Class: Saturday January 4, 2013: #1-67.
See "comments" [s-] below footnotes at the bottom!
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
EVANGELII GAUDIUM
OF THE HOLY FATHER
FRANCIS
TO THE BISHOPS, CLERGY,
CONSECRATED PERSONS
AND THE LAY FAITHFUL
ON THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL
IN TODAY’S WORLD
INDEX
Eternal newness [11-13]
THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY
TRANSFORMATION [19]
TRANSFORMATION [19]
AMID THE CRISIS
OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT [50-51]
OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT [50-51]
No to an economy of exclusion [53-54]
No to the new idolatry of money [55-56]
No to a financial system which rules rather than serves [57-58]
No to the inequality which spawns violence [59-60]
Some cultural challenges [61-67]
No to the new idolatry of money [55-56]
No to a financial system which rules rather than serves [57-58]
No to the inequality which spawns violence [59-60]
Some cultural challenges [61-67]
1.
The joy of the gospel
fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.
fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and loneliness. With Christ joy is constantly born anew.
Blogger: Why is this? Because joy is that
effervescent emotion that derives from being who you truly and fully are. Since
we have been made in the image and likeness of the divine Persons Who are
totally relational, whenever we go out of ourselves, we are, to the degree that
we do so, joyful. As created materially in time and space, this exodus from the
self consists in a self-mastery, self-possession and self-giving. It is the
deepest meaning of human freedom, since only we can go out of ourselves. And evangelizing is this going out of ourselves: speaking the Word, being the Word.
"In this Exhortation I wish to encourage the Christian faithful to embark upon a new chapter of evangelization marked by this joy, while pointing out new paths[s1] for the Church’s journey in years to come.
2. The great danger in
today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish
born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous
pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught
up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no
place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love
is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades. This is a very real danger
for believers too. Many fall prey to it, and end up resentful, angry and
listless. That is no way to live a dignified and fulfilled life; it is not
God’s will for us, nor is it the life in the Spirit which has its source in the
heart of the risen Christ[s2] .
3. I invite all
Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter
with Jesus
Christ, or at least an openness to letting him
encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should
think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is
excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”.[1] The Lord does not disappoint those who
take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that
he is already there, waiting for us with open arms. Now is the time to say to
Jesus: “Lord, I have let myself be deceived; in a thousand ways I have shunned
your love, yet here I am once more, to renew my covenant with you. I need you.
Save me once again, Lord, take me once more into your redeeming embrace”. How
good it feels to come back to him whenever we are lost! Let me say this once
more: God never tires of forgiving us; we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy. Christ, who told us to forgive one
another “seventy times seven” (Mt 18:22)
has given us his example: he has forgiven us seventy times seven. Time and time
again he bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed
upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never
disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for
us to lift up our heads and to start anew. Let us not flee from the
resurrection of Jesus, let us never give up, come what will. May nothing
inspire more than his life, which impels us onwards!
4. The books of the Old
Testament predicted that the joy of salvation would abound in messianic times.
The prophet Isaiah exultantly salutes the awaited Messiah: “You have multiplied
the nation, you have increased its joy” (9:3). He exhorts those who dwell on
Zion to go forth to meet him with song: “Shout aloud and sing for joy!” (12:6).
The prophet tells those who have already seen him from afar to bring the
message to others: “Get you up to a high mountain, O herald of good tidings to
Zion; lift up your voice with strength, O herald of good tidings to Jerusalem” (40:9).
All creation shares in the joy of salvation: “Sing for joy, O heavens, and
exult, O earth! Break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has
comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones” (49:13).
Zechariah, looking to the
day of the Lord, invites the people to acclaim the king who comes “humble and
riding on a donkey”: “Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter
Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he” (9:9).
Perhaps the most exciting
invitation is that of the prophet Zephaniah, who presents God with his people
in the midst of a celebration overflowing with the joy of salvation. I find it
thrilling to reread this text: “The Lord, your God is in your midst, a warrior
who gives you the victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will
renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing, as on a day of
festival” (3:17).
This is the joy which we
experience daily, amid the little things of life, as a response to the loving
invitation of God our Father: “My child, treat yourself well, according to your
means… Do not deprive yourself of the day’s enjoyment” (Sir14:11, 14).
What tender paternal love echoes in these words!
5. The Gospel, radiant
with the glory of Christ’s cross, constantly invites us to rejoice. A few
examples will suffice. “Rejoice!” is the angel’s greeting to Mary (Lk 1:28). Mary’s visit to Elizabeth
makes John leap for joy in his mother’s womb (cf. Lk 1:41). In her song of praise, Mary
proclaims: “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1:47). When Jesus begins his ministry,
John cries out: “For this reason, my joy has been fulfilled” (Jn 3:29). Jesus himself “rejoiced in
the Holy Spirit” (Lk 10:21).
His message brings us joy: “I have said these things to you, so that my joy may
be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (Jn 15:11). Our Christian joy drinks
of the wellspring of his brimming heart. He promises his disciples: “You will
be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy” (Jn 16:20). He then goes on to say:
“But I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take
your joy from you” (Jn 16:22).
The disciples “rejoiced” (Jn 20:20)
at the sight of the risen Christ. In the Acts of the Apostles we read that the
first Christians “ate their food with glad and generous hearts” (2:46).
Wherever the disciples went, “there was great joy” (8:8); even amid persecution
they continued to be “filled with joy” (13:52). The newly baptized eunuch “went
on his way rejoicing” (8:39), while Paul’s jailer “and his entire household
rejoiced that he had become a believer in God” (16:34). Why should we not also
enter into this great stream of joy?
6. There are Christians
whose lives seem like Lent without Easter. I realize of course that joy is not
expressed the same way at all times in life, especially at moments of great
difficulty. Joy adapts and changes, but it always endures, even as a flicker of
light born of our personal certainty that, when everything is said and done, we
are infinitely loved. I understand the grief of people who have to endure great
suffering, yet slowly but surely we all have to let the joy of faith slowly
revive as a quiet yet firm trust, even amid the greatest distress: “My soul is
bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is… But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning. Great is your
faithfulness… It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the
Lord” (Lam 3:17, 21-23,
26).
7. Sometimes we are
tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a
thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our “technological
society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it
very difficult to engender joy”.[2] I can say that the most beautiful and
natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who
had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who,
even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in
detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith. In their own way, all these
instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself
to us in Jesus Christ. I never tire of repeating those words of Benedict XVI which take us
to the very heart of the Gospel: “Being a Christian is not the result of an
ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person,
which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”.[3]
8. Thanks solely to this
encounter – or renewed encounter – with God’s love, which blossoms into an
enriching friendship, we are liberated from our narrowness and self-absorption.
We become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us
beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being. Here we
find the source and inspiration of all our efforts at evangelization. For if we
have received the love which restores meaning to our lives, how can we fail to
share that love with others?
9. Goodness always tends
to spread. Every authentic experience of truth and goodness seeks by its very
nature to grow within us, and any person who has experienced a profound
liberation becomes more sensitive to the needs of others. As it expands, goodness
takes root and develops. If we wish to lead a dignified and fulfilling life, we
have to reach out to others and seek their good. In this regard, several
sayings of Saint Paul will not surprise us: “The love of Christ urges us on” (2
Cor 5:14); “Woe to me if I do
not proclaim the Gospel” (1 Cor 9:16).
