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SVD
- India A. Listening to the Spirit A profound experience of an encounter with the Lord, risen and alive today, sets us up on the path of mission. This in turn engenders a conviction in us that we are engaged in a pilgrimage. The ultimate destination of this journey may be clear, yet our own steps leading to it are often faltering and tentative. While the Christ Event was the defining moment of God's prodigious love for the world and God's salvific will (cf. Jn 3:16), our missionary involvement is an overflow of our own rootedness in the life of the risen Christ. We believe that having recourse to the Word of God--the Spirit's preferred medium of communication with us--constantly nourishes the awareness of our missionary call. This process of daily nourishment by the Spirit ensures that our evangelical efforts are a participation in the mission of the Spirit and not merely the efficient execution of some humanly designed programme or project (cf. 2 Pet 1:16). Jesus set out on his great mission, the gospel of Luke clearly reminds us, after he was invested with the power of the Holy Spirit. He saw it essentially as a liberative mission intended to bring good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives and joy to the marginalized (cf. Lk 4:18-19). 1) Listening to the Spirit in the Cry of the Poor and the Marginalized Grinding poverty of the masses is one of the starkest realities written large all over the horizons of our country. Numerous causes, both natural and humanly fashioned, have reduced millions in this country to destitution. Conservative estimates indicate that about 20% of the country's population is made up of real destitutes while above 30% exist below the poverty line. In our post-modern, post-industrial society, such processes as globalization and market economy are flaunted by the minions of Mammon as the ultimate liberating forces. They certainly ensure more and more amenities for the wealthy and the well-heeled, but at the same time they widen the gap between the rich and the poor and keep pushing more and more people over the edge. The domination of a uni-polar economic system, which is the axis on which globalization revolves, leads to the concentration of wealth in a few hands as capital is used more for profit-making speculation than for useful production. Religious sanction accorded to institutionalized structures of oppression such as the caste system (varna dharma) and belief in the immutable dictates of fate (karma) add further fillip to the perpetuation of poverty. 2) Listening to the Spirit in the Scenario Provided by Religious Pluralism and Fundamentalism God's plan of salvation encompasses the entire human family (cf. 1 Tim 2:4). This realization has practical implications especially for the work of evangelization in a religiously pluralistic society. In our land we constantly encounter formidable expressions of deep religiosity nourished by such time-hallowed religious traditions as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam and the primal religions. The authenticity of the religious experience they mediate can be called to question only at the peril of our own credibility. The quest for God that they have come to represent place before us inspiring models of relating to the Absolute. Against that background we are compelled to ask ourselves if the sudden spurt of violence directed against the minorities, particularly Christians, and very specially the missionary personnel, that we witnessed in the recent past did not contain a 'wake up call' given by the Spirit. 3) Listening to the Spirit in the Multiplicity of Cultures The overt and covert attempts at promoting the Greco-Roman world view brandished as the only true bearer of the Christian kerygma is perceived as an act of imposition by peoples who retain great pride in their own ancient and noble cultures. They feel threatened by the massive efforts designed to persuade vulnerable sections of people to abandon the cultural ambience they are born into. We feel that Christianity has deliberately remained silent on the fact that the voice of the Spirit has been vibrantly echoing in the cultures of peoples from time immemorial, however muted its articulation may have been. The sparkling and dynamic cultural traditions of this land have to be accorded their rightful place in our presentation of the economy of salvation. 4) Listening to the Spirit in the Cry of the Marginalized Women The historical wrong associated with the systemic marginalization of women is something for which humanity, especially the male half of it, must confess its collective guilt. Various expressions of gender-based discrimination and oppression such as deliberate exclusion of women from all decision making fora, female foeticide, preferential treatment given to the boy child, denial of opportunities to the girl child, sexual violence of varied types, are as rampant today as ever before. 5) Listening to the Spirit in the Developments of the Secular World The Spirit speaks continuously and powerfully through innumerable agents, movements, situations, turns of history, and humanistic ideologies. The phenomenon of the media explosion and the incredible growth of the information technology are perhaps yet another avenue opened up by the divine Spirit. 6) Listening to the Spirit in the Cry of the Endangered Planet Environmental degradation is fast assuming life-threatening proportions in many parts of the world and our own country is no exception. The planet Earth is groaning for the restoration of the pristine harmony which the Spirit of God gifted it with at creation while hovering over the primeval chaos to bring about perfect order (cf. Gen 1:1-31).
