DALLE NOSTRE MISSIONI
INDIA
Wilhelmus van Paassen, scj
Mission Statement 2001
Right Reverend Excellency the Bishop of Guntur, most Reverend Fathers General Councillors, very Reverend Superiors, distinguished guests from abroad and nearby, dear sisters and brothers, confreres, friends, co-workers of our Congregation in India, novices, postulants, candidates and students.
I feel very honoured with the invitation by Fr. Martin, our District Superior, to perform this Inaugural Presentation to you.
Because of the rather limited space of time I have to summarize my speech to today. The full text, however, containing notes and sources, will be soon available for those who may be interested in it.
Today we witness the inauguration of two other formation houses: Sacred Heart Ahsram, the novititate in Nambur and Dehon Prema Nilayam in Guntur. It may be, therefore, obvious to you all, that we should present some statements and orientations upon our ministry of formation.
a) Both initial and permanent formation ought to be related to our SCJ Mission in India. And we look at our formation houses with the vision we adopted and laid down in our Mission Statement, which has been approved by the District Assemblies of 2000 and 2001. There we committed ourselves, putting it briefly now, to promote the spirituality of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to serve in areas of India where the need for priests and brothers is most urgent, to serve in those ministries which best reflect the charism of the Founder Leo John Dehon, for example ministries relating to the poor, to justice and to destitute youth.
What a beautiful Mission Statement do we have! But there is an ambiguity among us at the present moment. Our so called Mission has not been tried or tested yet. This could affect the commitment required for a common approach to formation. We have got our Mission Statement and our formation houses in Kerala and in Andhra Pradesh but not yet effectively a common and communitarian approach to formation. New members of the District, for example, would have liked to hear about it before or during the days of their introduction.
b) What do we mean by “Mission”?
The mission mandate of our Risen Lord is by no means restricted to a few words abstracted from their context in Mathew 28 or Mark 16. It should be understood in the context of the creative and saving purpose of the God of the poor as unfolded in the entire Bible. It should take in account the image of salt, leaven and the concepts of life and witness (Mt 13,33; Lk 13,21).
The disciples are called to exercise the role of the leaven. That means to transform the whole mass through an inner, silent but effective presence. The Church will do this not as a secret society but as a community of love and sharing. This puts the mission in the perspective of a continuing dialogue and interaction with the poor, the cultures and religious cultures of India. We have to be convinced that social justice is an essential part of evangelisation. This will have an impact on our mindset, lifestyle and formation.
The SCJ Congregation will become also an Indian one, if it is truly incarnate, rooted among the people. It must become “flesh of Indian flesh”, especially enfleshing itself with the broken and tortured flesh of India’s oppressed and suffering millions.
c) In the third place it may be clear that we are facing some obstacles to formation.
1. The challenge for formation is a radical one. What is called for is more than and different than what any SCJ formation has to offer, especially considering the multiple nationalities and cultures of the SCJ community. This new reality will possibly upset old securities and accustomed lifestyles and thus generate resistance.
2. Furtheron: we have to promote complementarity in our formation communities. Involvement in the life of the poor and studious reflection are the two mutually related elements in a pedagogy required for the type of formation related to our mission in India. The formation teams should not be composed one-sidedly by either field workers or academics. Complementarity of formators is an essential condition.
All of us will agree that both our formation and our charism need to be red and rooted in the context of India. Because we have to listen, we have much to learn from India. Therefore first:
I. Some aspects of the Indian context
a) The most striking experience of a Westerner in India is that with spirituality, an awareness of divinity and transcendence. Religiosity has been ingrained over the centuries. Every morning at 5:00 o’clock full throated prayers ascend to Krishna, Allah and God the Father. Religion is a public and common fact in India. My informants seem to trust that Western secularisation will not easily take root here. High numerical participation in church and devotional life, strong prayer - and charismatic groups, primarily of lay people and including strikingly many students everywhere. It is a compassionate spirituality, to be seen, by our formators, as open to a spirituality of Heart and Compassion.
b) As another aspect in the context of India you may look at this Sub-continent as one country but two worlds. One for the ruling elite and its allies and another for the toiling masses. The rulers find themselves in a land of plenty; the people feel themselves consigned to a living hell, in which starvation deaths occur in a large number of places.