10. The Gospel offers us
the chance to live life on a higher plane, but with no less intensity: “Life
grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort. Indeed,
those who enjoy life most are those who leave security on the shore and become
excited by the mission of communicating life to others”.[4] When the Church summons Christians to
take up the task of evangelization, she is simply pointing to the source of
authentic personal fulfilment. For “here we discover a profound law of reality:
that life is attained and matures in the measure that it is offered up in order
to give life to others. This is certainly what mission means”.[5] Consequently, an evangelizer must
never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral! Let us recover
and deepen our enthusiasm, that “delightful and comforting joy of evangelizing,
even when it is in tears that we must sow… And may the world of our time, which
is searching, sometimes with anguish, sometimes with hope, be enabled to
receive the good news not from evangelizers who are dejected, discouraged,
impatient or anxious, but from ministers of the Gospel whose lives glow with
fervour, who have first received the joy of Christ”.[6]
11. A renewal of
preaching can offer believers, as well as the lukewarm and the non-practising,
new joy in the faith and fruitfulness in the work of evangelization. The heart
of its message will always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love
in the crucified and risen Christ. God constantly renews his faithful ones,
whatever their age: “They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run
and not be weary, they shall walk and not be faint” (Is 40:31). Christ is the “eternal
Gospel” (Rev 14:6); he “is
the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb 13:8), yet his riches and beauty
are inexhaustible. He is for ever young and a constant source of newness. The
Church never fails to be amazed at “the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God” (Rom 11:33).
Saint John of the Cross says that “the thicket of God’s wisdom and knowledge is
so deep and so broad that the soul, however much it has come to know of it, can
always penetrate deeper within it”.[7] Or as Saint Irenaeus writes: “By his
coming, Christ brought with him all newness”.[8] With this newness he is always able to
renew our lives and our communities, and even if the Christian message has
known periods of darkness and ecclesial weakness, it will never grow old. Jesus
can also break through the dull categories with which we would enclose him and
he constantly amazes us by his divine creativity. Whenever we make the effort
to return to the source and to recover the original freshness of the Gospel,
new avenues arise, new paths of creativity open up, with different forms of
expression, more eloquent signs and words with new meaning for today’s world.
Every form of authentic evangelization is always “new”.
12. Though it is true
that this mission demands great generosity on our part, it would be wrong to
see it as a heroic individual undertaking, for it is first and foremost the
Lord’s work, surpassing anything which we can see and understand. Jesus is “the
first and greatest evangelizer”.[9] In every activity of evangelization,
the primacy always belongs to God, who has called us to cooperate with him and
who leads us on by by the power of his Spirit. The real newness is the newness
which God himself mysteriously brings about and inspires, provokes, guides and
accompanies in a thousand ways. The life of the Church should always reveal
clearly that God takes the initiative, that “he has loved us first” (1 Jn 4:19) and that he alone “gives the
growth” (1 Cor 3:7). This
conviction enables us to maintain a spirit of joy in the midst of a task so demanding
and challenging that it engages our entire life. God asks everything of us, yet
at the same time he offers everything to us.
13. Nor should we see the
newness of this mission as entailing a kind of displacement or forgetfulness of
the living history which surrounds us and carries us forward. Memory is a
dimension of our faith which we might call “deuteronomic”, not unlike the
memory of Israel itself. Jesus leaves us the Eucharist as the Church’s daily
remembrance of, and deeper sharing in, the event of his Passover (cf. Lk 22:19). The joy of evangelizing
always arises from grateful remembrance: it is a grace which we constantly need
to implore. The apostles never forgot the moment when Jesus touched their
hearts: “It was about four o’clock in the afternoon” (Jn 1:39). Together with Jesus, this
remembrance makes present to us “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb 12:1), some of whom, as believers,
we recall with great joy: “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the
word of God” (Heb 13:7).
Some of them were ordinary people who were close to us and introduced us to the
life of faith: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first
in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice” (2 Tim 1:5). The believer is essentially
“one who remembers”.
14. Attentive to the
promptings of the Holy Spirit who helps us together to read the signs of the
times, the XIII Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops gathered from 7-28 October 2012 to discuss the theme: The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the
Christian Faith. The Synod reaffirmed
that the new evangelization is a summons addressed to all and that it is
carried out in three principal settings.[10]
15. In first place, we
can mention the area of ordinary
pastoral ministry, which is “animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to
inflame the hearts of the faithful who regularly take part in community worship
and gather on the Lord’s day to be nourished by his word and by the bread of
eternal life”.[11] In this category we can also include
those members of faithful who preserve a deep and sincere faith, expressing it
in different ways, but seldom taking part in worship. Ordinary pastoral
ministry seeks to help believers to grow spiritually so that they can respond
to God’s love ever more fully in their lives.
A second area is that of “the baptized whose lives do not
reflect the demands of Baptism”,[12] who lack a meaningful relationship to
the Church and no longer experience the consolation born of faith. The Church,
in her maternal concern, tries to help them experience a conversion which will
restore the joy of faith to their hearts and inspire a commitment to the
Gospel.
Lastly, we cannot forget
that evangelization is first and foremost about preaching the Gospel to those who do not know Jesus Christ
or who have always rejected him. Many of them are quietly seeking God, led
by a yearning to see his face, even in countries of ancient Christian
tradition. All of them have a right to receive the Gospel. Christians have the
duty to proclaim the Gospel without excluding anyone. Instead of seeming to
impose new obligations, they should appear as people who wish to share their
joy, who point to a horizon of beauty and who invite others to a delicious
banquet. It is not by proselytizing that the Church grows, but “by attraction”.[13]
John Paul II asked us to
recognize that “there must be no lessening of the impetus to preach the Gospel”
to those who are far from Christ, “because this is the first task of the
Church”.[14] Indeed, “today missionary activity
still represents the greatest challenge for the Church”[15] and “the missionary task must remain
foremost”.[16] What would happen if we were to take
these words seriously? We would realize that missionary outreach is paradigmatic for all the Church’s
activity. Along these lines the Latin American bishops stated that we
“cannot passively and calmly wait in our church buildings”;[17] we need to move “from a pastoral
ministry of mere conservation to a decidedly missionary pastoral ministry”.[18] This task continues to be a source of
immense joy for the Church: “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in
heaven over one sinner who repents than ninety-nine righteous persons who need
no repentance” (Lk 15:7).
16. I was happy to take
up the request of the Fathers of the Synod to write this Exhortation.[19] In so doing, I am reaping the rich
fruits of the Synod’s labours. In addition, I have sought advice from a number
of people and I intend to express my own concerns about this particular chapter
of the Church’s work of evangelization. Countless issues involving
evangelization today might be discussed here, but I have chosen not to explore
these many questions which call for further reflection and study. Nor do I
believe that the papal magisterium should be expected to offer a definitive or
complete word on every question which affects the Church and the world. It is
not advisable for the Pope to take the place of local Bishops in the
discernment of every issue which arises in their territory. In this sense, I am
conscious of the need to promote a sound “decentralization”.
17. Here I have chosen to
present some guidelines which can encourage and guide the whole Church in a new
phase of evangelization, one marked by enthusiasm and vitality. In this
context, and on the basis of the teaching of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, I
have decided, among other themes, to discuss at length the following questions:
a) the reform of the Church in her missionary outreach;
b) the temptations faced by pastoral workers;
c) the Church, understood as the entire People of God which evangelizes;
d) the homily and its preparation;
e) the inclusion of the poor in society;
f) peace and dialogue within society;
g) the spiritual motivations for mission.
b) the temptations faced by pastoral workers;
c) the Church, understood as the entire People of God which evangelizes;
d) the homily and its preparation;
e) the inclusion of the poor in society;
f) peace and dialogue within society;
g) the spiritual motivations for mission.
18. I have dealt
extensively with these topics, with a detail which some may find excessive. But
I have done so, not with the intention of providing an exhaustive treatise but
simply as a way of showing their important practical implications for the
Church’s mission today. All of them help give shape to a definite style of
evangelization which I ask you to adopt in
every activity which you undertake. In this way, we can take up, amid our
daily efforts, the biblical exhortation: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I
will say: Rejoice” (Phil 4:4).