B. The Struggles We Face in Living out Our Missionary Call Our efforts to listen to the Spirit and to decipher his voice from the resounding cacophony all around us are often impeded by certain basic realities of our life and times. Growing individualism, love for the comfort culture, insatiable thirst for the gratification of the senses, polarization on ethnic lines, lack of probity in financial matters, lack of commitment to the pursuit of excellence, and the non-existent culture of listening to the Spirit speaking through one another (confreres) are some of the expressions of the power of evil, chronic and pervasive, that exists in our midst. We are sadly aware that as male religious we are often able to get away with serious offences committed against the dignity of women and with glaring financial irregularities. Yet we firmly believe that the Spirit of God has not completely abandoned us (cf. Jn 14:15-18). He has rendered us as a community of warm, hospitable, and generous persons. We are widely perceived as a religious family always keeping the cause of evangelization as its highest priority. Some of the contemporary expressions of our missionary charism such as conscientization drives against social evils, attempts to introduce a new way of being church through Small Christian Communities, care of the marginalized sections of society such as the HIV infected persons and street children, spreading the sway of prayer and renewal movements, service to the local church, efforts in the fields of scared music, and the print and electronic media, mission animation initiatives, promotion of cultural studies and other innovative ministries carried out with remarkable success by our confreres and our institutions of specialized apostolates are to be recognized as the work of the Spirit.
C. Our Missionary Response It is in this larger context that we try to articulate our vision for the SVD evangelical efforts in India for the next 10 years. We submit that a truly effective missionary approach can emerge only through a dialectical conversation between what we gather of the context by listening to the Spirit and the open-ended message of the missionary mandate read from the vantage point of our present day situation. While formulating our vision for mission we are deeply aware that evangelization, like charity, begins at home. Our allegiance to Jesus and his liberative mission should invite us, as individuals and as a community, first and foremost to an unrelenting commitment to personal conversion. The challenge of mission envisages the confronting of both the personal and structural dimensions of sin and evil. We believe that our evangelical involvement will remain totally ineffective if we, while raising our voice against external structures of oppression, remain blind to our own deficiencies such as selfishness, pride, individualism, hankering after comfort, craving for success and recognition and so on. 1) Empowering the Poor and the Marginalized Given the alarming scale of the impoverization and marginalization of sizeable sections of people across the world, we consider action for justice and participation in the transformation of society as the most important constituent of our mission. We see our mission as an effort oriented to the integral human and cosmic liberation. Promotion of and joining hands with the initiatives of the many and varied subaltern movements will have to become a concrete expression of it. Involvement in adult literacy programmes and availing of the opportunities offered by the National Open School and other such non-formal educational projects will facilitate the process of the empowerment that is at the centre of our liberative mission. 2) Fostering the Spirit of Dialogue at all Levels of Missionary Involvement In our special context of religious pluralism, efforts to pursue a kingdom-centred approach to mission will purify our own vision and lead us to a genuine commitment to inter-faith dialogue at all levels of our missionary involvement. This will pave the way for the gradual elimination of suspicions and prejudices and take the wind out of the malicious propaganda war waged by fundamentalist individuals and outfits. Considering the perennial quest for the divine that is so pronounced in our country, sincere and earnest efforts to be a co-pilgrim with all such fellow-seekers around us at a profound spiritual and mystical level ought to become part of our concept and praxis of dialogue. 3) Sensitizing Ourselves to the Cultural Richness of the Land and Its Demands The path breaking efforts of some of our pioneers in the field of inculturation must function as a constant reminder from the Spirit of our commitment to this dimension of our mission. Promotion of indigenous languages which has always been part of our missionary tradition plays an important role in our evangelical efforts. Keeping in mind that the church is a culturally polycentric organization, we must make conscious efforts to divest ourselves of the popular perception of harbouring loyalty to an alien culture. That must then be complemented by the effort to progressively incarnate ourselves in the cultural milieu of our people simultaneously attempting to enflesh the Word in the local culture to make it an accessible reality bearing the colours, the smells, the sounds and the touch of this culturally rich land. 4) Working towards the Ideal of a Gender-Just Society Our missionary call, we believe, demands that we be deeply committed to the task of building up a gender-just society. Fight against certain widespread evils selectively targeting the rights of women such as female foeticide, domestic violence involving women, molestation and rape, bride-burning, etc., must become a vital concern of our mission. The church's traditional practice of assigning only secondary roles to its women members and the deliberate stifling of their voices are issues to be addressed by SVD missionaries. Gradually arriving at an ecclesial set up founded on a 'discipleship of equals' must become the core of our efforts in this field. Our devotion to this cause ought to be the fruit of every confrere's