IN THE FERVOUR OF

GC26

(A Note)

J. Puthenpurakal SDB

DBCIC Publications

Shillong 2008

On the occasion of DBYA – South Asia Council Meeting

The Citadel, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

November 14-16, 2008

IN THE FERVOUR OF

GC26

(A Note)

J. Puthenpurakal SDB

DBCIC Publications

Shillong 2008

On the occasion of DBYA – South Asia Council Meeting

The Citadel, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India

November 14-16, 2008

© Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures, Shillong [DBCIC].

2008.

Published by:DBCIC

Sacred Heart Theological College

Shillong – 793 008, India

ISBN-81-85408-00-41

IN THE FERVOUR OF

GC26

(A Note)

J. Puthenpurakal SDB

jputhen@gmail.com

dbcicshillong@gmail.com

94361 18732

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GC26-Fervour

GC26-Fervour is summed up in the first line of the GC26 Document. We read, “Don Bosco’s passion for the salvation of youth is our most precious heritage.” The Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chávez, in presenting the Chapter Document to the whole Congregation invites us to translate the Spirit of GC26 into our lives. “Just as the ‘spirit of the Second Vatican Council’ is alive and active, we can say that there is a ‘spirit of the GC26’ that needs to be welcomed.” It is summed up in Don Bosco’s motto, Give Me Souls, take away the rest. Don Bosco gave glory to God by working for the Salvation of Youth. His motto was his constant prayer. It helped him to be a mystic in the Church: a tireless worker for the integral and total salvation of the Young. It was his style of collaborating with Jesus, the Redeemer of the world who came to give life to the full (Jn 10:10). It was the best expression of his zeal for the Church and for the good of society. It expressed his missionary passion for God and for the well-being of peoples, especially the Young. GC26, in the words of the Rector Major was for us a New Pentecost!

Pentecost 2008

The first Pentecost (see, Acts 2) saw all the disciples gathered together in one place. We too were gathered together in GC26. It was the whole Salesian world, so to say, in one room. The first Pentecost saw the disciples filled with the Holy Spirit and with power from above. Today we too are filled with the same Spirit in the Don Bosco way with a passion for God and for His peoples – the Youth of the world in particular. At the first Pentecost the Spirit enabled the disciples to speak in “tongues”. Today the Congregation is speaking hundreds of tongues in all the five Continents. People are amazed how the brand name “Don Bosco” is easily understood everywhere. In the first Pentecost everything was focused on “Jesus of Nazareth”, a Man accredited by God [to us] by miracles, wonders and signs. Today we are sent [“missioned”] to offer Him to the world. At the first Pentecost Peter spoke of how Jesus was crucified. Today we are called to speak of how the same Jesus is tortured and killed again in His disciples in Orissa and elsewhere. In the first Pentecost Peter testified that God raised Him from the dead, for it was impossible for death to hold the Just One! We as missionaries are invited to offer this Hope to the world. Only a Hope that can overcome death will be able to build true fellowship. All the rest runs the risk of becoming politics. Our mission is to offer Jesus’ Good News to the world so that the world may have life and that too in abundance.

Two things are intimately connected with what we have said so far. They are Evangelization and Ad Gentes Mission. The latter is the centre or the heart of the former. To put it in simple words, with out a burning [not just smoking only! but really burning] desire to offer Jesus and His Good News to people, what we call “Evangelization” cannot survive long.

Evangelization

The rich meaning of “Evangelization” invariably provokes a lot of discussion. It was so in the 1971 Synod of Bishops and in the 1974 Synod of Bishops. The former arrived at the realization that “action in behalf of justice and participation in the transformation of the world fully appear to us as constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel”, and the latter resulted in the classical post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975) on the integral concept of Evangelization. John Paul II in his turn focused on what is central to the task of Evangelization, namely, bringing the Good News to those who have not heard it yet [ or even if they had once received it, but are living as if they never heard it], and gave us the magnificent encyclical Redemptoris Missio (1990).

