Central Dossier
NOVO MILLENNIO INEUNTE
Andrea Tessarolo, scj
“Novo Millennio Ineunte”: this is the title of the Letter which Pope John Paul II published at the conclusion of the Great Jubilee. In it he recalls the “fruits” of the Jubilee and, above all, aims to insure its fecundity for the future. For the Church, in fact, with the new millennio, a new path has opened, one the Pope invites us to follow with the spirit which is suggested to us by the words Jesus said to Peter: Duc in altum: “put out into the deep” (Lk 5:4).
The entire substance of the Letter can be summed up in this threefold invitation: remember the past with gratitude, live the present with passion, open to the future with trust.
We feel that it is important to respond to this invitation from the Pope by offering a short summery of his Letter, preserving the “memory” of the most salient moments of the entire Jubilee year.
Remember the Past with Gratitude
John Paul II has lived various years of his pontificate as if inspired by the dream of not only seeing the year 2000, but of being the one who, in that year, guides the Church forward in the hope “that the bimillennial celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation would be lived as ‘one unceasing hymn of praise to the Trinity’” and, at the same time, as a journey of reconciliation and hope for all believers.
His “dream” has become reality. It is therefore more than natural that, when commenting on the great event, his first words should be: “the joy was great”, “we give thanks to you”, “remember the past with gratitude”, “duty of praise”... for the many gifts given to the entire Church.
In this way the Pope makes us understand with what intense participation he lived the Great Jubilee, the “bimillennial celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation” proposed and lived as a journey of reconciliation and hope and, at the same time, as “one unceasing hymn of praise to the Trinity”.
Faced with the wonders which God has performed for us, “we cannot fail to give thanks for the ‘marvels’ the Lord has worked for us... At the same time, what we have observed demands to be reconsidered... ‘deciphered’ in order to hear what the spirit has been saying to the Church” (n. 2).
In the list of “gifts”, before which we cannot fail to give thanks, the Pope recalls first of all the “today” of salvation: “the Jubilee” he writes, “has made us realize that two thousand years of history have passed without diminishing the freshness of that ‘today’ when the angels proclaimed to the shepherds the marvelous event of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem: ‘For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (n. 4).
He then recalls also the individual events which have, as it were, marked, step by step, the calendar of the Jubilee Year, starting from the solemn opening of the Holy Door on Christmas eve 1999; then remembering the jubilee of consecrated persons (February 2); then, on the first of May, the gathering of the workers in Piazza San Giovanni; the 7th of May, at the Colosseum, when we acknowledged the Christian martyrs of the first centuries, with which the Pope, with a clearly ecumenical intent, desired to associate the memory of all of the martyrs for the faith of the XX century, including non-Catholics; then the visit to the imprisoned; then the jubilee for families; the Eucharistic Congress; and then that unforgettable time, the joyous meeting at Tor Vergata with young people from all over the world, which we shall speak about later.
The Pope considers that, together, all these great events of the Jubilee are as a single great “treasure”, a freely-given gift of the love of God for us in Christ; a “treasure” which should not be dissipated or forgotten but, on the contrary, should be kept and cherished and transmitted to the new generations as a precious “legacy”.
The entire Jubilee year, in fact, was lived “not only as a remembrance of the past but also as a prophesy of the future” (n. 3). It is not enough therefore to have mentioned these events, it is necessary to dwell at least on some of those which are considered to be the most extraordinary.
The Purification of Memory
It is traditional that the Jubilee year be strongly characterized by the themes of conversion, indulgence and interior renewal, not only for individual persons but also for the whole Church.
This year, however, the Pope’s insistent call to the entire Church that they “purify the memory”, was one of absolute uniqueness as a ritual of the Jubilee.
He himself gave a concrete example of this when, on March 12, in the Basilica of St. Peter, he publicly asked forgiveness for all the faults of the Church down through history.
“How could we forget”, writes the Pope, “the moving Liturgy of 12 March 2000 in Saint Peter’s Basilica, at which, looking upon our Crucified Lord, I asked forgiveness in the name of the Church for the sins of all her children?” (n. 6).
The Pope repeated this truly surprising gesture on other occasions, in different ways during his journey to the Holy Land, and in particular when he visited the Cenacle, Calvary, the Holy Sepulcher, the Wailing Wall... Gestures such as these are not carried out by everyone, nor always. However, in spite of the wear and tear of time, they do not cease to amaze.