THE CHURCH’S MISSIONARY
TRANSFORMATION
TRANSFORMATION
19. Evangelization takes
place in obedience to the missionary mandate of Jesus: “Go therefore and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded
you” (Mt 28:19-20). In
these verses we see how the risen Christ sent his followers to preach the
Gospel in every time and place, so that faith in him might spread to every
corner of the earth.
20. The word of God
constantly shows us how God challenges those who believe in him “to go
forth”. Abraham received the call to set out for a new land (cf. Gen 12:1-3). Moses heard God’s call: “Go, I send you” (Ex 3:10) and led the people towards the promised land (cf. Ex 3:17). To Jeremiah God says: “To all whom I send you, you shall go” (Jer 1:7). In our day Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new challenges to the Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called to take part in this new missionary “going forth”. Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.
forth”. Abraham received the call to set out for a new land (cf. Gen 12:1-3). Moses heard God’s call: “Go, I send you” (Ex 3:10) and led the people towards the promised land (cf. Ex 3:17). To Jeremiah God says: “To all whom I send you, you shall go” (Jer 1:7). In our day Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples” echoes in the changing scenarios and ever new challenges to the Church’s mission of evangelization, and all of us are called to take part in this new missionary “going forth”. Each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all of us are asked to obey his call to go forth from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the “peripheries” in need of the light of the Gospel.
21. The Gospel joy which
enlivens the community of disciples is a missionary joy. The seventy-two
disciples felt it as they returned from their mission (cf. Lk 10:17). Jesus felt it when he rejoiced
in the Holy Spirit and praised the Father for revealing himself to the poor and
the little ones (cf. Lk 10:21). It was felt by the first
converts who marvelled to hear the apostles preaching “in the native language
of each” (Acts 2:6) on the
day of Pentecost. This joy is a sign that the Gospel has been proclaimed and is
bearing fruit. Yet the drive to go forth and give, to go out from ourselves, to
keep pressing forward in our sowing of the good seed, remains ever present. The
Lord says: “Let us go on to the next towns that I may preach there also, for
that is why I came out” (Mk 1:38).
Once the seed has been sown in one place, Jesus does not stay behind to explain
things or to perform more signs; the Spirit moves him to go forth to other
towns.
22. God’s word is
unpredictable in its power. The Gospel speaks of a seed which, once sown, grows
by itself, even as the farmer sleeps (Mk 4:26-29). The Church has to accept
this unruly freedom of the word, which accomplishes what it wills in ways that
surpass our calculations and ways of thinking.
23. The Church’s
closeness to Jesus is part of a common journey; “communion and mission are
profoundly interconnected”.[20] In fidelity to the example of the
Master, it is vitally important for the Church today to go forth and preach the
Gospel to all: to all places, on all occasions, without hesitation, reluctance
or fear. The joy of the Gospel is for all people: no one can be excluded. That
is what the angel proclaimed to the shepherds in Bethlehem: “Be not afraid; for
behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people
(Lk 2:10). The Book of
Revelation speaks of “an eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on
earth, to every nation and tongue and tribe and people (Rev 14:6).
24. The Church which “goes
forth” is a community of missionary disciples who take the first step, who are
involved and supportive, who bear fruit and rejoice. An evangelizing community
knows that the Lord has taken the initiative, he has loved us first (cf. 1 Jn 4:19), and therefore we can move
forward, boldly take the initiative, go out to others, seek those who have
fallen away, stand at the crossroads and welcome the outcast. Such a community
has an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of its own experience of the
power of the Father’s infinite mercy. Let us try a little harder to take the
first step and to become involved. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. The
Lord gets involved and he involves his own, as he kneels to wash their feet. He
tells his disciples: “You will be blessed if you do this” (Jn13:17). An
evangelizing community gets involved by word and deed in people’s daily lives;
it bridges distances, it is willing to abase itself if necessary, and it
embraces human life, touching the suffering flesh of Christ in others.
Evangelizers thus take on the “smell of the sheep” and the sheep are willing to
hear their voice. An evangelizing community is also supportive, standing by
people at every step of the way, no matter how difficult or lengthy this may
prove to be. It is familiar with patient expectation and apostolic endurance.
Evangelization consists mostly of patience and disregard for constraints of
time. Faithful to the Lord’s gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing
community is always concerned with fruit, because the Lord wants her to be
fruitful. It cares for the grain and does not grow impatient at the weeds. The
sower, when he sees weeds sprouting among the grain does not grumble or
overreact. He or she finds a way to let the word take flesh in a particular
situation and bear fruits of new life, however imperfect or incomplete these
may appear. The disciple is ready to put his or her whole life on the line,
even to accepting martyrdom, in bearing witness to Jesus Christ, yet the goal
is not to make enemies but to see God’s word accepted and its capacity for
liberation and renewal revealed. Finally an evangelizing community is filled
with joy; it knows how to rejoice always. It celebrates every small victory,
every step forward in the work of evangelization. Evangelization with joy
becomes beauty in the liturgy, as part of our daily concern to spread goodness.
The Church evangelizes and is herself evangelized through the beauty of the
liturgy, which is both a celebration of the task of evangelization and the source
of her renewed self-giving.
25. I am aware that
nowadays documents do not arouse the same interest as in the past and that they
are quickly forgotten. Nevertheless, I want to emphasize that what I am trying
to express here has a programmatic significance and important consequences. I
hope that all communities will devote the necessary effort to advancing along
the path of a pastoral and missionary conversion which cannot leave things as
they presently are. “Mere administration” can no longer be enough.[21] Throughout the world, let us be “permanently
in a state of mission”.[22]
26. Paul VI invited us to
deepen the call to renewal and to make it clear that renewal does not only
concern individuals but the entire Church. Let us return to a memorable text
which continues to challenge us. “The Church must look with penetrating eyes
within herself, ponder the mystery of her own being… This vivid and lively
self-awareness inevitably leads to a comparison between the ideal image of the
Church as Christ envisaged her and loved her as his holy and spotless bride
(cf. Eph 5:27), and the actual image which the
Church presents to the world today... This is the source of the Church’s heroic
and impatient struggle for renewal: the struggle to correct those flaws
introduced by her members which her own self-examination, mirroring her
exemplar, Christ, points out to her and condemns”.[23] TheSecond Vatican Council presented ecclesial conversion as openness to a constant
self-renewal born of fidelity to Jesus Christ: “Every renewal of the Church
essentially consists in an increase of fidelity to her own calling… Christ
summons the Church as she goes her pilgrim way… to that continual reformation
of which she always has need, in so far as she is a human institution here on
earth”.[24]
There are ecclesial
structures which can hamper efforts at evangelization, yet even good structures
are only helpful when there is a life constantly driving, sustaining and
assessing them. Without new life and an authentic evangelical spirit, without
the Church’s “fidelity to her own calling”, any new structure will soon prove
ineffective.
27. I dream of a
“missionary option”, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming
everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and
schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the
evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The
renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in
this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make
ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire
in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a
positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself.
As John Paul II once said to
the Bishops of Oceania: “All renewal in the Church must have mission as its
goal if it is not to fall prey to a kind of ecclesial introversion”.[25]
28. The parish is not an
outdated institution; precisely because it possesses great flexibility, it can
assume quite different contours depending on the openness and missionary
creativity of the pastor and the community. While certainly not the only
institution which evangelizes, if the parish proves capable of self-renewal and
constant adaptivity, it continues to be “the Church living in the midst of the
homes of her sons and daughters”.[26] This presumes that it really is in
contact with the homes and the lives of its people, and does not become a
useless structure out of touch with people or a self-absorbed group made up of
a chosen few. The parish is the presence of the Church in a given territory, an
environment for hearing God’s word, for growth in the Christian life, for
dialogue, proclamation, charitable outreach, worship and celebration.[27] In all its activities the parish
encourages and trains its members to be evangelizers.[28] It is a community of communities, a
sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of their journey, and a
centre of constant missionary outreach. We must admit, though, that the call to
review and renew our parishes has not yet sufficed to bring them nearer to
people, to make them environments of living communion and participation, and to
make them completely mission-oriented.
