austraLasia #2975
Missionary Communion - Consecrated Life in
Postconciliar Theology
ROME/SEOUL
--
Printed, bound doctoral theses are somewhat abundant in Rome;
thick
tomes passed on to the Central Library with an indulgent
smile. But
just occasionally something catches one's eye, and gives one
pause -
and the desire to read. Such is the case with Sr Pancrazia
Chunshim
Kuk's Missionary Communion
- Consecrated Life in Postconciliar Theology, a study
applied especially to the life of apostolic religious today,
called to be and to make communion.
The
first thing that stands out, I guess, is the fact that this is
the work
of a Korean Sister belonging to the Caritas Sisters of Jesus.
a
Salesian Family Group that belongs very much to our Region and
was
founded in Japan: the CSJ spread quickly to Korea and beyond
and are
now entering Africa for the first time, South Sudan. They have
a strong
missionary focus.
Sr Pancrazia offers a fresh approach to Consecrated Life
today, by
providing a solid theological basis (using Vatican II and
theology
developed concerning consecrated life since then) for this
life as a spirituality of evangelising communion. She seems
less interested in
questions of communion within a religious institute, and
leaves aside
(at least from what I can see in a quick skimming through of
600
pages!) some of the thorny questions of communion ad extra,
(communion with bishops for instance), focusing instead on a
communion
which is Trinitarian, Christocentric, Spirit-filled - and very
open,
therefore missionary and evangelising by its very nature.
There
is one section some 400 pages into the work that struck me
quite
forcibly, and just this part alone would encourage me to
recommend the
work as whole. Sr Pancrazia has a beautiful section on the
language of
tenderness, under the heading: Tenderness will save the world! Tenderness
not jut as a gift someone might have but as an intentional
choice, a
mission to complete, something that can indeed change the
world. No
surprise, then, to find her at one point quoting John Donne
(though not
precisely in the context of tenderness).
Communion would become sterile if it was simply warming
oneself by the
fire (any fire, including the fire of God's love). The
experience of
communion has to be passed on; we need to involve people in
our
communion. Mission, on the other hand, would lack meaning if
not given
energy by communion and if it did not aim to create communion.
Together
they guarantee the freshness, novelty, creativity of
consecrated life.
This is what comes through in this thesis and it would seem an
admirable response to the challenges that consecrated life has
to face
up to today.
Just one small gripe: this work is only available in Italian,
unless Sr
Pancrazia has had it translated into Korean. But English
readers who
cannot access Italian comfortably will be denied, for now,
this
profound and enlightening text.
---------
La comunione missionaria: la
vita consecrata nella teologia postconciliare,
by Sr Pancrazia Chunshin Kuk, published 2001 by Città
Nuova. Sr
Chunshin Kuk completed her Licentiate at the Gregorianum, then
went on
to do her Doctorate at the Claretianum Institute of the
Pontifical
Lateran University. €25
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