One example of this is Gad Lerner. He is of Jewish decent and is one of the most well known journalists on Italian television. In an interview for “Evangelizzare” (Evangelization) (01/2001, p. 302) he declared himself to be among those who had sincerely appreciated the penitential liturgy of March 12 in St. Peter’s; indeed he considered it “in some way the central event of the Jubilee”, the event which made this Jubilee “different from all those which had preceded it”.
And he explained: “John Paul II could allow himself this penitential act because he is the most authoritative religious leader on earth...”. This setting, in such a solemn way, before God and therefore before the conscience of those who believe in God, “all this journey of purification”, he adds, “is an act which counts... and counts much more than any political act, more than any diplomatic encounter”. It was also an act which will be “full of consequences for the future”.
This does not mean that the brief words pronounced by the Pope on March 12 in St. Peter’s satisfied everyone. Indeed the first reaction of public opinion, above all in Israel, was one of disappointment. - It wasn’t enough, the words were reserved, much more should have been said... - were the comments of many. “But when these very same words were written on the note which John Paul II inserted into the slit of the Wailing Wall, there was suddenly a change of attitude. That gesture, that speaking to God in such a Jewish way, could not fail to touch the heart of the Jews”. The genuineness of his intention and the sincere acknowledgement of their “common roots” became explicit with this gesture.
Inter-religious Dialogue and Condemnation of War
Humble and heartfelt was the Pope’s prayer for the “purification of consciences”; but clear and strong also was the condemnation of violence, of war, of ethnic or religious intolerance and, in particular, of anti-Semitism. He reaffirmed this forcefully, both at the Wailing Wall and during his visit on March 23 to Yad Vashem, the memorial of the Shoà. “The Church”, he declared, “is profoundly saddened by hatred, by the acts of persecution and the manifestations of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians in every period and in every place”.
The clear affirmation of the Jewish roots of the Gospel, and the explicit condemnation of every form of anti-Semitism, are an important contribution for the development of a dialogue on all levels between Christians and Jews.
A resonant call was also expressed by the Pope on the theme of peace between Jews and Palestinians and on the theme of a dialogue which should be carried out, always with reciprocal respect, overcoming at all costs the temptation to intolerance. Certainly, the quest for peace must not fail to understand the necessity to finally assign a “true country” a “true homeland” to the Palestinian people; but the road to reach this objective cannot and must not be intolerance, violence, war. Ethic, cultural, or religious differences must never be a motive for war, but an occasion for dialogue. Fervent and resolute was his condemnation of every form of religious intolerance and of all fundamentalism. “Religion”, he repeated, “is not and must never become a pretext for violence, in particular when religious identity coincides with ethnic and cultural identity”.
The link of the Gospel, with the other religious traditions which go back to the faith of Abraham, remains therefore one of the focal points most heavily emphasized by the Pope during the Jubilee year. Also, on January 13 of this year, 2001, in responding to the good wishes of the Diplomatic Corps assigned to the Holy See, his voice became a heartfelt invitation: “In this beginning of the millennium”, he begged, “let us join together to save mankind!”. And he emphasized that his preoccupation was not only for “Christians” but for “mankind” for “every human”.
“I should like to repeat and restate the determination of the Catholic Church”, he firmly declared, “to defend mankind, its dignity, its rights and its transcendent dimension”. All this implies not only the condemnation of all forms of intelgrality, both cultural and religious, but also a serious commitment to follow, always and only, the way of dialogue and reciprocal respect, cultivating an attitude of sincerely listening to the voice of the Spirit, because the only way that men and peoples will have a future is if they agree to live together.
The Century of the Martyrs.
The lively penitential conscience which characterized the celebrations of this Great Jubilee “has not prevented us”, the Pope continues, “from giving glory to the Lord for what He has done”, also in the XX century, “by granting His Church a great host of saints and martyrs” (n. 7).
Much was done during the Holy Year to recover the “memory” of the witnesses to the faith of the XX century; and the fact of having commemorated them on May 7, 2000, at the Colosseum, “together with representatives of other Churches and ecclesiastical Communities”, had a highly ecumenical significance.