29. Other Church
institutions, basic communities and small communities, movements, and forms of
association are a source of enrichment for the Church, raised up by the Spirit
for evangelizing different areas and sectors. Frequently they bring a new
evangelizing fervour and a new capacity for dialogue with the world whereby the
Church is renewed. But it will prove beneficial for them not to lose contact
with the rich reality of the local parish and to participate readily in the
overall pastoral activity of the particular Church.[29] This kind of integration will prevent
them from concentrating only on part of the Gospel or the Church, or becoming
nomads without roots.
30. Each particular
Church, as a portion of the Catholic Church under the leadership of its bishop,
is likewise called to missionary conversion. It is the primary subject of
evangelization,[30] since it is the concrete manifestation
of the one Church in one specific place, and in it “the one, holy, catholic,
and apostolic Church of Christ is truly present and operative”.[31] It is the Church incarnate in a
certain place, equipped with all the means of salvation bestowed by Christ, but
with local features. Its joy in communicating Jesus Christ is expressed both by
a concern to preach him to areas in greater need and in constantly going forth
to the outskirts of its own territory or towards new sociocultural settings.[32] Wherever the need for the light and
the life of the Risen Christ is greatest, it will want to be there.[33]To
make this missionary impulse ever more focused, generous and fruitful, I
encourage each particular Church to undertake a resolute process of
discernment, purification and reform.
31. The bishop must
always foster this missionary communion in his diocesan Church, following the
ideal of the first Christian communities, in which the believers were of one
heart and one soul (cf. Acts 4:32). To do so, he will sometimes go
before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope vibrant. At other
times, he will simply be in their midst with his unassuming and merciful
presence. At yet other times, he will have to walk after them, helping those
who lag behind and – above all – allowing the flock to strike out on new paths.
In his mission of fostering a dynamic, open and missionary communion, he will
have to encourage and develop the means of participation proposed in the Code
of Canon Law,[34] and other forms of pastoral dialogue,
out of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply to those who would tell
him what he would like to hear. Yet the principal aim of these participatory
processes should not be ecclesiastical organization but rather the missionary
aspiration of reaching everyone.
32. Since I am called to
put into practice what I ask of others, I too must think about a conversion of
the papacy. It is my duty, as the Bishop of Rome, to be open to suggestions
which can help make the exercise of my ministry more faithful to the meaning
which Jesus Christ wished to give it and to the present needs of
evangelization. Pope John Paul II asked for
help in finding “a way of exercising the primacy which, while in no way
renouncing what is essential to its mission, is nonetheless open to a new
situation”.[35] We have made little progress in this
regard. The papacy and the central structures of the universal Church also need
to hear the call to pastoral conversion. The Second Vatican Councilstated
that, like the ancient patriarchal Churches, episcopal conferences are in a
position “to contribute in many and fruitful ways to the concrete realization
of the collegial spirit”.[36] Yet this desire has not been fully
realized, since a juridical status of episcopal conferences which would see
them as subjects of specific attributions, including genuine doctrinal
authority, has not yet been sufficiently elaborated.[37] Excessive centralization, rather than
proving helpful, complicates the Church’s life and her missionary outreach.
33. Pastoral ministry in
a missionary key seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have
always done it this way”. I invite everyone to be bold and creative in this
task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization
in their respective communities. A proposal of goals without an adequate
communal search for the means of achieving them will inevitably prove illusory.
I encourage everyone to apply the guidelines found in this document generously
and courageously, without inhibitions or fear. The important thing is to not
walk alone, but to rely on each other as brothers and sisters, and especially
under the leadership of the bishops, in a wise and realistic pastoral
discernment.
34. If we attempt to put
all things in a missionary key, this will also affect the way we communicate
the message. In today’s world of instant communication and occasionally biased
media coverage, the message we preach runs a greater risk of being distorted or
reduced to some of its secondary aspects. In this way certain issues which are
part of the Church’s moral teaching are taken out of the context which gives
them their meaning. The biggest problem is when the message we preach then
seems identified with those secondary aspects which, important as they are, do
not in and of themselves convey the heart of Christ’s message. We need to be
realistic and not assume that our audience understands the full background to
what we are saying, or is capable of relating what we say to the very heart of
the Gospel which gives it meaning, beauty and attractiveness.
35. Pastoral ministry in
a missionary style is not obsessed with the disjointed transmission of a
multitude of doctrines to be insistently imposed. When we adopt a pastoral goal
and a missionary style which would actually reach everyone without exception or
exclusion, the message has to concentrate on the essentials, on what is most
beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary. The
message is simplified, while losing none of its depth and truth, and thus
becomes all the more forceful and convincing.
36. All revealed truths
derive from the same divine source and are to be believed with the same faith,
yet some of them are more important for giving direct expression to the heart
of the Gospel. In this basic core, what shines forth is the beauty of the
saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the
dead. In this sense, the Second Vatican Council explained, “in Catholic doctrine there exists an order or a
‘hierarchy’ of truths, since they vary in their relation to the foundation of
the Christian faith”.[38] This holds true as much for the dogmas
of faith as for the whole corpus of the Church’s teaching, including her moral
teaching.
37. Saint Thomas Aquinas
taught that the Church’s moral teaching has its own “hierarchy”, in the virtues
and in the acts which proceed from them.[39] What counts above all else is “faith
working through love” (Gal 5:6).
Works of love directed to one’s neighbour are the most perfect external
manifestation of the interior grace of the Spirit: “The foundation of the New
Law is in the grace of the Holy Spirit, who is manifested in the faith which
works through love”.[40] Thomas thus explains that, as far as
external works are concerned, mercy is the greatest of all the virtues: “In
itself mercy is the greatest of the virtues, since all the others revolve
around it and, more than this, it makes up for their deficiencies. This is
particular to the superior virtue, and as such it is proper to God to have
mercy, through which his omnipotence is manifested to the greatest degree”.[41]
38. It is important to
draw out the pastoral consequences of the Council’s teaching, which reflects an
ancient conviction of the Church. First, it needs to be said that in preaching
the Gospel a fitting sense of proportion has to be maintained. This would be
seen in the frequency with which certain themes are brought up and in the
emphasis given to them in preaching. For example, if in the course of the
liturgical year a parish priest speaks about temperance ten times but only
mentions charity or justice two or three times, an imbalance results, and
precisely those virtues which ought to be most present in preaching and
catechesis are overlooked. The same thing happens when we speak more about law
than about grace, more about the Church than about Christ, more about the Pope
than about God’s word.
39. Just as the organic
unity existing among the virtues means that no one of them can be excluded from
the Christian ideal, so no truth may be denied. The integrity of the Gospel
message must not be deformed. What is more, each truth is better understood
when related to the harmonious totality of the Christian message; in this
context all of the truths are important and illumine one another. When
preaching is faithful to the Gospel, the centrality of certain truths is
evident and it becomes clear that Christian morality is not a form of stoicism,
or self-denial, or merely a practical philosophy or a catalogue of sins and
faults. Before all else, the Gospel invites us to respond to the God of love
who saves us, to see God in others and to go forth from ourselves to seek the
good of others. Under no circumstance can this invitation be obscured! All of
the virtues are at the service of this response of love[s3] . If this invitation does not radiate forcefully and
attractively, the edifice of the Church’s moral teaching risks becoming a house
of cards[s4] , and this is our greatest risk. It would mean that it is not the Gospel
which is being preached, but certain doctrinal or moral points based on
specific ideological options. The message will run the risk of losing its
freshness and will cease to have “the fragrance of the Gospel”.
