Fernando Salas C., S.J.
Itaici, 1998
From the General Assembly of Providence '82 to Itaici '98, the
Christian Life Community has made a journey that leads to mission.
Providence '82 confirmed and expressed clearly the desire to be
one World Community, sent in mission, to promote justice.
This led the CLC, at the Loyola Assembly, to look at Mary, Our
Lady, as model of our mission, and then to reformulate the General
Principles in Gaudalajara '90.
At the Hong Kong '94 World Assembly, the Community felt confirmed
in the call to be "one", and to be a "community
in mission". And here, in Itaici, we are moved by the
desire to ask the Lord that, in the middle of so many activities
of service that He has entrusted to us, to help us mark all of
them with that unique mission which constitutes us as one world
community.
Yesterday, in bidding us welcome, José Maria Riera told
us that we had come out of the Hong Kong Assembly "with the
clear feeling of having lived and experienced the world community
maybe with an intensity we had not lived up to then and with the
hope that CLC has a lot to offer to this divided and oppressed
world". José Maria reminded us that CLC is called
to be A LETTER FROM CHRIST, WRITTEN BY THE SPIRIT, AND SENT TO
TODAY'S WORLD.
I shall comment on this desire of the World CLC, by reflecting on the words of Saint Paul, so that they may help us to concentrate on that which really moves us during these days.
"Your are our letter, written in our hearts, known and
read by all men and women. Clearly, you are a letter from Christ,
edited by our ministry, written not in ink, but by the Spirit
of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of
flesh, on your hearts" (2 Cor 3, 2-3).
As a world Community we wish to be a letter, sent from within
the Church, which has the mission to reveal the good news of Jesus
Christ. We desire that our way of living and serving will make
visible to the world this mission we have received. Therefore,
we look at the Church from a Trinitarian perspective (cf. GP 1),
in close relation to the plan of salvation and with the Father's
two missions 2: that of the Son and that of
the Spirit (cf. LG 2-4). We understand the Church as "a
multitude of people made one with the unity of the Father, the
Son the Holy Spirit " (LG 4), which has in the Trinity
its model and its supreme principle (cf. UR 2).
In CLC, "Christ has sent us on mission as members of the pilgrim People of God to be His witnesses before all people by our attitudes, words and actions. We are to become identified with His mission of bringing the good news to the poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and to the blind, new sight, setting free the downtrodden and proclaiming the Lord's year of favour." (GP 8).
2. Written by the Spirit
This "letter from Christ" cannot remain in us merely
as a law, written on tablets of stone (cf. Ex 24,12; 31, 18).
It needs to be engraved by the Spirit of the living God on our
hearts of flesh (cf. Ez 11, 19; Jer 31, 33; cf. GP 2). We are
aware also that the Spirit who annointed Christ also gives life
to the Church that the Body of Christ may grow. As Christ fills
the Church with His Spirit, He, the Head, and we as his Body,
participate in the same Spirit by whom we have been anointed (cf.
LG 7-9; PO 2). This anointing by the Spirit, received in baptism,
makes us participate in the same mission of Jesus, the Christ.
God calls us to serve in a new Alliance, not only in words, but
made also flesh in Jesus, by the work of the Holy Spirit (cf.
2 Cor 2,14-17; 3,4-6). "The Lord himself renews his invitation
to all the lay faithful to come closer to him every day, and with
the recognition that what is his is also their own (Phil 2:5)
they ought to associate themselves with him in his saving mission.
Once again he sends them into every town and place where he himself
is to come (cf. Lk 10:1)" (cf. Lk 4, 18-19: ChL 13; GP
6).
We are aware that the mission we share with Christ Jesus, invites
us to look at the world we live in in a renewed way. "The
joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of
this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted,
these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the
followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to
raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed
of men and women. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit
in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have
welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man"
(GS 1).
We contemplate this world with its fears, its hopes, its longings
and its questions (cf. GS 4-10) as the place where God reveals
and communicates Himself to us. "The People of God believes
that it is led by the Lord's Spirit, Who fills the earth. Motivated
by this faith, it labours to decipher authentic signs of God's
presence and purpose in the happenings, needs and desires in which
this People has a part along with other men of our age"
(GS 11).
In order to offer answers to this world of ours, we cannot simply
start with the realities given in revelation and tradition.
With the help of the same Spirit who moved Jesus, we also
wish to incorporate also those facts and problems received from
the present time and from history, which as new "data"
will help us to clarify the evangelical "reality". "With
the help of the Holy Spirit, it is the task of the entire People
of God, especially pastors and theologians, to hear, distinguish
and interpret the many voices of our age, and to judge them in
the light of the divine word, so that revealed truth can always
be more deeply penetrated, better understood and set forth to
greater advantage" (GS 44).
We started the discernment process in our National Communities
some months ago. There, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we discerned
and interpreted the many voices of our age and judged them in
the light of the Word of God. We were moved by the desire to discover
what God expects of us. Thus, we observed our reality and we came
to the Assembly having answered the questions:
How should we answer as a World Community?
What steps do we deem necessary to implement the mission received?
Now in Itaici, gathered together in the World Assembly, we continue
the discernment process begun in our community of origin. In prayer
we look at our reality, now as a World Community. We want to answer
the same questions from this new point of view.
We have already made the first step. We have listened to the reports
presented by the members of the ExCo, and at the same time, we
have shared in groups about life in our national communities,
from the World Assembly in Hong Kong '94 to today.
I invite you to dedicate the time we have till lunch to personal
prayer. At 2.30 this afternoon, we shall meet again here to comment
on the steps we shall make as we continue our discernment process.
We pray to the Father for the grace to be a letter for the today's
world, which, written by the Spirit, communicates faithfully and
efficiently Christ's message.
2 Ireneus of Lyons refers graphically
to these two missions when he speaks of the "Father's two
hands" (cf. Against heretics, IV, Pr 4; 7,4; etc.).