Our S.C.J. Congregation did not feel itself to be an outsider to these celebrations, having in its short history no less than 44 martyrs. Among those we hold in dear memory are Msgr. Joseph Albert Wittebols (1912-1964), Bishop of Wamba (Congo), victim of the violence of the Simba; the brethren Fr. Nicola Martino Capelli (1912-1944) and Fr. Aquilino Bernardo Longo (1907-1964), the Cause for whose beatification has been introduced; and, above all, Blessed Juan García Méndez (1891-1936), the first Dehonian to be beatified for having born witness unto martyrdom of his faith in Christ and his Gospel (Cf. in this issue there is an article on his life and martyrdom).
In his letter of December 18, 2000, the Superior General announced to the whole Institute the then imminent beatification of Fr. Juan García Méndez, fixed for March 11, 2001. And he added, “He will be the first Blessed S.C.J. He is our protomartyr. In effect, he is the first on the list of the other 44 martyrs which the Congregation has had in the XX century”.
And he added in a note the complete list, which we also reproduce at the end of this article (1).
World Youth Day
“And how could we fail to recall especially the joyful and inspiring gathering of young people? If there is an image of the Jubilee of the Year 2000 that more than any other will live on in memory”, the Pope continues, “it is surely the streams of young people with whom I was able to engage in a sort of very special dialogue, filled with mutual affection and deep understanding” (n. 9).
World Youth Day, held on August 19 and 20, 2000, was amazing, not only for the number of participants but also for the messages which the young people received and transmitted. The press and the radio, but above all TV, photographed and made us aware of a new sense of religion which, in a world marked by the ephemeral, succeeds in arousing deep emotions and communicating important values.
The demonstration at Tor Vergata showed us that not a few young people, even those of very differing backgrounds, are in search of messages which speak not only to their reason but also to their heart, concerned not only with their “career” or their “bank account”, but also messages and values which give a meaning to their very “living”.
“The Pope’s personal contribution to the birth and growth of this phenomenon”, maintains Cardinal Martini, “was decisive. He was the first to realize that the times had changed... when we were still traumatized by contention and feared every outside influence. He understood that one could dare much more; he dared and the young people responded”.
In fact, the Pope, in his direct encounters with the young people, did not fail to give “strong recommendations”. The exact core of the challenge was “What, indeed whom have you come to seek?” “The reply”, he added himself, “can only be one thing. You came to seek Jesus Christ, to fix your eyes upon His mystery”.
In his talk to them on the vigil, August 19, he knew how to involve that sea of young people by means of a language which seemed ancient and yet is always new. He spoke of the difficulty for the young people of today to live in purity before marriage; but also of the struggle to make people love and respect life. He recalled the reciprocal fidelity of young couples, their loyalty in their relationships with friends, the difficulty of living solidarity and peace in the world. He also invited them to consider the generosity of a life totally given to the service of God or of one’s neighbor, if any of them felt such a call...
And the young people understood him. There were many testimonies to this. Let us quote at least a few: “My life has changed, thanks to Christ. In Rome, on Tuesday evening, I already saw a bit of paradise” (Bayouma, Ind.); “I came to Rome with desperation in my heart. The Pope’s words: ‘open your heart to Christ’ gave me back hope” (Dori, M.); “I am an Arab Christian. I greet all Arab Christians and I say to them: I believe in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” (Traib.). Happy, they were all happy: “It is not because there were two million of us or because the Holy Father was there, but because we were seeking Jesus - who let Himself be found: in the face of a brother, in the kilometers we travelled together, under the cold rain, in the confessional... but always when we least expected it! But the beauty of it all is what is happening now. Let us not waste the opportunity of setting fire to the world” (R. Prost).
Living the Present Intensely
The Centrality of Christ in the Life of Faith
It is not easy to sum up those religious events of world-wide impact, as was this Jubilee of the year 2000, in a few lines . But it is good to be able to point out that the essential background of all these celebrations was the interior dimension of the Christian life, “the contemplation of the face of Christ” (n. 15). The various events of the Jubilee did nothing if not celebrate that absolute newness which is the substance, the very nucleus, of Christian faith: the Incarnation of the Son of God. It is a newness which interests and speaks to all peoples, cultures and mentalities.