40. The Church is herself a
missionary disciple; she needs to grow[s5] in her interpretation of the revealed word and in her
understanding of truth. It is the task of exegetes and theologians to help “the
judgment of the Church to mature”.[42] The other sciences also help to
accomplish this, each in its own way. With reference to the social sciences,
for example, John Paul II said that the
Church values their research, which helps her “to derive concrete indications
helpful for her magisterial mission”.[43] Within the Church countless issues are
being studied and reflected upon with great freedom. Differing currents of thought in
philosophy, theology and pastoral practice, if open to being reconciled by the
Spirit in respect and love, can enable the Church to grow[s6] , since all of them help to express more clearly the
immense riches of God’s word. For those who long for a monolithic body of
doctrine guarded by all and leaving no room for nuance, this might appear as
undesirable and leading to confusion. But in fact such variety serves to bring
out and develop different facets of the inexhaustible riches of the Gospel.[44]
41. At the same time, today’s
vast and rapid cultural changes demand that we constantly seek ways of
expressing unchanging truths in a language which brings out their abiding
newness. “The deposit of the faith is one thing... the way it is expressed is
another” [45
John XXIII: Opening of Vatican II][s7] . There
are times when the faithful, in listening to completely orthodox language, take
away something alien to the authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ, because that
language is alien to their own way of speaking to and understanding one
another. With the holy intent of communicating the truth about God and
humanity, we sometimes give them a false god or a human ideal which is not
really Christian. In this way, we hold fast to a formulation while failing to
convey its substance. This is the greatest danger. Let us never forget that
“the expression of truth can take different forms. The renewal of these forms
of expression becomes necessary for the sake of transmitting to the people of
today the Gospel message in its unchanging meaning”.[46]
42. All of this has great
relevance for the preaching of the Gospel, if we are really concerned to make
its beauty more clearly recognized and accepted by all. Of course, we will never be able
to make the Church’s teachings easily understood or readily appreciated by
everyone. Faith always remains something of a cross; it retains a certain
obscurity which does not detract from the firmness of its assent. Some things
are understood and appreciated only from the standpoint of this assent, which
is a sister to love, beyond the range of clear reasons and arguments. We need
to remember that all religious teaching ultimately has to be reflected in the
teacher’s way of life, which awakens the assent of the heart by its nearness,
love and witness[s8] .
43. In her ongoing discernment, the
Church can also come to see that certain customs not directly connected to the
heart of the Gospel, even some which have deep historical roots, are no longer
properly understood and appreciated. Some of these customs may be beautiful,
but they no longer serve as means of communicating the Gospel. We should not be
afraid to re-examine them[s9] . At the same
time, the Church has rules or precepts which may have been quite effective in
their time, but no longer have the same usefulness for directing and shaping
people’s lives. Saint Thomas Aquinas pointed out that the precepts which Christ and the
apostles gave to the people of God “are very few”.[47] Citing Saint Augustine, he noted that
the precepts subsequently enjoined by the Church should be insisted upon with
moderation “so as not to burden the lives of the faithful” and make our
religion a form of servitude, whereas “God’s mercy has willed that we should be
free”.[48] This warning, issued many centuries
ago, is most timely today. It ought to be one of the criteria to be taken
into account in considering a reform of the Church and her preaching which
would enable it to reach everyone.
There must be space
for mercy because of ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate
attachments…: the confessional is not to be a torture chamber
44. Moreover, pastors and
the lay faithful who accompany their brothers and sisters in faith or on a
journey of openness to God must always remember what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches quite clearly: “Imputability
and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by
ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other
psychological or social factors”.[49] Consequently, without detracting from
the evangelical ideal, they need to accompany with mercy and patience the
eventual stages of personal growth as these progressively occur.[50] I want to remind priests that the
confessional must not be a torture chamber but rather an encounter with the
Lord’s mercy which spurs us on to do our best. A small step, in the midst of
great human limitations, can be more pleasing to God than a life which appears
outwardly in order but moves through the day without confronting great
difficulties. Everyone needs to be touched by the comfort and attraction of
God’s saving love, which is mysteriously at work in each person, above and
beyond their faults and failings.
45. We see then that the
task of evangelization operates within the limits of language and of
circumstances. It constantly seeks to communicate more effectively the truth of
the Gospel in a specific context, without renouncing the truth, the goodness
and the light which it can bring whenever perfection is not possible. A
missionary heart is aware of these limits and makes itself “weak with
the weak... everything for everyone” (1 Cor 9:22). It never closes itself off, never
retreats into its own security, never opts for rigidity and defensiveness. It
realizes that it has to grow in its own understanding of the Gospel and in
discerning the paths of the Spirit, and so it always does what good it can,
even if in the process, its shoes get soiled by the mud of the street.
46. A Church which “goes
forth” is a Church whose doors are open. Going
out to others in order to reach the fringes of humanity does not mean rushing
out aimlessly into the world. Often it is better simply to slow down, to put aside
our eagerness in order to see and listen to others, to stop rushing from one
thing to another and to remain with someone who has faltered along the way. [s10] At times we have
to be like the father of the prodigal son, who always keeps his door open so that
when the son returns, he can readily pass through it.
47. The Church is called to be the
house of the Father, with doors always wide open. One concrete sign of such
openness is that our church doors should always be open, so that if someone,
moved by the Spirit, comes there looking for God, he or she will not find a
closed door. There are other doors that should not be closed either. Everyone
can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community[s11] , nor should the
doors of the sacraments be closed for simply any reason. This is especially
true of the sacrament which is itself “the door”: baptism[s12] . The Eucharist,
although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect
but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak[s13] .[51] These convictions have pastoral
consequences that we are called to consider with prudence and boldness.
Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. But the
Church is not a tollhouse[s14] ; it is the house
of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems.
48. If the whole Church
takes up this missionary impulse, she has to go forth to everyone without
exception. But to whom should she go first? When we read the Gospel we find a
clear indication: not so much our friends and wealthy neighbours, but above all
the poor and the sick, those who are usually despised and overlooked, “those
who cannot repay you” (Lk 14:14).
There can be no room for doubt or for explanations which weaken so clear a
message. Today and always, “the poor are the privileged recipients of the
Gospel”,[52] and the fact that it is freely
preached to them is a sign of the kingdom that Jesus came to establish. We
have to state, without mincing words, that there is an inseparable bond between
our faith and the poor. May we never abandon them.
49. Let us go forth,
then, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ. Here I repeat
for the entire Church what I have often said to the priests and laity of Buenos
Aires: I[s15] prefer a Church
which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets,
rather than a Church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging
to its own security. I do not want a Church concerned with being at the centre
and which then ends by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures.
If something should rightly disturb us and trouble our consciences, it is the
fact that so many of our brothers and sisters are living without the strength,
light and consolation born of friendship with Jesus Christ, without a community
of faith to support them, without meaning and a goal in life. More than by fear
of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut
up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules
which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our
door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us: “Give them
something to eat” (Mk 6:37).
The Discernment[1]
of Francis on the Significant Moment (Kairos).