This alarming situation of the existing deep fragmentation of Indian society is a fundamental challenge to formation of future leaders of christian communities.
c) The two worlds in the one India are related to the economic globalisation. As Fr. Dehon was aware of the human causes of social evils, dehonian formation has to be critically aware of globalisation, that, certainly, produced positive effects but tends to push poorer countries to the margin of economic and political relations and to the rise of religious fanatism. There is a tremendous need for Church leaders who are committed to act on the teaching of the Church regarding social justice. This need should consequently lead to a swift in the curricula of some major seminaries and formation houses.
d) The youth are the reality of today, not only the hope of tomorrow. They are a source of energy and vitality in society in general and in the religious communities. At the same time they are the most vulnerable and are victimised by structures of exploitation in our world.
If the Church, if we in our formation communities journey with the youth, many new horizons of compassion and service will evolve. The new ways of journeying with the youth are to see the youth as resources and not as problems, to facilitate their learning from their experiences and not from ready-made answers; to involve the youth more in the decision-making process. Though our candidates are materially dependent - in food and shelter - formators should take them serious as upgroing human persons.
e) Mustard seed and the Church in India. Another element to take in account in the context of India is the Church as it is experienced by many Indians. We are called to be participants in the mission of the Church (Rul. 26). How does the Church in India look like, when our concern is to become, as a Congregation, “flesh from India’s flesh”! Do we meet here a model of inculturation or indianization? These are basic questions to our understanding of both mission and formation to it.
The periodical of our District has been entitled “Mustard seed”. The symbol of mustard seed growing to a large tree where all kinds of birds can come and stay, emphasizes, thanks to God, the growth of the Congregation in India since October 1994.
Unfortunately, the Church of India did not start as a tiny mustard seed, buried in the native soil, imbibing its treasures and growing slowly into a mighty tree that can harbour all the birds in the air of Indian society. It was, as the well-known Fr. de Souza puts it, transplanted as a full grown tree that has not gone through the normal stages of growth and development that could encourage the unity in diversity that should characterize also the Christian community in India. The Latin Church that came to India with Vasco de Gama and the Portuguese colonisation in the 16th century and is now widely established all over the country, was not only a foreign Church cast in a Western pattern but also an “old Church” that has already grown through centuries of Christianity in Europe.
Undoubtedly, it has succeeded wonderfully in reproducing the complex ecclesiastical organisation of Europe. It has duplicated with great success the achievements of the West in its magnificent institutions, organised structures and flourishing parish life that has gained it great prestige in India and done many Christians proud…
But the same Christians are puzzled by the smallness of its numbers in India, despite their complacency about its impressive organisation. They are surprised that the Church in India is considered foreign in its mentality even more than its ways, because this Counter Reformation model of Church that the missionaries established, is the only Church they know.
To sum up, then, according to Indian theologians, the Church in India is facing the situation of a young Church with the mentality and machinery of an old Church. She is well organised and full of activity, but this development is in many ways a burden rather than a help, because it does not correspond to the needs of the situation, which calls for more flexibility, more mobility, more of everything one associates with youth.
I gave you only a summary of some of the many aspects of the socio-religious context in India which we consider to be relevant for our ministry of formation and for the incarnation of our dehonian charism in particularly this country.
II. Dehonian Mission in India: Identity and Creativity
One can notice, that, in our Congregation, the person of Venerable Fr. Leo John Dehon (1843-1925) attracts increasing attention, especially among the younger members. In their search for religious identity and apostolic creativity they have to come unavoidably face to face with the Founder. In various provinces new houses have been given his name. “Connected to Fr. Dehon’s faith experience which originated our Institute, we are inspired by the salvific event of the piercing and opening of the Heart of Jesus on the cross” … “the full expression of the ecce venio (Heb 10,7) - the availability of Christ the Son…” “and of his solidarity and merciful compassion of humanity to the point of total self-giving” (Fr. General, Virginio Bressanelli, Message Sacred Heart Feast 2001).
Dehon discovered, and from very close quarters, the immense turmoil of a workers population, that in the industrial expansion had been reduced to poverty and slavery by the harshness of work, by the deteriorisation, injustice and insecurity of life. He was aware of the dramatic distance which separated the Church from real life of the people. He knew the causes of marginalisation and discussed them with Leo XIII during his frequent audiences with the Pope of “Rerum Novarum”. Dehon wrote several books an social issues and took part in numerous congresses for workers, priests and captains of industry. He never ceased to shake the somnolence of bishops and priests: to convince them “to come out of their sacristies” and “to go to the people”.