It was not by chance that the Pope always repeated the same question to every new group of pilgrims arriving in Rome: “What?” or better “Whom have you come to seek?” And the answer of faith could only be that of the Apostle Peter “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68). Thus, during this Jubilee, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of Mary and Son of God, was proclaimed and invoked and celebrated perhaps as never before. It is He who, having died for our sins and risen again for our salvation, makes us also people with a new heart.
In truth, the completion of the second millennium has brought us to a substantial recovery of the mystery of the Incarnation; and, therefore, also an understanding and a new way of living charity, reciprocal forgiveness, solidarity and a sense of mission. And by perceiving what the feelings were which animated the Heart of Christ in the mystery of the Incarnation, one can also reach the point of rediscovering the spirituality of the Ecce venio in its biblical heart and in its apostolic valency. At the same time this extraordinary familiarity with the “Jesus of the Gospel” has once again contributed to making the entire Church more familiar with the mystery of the trinitarian communion of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, of which the Christian community itself is called to be the earthly image. Only by living the faith in this way can the Gospel be made present.
One of the press, while showing respect and esteem for the often extraordinary character of certain celebrations, has expressed the suspicion of pure externalism or of exaggerated “protagonism”, insisting more on the person of the Pontiff than on the mystery which was being celebrated. Certainly, this may have been a risk for some people, but often it was due to the “media” and only rarely did it get to the point of disturbing the “ingenuous” faith or the spontaneous joy of the pilgrims.
Numerous, instead, are the testimonies of a simple and joyous adhesion to the “mystery”, certainly favored also by the celebratory atmosphere of big mass demonstrations. “I arrived in Tor Vergata”, writes, for example, a young woman, “I put down my backpack and looked around. In a second I understood what it meant to be children of the same Father”.
And, in fact, the Pope himself never ceased to tell the young people to look at Christ and receive Him in their hearts and in their lives. “Dear young people”, he said to them also at the International Forum of August 17, 2000, “have no doubts of God’s love for you! He has a special place for you in His Heart and a mission in the world... In the Gospel the resurrected Christ asked Peter the question ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ (Jn 21:16)”. Jesus does not ask him what his talents are or what his abilities are. To this man who had just denied him, He doesn’t even ask if from now on he will be more faithful. “He asks him the only thing that counts: Do you love me?”.
“Today Christ is asking the same question of each of you: Do you love me?... All the rest will follow. In fact, putting one’s feet in the footprints of Jesus does not immediately mean that there are certain things you have to do or say, but, first of all, it means you love Him, you stay with Him, you welcome Him completely in your own life”.
The following testimony is particularly meaningful and surprising: “How strange it is! I never thought I would be able to write these words. After 18 years spent far away from the Church, always seeking a truth that was more earthly than spiritual, today I am here to bear witness to the greatness of Christ. What a joy World Youth Day has been for me! Going through the Holy Door together with many young people, much deeper believers than myself, listening to the words of the Pope at Tor Vergata after the long trek, has given me a strength which I did not know I had. Thank you ‘Grandfather’. When you passed close by me, just for a second, I felt something vibrate inside me and I really cried a lot. And, together with you, I feel ready to set fire to the world by helping my neighbor. Ciao M. Angela. It was wonderful being in Rome with you. Thank you for having brought me” (Nicola, Bari).
The Vocation to Holiness
The Pope dedicated several pages of his Letter to the theme of “Living the Present Intensely”, of incarnating in a factual way, in our “daily life”, the theological virtues of faith and charity.
The perspective is exceptionally spiritual - “the contemplation of Christ’s face”: a contemplation based on the witness of the Gospels (Cf. n. 17), following the path of faith (Cf. n. 19). And the Gospels show us, of Christ: His face as a Son (Cf. n. 24), and His suffering face (this is the paradoxical aspect of the Christian mystery) (Cf. n. 25), but also the finally transfigured face of the Risen Christ (Cf. n. 28) which is, as it were, the finishing line of the path of faith.
In fact, the Church is now looking at the Risen Christ, and it is doing so both in following the footsteps of Peter: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you” (Jn 21:17), and in accompanying Paul who, fulminated by the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, repeats “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21) (Cf. n. 28).
At this point the exhortation comes spontaneously to listen to the Word with trust and make oneself available to collaborate in an apostolic way for the coming of His Kingdom of justice and peace, in the Church and in the world.
