de Verteuil, Michael

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Spiritan PapersVolume 18Number 18 October Article 1210-1984Comments on the New Age of MissionMichael de VerteuilFollow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-papersPart of the Catholic Studies CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Spiritan Collection at Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusionin Spiritan Papers by an authorized editor of Duquesne Scholarship Collection.Recommended Citationde Verteuil, M. (1984). Comments on the New Age of Mission. Spiritan Papers, 18 (18). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/spiritan-papers/vol18/iss18/12COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION I would like to  comment first on the expression, "new age of mission", which I find highly significant, although in my experience people use it lightly and ignore its implications. The expression presupposes the notion, accepted by modern thinkers like Paulo Freire, that human history can be divided (loosely of course) into eras. In each era, society is marked by certain dynamics, some of which foster human develop- ment while others are obstacles to  it. Great leaders in each era understand critically the dynamics of their society and help their contemporaries to  understand them too; in this way they facilitate the emergence of a new era, as people adopt new ways of relating which are more consistent with the human vocation. Similarly in the Church, a new era arises when creative Christians develop ways of being Church which allow gospel values to emerge which for various reasons had lain dormant in the previous era. These new ways of being Church grad- ually become dominant and a new era has begun. All this of course happens under the guidance of the Spirit of Jesus (who himself inaugurated a definitive new era) and normally in our Catholic tradition through people who have founded or ren- ewed religious orders. If then we accept that we have entered into a new age of mission and want ro  understand it, we must answer two important questions: What was the previous age, which has now ended? How does the new age differ from i t? I think that the key to  answering both these questions can be found in the statement of Karl Rahner that for the first time since the earliest years of its existence the Church in our day has the opportunity t o  become a world Church. .uo!ss!w 40 a6e Mau ayi 40 y i ~ ! q  ayi u! paAloAu! Aiu!eua3un pue u!ed aqi w o ~ 4  sn anes ue3 sa1n.i ou ing .s!s - !~3 40 sacar!~ an!ndns 01 sn alqeua o i  JO sJaz!sewej 40 A u u ~ J A ~  aqi ~ 1 0 4 4  sn p~en6a~es o i  A~essaaau ade salnA 'a6uey3 p!de~ 40 au ! i  e u! uan3 .=sauod sal Jauua4 sed ine4 au I! ,, 'ploi Alya!nb SEM salnd ayew s i  pay1 O ~ M  auoAue 89131 40 ~aideq3 ayl i e  ley1 Jaquacliai I .s~eaA iua3ad Jan0 passa~Eo~d eneq aM Ma!A 40 au!od s!yl l u o ~ j  .sap4 pue Ayl!qeis paau am as~no3 40 'pueq i e  Jeau uo!ieJaq!l s! uayi A l u ~  'uayeys aq rsncar uaneaq 40 S J ~ M Q ~  ayi pue ' p l ~ o ~  ay3 saz~euau ieym i!eMe Aayi se ~ea4 40 a!p isncar uahu 'sJeis pue uoou  pue uns ayi u! su6!s aq isnw aJayl .u!ed i e a ~ 6  u! pue Alsno!ioqel sa6~awa ' u ~ o q - ~ a u  A~ana ay!l 'aEe Mau $r 'aul!i ~ ~ o y s  e q3ns u! pauaddeq aney Alq!ssod iou plnoa uo!ie6a~6uo3 aqa 40 pue y3inq3 a41 40 pa~!nba~ apni!iie 40 afiueyc~ a q l  .aA!eu aynb s! s ! y l  'uo MOU u o ~  pa6ueyaun u!ewaJ I~!M qa!qM S U O ! ~ ~ I ~ ! ~ S U O ~  dno 40 s i ~ e d  X!$ ue3 alw ~5313~ u! iey l  so~anec~~e3 i  passails uayo uo!kou ayi 'aldwexa ~ 0 4  's! adaql ',u!e6e u ~ o p  Gu!luas nnou am s611!qi,, PUB 'I! 6u!i~nd 086 1 40 ~aidey3 aqi dog sruawnaop A~ope~eda~d qi 40 auo Aaq -uauaJ I se ',,A[lng!3~aw - aaAo ~ o u  s! sapuanas pue sa!ix!s aqi payJew ley1 aaualnqlni aqi 'Auew do4 'asneaaq iu!od s!qi ayecar I 'ssa3o~d 1n4uled pue ~ o l s  e aq o i  6 ~ 1 0 6  s! s ! y l  'em ]ena!pau-a~d aqi 40 syuohu qs!q pue qs!l6u=j ayi pue y3yed '1s Aq 'sn!psylaM pue p A 3  Aq poois.rapun se uo!ss!t.u Jaquacliad o i  aney aN\ .daMoy 11134 u! seM uo!ie6a~fiuoa dno iey i  au ! i  ayi ie  Alaspadd iy6!aq st! i e  'JaqwawaJ sn ial ' s e ~  y 3 ! y ~  'eda le! -uolo3 aqk 40 sapnyua aya 4 0  saAlasdno aay o i  A~essa3au deal leluaw aqi ayeu 01 aneq am deln3gded ul .y3eq ~ayun4 06 01 aneq a m  'uo!ss!w 40 a6e mau aqi pueisJapun o i  sn alqeua I[!M ieqi sa!dowacli aqi A~oislq UMO Jno u!qi!m puy ue3 am ley1 Aem ou s! adaq1 -OM$ do A~niua:, Jsel aqi Gu!dnp papurr04 aiaM q 3 ! q ~  sJno ayq suo~aeEar6uo~ ~ 0 4  Allepadsa i nq  'qwny3 aioym aqa JOJ a6ualley3 ieai6 e sasod s!qi MON .A~ois!q s,q3~nq3 aql go daams aloL(M aqi $.nq 's~eaA peJpuny OML JO auo ised aqi 40 A~ois!y aya Ala~aui ou  ' A ~ o i s ! ~  40 asedas e aney isnw am Aepoi Alaienbape uo!ss!u $0 uo!isanb eyi asod 01 iueM am 41 laq4 sueam 1 .~&a$3 aJa SEIOIX~~!~~UII !  