Much ink has flowed after Vatican II and innumerable workshops, courses and seminars have been held since then to go deeper into the evangelizing mission of the Church. Even so, the understanding of Evangelization in the various contexts of the Church’s and of the Congregation’s manifold activities continues to challenge us. The challenge is greater when we are so taken up with activities and have no time to reflect.

Even as recently as in GC26 [February – April 2008] much time was spent to clarify the concept and reality of ‘Evangelization’. It was the same also in the World Consultation of Salesian Missions held in Rome in October 2008. The South Asia Salesian Youth Pastoral Council being held in Chennai from 14-16 November too will come to grips with the Evangelizing Mission of the Church, since it is what the Church is for in its innumerable contexts and activities. Whatever be the Departmental discussions [Department of Youth Pastoral, Vocation Ministry, Evangelization and Catechesis, Education and Culture, Groups and Movements, Youth at Risk, …] Evangelization will always remain the central theme, because everything should become “Good News”, not mere programmes, projects and feverish activities.

Evangelization: A Closer Look

In its most simple and in its most radical sense Evangelization consists in living one’s human existence as Jesus lived His, and in presenting, proposing, and announcing it to all peoples who are searching for fullness of life and a life of happiness and joy. Human Existence as Jesus lived, that is our daily challenge. It embraces both the life here on earth and the life hereafter. It demands an experience of the Risen Lord, being with Him, and to be sent out by Him. In Him our life here below awaits its fulfillment in the life hereafter. The Evangelizing Mission is concerned with the total vision of life, and not the “here below” or the “here after”. The two [the here-below and the here-after] are held together by the Evangelizing Mission of the Church.

It is the Word of God that sustains our total vision of life. This Word is a saving Word. It is a Word that calls for a response. It realizes what it stands for. Jesus is this Word. He is the “Sent One” [missionary] of the Father to enrich us with His Word. He is unique. He cannot be confused with any other human being. He, the Word of God, can transform all peoples and all cultures. The Church and in the Church all of us exist to continue this evangelizing and transforming mission, whatever be the Department through which we function. Just as the Church makes clear the identity of Jesus for all peoples and for all cultures, we have the grace and privilege of being part and parcel of this Church.

Living our human existence as Jesus lived gets its visibility in the Church and through our many activities. Everything the Church does should help this visibility. The Church is like a Lamp shining brightly. And the Church’s greatest power is this light and the power of ATTRACTION of Christ’s light in the Church. Those who are attracted by the Church’s light - the Light of the Risen Lord Jesus – come closer to it in full freedom. No one can force anyone to come to the Light, the light of Christ. In other words, the evangelizing mission loses its foundation when reason and freedom of choice are not respected or are denied. However, even in such circumstances the Church will continue to present, propose and announce the fullness of life in Christ to all.

In presenting, proposing and announcing the fullness of life [the Good News], the Church draws on its experience of centuries. In this task the Church is always aware that human reason is weakened by sin, nevertheless, it has the capacity to recognize the fundamental nature of truth. And the Church will continue to rescue reason when reason is endangered in different ways, as for example, by fundamentalist attitudes of people.

As it journeys through time and space presenting, proposing and announcing the Good News, the Church enriches the concept and reality of Evangelization. It even breaks into new paradigms without losing the rich heritage it gathered in the past. The best example for our times is the Second Vatican Council and the post-Conciliar contributions that followed.

Deficit Evangelization

The concept as well as the reality of evangelization today is much different from what it was fifty years ago. If one doesn’t update himself/herself on Evangelization, he/she is heading for what we call “deficit evangelization”. To give you an example, an old typewriter in front of a Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHZ, DG 35 EC Intel Original Mother board, 4 GB DDR-2 RAM, 500 GB Seagate Hard Disk drive…computer is a “deficit” instrument for writing a book or an article today. It is not a blame on the typewriter. What we are saying is that unless we read the Church’s or the Congregation’s reflections on the Evangelizing Mission, we may forfeit our privilege of evangelizing the Youth of today. If we do not read and meditate on the documents of the Council (Vatican II), and the post –Conciliar writings both of the Church and of the Congregation, we easily come under a “deficit evangelization” situation. Here I am reminded of someone who speaks of his twenty or thirty years of experience, when all the time he was only repeating what was done in the first year and got used to it for twenty or thirty years! This is a case of deficit-pastoral ministry, and naturally of a deficit evangelization too. It is becoming more and more clear, that if we want to lead, we must read in our fast changing world. This last mentioned statement does not stand by itself. It has to be seen in the overall preparation of formation, prayer and community life.