The Church herself is born from the Heart of Christ and lives by its continuous presence: “Behold I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). The program of Christian commitment, therefore, should aim not so much at the search of new initiatives or devotional practices, but to center itself “in Christ Himself, who is to be known, loved and imitated, so that in Him we may live the life of the Trinity, and with Him transform history until its fulfillment in the heavenly Jerusalem” (n. 29).
This, in brief, is the path proposed by the Holy Father: “It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness’....The rediscovery of the Church as ‘mystery’ or as a people ‘gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’ was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church’s ‘holiness’, understood in the basic sense of belonging to Him who is in essence the Holy One, the ‘thrice Holy’... But the gift in turn becomes a task which must shape the whole of Christian life: ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Thes 4:3)” (n. 30).
Liturgical Life and the Art of Prayer
It is necessary then to rediscover the art of prayer. The pedagogy of holiness knows only this road. We must learn the art of prayer from the very lips of the Divine Master: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1); and the practice of prayer must be developed through dialogue with Christ who makes us His intimate friends: “Remain in me as I remain in you” (Jn 15:4).
A third objective is indicated by the Holy Father: the liturgical life, but with particular attention to the Sunday Eucharist: “the summit towards which the Church’s action tends and at the same time the source from which comes all her strength” (n. 35). This commitment to make the Eucharist the soul of all our spiritual and pastoral life calls us also to the essential principle of the Christian view of life: the primacy of grace, and the nourishment of a life of grace, lived through listening to the Word, listening deeply so that it may then become the Word meditated upon, the Word lived and the Word born witness to.
What is truly necessary is the fact that “this is the moment of faith, of prayer, of conversation with God, in order to open our hearts to the tide of grace and allow the word of Christ to pass through us in all its power: Duc in altum! On that occasion it was Peter who spoke the word of faith: ‘At your word I will let down the nets’ (Lk 5:5). As this millennium begins, allow the Successor of Peter to invite the whole Church to make this act of faith, which expresses itself in a renewed commitment to prayer” (n. 38).
Opening Oneself to the Future with Trust
“Many things are necessary for the Church’s journey through history, not least in this new century” (n. 42); but if love, charity, are missing everything would be useless, as St. Paul continually affirms (Cf. 1 Cor 13:2).
The starting point for this fourth part of the Letter could not be other than the “new commandment”: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). And the Pope speaks of a love which springs from the very Heart of the Father and, through the Heart of Jesus, pours itself into the hearts of believers who, united in charity, come to form “one heart and one soul” (Acts 4:32); a super natural communion of love which incarnates and manifests “the very essence of the mystery of the Church” and constitutes it as the “sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity of the human race” (n. 42).
A Spirituality of Communion
This is the “spirit” which animates the Apostolic Letter. What conclusions does it suggest? Not the “practical plans” to be undertaken, the Pope specifies, but the commitment “to promote a spirituality of communion” which embraces all of them. And he is anxious to make this spirituality emerge as “the guiding principle of education wherever individuals and Christians are formed... wherever families and communities are being built up” (n. 43).
The same paragraph is entitled: A Spirituality of Communion and immediately continues “make the Church the home and school of communion, that is the great challenge facing us in the millennium which is now beginning, if we wish to be faithful to God’s plan and respond to the world’s deepest yearnings”. Therefore, he continually urges: “A spirituality of communion indicates above all the heart’s contemplation of the mystery of the Trinity dwelling in us, and whose light we must also be able to see shining on the face of the brothers and sisters around us.
“A spirituality of communion also means an ability to think of our brothers and sisters in faith within the profound unity of the Mystical Body, and therefore as ‘those who are a part of me’. This makes us able to share their joys and sufferings, to sense their desires and attend to their needs, to offer them deep and genuine friendship.
“A spirituality of communion implies also the ability to see what is positive in others, to welcome it and prize it as a gift from God: not only as a gift for the brother or sister who has received it directly, but also as a ‘gift for me’
“A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to ‘make room’ for our brothers and sisters, bearing ‘each other’s burdens’ (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, ‘careerism’, distrust and jealousy.
“Let us have no illusions: unless we follow this spiritual path, external structures of communion will serve very little purpose. They would become mechanisms without a soul, ‘masks’ of communion rather than its means of expression and growth” (n. 43).
