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Office of the Provincial
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Provincial
Letter 13
11
April 2005
Feast of St. Stanislaus
How
Kind of You to Come:
Reflections on the Province Commitment to the
Dialogue between Faith and Culture
My Dear Brothers,
Greetings
and blessings to all of you. I write to reflect with you on our
Province commitment to engage in the dialogue between faith and
culture. This reflection begins with a scriptural archetype or
cultural transformation and some discussion of the virtues necessary
for such transformation. I continue the letter with an attempt
at defining what we are talking about and a few skills that will
help us in our efforts. The third part of the reflection describes
some initial efforts that our Province community has made and outlines
some specific goals for the coming year.
Peter, as archetype of cultural transformation
In the tenth chapter of Acts, shortly after Peter’s rooftop vision
about unclean food, he is summoned to Joppa to meet with the centurion,
Cornelius. Peter moves rapidly in his inner struggle and dialogue
with God from dealing with unclean food to now dealing with unclean
people. Peter stands within a tradition that has told him: “I am
the Lord your God who have separated you from the peoples.” (Lev
20:24) The Books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy outlined for the people
of Israel the laws of separation and the penalties for transgressing
those boundaries. In Acts 10:25, an act of incredible faith and courage
is described simply as, “When Peter entered (the house of Cornelius)
…” What courage it took for Peter to allow God to transform his deeply
held traditions of what food he could and could not eat and what
people he could and could not associate with. It is the deep humility
and faith of Cornelius and his household that convinces Peter that
faith in Jesus the Christ is present in this house and how can that
be unclean!
Peter honestly says to Cornelius and his household:
“You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with
or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that
I should not call any man common or unclean. So when I was sent for,
I came without objection.” (Acts 10:28)
Cornelius responds to Peter’s inquiry
about why he was summoned by explaining his own vision and conversion.
Acknowledging
the depth of courage that it took
for Peter to come to Joppa, he states quite humbly and sincerely: “… and
you have been kind enough to come.” (Acts 10:33)
Peter goes on then to explain the good news of the resurrected Jesus to the
people gathered; subsequently, they are baptized. And the early Christian
community is transformed into a community that speaks good news to all people
open to
hear it.
A story of profound disturbance of belief, struggle with doubt, courageous
journeying to foreign people and deep transformation is conveyed in the tenth
chapter of Acts in a summary and understated story line. Perhaps nowhere
is the story more understated than in Cornelius’ polite response to Peter’s
explanation
of Jewish law forbidding contact with Gentiles: “how kind of you to come.”
The tenth and eleventh chapters of Acts are a historical record of one of
the most profound movements by the Holy Spirit in the early Christian community.
This movement was captured in the debates and decisions of the so-called
“Council
of Jerusalem,” where Paul and Barnabas are blessed and sent to the Gentile
people by the Jewish-Christian community in Jerusalem. More important than
its historical significance, it is for our time an archetype, an inner model,
for our own dialogue between faith and culture.
The transformation of Peter’s attitudes required several movements of his
heart. There was the “sticking with the struggle” when what he perceived
in the world
around him did not jibe with what he heard from God in his heart. There was
then the “obedience of heart” that allowed him to hear God say, “What God
has cleansed, you must not call unclean.” If food, why not people? And perhaps
most importantly, there was the “courage to make a little movement.” In the
case of Peter, this was the journey from Jerusalem to Joppa, from the security
of the thousands of years of Jewish tradition to enter the home of an unclean
Gentile. But this was an unclean Gentile who seemed to profess faith in the
same resurrected Jesus as Peter. How strange and deep the journey that begins
with just a few courageous steps. Finally for Peter, there was the “courage
to be a guest.” Peter allowed himself to be the recipient of hospitality
in
a strange and uncomfortable environment.
What wonderful virtues for us to hold as individuals and as communities as
we continue this dialogue between faith and culture: sticking with the intellectual
and emotional struggles that the questions cause to rise up within us; obedience
to what we hear in our personal and communal prayer and discussion; moving
ourselves courageously somewhere else, if even just a little bit; and choosing
to be guests in strange and threatening houses.
Towards a working definition and some needed skills
Our responsibility to engage in the dialogue between faith and culture was
one of the priorities that we set for ourselves at both the inaugural assemblies
and in early statements by the Council and Chapter. A Province Task Force
has been dealing with this question for almost two years now.
Initial critique from some in the Province community has related to the bantering
about in conversation of different understandings or definitions of culture.
Some speak to their various understandings of culture and state that these
understandings are not being addressed in the initial dialogue that has happened.
An intuitive grasp of the notion of culture is best described for me in a
book by Michael Paul Gallagher, SJ, Clashing Symbols: An Introduction
to Faith & Culture (New York: Paulist Press, 1998), page 152:
Culture is an integrated system of
beliefs (about God or reality or ultimate meaning), of values (about
what is true, good,
beautiful and normative),
of customs (how to behave, relate to others, talk, pray, dress, work,
play, trade,
farm, eat, etc.) and of intuitions which express those beliefs, values
and customs… which bind a society together and gives it a
sense of identity,
dignity, security, and continuity.”
