RM to young Salesians at Salesian House of Studies:
meditation on mission
HONG KONG: 16th February 2006 -- On February 14th, Fr
Chávez met with young Salesians at the Salesian House of Studies.
He
was welcomed by a student, Albert, now a deacon, who commented on the
75 years of existence of this study centre, "one of the ten missionary
formation centres seen by Don Bosco in his dreams". That is bound
to
send students in a host of other centres scurrying to their libraries
to discover the other nine, while not doubting at all Albert's claim
for the tenth! In addition to those in initial formation, a
further
ten young missionaries were part of the encounter.
The occasion was a 'magisterial' one, enabling the
Rector Major to
develop some thinking on mission in the current context, the context of
'the Asian Millennium' (JP II), and the challenge of enriching ancient
cultures with the leaven of the Gospel. "We are not here to
convert
1.5 billion Chinese", he said, and repeated a little later, "we are not
the saviours of China. We are , like Benedict XVI, but humble
servants".
"We are here for the young, especially for the poor,
abandoned, at
risk, but", he asked "what does this mean in order to avoid being
rhetoric alone?" "We are here to do what Don Bosco did in
Valdocco, to
make the life of young people happy. Happiness means love, to have a
dream, to have a project. First of all to bring them to Christ
and to
bring Christ to them". He came back to motivation - if you have
your
'why', you can face any 'how'. He then drew on the icon chosen by
JPII
for the Synod on consecrated life in 1994 - the Transfiguration, which
is, at base, a very strong experience of God. As in Philippians
Chapter 3, Paul shares his personal experience, his vision of the world
where Christ has overturned his value system so that everything else is
rubbish. The RM coined a word here...transvaluation!
We need to be able to share our experience of God -
and Fr Chávez
shared a little of his, from his 'Jerusalem' period, studying at the
Hebrew University. He would go regularly into the grotto in
Bethlehem,
grubby as it is (some tourists take one look and go). There he would
sit and ponder - what changes human history? On Fridays he would
pray
at the Holy Sepulchre, and prayed with a small cross he had bought
there and still wears today. "Nobody loves me more than Jesus.
Nobody
has given his life for me other than Jesus"!
From the experience of God we move to an experience
of humanity,
and a passion for it. If we don't love people as they are, how
can we
love God who is invisible? (John's First Letter). And still with John,
the Samaritan woman - she'd had five husbands, but in a sense only met
the right one when she met Jesus, at which point she became an apostle,
a missionary to her own village, telling her own experience.
The Rector Major invited his listeners to go to
Philippians 2 and
meditate on the 'kenosis', the basis of missionary spirituality.
He
invited them to take the Cross as their way of life and to never ever
lose the sense of being sent. At this point strong applause.
Question and answer, the questions focusing on the
future in their
present context. His answer focused on the idea of St. Francis
Xavier
whose anniversary is being celebrated this year: "I am like the light
near the tabernacle". Be a light shining now, in Hong Kong, in
Macau,
wherever.
Following this, the Rector Major met with some of
the Salesian elders, Fr Bernard Tohill amongst them.
_____________________
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