profound conviction to accord due respect to the dignity of women he comes into contact with. 5) Joining Hands with All Life Enhancing Processes in Society Developments in the secular world, we affirm, are bearers of the signs of the times flashed on to us by the Spirit of God. It follows that we as missionaries should keep our ears close to the ground to be able to draw the right lessons from them. We often turn a blind eye to the widespread violation of human rights taking place all around us all the time. Joining hands with various organizations fighting against this pernicious evil should become part of our mission. Political involvement understood as taking the side of the poor and working for their empowerment is not a populist gesture, but a step demanded by our profession of loyalty to the Gospel. Spirit-inspired developments in the secular world can open up new vistas of collaborative action for us as missionaries. The church's attitude of shying away from the field of politics has resulted in the situation of a lack of an ideological foundation for political involvement. Developing a political ecclesiology, therefore, has become an imperative. Minimum primary education is today widely recognized as a basic human right and as an essential ingredient of empowerment. This has implications for a missionary's involvement in the field of education. Education for social transformation should be our guiding principle in this matter. Side by side with providing quality education, our institutions should strive towards preparing the wards for creatively responding to the evils in society. Availing ourselves of the advantages offered by the strides in the field of print and electronic media and the advancement in information technology, we critically evaluate their products and influence, especially in the context of the new world order emerging in the wake of the 'gospel of globalism' and the coronation of market economy. Media education, therefore, becomes a key component of our communications ministry. Use of low cost media such as street theatre and folk art forms must become the focus of our activities in the area of media apostolate and our efforts at empowerment. 6) Restoring the Integrity of Creation Recognizing the Earth as our mother, we believe that restoring the integrity of creation has to begin with the gradual nurturing of a sense of wonder and awe at the marvels of creation which was so much a part of the primeval human being's attitude towards nature. The greed of the rich and the mighty has inflicted deep wounds on our mother Earth's body. Healing of these wounds requires of us an attitudinal change: of considering ourselves not as the masters but as the stewards of creation. Therefore, ecological concerns are not on the periphery of our missionary horizon, but being central to the very survival of the human race, central also to our mission.
D. Continuing the Mission of Jesus All the above mentioned ways are in the final analysis expressions of our resolve to carry out the missionary task enjoined on us by Jesus the trail-blazer. Our efforts to contribute to the emergence of a new world order, a just society, we are convinced, cannot be built on humanly fashioned principles of pure pragmatism. The spiritual riches embodied in the person and the message of Jesus of Nazareth has a major role to play in the creation of the new heaven and the new earth (cf. Rev 21:1-3) which is the ultimate goal of our mission of evangelization. While we resolutely strike out aggressive proselytizing from our missionary agenda, we continue to hold that the path of Jesus offers a veritable anchor of hope to the restless human heart. Sustained efforts in fields such as mission animation, Bible apostolate, retreat ministry, prayer and renewal movements, etc., will render us effective dispensers of immeasurable spiritual riches. We affirm that the motivational force and the spiritual energy for the accomplishment of the mission outlined above, and indeed all our evangelical endeavours, comes from the well springs of a genuine SVD spirituality. As privileged bearers of a name that links us to the Word became flesh, what is being constantly flashed to the members our congregation as model is the sublime event of the incarnation. Just as the Holy Spirit was the principal actor on the stage of the incarnation, we who profess an incarnational spirituality must dispose ourselves to be guided by the same Spirit. Jesus' entire earthly ministry was guided by the Spirit and at the climax of his messianic mission, in the paschal mystery, the Spirit's presence was manifested in a spectacular manner. This same divine Spirit transformed the early Christians into a witnessing community of prophetic and enlightened individuals. The Holy Spirit, therefore, continues to lead us by the hand as the principal agent of our mission. We are called upon to listen attentively to the Spirit and to formulate our missionary vision in accordance with the divine counsellor's incessant promptings and then translate that vision into meaningful witnessing moments. *** *** *** *** ***
This perspective, painted in few broad strokes in the text above, emerged at a Consultation on Mission held at Ishvani Kendra, Pune, from 7th to 9th June, 1999. The inspiration for it was provided by the Society's effort to involve the entire congregation in a collective reflection on the topic of mission in view of the General Chapter 2000 and its highly evocative theme. About a score of confreres from the three SVD Provinces of India, along with the three Provincial Superiors and a few resource persons and observers spent several hours together listening to one another and discussing issues of relevance. The major part of the time was spent in listening to the personal sharing of the participants as they tried to expound their vision of SVD missionary involvement addressing the varied situations of our people. The aim of the Consultation was to put our heads together to arrive at the rudiments of a missionary approach that is adequately responsive to the exigencies of life in our country.
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