Still in the same perspective, the Pope continues, it is important to “maximize” those “forums and structures” which serve to develop and “safeguard communion” (n. 44). We must cultivate the spaces of communion, but also educate the Christian community to a spirit of communion capable of making “room for all the gifts of the Spirit” (n. 46).
Here the perspective becomes very broad because it demands a ministry that stimulates all the baptized to become aware of the fact that “they have their own role to play in the mission of the whole people of God in the Church and in the world” (n. 46). We are concerned here with a “ministry of vocations” which reaches all the centers of education (families, parishes, associations), stimulating a more attentive reflection on the essential values of life; a vocational ministry which educates the Christian community to understand better the specificity and the importance of vocations to the priesthood and to the consecrated life, which helps it to discover increasingly also “the specific vocation of the laity”, called as such to seek the Kingdom of God also in the secular world; which makes it more attentive and committed to promote a “family ministry” (Cf. n. 46), capable of “re-evangelizing” that fundamental institution which is marriage, “obscured throughout history by our ‘hardness of heart’ but which Christ came to restore to its pristine splendor” (n. 47).
Ecumenical Commitment
“The Great Jubilee has given us a more vivid sense of the Church as a mystery of unity. ‘I believe in the one Church’”, and therefore in the importance and the urgent need to promote “communion in the delicate area of ecumenism” (n. 48).
The unity of the Church as “the Body of Christ” is the fruit of the gift of the Spirit. The reality of division, on the other hand, is generated on the terrain of history as a consequence of human weakness in receiving that gift which continually flows from above.
“Christ’s prayer”, the Pope emphasizes, “reminds us that this gift needs to be received and developed ever more profoundly. The invocation ‘ut unum sint’ is, at one and the same time, a binding imperative, the strength that sustains us, and a salutary rebuke for our slowness and closed-heartedness. It is on Jesus’ prayer and not on our own strength that we base the hope that even within history we shall be able to reach full and visible communion with all Christians” (n. 48).
Very great is the hope of the Pope for the “full return of that exchange”, between Rome and the Eastern Churches, “of gifts which enriched the Church of the first millennium”. Also continually alive is “the memory of the time when the Church breathed with ‘both lungs’” walking “together in unity of faith and with respect for legitimate diversity”. And it is with this spirit that dialogue, also between the brothers and the sisters of the “Anglican Communion and the Ecclesial Communities” born of the Protestant Reformation, must be cultivated (n. 48).
Meanwhile, “a new century, a new millennium are opening to the light of Christ” (n. 54). The Church rejoices in this light, but also has the “wonderful and demanding task of becoming its ‘reflection’”, so that it may reach also to those who have still not seen it. This is a task which could fill us with trepidation “if we consider our human weakness, which so often renders us opaque and full of shadows. But it is a task which we can accomplish if we turn to the light of Christ and open ourselves to the grace which makes us a new creation” (n. 54).
“It is in this context also that we should consider the great challenge of inter-religious dialogue to which we shall still be committed in the new millennium” (n. 55).
Already in past years “the Church has sought to build, not least through a series of highly symbolic meetings, a relationship of openness and dialogue with the followers of other religions. This dialogue must continue” (n. 55). “However it cannot be based on religious indifference, and we Christians are in duty bound, while engaging in dialogue, to bear clear witness to the hope that is within us. We should not fear that it will be considered an offence to the identity of others what is rather the joyful proclamation of a gift meant for all, and to be offered to all with the greatest respect for the freedom of each one” (n. 56).
The missio ad gentes, therefore, remains fundamental for the Church, that is, the announcement that for everyone Christ is “the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” (Jn 14:6). But such a task does not prevent us from engaging in dialogue with an intimate disposition to listen. “We know, in fact, in the presence of the mystery of grace, infinitely full of possibilities and implications for human life and history”, the Church herself will never cease investigating it. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the Spirit of God, which blows where He wills, not infrequently arouses in universal human experience, “signs of His presence which help Christ’s followers to understand more deeply the message which they bear” (n. 56).
Therefore, “the Church acknowledges that she has not only given, but has also ‘received from the history and from the development of the human race’” (n. 56) (Cf. also Gaudium et Spes n. 4).
