those come of age. It is a fact that nowadays there are many people like the
two disciples of Emmaus; not only those looking for answers in the new
religious groups that are sprouting up, but also those who already seem
godless, both in theory and in
practice.
Faced with this situation, what are we to do? We need a Church unafraid of
going forth into their night. … We need a Church able to dialogue with
those disciples who, having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly,
alone, with their own
Subject: VISnews130728
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
disappointment, disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren,
fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning.
A relentless process of globalization, an often uncontrolled process of
urbanization, have promised great things. Many people have been captivated by
the potential of globalization, which of course does contain positive elements
such as, for instance,
the reduction of distances, the bringing together of people and cultures, the
distribution of information and services. But, on the other side, many
experience its negative effects without realising how much they prejudice
their own vision of man and of
the world, giving rise to greater disorientation and an emptiness they are
unable to explain. Some of these effects are confusion about the meaning of
life, personal disintegration, the loss of the experience of belonging to a
'nest', the lack of a
sense of place and of profound links.
And since there is nobody to accompany them or to demonstrate by example the
true path, many have sought short cuts, for the standards set by Mother Church
seem to be too high. There are also those who recognise the ideal for man and
for life proposed
by the Church, but do not have the courage to embrace it. They think this
ideal is too great for them, that it is beyond their reach. Nonetheless they
cannot live without having at least something, even a poor imitation, of what
seems too lofty and
distant. With disappointed hearts, they then go off in search of something
that will raise false hopes again, or they resign themselves to a partial
solution that, in the end, will not bring fullness to their lives. The great
sense of abandonment and
solitude, of not even belonging to oneself, which often results from this
situation, is too painful to hide. Some kind of release is necessary. There is
always the option of complaining? But even complaint acts like a boomerang; it
comes
back
and ends up increasing one’s unhappiness. Few people are still capable
of hearing the voice of pain; the best we can do is to anaesthetize it.
Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people’s side, of doing
more than simply listening to them; a Church which accompanies them on their
journey; a Church able to make sense of the night contained in the flight of
so many of our brothers
and sisters from Jerusalem; a Church which realizes that the reasons why
people leave also contain reasons why they can eventually return. But we need
to know how to interpret, with courage, the larger picture.
I would like all of us to ask ourselves today: are we still a Church capable
… of leading people back to Jerusalem? Of bringing them home? Jerusalem
is where our roots are: Scripture, catechesis, sacraments, community,
friendship with the Lord,
Mary and the apostles… Are we still able to speak of these roots in a
way that will revive a sense of wonder at their beauty? Many people have left
because they were promised something more lofty, more powerful, and faster.
But what is more lofty
than the love revealed in Jerusalem? Nothing is more lofty than the abasement
of the Cross, since there we truly approach the height of love! Are we still
capable of demonstrating this truth to those who think that the apex of life
is to be found
elsewhere? Do we know anything more powerful than the strength hidden within
the weakness of love, goodness, truth and beauty?
People today are attracted by things that are faster and faster: rapid
Internet connections, speedy cars and planes, instant relationships. But at
the same time we see a desperate need for calmness, I would even say slowness.
Is the Church still able to
move slowly: to take the time to listen, to have the patience to mend and
reassemble? Or is the Church herself caught up in the frantic pursuit of
efficiency? Dear brothers, let us recover the calm to be able to walk at the
same pace as our pilgrims,
keeping alongside them, remaining close to them, enabling them to speak of the
disappointments present in their hearts and to let us address them. …
We need a Church capable of bringing warmth, of lighting up hearts, and that
is capable of
restoring citizenship to her many children who are journeying, as it were, in
an exodus.
4. Challenges facing the Church in Brazil
Formation as a priority: bishops, priests, religious, laity. … It is
important to devise and ensure a suitable formation, one which will provide
persons able to step into the night without being overcome by the darkness and
losing their bearings;
able to listen to people’s dreams without being seduced and to share
their disappointments without losing hope and becoming bitter; able to
sympathize with the brokenness of others without losing their own strength and
identity. What is needed is
a solid human, cultural, effective, spiritual and doctrinal formation. Dear
brother bishops, courage is needed to undertake a profound review of the
structures in place for the formation and preparation of the clergy and the
laity of the Church in
Brazil. It is not enough that formation be considered a vague priority, either
in documents or at meetings. ... You cannot delegate this task, but must
embrace it as something fundamental for the journey of your Churches.
Collegiality and solidarity in the Episcopal Conference
It is important to remember Aparecida, the method of gathering diversity
together. Not so much a diversity of ideas in order to produce a document, but
a variety of experiences of God, in order to set a vital process in motion.