AMID THE CRISIS
OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT
OF COMMUNAL COMMITMENT
50. Before taking up some basic questions related to the work of
evangelization, it may be helpful to mention briefly the
context in which we all have to live and work. Today, we frequently
hear of a “diagnostic overload” which is not always accompanied by improved and
actually applicable methods of treatment. Nor would we be well served by a
purely sociological analysis which would aim to embrace all of reality by
employing an allegedly neutral and clinical method. What I would like to
propose is something much more in the line of an evangelical discernment. It is
the approach of a missionary disciple, an approach “nourished by the light and
strength of the Holy Spirit”.[53]
51. It is not the task of
the Pope to offer a detailed and complete analysis of contemporary reality, but I
do exhort all the communities to an “ever watchful scrutiny of the signs of the
times[s16] ”.[54] This is in fact a grave
responsibility, since certain present realities, unless effectively dealt with,
are capable of setting off processes of dehumanization which would then be hard
to reverse. We need to distinguish clearly what might be a fruit of the kingdom
from what runs counter to God’s plan. This involves not only recognizing and
discerning spirits, but also – and this is decisive – choosing movements of the
spirit of good and rejecting those of the spirit of evil. I take for granted
the different analyses which other documents of the universal magisterium have
offered, as well as those proposed by the regional and national conferences of
bishops. In this Exhortation I claim only to consider briefly, and from a
pastoral perspective, certain factors which can restrain or weaken the impulse
of missionary renewal in the Church, either because they threaten the life and
dignity of God’s people or because they affect those who are directly involved
in the Church’s institutions and in her work of evangelization.
I
Some challenges of today’s world
52. In our time humanity is
experiencing a turning-point in its history, as we can see from the
advances being made in so many fields. We can only praise the steps being taken
to improve people’s welfare in areas such as health care, education and communications.
At the same time we have to remember that the majority of our contemporaries
are barely living from day to day, with dire consequences. A number of diseases
are spreading. The hearts of many people are gripped by fear and desperation,
even in the so-called rich countries. The joy of living frequently fades, lack
of respect for others and violence are on the rise, and inequality is
increasingly evident. It is a struggle to live and, often, to live with
precious little dignity. This epochal change has been set in motion by the
enormous qualitative, quantitative, rapid and cumulative advances occurring in
the sciences and in technology, and by their instant application in different
areas of nature and of life. We are in an age of knowledge and information,
which has led to new and often anonymous kinds of power.
Blogger: Economy of exclusion =
murder of the biological. It is important to notice the discrepancy between the
general awareness of sexual morality in the Church, and the lack of same in the
economic sector. The majority in the Church are concerned about biological
life, abortion, contraception and gay marriage. But the fewest of the few are
exercised over economic poverty. As the pope will say below: “it
is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is
news when the stock market loses two points.” And I would offer that
the reason for this is the slowness in grasping the epistemological sea-change,
the attitude toward the real - that
has taken place before, during and after Vatican II.
Before Vatican II, the doctrinal culture of the Catholic
Church was “Scholastic” as an assumption of Greek philosophy as tool for giving
a rational account of the Faith. This was done by the early Church Fathers
within a mystical epistemology until the end of the first millennium when it
became rationalized under the rubric of “Scholasticism.” In the second
millennium, the majority of the Church has been formed in a Scholastic
theological and philosophic culture which has privileged nature over person
(object over subject – with the exception of “modernity” that de-ontologized
subject completely and left it precariously relativist [however, with the great
merit of having disengaged the priority of subjectivity]). An “axial” moment
arrived prior to the Vatican Council II, and the Council crossed the
epistemological threshold from object to subject without assimilating the “I”
as consciousness[2],
but rather as Being. Realism was not decreased but rather increased with the
dynamic, not of nature-tending-to-end, but of subject finding self by the gift
of self. Nothing was lost of the bimillennial metaphysical development of Faith
as conceptual doctrine, but expanded and enhanced as universal consciousness of
sanctity and morality. The person
imaging God is the moral criterion both of the biological and the economic.
Abortion and poverty are parsed out under the same personalist-moral rubric
And so,
Francis begins the chapter likening an economy of exclusion to biological
murder.
53. Just as the commandment “Thou
shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human
life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and
inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item
when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock
market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand
by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of
inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the
survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a
consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized:
without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.
Blogger: And now, Francis takes a huge step. He clearly alludes to
the separation of the person from his work. And such a step demands an
explanation of what work really is: the person himself as gift[3]. If work can be considered
a “thing,” a “commodity” that can be bought and sold as an “it” depending on
the vagaries of supply and demand, then the person himself is reduced from
image of God to “it.” All morality evaporates with this move.
Human beings are
themselves considered consumer goods[s17] to be used and
then discarded. We have created a “throw away” culture which is now spreading.
It is no longer simply about exploitation and oppression, but something new.
Exclusion ultimately has to do with what it means to be a part of the society
in which we live; those excluded are no longer society’s underside or its
fringes or its disenfranchised – they are no longer even a part of it. The
excluded are not the “exploited” but the outcast, the “leftovers[s18] ”.
54. In this context, some
people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic
growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about
greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never
been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness
of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized (my
emphasis) workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded
are still waiting[4].
To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that
selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without
being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the
outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help
them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.
The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us
something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of
opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.
55. One cause of this situation is
found in our relationship with money, since we calmly accept its dominion over
ourselves and our societies. The current financial crisis can make us overlook
the fact that it originated in a profound human crisis: the denial of the
primacy of the human person! We have created new idols. The worship of
the ancient golden calf (cf. Ex 32:1-35)
has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the
dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The
worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances
and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to
one of his needs alone: consumption.
* * * * * *
Blogger: I hasten to insert clarification. The pope is accused of
un-nuanced positions in that he does not distinguish the human good done by a
system which provides money, and therefore, as venture capital, work for other.
This pragmatically true on the surface. But consider the deeper transformation
that has taken place beneath this hegemony of money alone: the reduction of the
relational human person to the non-relational individual. Work has been reduced to a “thing” or “commodity” that
is bought and sold, and with it, the person. The hegemony of money has
conflated gender and sex. Work is now “uni-sex.” And with this, the human
person is not just disregarded
and suffering
injustice. He is eliminated from the society as “thing.” He is murdered
under the same rubric as abortion.
Consider:
“Outside industrial societies, uni-sex work is the rare exception, if it exists
at all. Few things can be done by women and also by men. The latter, as a rule,
just cannot do women’s work. In early eighteenth-century Paris, you could
recognize the bachelor from afar by his stench and gloomy looks. From notaries’
records, we know that solitary men left no sheets or shirts when they died. In
the time of Louis XIV, a man without a woman to keep house could barely
survive. Without wife, sister, mother, or daughter he had no way to make, wash,
and mend his clothes; it was impossible for him to keep chickens or to milk a
goat; if he was poor, he could not eat butter, milk, or eggs. He could not cook
certain foods, even if he had the ingredients. And today, in the rural Mexico I
know so well, a woman would rather die of embarrassment than let a man cook the
beans.
“From afar, the
native can tell whether women or men are at work, even if he cannot distinguish
their figures. The time of year and day, the crop, and the tools reveal to him
who they are. Whether they carry a load on their head or shoulder will tell him
their gender. If he notices geese loose in the field, he knows a girl must be
nearby to tend them. If he comes across sheep, he knows he will find a boy. To belong
means to know what befits our kind of man. If someone does what we
consider the other gender’s work, that person must be a stranger. Or a slave,
deprived of all dignity. Gender is in every step, in every gesture, not just
between the legs…
“Gender is
something other and much more than sex. It bespeaks a social polarity that is
fundamental and in no two places the same. What a man cannot or must do is
different from valley to valley. But the social anthropologist has missed the
point, and his terminology has become a unisex mask for a reality that has two
sides. What Bohr and Heisenberg have done for the epistemology of physics has
not yet been done for the social sciences. That light fits the paradigms of
both particle and wave, that neither theory alone conveys its complex reality,
and that no broader framework allows ous to grasp it more clearly are today
everyman’s truths. But that a similar approach is demanded for most social-science
concepts is still news for many.”[5]
* * * * * * *
56. While the earnings of
a minority are growing exponentially, so too is the gap separating the majority
from the prosperity enjoyed by those happy few. This imbalance is the result of
ideologies which defend the absolute autonomy of the marketplace and financial
speculation. Consequently, they reject the right of states, charged with
vigilance for the common good, to exercise any form of control[s19] . A new tyranny
is thus born, invisible and often virtual, which unilaterally and relentlessly
imposes its own laws and rules. Debt and the accumulation of interest also make
it difficult for countries to realize the potential of their own economies and
keep citizens from enjoying their real purchasing power. To all this we can add
widespread corruption and self-serving tax evasion, which have taken on
worldwide dimensions. The thirst for power and possessions knows no limits. In
this system, which tends to devour everything which stands in the way of
increased profits, whatever is fragile, like the environment, is defenseless
before the interests of a deified market, which become the only rule.