a y l  .mn!uaipu e uana sdeqsad 'sa!anlua3 ledaAas pauueds 'uad s,Jauqe&j uo uo!ie~a6 -6exa uietdaa e ~ o j  6u!molse uana 'uaqa %6e sno!na~d a q l  COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION All this becomes clearer when we examine Rahner's an- swer to our second question on the nature of the new age of mission, the Church becoming a world Church. Rahner, like all great thinkers, understood the dynamics of his era. The be- setting sin of our age is fragmentation, fragmentation at every level, between cultures and between individuals, between the different layers of our selves, between humanity and nature, between humanity and God. It is precisely because modern people live fragmented lives that the Church today is called to be a world Church, a symbol of that communion to  which God calls us, a communion that should exist not merely between all peoples - Rahner's point - but at all those same levels where fragmentation now dominates. Now if we study religious life over the centuries, atid in all the forms it has taken, we will find as a common thread that it has always helped people achieve harmony. We can con- clude that religious life today must have as its main aim to overcome frag~nentation in all its forms and foster harmony and communion instead. Just to take one example. There is the harmony between traditional culture and faith in Jesus. We all know of the grad- ual blending of culture and faith which took place in the first centuries of Christianity; it is the story of the Catholic Church in Europe of East and West, in England and Ireland. It is a wonderfui story, a triumph of human wisdom as well as of God's grace, and much of it took place within the framework of religious life. For various reasons the process stopped at a certain point. It was not allowed to  happen during the great missionary thrusts of recent centuries. The result was frag- mentation, Christians not allowed to  integrate their cultural tra- ditions and their faith. Today, however, the integrating is happening again, one of the marks of the new age of mission. Indians and Africans are becoming fully people of their culture and fully catholic, just as, centuries ago, Bede and Augustine, Catherine of Siena and Bernard, were fully both. Once more, also, religious are in the forefront of this process. It is essential that our Congregation play its part here, especially in areas where it is attracting large numbers. This COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION 85 poses a human problem which is really a sociological problem. The traditional Spiritan, especially in third world countries (there have always been exceptions), is a man of action, a pio- neer, "homme de brousse" ( I  remember a great missionary who had returned to teach in a college at h ~ m e  and was delighted when the boys nicknamed him "bushman".), impa- tient with academics, more interested in putting up school buildings than in a philosophy of education. These men have given birth to religious communities that are called to be cen- tres of culture and learning, of philosophy, poetry and dance. There will necessarily be clashes of personality. I remind the confreres from Europe that the harmony of culture and faith is in their blood; it is part of their tribal mem- ory, as the sociologists say. It is before their eyes in the Book of Kells, Chartres, the Rock of Cashel. We in the third world have to start from scratch, and they can help us by teaching us their history. When I was a student in Ireland in the fifties it was fashionable to decry the Irish scholastics who specialized in Celtic studies; they were said to have no inter- est in missions. From my present observation post, I could not think of a better course to prepare someone for being a missionary today. Celtic spirituality was not only the source of some of the greatest missionaries in the history of the Church, it was a blend of faith and culture that can be a model for the young Churches today. At the risk of coming under suspicion, I would call it the spirituality of a popular Church. For those looking for an alternative to Celtic studies I would recommend a study of Jean Leclerc's classic, "The Love of Learning and the Desire for God ". Then there is the harmony between prayer and aposto- late, which is but one aspect of the harmony between active and passive elements in human living. This is a major prob- lem in many traditional cultures today. All traditional cultures have an inbuilt harmony of activity and leisure. We who spent time in Africa were always struck by the importance people there give to "conversing"; it is a moment that must not be hurried. The modern world with its overemphasis on activity has swept away this harmony with enormous damage to people's psyche. Religious life has always been a harmon- ious blend of the two, a living testimony of good human living. Religious life can be, as it has been over the centuries, in the forefront of what Paul VI in Populorum Progressio called "the 86 COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION search for a new humanism which will enable modern man to find himself anew by embracing the higher values of love and friendship, of prayer and contemplation". The pope added that this search required "the deep thought and reflection of wise men". The lesson of history is that religious life pro- duces that kind of wisdom. 