... Central bureaucracy
is not sufficient; there is also a need for increased collegiality and
solidarity. This will be a source of true enrichment for all.
Permanent state of mission and pastoral conversion
Concerning mission, we need to remember that its urgency derives from its
inner motivation; in other words, it is about handing on a legacy. As for
method, it is essential to realize that a legacy is about witness, it is like
the baton in a relay race:
you don’t throw it up in the air for whoever is able to catch it, so
that anyone who doesn’t catch it has to manage without. In order to
transmit a legacy, one needs to hand it over personally, to touch the one to
whom one wants to give, to
relay, this inheritance. Concerning pastoral conversion, I would like to
recall that “pastoral care” is nothing other than the exercise of
the Church’s motherhood. … So we need a Church capable of
rediscovering the maternal womb
of mercy. Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a
world of “wounded” persons in need of understanding, forgiveness,
love. In mission, also on a continental level, it is very important to reaf
firm
the family, which remains the essential cell of society and the Church; young
people, who are the face of the Church’s future; women, who play a
fundamental role in passing on the faith. Let us not reduce the involvement of
women in the Church,
but instead promote their active role in the ecclesial community. By losing
women, the Church risks becoming sterile. Aparecida also underlines the
vocation and mission of men in the family, the Church and in societies, as
fathers, workers and citizens.
Take this into consideration!
The task of the Church in society
In the context of society, there is only one thing which the Church quite
clearly demands: the freedom to proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when
it runs counter to the world, even when it goes against the tide. In so doing,
she defends treasures
of which she is merely the custodian, and values which she does not create but
rather receives, to which she must remain faithful. The Church claims the
right to serve man in his wholeness, and to speak of what God has revealed
about human beings and
their fulfilment. The Church wants to make present that spiritual patrimony
without which society falls apart. … The Church has the right and the
duty to keep alive the flame of human freedom and unity. Education, health,
social harmony are
pressing concerns in Brazil. The Church has a word to say on these issues,
because any adequate response to these challenges calls for more than merely
technical solutions; there has to be an underlying view of man, his freedom,
his valu
e, his
openness to the transcendent.
The Amazon Basin as a litmus test for Church and society in Brazil
… The Church’s presence in the Amazon Basin is not that of
someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything
possible. The Church has been present in the Amazon Basin from the beginning,
in her missionaries and
religious congregations, and she is still present and critical to the
area’s future. … I would like to invite everyone to reflect on
what Aparecida said about the Amazon Basin, its forceful appeal for respect
and protection of the entire
creation which God has entrusted to man, not so that it be indiscriminately
exploited, but rather made into a garden.
Dear brother Bishops, I have attempted to offer you in a fraternal spirit some
reflections and approaches for a Church like that of Brazil, which is a great
mosaic made up of different tesserae, images, forms, problems and challenges,
but which for this
very reason is an enormous treasure. The Church is never uniformity, but
diversities harmonized in unity, and this is true for every ecclesial
reality”.
___________________________________________________________
POPE FRANCIS: “BUILD UP A SWEAT” LIKE TRUE ATHLETES OF CHRIST
Vatican City, 28 July 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday evening the Pope celebrated
a prayer vigil with almost two million young people at Copacabana. The Liturgy
of the Word began with various testimonies and questions posed to the Holy
Father.
At the end the Pope addressed the young, recalling how the Lord asked St.
Francis of Assisi to do “his part for the life of the Church. …
being at the service of the Church, loving her and working to make the
countenance of Christ shine
ever more brightly in her. Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young
people, for his Church. Dear young people, the Lord needs this. Today too, he
is calling each of you to follow him in his Church and to be mis
ionaries”.
Due to bad weather, this vigil, which should have celebrated at the
“Campus Fidei” in Guaratiba, was transferred to Copacabana.
Francis encouraged the participants to consider this situation. “Perhaps
the Lord wishes to tell us that
the true field of faith, the true Campus Fidei, is not a geographical
location, but rather, it is us?”, he said. The Holy Father introduced
three images of the field, to “help us understand better what it means
to be a disciple and a
missionary”.
“First, a field is a place for sowing seeds”. Here the Pope
mentioned the parable of the “sower who went out to sow seeds in the
field; some seed fell on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns,
and could not grow; other seed
fell on good soil and brought forth much fruit. Jesus himself explains the
meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God sown in our hearts. Today,
every day”, said the Pope, “but especially today, Jesus sows. When
we welcome the Word
of God, then we become the Campus Fidei, the field of faith. Please, let
Christ and His Word enter into your life, let the seed of the Word of God be
sown, let it germinate, let it grow. God will do everything but you must let
Him in, you must let Him
work and grow”.