His commitment to the social order was above all else instructive, educational and formative. Dehon pleaded, among other things, for the introduction in the seminaries of courses in sociology and practical economy. He elaborated a study plan for the formation of what he called “social priests”, by a combination of theological studies and regencies in factories like in Val-des-Bois. So he stated in 1877: formation aims at … “a respect for the freedom of others, a sense of responsibility, a sincere and continuous search for truth, a balanced and serene criticism, a solidarity and a service towards all, a sensitivity towards justice, and a special awareness of feeling oneself called to be a positive agent of change in a society that is in continuous transformation”.
Although at that time Sacred Heart spirituality was commonly seen and practised as a simple devotion, Dehon made it a means of renewing Christianity itself as well as society. He struggled to draw the Sacred Heart devotion out of only its practices of piety without action into which it had developed. By founding his Congregation in 1878, Leo Dehon wanted to harmonize interior life with the active and social life. “I have been led by Providence to cut several furrows, but two will leave especially deep impressions: Christian social action and the life of love … to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to his Social Kingdom”. In this perspective we may enjoy today the symbolic coincidence of the inauguration of both “Sacred Heart Ahsram” and “Dehon Prema Nilayam”.
III. Formation to Mission; towards a creative integration of Indian and Dehonian values: faithful hope
Taking into account the context of India, and our concept of mission, I now would like to point at the possible integration of Indian and dehonian realities and values, in service of the spiritual and social formation by an India-rooted SCJ Congregation. Otherwise we risk to appear as another club of foreigners. Moreover: La Capelle and St. Quentin shouldn’t be considered as the only birthplaces of Fr. Dehon and his Congregation.
Fr. General, in his Message on the Feast of the Sacred Heart in 2001, referring to the future of the Congregation, challenges all of us to creativity as an expression of the “ecce venio”. A missionary creativity “will provide outlets for the spiritual, mission-related, social and cultural dreams of the Founder, making our lives more committed and meaningful, more helpful to humanity, and particularly its poorest”.
a) The multicultural communities of our Congregation in India have to be embodiments of the Indian vision and values of life, especially of spirituality (eucharistic), prayer, compassion and harmony. Affective and effective compassion expresses itself in communitarian service to the victims of oppression and injustice. So outcastness is an essential part of the Dalit experience with Jesus. The fruit of compassion is solidarity and struggle for liberation and promotion of human rights.
Sacred Heart spirituality continues to be popular in Southern India and, at the same time, it is for many an inspiring dimension of SCJ charism: if you are not compassionate, if you don’t have a heart for the poor, if you don’t love them, an “option for the poor”, then, will remain a ringing cymbal.
In a country, that is deeply spiritual, being “prophets of love and reconciliation” (Rul. 7) will not suffice unless dehonian formators are deeply rooted in God-experiences. At the same time we need to assist our candidates in developing the capacity for compassionate action and self-giving, of “ecce venio” in the context of religious community-life in India.
Young dehonians expressed their needs for spiritual formation to another Indian value, i.e. of harmony. By the harmony of Dehon’s “two furrows” they can become ever more credible witnesses to the extent that they can harmonize being-doing, adoration-service, theory-praxis, spirituality-competence. It is all about a two-fold conversion: to the God-of-the-world and to the-world-of-God.
b) From the optic of the poor.
According to our Mission Statement the reality of the poor has to become the optic for re-interpreting our charism, producing a review of usual formation attempts and renewal of life. It will lead to a “new spirituality”. The re-reading of Christ’s broken-hearted “ecce venio” through this optic of the poor could effect the incarnation of our charism and significant shifts again: from working with the marginalised to being with and being evangelised by them. It could imply a “refoundation” of SCJ.
If the ministries of dehonians have to respond to the real needs of the Indian people, we need creativity in our vocabulary, policies and formation programs in order to find out new ministries, where some established parishes ceased to be adequate or where ecclesial communities have to be initiated.
c) This is the Day!
This is the Day the Lord has made!
Preliminary to our Mission Statement we can imagine a profession of faithful Hope.
I hope that we, re-reading the “ecce venio” from the optic of the poor will see our Congregation taking roots here and becoming indianised, since Sacred Heart spirituality and compassion are to integrate in a complementary way Indian, biblical and dehonian values.
Our ministry of formation should focus on that.