Merely repeating the past and not seeing it in the light of changing conditions of life, Evangelization risks losing its rich heritage, for Evangelization is as rich as the human existence lived by Jesus Christ.

At the Centre of the Evangelizing Mission

If evangelization is presenting, proposing and announcing the life of Jesus Christ so that all those who believe in him may model their human existence as Jesus lived His, then our first preference would be the vast horizon of millions of our brothers and sisters – mostly the Youth - who do not yet know Jesus and His Good News. This preference goes under the name of Basic Evangelization, Ad Gentes Evangelization or Primary Evangelization or in the Don Bosco way Give Me Souls… John Paul II exhorts the Churches/every Christian “…to commit all of the Church’s energies [read Congregation’s] to a New Evangelization and to the mission Ad Gentes.” “No believer in Christ,” he continues, “no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples” (RM 3).

Ad Gentes [to Peoples, Cultures, Ethnic Groups, the Etne] Evangelization

• What characterizes an Ad Gentes situation is the going out of one’s self [ one’s familiar ecclesial, cultural, social and linguistic universe, as well as one’s universe of faith ], in order to share one’s faith in Jesus Christ with those who have not received it yet. And even if they had received it earlier, it is dormant now. Ad Gentes Evangelization makes that faith in Jesus Christ more alive and relevant to people’s lives.

• This sharing of faith is made more effective by bringing the essential means of salvation to people, namely, by providing the visible presence of the Church among them.

• The presence of the Church through Ad Gentes mission is made concrete by means of dialogue with culture, religions, the poor and the marginalized in particular.

• Since Ad Gentes mission is at the heart of all the other forms of Christian mission, it calls for an on-going exploration of the various forms of mission.

• Ad Gentes mission is the definitive and preferential choice of the Church’s evangelizing mission. In other words, if the Church has several possibilities/options of mission in a place including Ad Gentes Evangelization work, by preference it will first choose the Ad Gentes form of Evangelization.

• Ad Gentes Evangelization represents the dynamic character of the Church and of each Christian in a very special way, since Ad Gentes mission will open the door to other forms of Evangelization.

• Ad Gentes Evangelization highlights the missionary thrust of the Church at its best, and shows the Christian faith at its forward movement.

• The vast horizon of Ad Gentes Evangelization described in Redemptoris Missio [RM] (Ch. IV) is at the reach of all committed Christians, and is a duty of everyone (See the New Areopagus mentioned in RM 37, 40. The Encyclical opens before the Church the immense possibilities of Ad Gentes mission in today’s world.

• Ad Gentes Evangelization constitutes the founding act of all other forms of Evangelization in the Church, and it witnesses to the indestructible power of the Risen Lord whose love wants to reach out to all peoples.

• Ad Gentes Evangelization with its freshness of missionary spirit is the best means to attract new missionary vocations in the Church.

• There is a parallel between mission Ad Gentes mission and the Young: both are directed to the future of the Church and of humanity.

• To ignore the Ad Gentes dimension of Evangelization would be to distort the very nature of the Church.

• Ad Gentes Evangelization is an invitation to every Christian to adopt – in keeping with the nature of the Church – a missionary style of life.

• The image of Jesus we possess is too often limited to the biblical and dogmatic aspects. Jesus in missionary terms (going in search of those who do not yet know Him) needs to come more into our lives. And Ad Gentes Evangelization would help us to do it.

• It has been said that at the origin of our problems there is a blockage of Evangelization, that is, a conception of “Christian / religious life” which can too easily be reduced to administration and mere secular efficiency. Ad Gentes Evangelization will help us to remove that blockage. John Paul II writes, “Only by becoming missionary will the Christian community be able to overcome its internal divisions and tensions and rediscover its unity and its strength of faith” (RM 49). The joy one experiences from Ad Gentes mission is the best guarantee for a happy community life.

