 2006 the high school course started, which was better adapted to the needs of the youth in the countryside. Mainly because, in 2001, many communities only had young people with the fourth grade at most. This was the need they have: a school with different characteristics from the conventional ones, for the countryside.

Jarbe Firmino was a student in the first class of the Açailândia Rural Family House, and later entered the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA). He graduated in Education in countryside and returned to CFR, now as a monitor/teacher, and then took a position in the institution as general coordinator.

He tells about his experience criticizing the position of the public power: “This experience, to which I refer, of coordinator, as well as in other moments, was of great difficulty in terms of support from the public power. These were periods in which contracts were not honored by the State, which weakened the movement of which the CFR is a part,” he concludes.

After all this struggle, came the recognition and the conquests. The main one was the training of young people as agricultural technicians to work in the settlements with their families and in some state agencies. The Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy, CREA, recognized them so that they could work officially providing technical assistance to the projects.

However, the desire of the coordination and the group that organizes the association and the CFR is that the students, trained, work with their families developing what they have learned, in family farms, as most of the settlements of the agrarian reform.

CFR Brasil

The CFR is managed by an association, and the president is currently Xoan Carlos. The coordination is chosen by the association and has ten teachers who are hired by the Maranhão State Education Secretariat.

History of the rural family houses

The Rural Family Houses originated in France in 1935, in a situation of strong rural exodus, when a group of families, with the support of the Catholic Church, met to rethink this situation. They called it “House” to differentiate it from the conventional school and because it began in the home of a family; “Family” because it was an organization of families and not of the government; and “Rural” because the object of the experience was in the rural environment as a whole: technical, human, cultural, etc.

Today, in France, there are 450 CFRs. Since the 1960s, the experience has spread to Spain and Italy under the name “Family Farm School”. There are about 1,000 CFRs in the five continents, in thirty countries.

In Brazil, the CFRs began to appear at the end of the 1960s, and today there are about 150 rural educational centers that operate with the “Pedagogy of Alternance”. In Maranhão there are approximately 27 schools with these formative principles. The pedagogy of alternation developed within the methods of Paulo Freire, in a construction of technical training, is united with training for life, in the case of Açailândia, expanded with the commitment to the struggles for a differentiated model of agriculture.

CFR Brasil