For this I hope that a competent service of authority in this District, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and of those concerned will create the positive conditions. So, for example, after this seven years of improvisation and house building another period of transparent communication, unifying motivation and structural consolidation may follow, at the service of our mission and of the formation to it. Otherwise we’ll risk to remain just another club of foreigners.
IV. Formators: required attitudes
I enjoy the privilege of having talks with many young Indian candidates. Young dehonians and candidates including those I met in a diocesan seminary, nourish high hopes of their formators. They made mention of some attitudes they would like to require from those involved in ministry of formation.
a) (SCJ) - formators shouldn’t simply be efficient administrators or competent professionals but first of all “spiritual guides”, “holy ones” who show “the way”. They want “humble, happy and prayerful religious rather than just achievers, specialists or professionals”. Their holiness, however, should not alienate them from deeply human concerns.
b) Our formation communities are expected to be praying communities, con-freres living together in houses of eucharistic celebration and adoration, where people like candidates can feel a profound sense of the Holy, a deep sense of the Lord who opts for the poor. They prefer also formators who, in Dehon’s words, prepare their candidates in order to become “positive agents of change in a society that is in continuous transformation”.
c) The formation communities should consist of guides and companions. Their multicultural witness to harmony in their personal and communal lives is to be a striking counter cultural one in the midst of division and conflicts in society. Candidates concluded during their missionary village experience, that the poor have much to share.
d) Everybody understands that ministry of formation cannot take place except in mutuality, cooperation and exchange. This asks for solidarity beyond the provinces and even beyond the frontiers of congregations and dioceses. Good Indian priests and religious may assist our formation communities in the way of incarnating our charism within the Indian context.
Similarly, in our formation, both initial and on-going, the partnership of competent lay persons needs to be assured. That may promote a new way of being Church, a more participative Church in India.
V. Conclusion
At the end of this summarised inaugural presentation, after the celebrations of Thanks giving to our Lord, I would like to express the gratitude of all members of the SCJ District towards Fr. Martin.
Concluding a 30 years of mission in Indonesia he set foot in Cochin, Kerala, for the first time in October 1994, with the assignment of Fr. General “to start up the Congregation in India”. Late Bishop Kureethara welcomed him saying: “Here is a Bible for you; take the readings of the day and doing so you’ll learn your English”.
Then Martin went to an empty church in Mattancherry, opened this Holy Bible more or less by chance at Hebrew Letter 10,7, at the privileged charismatic text preferred so intensely by Fr. Dehon, I mean the words of Christ entering our world: “Here I am to do your will, oh God”. And the blessings came. Martin, with his both pious and shy Brabandian farmer’s smile, influenced by the traces of the Indonesian Asian, remains a shrewd communicator, an enticing entrepreneur and salesman, who fits well in the history of so many landings along the Malabar Coast.
Discovering that Kerala is not India, in search for even more urgent needs and multiculturality, after having built two houses there, he feels moved by the Spirit towards the down-and-out in the State of Andhra Pradesh. Here Leo Dehon would put aside his horse, Martin said and roll up his sleeves for the real work. Bishop Gali Bali was waiting for him. Again there was no blueprint. Leaps in the dark, misunderstandings inside and outside.
But today again: inauguration of two formation-houses! Thanks to God, thanks to you Martin, thanks to Fr. General, thanks to all benefactors from inside and outside our Congregation, thanks to the confreres of this District, for their spiritual and material support. You may have noticed my concern for a formation that will lead to inculturation and indianisation of SCJ in (multicultural) India. This concern is originated also in deep respect for the service of the Church and so many confreres have rendered and still are giving in their ministry of formation.
May our Congregation, blessed by the Sacred Heart with creativity and determination on an India-rooted formation process, become “flesh of Indian flesh”.
Many, many Indian SCJ’s may happen to serve, like Fr. Dehon puts it, as “positive agents of change in a society that is in continuous transformation”.
I thank you all.
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Fr. Wim van Paassen scj (Dutch Province) pursued Doctoral Studies in Moral Theology in Rome from 1961-1966, following which he served as a Students Chaplain for five years at the University of Delft. He then served for nine years as the Provincial Superior of the Dutch Province and for fifteen years as Vicar General of the Diocese of Rotterdam. Presently Fr. van Paassen is the Formation Director of our Indian candidates in Ponnarimangalam and Spiritual Director to our study houses in Kerala.