• Ad Gentes mission opens the door to integral liberation of peoples. And hence it is the best contribution we can make to people’s development.

• And finally, growth is a moral necessity for the Church. It begins with Ad Gentes Evangelization. It moves to its fulfillment through inculturation of the Good News. Growth, however, should be understood in its holistic meaning : Growth not only in number (Act 1:15; 2:41; 4:4; 6:7; 9:41), but also in knowledge (1 Tim 2:4), growth as a body (1 Cor 12:27; Eph 4:16), growth in grace (2 Pt 3:18); in all ways into Christ (Eph 4:16-21); growth in faith and love (2 Thes 1:3), in Christian influence (as seen in the example of “light” and “salt”: You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth. You are the leaven).

The idea of growth in all aspects takes us to the different Departments of our Salesian Evangelizing Mission: Youth Pastoral, Vocation Ministry, Evangelization [Ad Gentes] and Catechesis, Education and Culture, Groups and Movements, Youth at Risk, etc. All carry the loving burden of Evangelization.

Before we conclude these few lines on Ad Gentes Evangelization I am reminded of our Confreres in Vietnam. On November 7, 2008, the Provincial House at Xuan Xiep, HCM City witnessed an extraordinary gathering of 300 SDBs, novices and pre-novices, plus a further 30 members of the Salesian Family and 40 parents of current missionaries “Ad Gentes”. It was the 5^th Vietnam Province Missionary Day Celebrations.

Still something more about Vietnam: For the past 9 years I have had the privilege of animating the SDB group of missionaries leaving for different parts of the Salesian world from Rome/Turin. And every year (especially during the past 6 years) there was a sizeable group of young Confreres from Vietnam. Their youthful enthusiasm was contagious. Their singing was extraordinary. This outpouring of missionary fervour among our Vietnamese Confreres will certainly fill up with a sizeable number of them the 140^th Missionary Sending that will take place in 2009. The year 2009, as we know, is the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the Salesian Congregation. To celebrate this occasion, the Rector Major has proposed an extraordinary number of “at least 100” Salesian missionaries Ad Gentes, that is, each Province offering the gift of at least one or more missionaries for the 140^th Mission Sending! Will South Asia Region, especially the Indian Provinces contribute a major share –not out of their surplus, but out of their poverty? The Master of the harvest is ready to bless their generosity.

Missionary Animation: The Secret of our Vitality

If the Church by nature is missionary (see, AG 2), then missionary animation is a mater of life and death for every Christian. Here the word “missionary” is understood not only in the limited sense of Ad Gentes Evangelization, but Evangelization in its global and integral meaning seen as the very reason for the Church’s existence (see, EN 14). That is, all what the Church does should have a “Good News”- proclamation-dimension with Ad Gentes mission occupying a pride of place at the heart of every other form of Evangelization.

Therefore, all our formation programmes, and all the Departmental Animations have or should have a missionary thrust including the Ad Gentes aspect, namely, the ardent desire to bring Jesus and His Good News to people everywhere, particularly the Youth.

The Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chávez, commenting on the dynamic spirit and farsightedness of Don Bosco in organizing the first missionary journey in 1875, says, “This missionary mentality can explain not only our worldwide diffusion but also the present configuration of the Congregation with its work spread more or less evenly over all five continents.”¹ Imagine if Don Bosco had not organized the first Mission Sending in 1875 and several others during his life time, the Congregation would have got stuck in Piedmont or may have spread only to a few more places in Europe! Thanks to the missionary heart of Don Bosco, the Missionary of the Young, today we are present in 126 countries, with a total of 16234 SDBs engaged in Youth Centres, Schools, Professional and Agricultural Schools, Universities, Boarding Houses, Vocational Training Institutes, Parishes and Mission Centres, Human Promotion, Cultural Centres, Social Communication Media, and Animation Services of various kinds.