“I think that we have to ask ourselves honestly: what kind of ground are
we? Maybe sometimes we are like the path: we hear the Lord’s word but it
changes nothing in our lives because we let ourselves be numbed by all the
superficial voices
competing for our attention; or we are like the rocky ground: we receive Jesus
with enthusiasm, but we falter and, faced with difficulties, we don’t
have the courage to swim against the tide; or we are like the thorny ground:
negativity, negative
feelings choke the Lord’s word in us. Do I have two attitudes in my
heart: with one I am happy with God, and with the other I am happy with the
devil? One which receives the seed of Jesus and at the same time waters the
weeds? What is born in my
heart?”
“But today I am sure that the seed is falling on good soil, that you
want to be good soil, not part-time Christians, not “starchy” and
superficial, but real. Seek out a patch of good land and let the seeds fall
there; you will see that
they will bear good fruit. I know that you want to become good ground, good
Christians, not part-time Christians, those who seem to be Christians but in
reality are not. Be authentic Christians. I am sure that you don’t want
to be duped by a false
freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads. I know
that you are aiming high, at long-lasting decisions which will make your lives
meaningful. In silence, we must welcome the seed of Jesus. Everyone knows the
name of the seed
that enters: let it grow, and God will take care of it”.
“Jesus asks us to follow him for life, he asks us to be his disciples,
to 'play on his team'. I think that most of you love sports! … Now,
what do players do when they are asked to join a team? They have to train, and
to train a lot! The
same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples. ... Jesus offers us
something bigger than the World Cup! He offers us the possibility of a
fulfilled and fruitful life; He also offers us a future with Him, an endless
future, eternal life. But He
asks us to buy a ticket to this future, and the ticket is training, 'getting
in shape', bearing witness to our faith. By talking with Him in prayer”.
Francis asked the young people various questions, to which he asked them to
respond in silence, in their hearts. “Do I pray?”, he said.
“Do I let the Holy Spirit speak to my heart? Do I ask Jesus what he
wants me to do? This is
training. Putting questions to Jesus, talking with Jesus. And if you make
mistakes in life, if you do something wrong, do not be afraid. … Always
talk to Jesus, in good times and bad. That is prayer. This is how we enter
into dialogue with Jesus
and as a missionary disciple. And by the sacraments, which make His life grow
within us and conform us to Christ. By loving one another, learning to listen,
to understand, to forgive, to be accepting and to help others, everybody,
without exclusion or
ostracism. This is the training we have to do to follow Jesus: prayer,
sacraments and helping others, serving others”.
Finally, the Holy Father spoke about the field as a construction site.
“When our heart is good soil which receives the word of God, when we
'build up a sweat' in trying to live as Christians, we experience something
tremendous: we are never alone,
we are part of a family of brothers and sisters, all journeying on the same
path: we are part of the Church; indeed, we are building up the Church and we
are making history. Please, don't become footnotes to history. Be agents of
history, go out and
build a better world”.
Pope Francis remarked that “in the Church of Jesus, we ourselves are the
living stones. Jesus is asking us to build up His Church; each one of us is a
living stone, a little building block. Each living stone contributes to the
unity and the
security of the Church. But he does not want us to build a little chapel which
holds only a small group of persons. He asks us to make his living Church so
large that it can hold all of humanity, that it can be a home for
everyone”.
“Please”, he continued, “do not leave it to others to be the
agents of change. You hold the future … continue to work against apathy
and offer a Christian response to the social and political problems that arise
all over the
world. I ask you to be builders of the future, to set to work for a better
world. Dear young people, please, do not live your lives as observers,
watching the world go by. Go into the fray, as Jesus did – He did not
sit back and watch. But where
do we start? Once, Mother Teresa was asked what should be the first thing to
change in the Church, and she replied: 'You and I'. Today I too repeat the
words of Mother Teresa and I say to you: you and I must be the first to
change.”
“Dear friends, never forget that you are the field of faith! You are
Christ’s athletes! You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a
better world. Let us lift our gaze to Our Lady. Mary helps us to follow Jesus,
she gives us the
example by her own 'yes' to God: 'I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done
to me as you say'. All together, let us join Mary in saying to God: let it be
done to me as you say”.
Following Pope Francis' address, the deacons brought the Holy Sacrament in
procession. After the Eucharistic adoration and prayers of the young people in
several languages, the recitation of the “Salve Regina” concluded
the celebration.