1 noticed at Carcavelos a tendency to go back to the false way (the way of the previous age) of posing this problem, namely, to ask which elements in our life-style are subordinate to others. Eventually the commission accepted that our life has four elements, apostolate, community, the counsels and prayer, and each is absolute. This is harmony, not fragmenta- tion, the ancient understanding of religious life. I have just given two examples. Both point to another fragmentation that we must overcome in the new age of mis- sion, the false opposition between different forms of religious life. I am concerned by all the focussing on identity ("what precisely is our charism?") in religious congregations today. I see it as a symptom of that unhealthy desire to know who we are that is a mark of our culture of fragmentation, whereas Jesus taught that it is only in losing ourselves that we can find ourselves. We are called to be ourselves rather than to know ourselves, and we should be content to say of our religious orders what St. Francis said about each person: "what we are before God, that we are and nothing more". My main point here. however, is that in searching for our identity we are always locking ourselves into a problematic that belongs to the previous age. There is, for example, the so-called opposition between monastic and missionary life. I often hear European confreres insisting that the two things are opposed, and I wonder what do they make of their own his- tory. All I have said shows that, far from distancing ourselves from the monastic tradition, we need urgently to open our- selves to the great lessons it can teach us. I have similar reservations about the notion of "specifica- lly missionary orders". This notion was born in the nine- teenth century, made sense whithin it, but very little in the new age of mission. Our Trinidad province has suffered greatly under the burden of having to conform to this model. There was a time when the province was told by high authori- ties in the Congregation that they were not "real Spiritans" because they were not sending large numbers to "mission COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION 87 countries". It is quite clear to me that the province was developing according to its own inner dynamic, with all the elements of religious life, and, as it continues to do so, its own distinctive missionary spirit is emerging as it has always done. In general I find that people project on our founders a con- cern for, identity that historically was not theirs at all. I imag- ine the founders, like some wonderful old Spiritans I have known, secure in their own identity and achievements, would put their hand on the shoulder sf younger confreres as a ges- ture of continuity, but also encourage them to follow new paths. This brings me to my final point, which is that our Congre- gation will enter into the new age of mission, not primarily by the decisions of chapters or the texts of constitutions, nor even by the study of history, important as this may be, but by the spontaneous decisions of the confreres, the conclusion being that nothing is more important or constructive in the Congregation today than to put our hands on one another's shoulders. One of the features of modern civilization is that we like to plan for our institutions. There are, however, institutions where. planning has very limited value. Parents cannot plan how their children will turn out, a school of art cannot plan what its students will create, a research laboratory cannot plan what will be discovered in its experiments. Religious life is that kind of institution. All religious orders came into being because deeply spiritual people spontaneously felt the urge to try something that the rest of the Church was neglecting and, whatever we might think, they are kept alive by the same dynamic. I am very struck by this within my own province. We are moving in certain directions because some of our con- freres started doing things which they did not understand very clearly themselves, although as time went on they understood them. I have heard confreres in the Congregation decribed as "outside the mainstream of the Congregation" when in fact they had fallen on work that was totally in tune with our tradi- tions. Of course not every spontaneous movement is authen- tic; we must do our work of discernment, do our critical reflection in the light of history, as I have explained, but with- out undue concern, remembering the principle of Gamaliel in the Acts: 8 8 COMMENTS ON THE NEW AGE OF MISSION If this enterprise, this movement, is of human origin, it will break up of its ovvn accord, but if it does in fact come from God you will not only be unable to  destroy them but you might find yourseives fighting against God (Acts 5.39). It is the Spirit that is leading us into the new age of mission and we must learn to re-read the teaching of spiritual masters like Fr. Libermann on docility to the Spirit, so that it applies equally to individual persons and to  institutions like our Con- gregation or the whole Church. That too is a task for the new age of mission. Michel de Verteuil, C.S.Sp. Provincial of Trinidad September 1984 

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