No wonder that Don Bosco has been described as “one of the greatest servants of the Church in the field of missionary endeavor.”² Fr. L. Ricceri wrote on the occasion of the Week of Salesian Spirituality in January 1976, “… the renewal of Salesian life or of the Salesian Family to be effective must pass through a missionary spirituality, for there is a close relationship between Salesian vitality and missionary vitality.³ Fr. E. Vigano’ in his turn writes, “we may safely say that Don Bosco can be listed among the great missionaries of the 19^th century, even though he was never personally on the missions ‘Ad Gentes’”⁴ “… without spirituality,” he writes elsewhere, “we could not pursue our course as evangelizers.”⁵ Fr. J. Vecchi, referring to the presentation of the crucifixes to a young married couple among the other missionaries of the 127^th missionary expedition in the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco in September 1997, writes, “… [in them] the missionary vocation had been joined to and integrated, as it were, with their marriage vows.” We may add here that the future of missionary work will benefit immensely, if we can attract more young lay people for the work of first Evangelization or mission Ad Gentes. Fr. Chavez in his turn says, “Missionaries and the missionary spirit are the two essential elements of the charism that must be fostered in every Province.”⁶

The 19th General Chapter held in Rome in 1965 affirms that Don Bosco wanted that the missions should be a permanent preoccupation of the Congregation to the extent of being part of its nature and end. It clarified that the missionary vocation of the Salesian Congregation was willed by Don Bosco right from the beginning, and the 19th General Chapter resolved that it should be known as such in the Church.⁷

The 20th Special General Chapter held in Rome in 1971 following the far reaching teachings of the Council dedicated Document 7 to Salesian Missionary Action.⁸ In it we read that the missionary revival is the thermometer of the pastoral vitality of the Congregation. All are called to reawaken their missionary consciousness, to rethink an appropriate methodology, to increase the number of evangelizers and to study the Salesian missionary vocation within the missionary vocation of the Church which by nature is missionary. The Chapter members marvelled at the realization that at the death of Don Bosco almost 20% of the Salesians were in the missions. Recalling what was said in the previous Chapter the Special General Chapter reaffirmed that the missionary ideal of Don Bosco is a permanent dimension / character of the Congregation. Fr. Paul Vadakumpadan, Salesian missiologist, commenting on it remarks that the missions provide the greatest scope for realizing the youth apostolate.⁹ The Special Chapter exhorted the Provinces to take care of missionary vocations by presenting the Congregation as missionary and assuring willing youngsters the opportunity to realize this ideal. The Chapter also introduced the essential aspects of missionary commitment in the renewed text of the Constitutions.

The 21^st General Chapter, Rome, 1977-78, had the background of Paul VI’s Encyclical Evangelii Nuntiandi and the enthusiasm generated by the Salesian Mission Centenary. The Chapter was impressed by the fact that during the previous five years some 270 confreres went to work in the missions. In the joy of such dedication and commitment the Congregation was able to live through some of its difficult years. The fact that the missionary spirit was kept alive in spite of troubles and anxieties was a sign of vitality and hope. The Chapter warned that even though all countries can be considered as “mission territory” we should not lessen the proper meaning of specific Ad Gentes missionary presence. The need of permanent missionary animation was taken note of. The Chapter also emphasized that the Salesian style and service seem to fit well the demands of Ad Gentes mission. The missionary enthusiasm generated in the Chapter was crowned by the launching of the African Project.

The real Acts of the 22^nd General Chapter held in Rome from January to May 1984 are the texts of the Constitutions and Regulations themselves. Missions and missionary Spirit are the essential aspects of our Constitutions.

“People still awaiting the Gospel message” we read, “were the special object of Don Bosco’s concern and apostolic effort. They continue to stimulate our zeal and keep it alive. We look upon missionary work as an essential feature of our Congregation…The work [of proclaiming the Gospel] mobilizes all the educational and pastoral means proper to our charism.”(Cons. 30) And “we proclaim the Gospel to those who have not yet received it (Cons. 6).