57. Behind this attitude lurks a
rejection of ethics and a rejection of God[s20] . Ethics has come to be viewed with a certain scornful
derision. It is seen as counterproductive, too human, because it makes money
and power relative[s21] . It is felt to
be a threat, since it condemns the manipulation and debasement of the person.
In effect, ethics leads to a God who calls for a committed response which is
outside the categories of the marketplace. When these latter are absolutized,
God can only be seen as uncontrollable, unmanageable, even dangerous, since he
calls human beings to their full realization and to freedom from all forms of
enslavement. Ethics – a non-ideological ethics – would make it possible to
bring about balance and a more humane social order. With this in mind, I
encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of
the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal
from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we
hold, but theirs”.[55]
58. A financial reform
open to such ethical considerations would require a vigorous change of approach
on the part of political leaders. I urge them to face this challenge with determination
and an eye to the future, while not ignoring, of course, the specifics of each
case. Money must serve, not rule! The Pope loves everyone, rich and
poor alike, but he is obliged in the name of Christ to remind all that the rich
must help, respect and promote the poor. I exhort you to generous solidarity and to
the return of economics and finance to an ethical approach which favours human beings[s22] .
59. Today in many places
we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in
society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate
violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without
equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a
fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society – whether
local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the
fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or
surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility. This is not the
case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded
from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is unjust
at its root[s23] . Just as
goodness tends to spread, the toleration of evil, which is injustice, tends to
expand its baneful influence and quietly to undermine any political and social
system, no matter how solid it may appear. If every action has its consequences, an
evil embedded in the structures of a society has a constant potential for
disintegration and death. It is evil crystallized in unjust social
structures, which cannot be the basis of hope for a better future. We
are far from the so-called “end of history”, since the conditions for a
sustainable and peaceful development have not yet been adequately articulated
and realized.
60. Today’s economic mechanisms
promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled
consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social
fabric. Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and
never will be able to resolve [Marxism]. It serves only to offer false
hopes to those clamouring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know
that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more
serious conflicts. Some simply content themselves with blaming the poor and the
poorer countries themselves for their troubles; indulging in unwarranted
generalizations, they claim that the solution is an “education” that would
tranquilize them, making them tame and harmless. All this becomes even more
exasperating for the marginalized in the light of the widespread and deeply
rooted corruption found in many countries – in their governments, businesses
and institutions – whatever the political ideology of their leaders.
61. We also evangelize
when we attempt to confront the various challenges which can arise.[56] On occasion these may take the form of
veritable
attacks on religious freedom or new persecutions directed against Christians;
in some countries these have reached alarming levels of hatred and violence.
In many places, the problem is more that of widespread indifference and
relativism, linked to disillusionment and the crisis of ideologies which has
come about as a reaction to any-thing which might appear totalitarian. This
not only harms the Church but the fabric of society as a whole. We should
recognize how in a culture where each person wants to be bearer of his or her
own subjective truth, it becomes difficult for citizens to devise a common plan
which transcends individual gain and personal ambitions.
62. In the prevailing
culture, priority is given to the outward, the immediate, the visible, the
quick, the superficial and the provisional. What is real gives way to
appearances. In many countries globalization has meant a hastened deterioration
of their own cultural roots and the invasion of ways of thinking and acting
proper to other cultures which are economically advanced but ethically
debilitated. This fact has been brought up by bishops from various continents
in different Synods. The African bishops, for example, taking up the Encyclical Sollicitudo Rei Socialis, pointed out
years ago that there have been frequent attempts to make the African countries
“parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel. This is often true also in the
field of social communications which, being run by centres mostly in the
northern hemisphere, do not always give due consideration to the priorities and
problems of such countries or respect their cultural make-up”.[57] By the same token, the bishops of Asia
“underlined the external influences being brought to bear on Asian cultures.
New patterns of behaviour are emerging as a result of over-exposure to the mass
media… As a result, the negative aspects of the media and entertainment
industries are threatening traditional values, and in particular the sacredness
of marriage and the stability of the family”.[58]
63. The Catholic faith of
many peoples is nowadays being challenged by the proliferation of new religious
movements, some of which tend to fundamentalism while others seem to propose a
spirituality without God. This is, on the one hand, a human reaction to a
materialistic, consumerist and individualistic society, but it is also a means
of exploiting the weaknesses of people living in poverty and on the fringes of
society, people who make ends meet amid great human suffering and are looking
for immediate solutions to their needs. These religious movements, not without
a certain shrewdness, come to fill, within a predominantly individualistic
culture, a vacuum left by secularist rationalism. We must recognize that if part of
our baptized people lack a sense of belonging to the Church, this is also due
to certain structures and the occasionally unwelcoming atmosphere of some of
our parishes and communities, or to a bureaucratic way of dealing with problems,
be they simple or complex, in the lives of our people. In many places an
administrative approach prevails over a pastoral approach, as does a
concentration on administering the sacraments apart from other forms of
evangelization.
64. The process of secularization
tends to reduce the faith and the Church to the sphere of the private and
personal. Furthermore, by completely rejecting the transcendent, it has
produced a growing deterioration of ethics, a weakening of the sense of
personal and collective sin, and a steady increase in relativism. These
have led to a general sense of disorientation, especially in the periods of
adolescence and young adulthood which are so vulnerable to change. As the
bishops of the United States of America have rightly pointed out, while the
Church insists on the existence of objective moral norms which are valid for
everyone, “there are those in our culture who portray this teaching as unjust,
that is, as opposed to basic human rights. Such claims usually follow from a
form of moral relativism that is joined, not without inconsistency, to a belief
in the absolute rights of individuals. In this view, the Church is perceived as
promoting a particular prejudice and as interfering with individual freedom”.[59] We are living in an information-driven
society which bombards us indiscriminately with data – all treated as being of
equal importance – and which leads to remarkable superficiality in the area of
moral discernment. In response, we need to provide an education which teaches
critical thinking and encourages the development of mature moral values.
65. Despite the tide of
secularism which has swept our societies, in many countries – even those where
Christians are a minority – the Catholic Church is considered a credible
institution by public opinion, and trusted for her solidarity and concern for
those in greatest need. Again and again, the Church has acted as a mediator in
finding solutions to problems affecting peace, social harmony, the land, the
defence of life, human and civil rights, and so forth. And how much good has
been done by Catholic schools and universities around the world! This is a good
thing. Yet, we find it difficult to make people see that when we raise other
questions less palatable to public opinion, we are doing so out of fidelity to
precisely the same convictions about human dignity and the common good.
66. The family is
experiencing a profound cultural crisis, as are all communities and social
bonds. In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly
serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn
to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another; it is
also the place where parents pass on the faith to their children. Marriage now
tends to be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be
constructed in any way or modified at will. But the indispensible contribution
of marriage to society transcends the feelings and momentary needs of the
couple. As the French bishops have taught, it is not born “of loving sentiment,
ephemeral by definition, but from the depth of the obligation assumed by the
spouses who accept to enter a total communion of life”.[60]
67. The individualism of
our postmodern and globalized era favours a lifestyle which weakens the
development and stability of personal relationships and distorts family bonds.