The dialogue is between what the
Christian community holds as a culture it calls faith and the beliefs,
values, customs
and intuitions of those
around
them who do not operate out of the same beliefs, values, customs
and intuitions.
This dialogue between the beliefs, values, customs and intuitions of
the Catholic Marianist culture (which we simply call faith) and the
beliefs, values, customs
and intuitions of those around us who do not operate from this same
cultural base line. This dialogue between faith and culture or between
persons
of
different cultures occurs most fruitfully when:
The persons involved in the dialogue
have an increased awareness of the internal cultures from which
they are operating and
making assumptions;
The partners to the dialogue are aware that attitudinal shifts
need to occur to welcome a person from another “culture” even
into the dialogue,
and more
so, into the community;
The partners can appreciate the experience of each other; and
The partners to the dialogue are able to begin to heal some of
the wounds left by failed actions in the past.
It is only then that the community
(social or religious) can attempt to move itself toward greater
diversity and inclusiveness.
Province Efforts
Some communities in the Province have been invited to do a “Cultural
Audit Workshop.” This workshop experience attempts to lead participants
through
some of the steps that raise unconscious cultures to consciousness
and change.
In local communities whose membership consists of brothers from
some or all of the former Provinces, there is an existential
experience
of how culture
differentiates people and values, even if they have the same
initials after their name. Our fledgling first steps to establish
a new ministry
among Hispanic
immigrants who are poor, have taught some of us the depth of
what it means to “minister with” rather than “minister to” people,
far beyond
learning
a new language.
Our Province’s Chaminade Project has as one of its goals to put
our Province in deeper touch with the culture of our Founder,
Blessed Chaminade,
and
asks how that culture can be translated and promoted here today.
The academy of the Marianist universities holds particular responsibility
to foster this dialogue in so many ways among young people who
will constitute the leadership of our Church and our society
in the future.
A recent
encounter between some students of the University of Dayton and
the CEO of Wal-Mart
regarding
employment practices and the like is an example of this kind
of dialogue.
This year the Provincial Council, in cooperation with the Faith
and Culture Task Force, will be attempting to foster this dialogue
more
deeply and
extensively in the Province:
The Provincial Council has and will continue to devote significant
reflection time to exercises from the “Cultural Audit” which
attempt to raise our
consciousness of internal and external cultures that are
described above.
The Province Retreats in the summer of 2005 will pay particular
attention to this theme in the reflection and prayer experiences
of the retreats.
The Directors’ Meeting in October 2005 will devote significant
time to this theme. The Directors are seen as the animators of
these kinds
of
discussions
on the local community level. It is important for them to have
some first-hand experience in talking and leading discussion
at this level.
The annual Formation workshop for our aspirants, novices, and
temporary professed in Spring 2006 will focus on this dialogue
of faith and culture
and provide
both excellent input in the area and a series of experiential
exercises to raise the consciousness of our youngest members
to the issue.
The Province Task Force over the coming year will be providing
directors with resources for conversation and sharing experiences
between communities.
They
will also continue their collaboration with the Marianist Social
Justice Collaborative in exploring implications for the entire
Marianist Family
in North America.
The new “corporate reflection groups” planned for this Fall and
next Spring will focus some of their energy in this area.
Conclusion
The challenge presented by our last General Chapter (Sent By
The Spirit, 8) is quite bold and quite clear:
It is with the eyes and heart of
God that we are called to look at the world and take our place
in it. We realize that God
so loved
the world that he sent his own Son to give it life and
that he continues to send us today. We are also called to
contemplate our reality with
the merciful eyes of Mary, and from that contemplation,
to act with Marian originality and insight. We also wish
to see and act with
the eyes and unique sensitivity of our Founder. Pope John
Paul II reminds us that “in a turbulent age such as Chaminade
knew, the signs
of the times can be hard to read. You see in him an unusual
capacity to understand the needs of the moment and the measures
which these
needs required.” (Letter of Pope John Paul II to
the General Chapter of 2001). As Chaminade knew how to read the challenges
of his time,
we also desire to empathize with the unique characteristics
of our historic moment.
The mission of the Province of the
United States will form and reform itself only to the degree that
we look with
the merciful eyes of
Mary, act with her originality and insight, and develop
the measures that what we see call for. It is to the
fullness of our mission that
this dialogue and our Province efforts call us. This
movement of the Province community will invite us to houses we
would
not have
thought to enter and surprising demands that only God
can construct and support. But perhaps one day, in a language
unfamiliar to us
now, we will be told “how kind of you to come.”
Blessings of the Resurrected Jesus to all of you.
Affectionately yours,
Stephen Glodek, SM
Provincial
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