The 23^rd General Chapter held in Rome in 1990 had as its theme “Educating Young People to the Faith.” Addressed primarily to “communities” and focused mainly on the education to the faith of young people in the context of the New Evangelization, the document has much relevance to Ad Gentes mission. We read, “It is urgently necessary to kindle in young people a lively desire for the Christian faith and, once the desire has been implanted, to accompany them step by step to the fullness of life in the Spirit.”¹⁰ Citing Art. 34 of the Constitutions Fr. E. Vigano’ in his introduction writes, “Our highest knowledge, therefore, is to know Jesus Christ, and our greatest delight is to reveal to all people the unfathomable riches of his mystery.”¹¹

The Document of the 24^th General Chapter, Rome, 1996, had as its theme, “Salesians and Lay People: Communion and Sharing in the Spirit and Mission of Don Bosco.” The involvement of the laity in Don Bosco’s mission in today’s world and our sharing with them Don Bosco’s charism open up new vistas of Laity – SDB collaboration in Ad Gentes mission as well as for New Evangelization. Here I am reminded of the role the lay people have in the Church in North East India. I cannot think of any mission station that was started without the collaboration of lay people whether young or old, men or women.

General Chapter 25^th, Rome, 2002 had as its centre of reflection the “Community”. Salesian Mission is entrusted to the community, and it is the community that evangelizes through its members. In the light of the Trinitarian Communion which is the source as well as the goal of mission, the new emphasis on Salesian Community should make every community a family of apostles and missionaries of the young after the heart of Christ, the missionary of the Father. Community is for mission, and mission is carried out by the community. It would be a pity, if the added emphasis on “community” should lead us to a cozy life devoid of any missionary thrust! Our communities should be like a sponge oozing out a sense of mission, mission in all its dimensions with its special accent on Ad Gentes mission.

The 26^th General Chapter, with Don Bosco’s motto Give me souls, take away the rest at the centre of its reflection, was something very special indeed. It was the whole of Don Bosco looking at each of his spiritual children and asking, “What exactly are you busy about?” Our resolve to be other Don Bosco’s in today’s world has no other way than to take seriously his passionate love for the salvation of youth.

The four themes into which Don Bosco’s motto is divided for our reflection, namely, the Urgency of Evangelization, Vocation Ministry, Evangelical Poverty and New Frontiers do not, of course, exhaust the motto. They are as the Rector Major points out “elements of great relevance” today to carry forward our programme of renewal. The entire motto is present in each of these themes, and each of these themes is linked with innumerable other themes of our Salesian consecrated religious and missionary life.

We are asked to start afresh from Don Bosco. It is a risky thing. It means to place before him all what we are busy with now. It means to listen to him. It also means to realize whether what we are busy with is really serving the salvation of Youth. Wherever we are, we can give glory to God, if we have - like Don Bosco – a heart turned to the salvation of Youth. This would be the meaning of “return to Don Bosco, return to the young”: to be present among the young physically, spiritually, emotionally, intellectually and prayerfully. Thus our specific involvement as missionaries is located at the heart of our identity. Our identity – both as individuals and as a Congregation - is a “missionary” identity. In fact, every aspect of our life as consecrated religious – the evangelical councils, community life, prayer life, formation and ascetical practices - is coloured by our apostolic mission (“apostolic” from Greek and “missionary” from Latin, both having the same meaning).

When we read in Art. 138 of the Constitutions, that the Councillor for the Missions fosters the missionary spirit and commitment throughout the whole society (italics mine), we are made to understand that all the members of Congregation are missionaries – each one in his field of work, and that the Councillor for the missions animates the whole Congregation with a missionary spirit.

Conclusion

It is a matter of pride for our Congregation that from the distant 1875 when Don Bosco organized with great enthusiasm the First Missionary Sending to 2008, the Congregation has organized and sent a total of 139 Missionary Sendings. The number of years between the two dates (1875-2008) is only 133, whereas the Congregation has sent 139 Mission Sendings with a total of 10268 SDB missionaries. The most numerous one was in 1929 with 364 missionaries, and the smallest group was in 1880 with only 3 missionaries. On an average the Congregation has sent 77 missionaries a year as can be seen from the tables given below.