Pastoral activity needs to bring out more clearly the fact that our
relationship with the Father demands and encourages a communion which heals,
promotes and reinforces interpersonal bonds. In our world, especially in some
countries, different forms of war and conflict are re-emerging, yet we
Christians remain steadfast in our intention to respect others, to heal wounds,
to build bridges, to strengthen relationships and to “bear one another’s
burdens” (Gal 6:2). Today
too, various associations for the defence of rights and the pursuit of noble
goals are being founded. This is a sign of the desire of many people to
contribute to social and cultural progress.
[1]
“Discernment,”
he replies. “Discernment is one of the things that worked inside St. Ignatius.
For him it is an instrument of struggle in order to know the Lord and follow
him more closely. I was always struck by a saying that describes the vision of
Ignatius: non coerceri a maximo, sed contineri a minimo
divinum est (“not to be limited by the greatest and yet to be
contained in the tiniest—this is the divine”). I thought a lot about this
phrase in connection with the issue of different roles in the government of the
church, about becoming the superior of somebody else: it is important not to be
restricted by a larger space, and it is important to be able to stay in
restricted spaces. This virtue of the large and small is magnanimity. Thanks to
magnanimity, we can always look at the horizon from the position where we are.
That means being able to do the little things of every day with a big heart open
to God and to others. That means being able to appreciate the small things
inside large horizons, those of the kingdom of God.
“This motto,” the pope continues, “offers
parameters to assume a correct position for discernment, in order to hear the
things of God from God’s ‘point of view.’ According to St. Ignatius, great
principles must be embodied in the circumstances of place, time and people. In
his own way, John XXIII adopted this attitude with regard to the government of
the church, when he repeated the motto, ‘See everything; turn a blind eye to
much; correct a little.’ John XXIII saw all things, the maximum dimension, but
he chose to correct a few, the minimum dimension. You can have large projects
and implement them by means of a few of the smallest things. Or you can use
weak means that are more effective than strong ones, as Paul also said in his
First Letter to the Corinthians.
“This discernment takes time. For example,
many think that changes and reforms can take place in a short time. I believe that we always need time to lay the foundations for
real, effective change. And this is the time of discernment.
Sometimes discernment instead urges us to do precisely what you had at first
thought you would do later. And that is what has happened to me in recent
months. Discernment is always done in the presence of the Lord, looking at the
signs, listening to the things that happen, the feeling of the people,
especially the poor. My choices, including those related to the day-to-day
aspects of life, like the use of a modest car, are related to a spiritual
discernment that responds to a need that arises from looking at things, at
people and from reading the signs of the times. Discernment in the Lord guides
me in my way of governing.
“But I am always wary of decisions made hastily.
I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to
my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have
to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time. The
wisdom of discernment redeems the necessary ambiguity of life and helps us find
the most appropriate means, which do not always coincide with what looks great
and strong.” (From the Interview with the Jesuit Magazines (Anthony Spadaro
S.J.)
[2]
This was the flaw of Modernism, seen as heresy of heresies, which, as all
heresies [the worst being the most helpful] carried an exceptional good in it.
[3] “Man has to subdue the earth and dominate
it, because as the ‘image of God’ he is a person, that is to say, a subjective
being capable of acting in a planned and rational way, capable of deciding
about himself, and with a tendency to self-realization. As a person, man is
there the subject of work” (Laborem Exercens #6). “This subjectivity gives to
work its particular dignity, which does not allow that it be considered a
simple commodity or an impersonal element of the apparatus for productivity.
Cut off from its lesser or greater objective value, work is an essential
expression of the person, it is an ‘actus personae.’ Any form of materialism or
economic tenet that tries to reduce the worker to being a mere instrument of
production, a simple labor force with an exclusively material value, would end
up hopelessly distorting the essence of work and stripping it of its most noble
and basic human finality. The human person is the measure of the dignity of
work. ‘In fact there is no doubt that human work has an ethical value of its
own, which clearly and directly remains inked to the fact that the one who carries
it out is a person’” (LE#6). Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,
Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, Libreria Editrice Vaticana
(2004) #270, 271.
[4]
See Martin Luther King’s “Letter From a Birmingham Jail” (1963): they keep
telling us to wait.
[5]
Ivan Illich, Gender, Heyday Books, Berkeley (1982) 67-69.
[s2]It
fits to quote Pope Francis’ remarks before the conclave: “Evangelizing
pre-supposes a desire in the Church to come out of herself. The Church is
called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only
geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of
pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual
currents, and of all misery.
2. - When the Church
[s4]The
Church’s moral teaching would be a house of cards if built on the abstraction
of nature (Stoics). Rather it is built on the dynamic of person imaging God as
self-gift.
[s5]As
the Church grows in the experience of Christ, it grows in consciousness.
Concepts don’t grow and develop, but experience and consciousness does.
[s6]There
is a growth in understanding by the Church. The experience of Christ is not
static and fixed. Concepts are abstractions that are fixed.
[s7]The
“content” of faith is the Person of Christ. The way we experience Him in
ourselves gives us a consciousness of ourselves as becoming Him. Reflection on
that consciousness gives us concepts that are static as abstract.
[s8]This
is Ratzinger’s “Theological epistemology:” the only one I experience directly
is myself. I can have an experience and a consciousness of Christ only by going
out of myself as He is “out of Himself” as Son of the Father. That is, “only
God knows God.” I “know” Jesus Christ only by becoming “Ipse Christus”
(Escriva).
[s9]This
is what Francis is doing. With the discernment of office and the authority of
same, he is examining the Church as David burdened with the armor of Saul. It
had to be jettisoned to free David enough to engage in battle with Goliath.
[s11]He
is alluding to the divorced and remarried. The Eucharist may be closed to them,
but not the life of the Church
[s12]It
seems that without Baptism, divine filiation is not in act – after sin. Baptism should always be available. It is enough for sanctity (no need of consecrated life).
[s13]The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but …
nourishment for the weak” Ftn. Of St. Cyril of Alex. #51: “I examined myself
and I found myself unworthy. To those who speak thus I say: when will you be worthy? … will you remain without partaking of
the sanctification that gives life for eternity?”
[s15]This
is the deep driving force Pope Francis. This is not merely a suggestion but the
overall intention of his magisterium.
[s17]If
work can be separated from the person to
become an “object” of exchange, then, with the disappearance of the person,
there is also the disappearance of gender. If the work of a male or female is
interchangeable, then the male and the female are interchangeable.
[s18]Society
as a phenomenon of relationships is now over, having been destroyed by the
market economy.
[s19]“The
responsibility for attaining the common good, besides falling to individual
person, belongs also to the State, since the common good is the reason that the
political authority exits…. Hence the necessity of p9olitical institutions, the
purpose ofr which is to make available to persons the necessary material,
cultural, moral and spiritual goods. The goal of life in society is in fact the
historically attainable common good” Compendium… #168.
[s21]Non-ideological
ethics leads to God who calls for a
commitment outside the market-place. God is uncontrollable and dangerous
calling men to full realization and freedom.
[s23]Notice
that the moral criterion is the relationality of persons. That capitalism as
ideology permits the relationality of persons is insufficient since it
privileges profit (capital) over person. See “Instruction on Christian Freedom
and Liberation” CDF (1986) #87: “The priority of work over capital places an
obligation in justice upon employers to consider the welfare of the workers
before the increase of profits. They have a moral obligation not to keep
capital unproductive and, in making investments, to think first of the common
good. The latter requires a prior effort to consolidate jobs or create new ones
in the production of goods that re really useful. The right to private property
is inconceivable without responsibilities to the common good. It is
subordinated to the higher principle which states that goods are meant for
all.”
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