Stake Everything on Charity
The love for one’s neighbor has always been the distinguishing mark of true Christians. We must have a freely-given, hardworking and, at times, truly heroic love. There is no lack of names: Vincent de Paul, Cottolengo, Father Kolbe, Teresa of Calcutta... The Pope, in concluding his Letter, hopes that the new millennium may yet see “to what length of dedication the Christian community can go in charity towards the poorest”. It is with them, in fact, that Jesus wished to identify Himself: “I was hungry and you gave me food...” (Mt 25:35-37). No one can be excluded from our love. Indeed according to the unequivocal words of the Gospel, it is certain that “there is a special presence of Christ in the poor, and this requires the Church to make a preferential option for them. This option is a testimony to the nature of God’s love, to His providence and mercy” (n. 49).
This reflection on love for the poor could take us a long way, because the needs which call upon Christian sensibility today are many. “The scenario of poverty can extend indefinitely”. “The tradition of charity... has expressed itself in so many different ways in the past”. “Now is the time”, writes the Pope, “for a new ‘creativity’ in charity, not only by ensuring that help is effective but also by ‘getting close’ to those who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters” (n. 50).
The Pope’s Letter, which opened with the moving and grateful recollection of the many events of the Great Jubilee, closes with a renewed call to open hearts to the generosity of love and to the courage of hope.
Duc in altum: “Let us go forward in hope! A new millennium is opening before the Church like a vast ocean upon which we shall venture, relying on the help of Christ... Our steps must quicken as we travel the highways of the world” (n. 58). “The symbol of the Holy Door now closes behind us, but only in order to leave more fully open the living door which is Christ” (n. 59).
NOTE (1)
These are our martyrs:
1936: Blessed Juan Maria de la Cruz García Méndez (Spain)
1941: Fr. Franz Stanislaus Loh (Germany)
1942: Fr. Jozef Benedict Stoffels and Fr. Nicolas Anton Wampach (Luxembourg)
1944: Fr. Nicola Martino Capelli (Italy)
1944-1945: The Dutch missionaries killed in the Japanese concentration camp of Muntok (Indonesia): Fr. Petrus Matthias Cobben, Fr. Andreas Gebbing, Fr. Wilhelmus F. Hoffmann, Fr. Franciscus B. Hofstad, Fr. P. Theodorus Kappers, Fr. Isidoro G. Mikkers, Br. Gerardus M. Schulte, Br. Theodorus W. van der Werf, Fr. Petrus Nicasius van Eijk, Fr. Franciscus J. B. van Iersel, Fr. Henricus N. van Oort.
1945: Fr. Christian H. Muermans (Belgium)
1961-1964: The 28 missionaries (from Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and Italy), in the Congo: Bishop Msgr. Joseph A. Wittebols, Fr. Amour J. Aubert, Fr. Carolus J. van Ruysbroek Bellincks, Fr. Herman W. Bisschop, Br. Martinus D. Brabers, Fr. Clemens F. Burnotte, Fr. Josephus C. B. Conrad, Fr. Joannes B. de Vries, Fr. Henricus D. Hams, Fr. Leonardus L. M. Janssen, Br. Joseph A. Laureys, Fr. Bernardo Aquilino Longo, Fr. Jacobus J.V. Moureau, Fr. Gerardus S. Nieuwkamp, Br. Josephus L. Paps, Fr. Arnoldus W. Schouenberg, Br. Wilhelmus A. Schouenberg, Fr. Joannes L. Slenter, Fr. Josephus J. Tegels, Fr. Franciscus T. M. ten Bosch, Fr. Joannes I Trausch, Fr. Petrus J. van den Biggelaar, Fr. Henricus B. van der Vegt, Fr. Christian J. B. Vandael, Fr. Hieronymus G. Vandemoere, Br. Henricus J. Vanderbeek, Fr. Henricus J. E. Verbene, Br. Gulielmus P. Vranken.
Without counting all those brethren who gave their lives in their mission, like the 3 French S.C.J. killed in Cameroon in 1959.
Further, we could also consider as part of the Dehonian Family, Blessed Anwarito Nangapeta (1964), Congolese Sister of the Holy Family, a Congregation founded by the Dehonian Bishop Msgr. Camillo Verfaillie in 1937. This blessed was trained in the path of Dehonian oblation under the spiritual guidance of the martyr Msgr. J. A. Wittebols, S.C.J.