___________________________________________________________
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VISnews130728
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXII - N° 160 DATE 28-07-2013
Summary: - CALLED TO PROMOTE THE CULTURE OF
ENCOUNTER - FRANCIS TO
BRAZIL'S LEADERS: A COUNTRY GROWS WHEN ITS CULTURAL COMPONENTS ARE IN
DIALOGUE - FRANCIS: WE NEED A CHURCH CAPABLE OF WALKING WITH THE
PEOPLE - POPE FRANCIS: “BUILD UP A SWEAT” LIKE TRUE ATHLETES
OF CHRIST
Vatican City, 28 July 2013 (VIS) – At 9.00 a.m. Yesterday the
Cathedral of St Sebastian in Rio de Janeiro, whose stained glass windows, the
work of Lorenz Hailmar, symbolise the four characteristics of the Church
– One (green), Holy
(red), Catholic (blue) and Apostolic (yellow) welcomed Pope Francis, who
celebrated Mass with the bishops of World Youth Day, priests, religious and
seminarians. The texts of the liturgy, inspired by the Year of Faith, were
taken from the Mass for the
Evangelization of Peoples. The Holy Father dedicated his homily to three
aspects of the vocation: the call from God, the call to proclaim the Gospel,
and the call to promote the culture of encounter.
With reference to the first, the call from God, the Pope said, “I
believe it is important to revive in ourselves this fact that we so often take
for granted amid the many tasks of our daily lives: 'You did not choose me but
I chose you', says
Jesus. We were called by God and we were called to be with Jesus. This living
in Christ, in fact, marks all that we are and all that we do. This 'life in
Christ' is precisely what ensures the effectiveness of our apostolate, that
our service is
fruitful. ... It is not creativity, pastoral though it may be, nor meetings
and planning that ensure our fruitfulness, even if these are very helpful, but
what ensures fruitfulness is our being faithful to Jesus. ... And we know well
what that means: to
contemplate Him, to worship Him, to embrace Him, especially through our
faithfulness to a life of prayer, and in our daily encounter with Him, present
in the Eucharist and in those most in need. “Being with”
Christ does not mean isolating ourselves from others. Rather, it is a
“being with” in order to go forth and encounter others. Here I
would like to remind you of some words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta:
'We must be very proud of our
vocation because it gives us the opportunity to serve Christ in the poor. It
is in the favelas, in the cantegriles, in the villas miseria, that one must go
to seek and to serve Christ. We must go to them as the priest presents himself
at the altar, with
joy”.
To explain the second aspect, the call to proclaim the Gospel, the Pope
commented that many of the bishops present in Rio had come to accompany young
people to World Youth Day, and emphasised, “It is our responsibility as
pastors to help kindle
within their hearts the desire to be missionary disciples of Jesus. Certainly,
this invitation could cause many to feel somewhat afraid, thinking that to be
missionaries requires leaving their own homes and countries, family and
friends. God asks us to
be missionaries. Where? Where He Himself leads us, in our homeland or wherever
He places us. Let us help the young. … They need to be listened to
… I ask you this with all my heart! We must know how to spend time with
them. Sowing the
seeds takes effort, great effort! But reaping the harvest brings so much more
satisfaction. … But Jesus asks us take seriously our work in sowing the
seeds”.
“Let us spare no effort in the formation of our young people!”
he added. “Help our young people to discover the courage and joy of
faith ... Form them in mission, in going out and going forth. Jesus did this
with His own disciples:
he did not keep them under his wing like a hen with her chicks. He sent them
out! We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so
many people are waiting for the Gospel! It is not enough simply to open the
door in welcome, so
that they may enter, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the
people! Let us encourage the young to got out. Of course they will falter. Let
us not be afraid! The Apostles faltered before us. Let us encourage them to go
out. Let us look
decisively to pastoral needs, beginning on the outskirts, with those who are
farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church”.
The Holy Father concluded by referring to the third aspect, the call to
promote the culture of encounter. “In many places, and in general in
this economic humanism that has been imposed throughout the world, the culture
of exclusion, a
'throwaway culture', is spreading”, he observed. “There is no
place for the elderly or for the unwanted child; there is no time for that
poor person in the street. At times, it seems that for some people, human
relations are regulated by two
modern 'dogmas': efficiency and pragmatism. … Have the courage to go
against the tide, against this throwaway culture. Let us not reject this gift
of God which is the one family of his children. Encountering and welcoming
everyone, solidarity
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* Origin: NetMgr+ @ Sursum Corda! BBS Meridian MS USA (1:396/45)
