Abp Thomas Menamparampil

We need not be over-self-critical. We human beings have been unkind to each other all through human history. We have hurt each other as ethnic groups, nations, Churches, cultural groups and civilizations. Think of Ayodhya, think of Kosovo. It is part of evangelical work to heal the memories of these historic wounds, at the ethnic, cultural, national and even civilizational levels. It is not easy. It is here that we often fail. Even a person of Mahatma Gandhi’s stature had to admit he had failed. And yet we know that healing of memories is God’s work. Historians ought to help, St Pope John Paul II used to say, by explaining events contextually (OR 3.12.03). We all can help, understanding things sympathetically.

Having worked in the area of reconciliation between communities in conflict for two and a half decades, I know the meaning of ‘collective anger.’ It is terrible. The tragedies of Christchurch and Colombo are fresh in our minds. The work of anger-reduction has become central to our missionary service almost everywhere in the world: anger of class against class, caste against caste, ethnic group against ethnic group, tribe against tribe, religious group against religious group, ideologies against ideologies, theological vision against theological vision, economic interest against economic interest, national ambition against national ambition, political alliance against political alliance. Can we become the ‘Lambs of God’ who take away the ‘Anger of the World’? At least reduce a specific anger in context? While we sing with the angels ‘Peace to men of good will’ (Lk 2:14), can we help generate this ‘good will,’ the bona voluntas that seems to be absent? The book of Proverbs says, “Where there is no prophecy, people cast off restraint” (29:18). Where is no sensitive and helpful word, people lose control over themselves.

The main argument of Arnold Toynbee’s voluminous Study of History is precisely that excessive political thrust in one direction invites a stronger response in the opposite direction. Only a healing of memories can bring a less destructive world into existence. In recent years, prayer-services and commemoration of the dead have been conducted on sites associated with wars, with unhealed or unacknowledged collective wounds:Verdun, Gettysburg, Auschwitz, Hiroshima (Parker 57). We cannot change our past, but we can change our response to the past. We can re-evaluate our recent past and lead consequences in a desired direction.

Healed of negative memories, we begin to understand each other better. After centuries of conflict, greater understanding is emerging between cultures, civilizations, religions. In 2002 St Pope John Paul II asked World Religions to be “converted” to mutual understanding and help cultures and civilizations which draw inspiration from them to do the same (OR 20.11.02). Taking up the inspiration, Pope Francis urged leaders of different religions to remind their people about the ethical principles and values written in the hearts of men. He was speaking in the context of increasing xenophobia and racism (OR 12.10.18). He emphasized on World Communications Day, “We are members of each other” (Eph 4:25) (OR 25.1.19).

1. Influencing the ‘Thinking Element’ in Society
It will only be after we have sorted out our internal differences that we will be adequately equipped to build up healthy relationship with people of diverse persuasions (members of other religions, agnostics, diverse ideologies). In fact, our missionary work has always been oriented outward, offering encouragement and assistance for all causes of common interest (health, hygiene, water supply, roads, floods, celebrations, peace in the neighbourhood, justice, reconciliation). This is what is called the ‘dialogue of life.’

But a dialogue of another type also I would consider most important, which consists in keeping up a conversation with the “Thinking Element” in society: the thought-provokers, the opinion-shapers, the value-setters, the goal-proposers, the ideals-planters, the vision-projectors, the energy-sustainers, the soul-inspirers. I would place among such “Thinking Element” in society thinkers, poets, writers, journalists, composers, artists, speakers, inspirers, and such like. These are persons who give to a people a collective “self-understanding” as a society and maintain its stamina for the future. They set the goals towards which it keeps moving. They correct the aberrations that creep into their style of thinking, living or relating. They strike new ground while seeking to remain true to its core identity.

It is when missionaries have entered into companionship with such stalwarts that they gain a certain moral authority in society. Though the majority in a society may not be Christian, it keeps looking to some noble ideals and moral standards against which they can measure themselves: thoughts, values, attitudes, tastes, priorities, moral measurements that have rootedness in their culture and are relevant in addressing the problems of the day. If those noble heights approach the Gospel values somewhat, we are closer to the goals that we as missionaries have set before ourselves. They approximate our final message and act as bridges towards it. St Pope John Paul II invited Catholic Universities to develop the concept of ‘Christian humanism’ with a view of dialoging with secular disciplines (OR 11.12.02). These are areas where we need to be present with a message.

Pope Benedict XVI used to speak of the need for ensuring an “Evangelical presence in the world.” Speaking to the bishops of Portugal, he asked them to witness to the faith where the “silence of the faith is most deeply felt, like among politicians, intellectuals, communication professionals who promote a “monocultural ideal.” Addressing persons of culture he admitted in all humility, “The Church….is in the process of learning how to live with respect for other ‘truths’ and for the truths of others” (OR 19.5.10). Pope Francis places before intellectuals the goal of reaching the frontiers of the intellect, of culture, of the loftiness of dialogue (OR 26.6.13).

People of different points of view, different disciplines, diverse cultural backgrounds, life experiences, need to learn from each other. We Christians believe that history is not shaped in the battlefields only, but also in lecture halls, thinkers’ clubs, study groups, school rooms, libraries, laboratories, artists’ dark rooms, cloistered convents, adoration chapels, and Dialogue Centres.

2. Rescuing Vanishing Values
We all have reasons for anxiety. Not only are all religions under threat, but also all philosophical thoughts (meta-narratives), cultural orders, coherent value-systems, ethical principles, even consistent intellectual effort are being questioned and rejected. Every responsibly thinking person is growing anxious. We need to join hands together.

Winners in the economic field can become losers in the area of purposeful living and meaningful insertion into society. A sense of responsibility sometimes seems to be absent in such people. When a passion for immediate satisfaction weakens, intelligent thinking, and when independent thinking turns out to be inconsistent thinking, we have the raw-material for the formation of emotion-led mobs and unthinking masses. In such a situation, populists leaders take over, with the most appealing catch-calls of the day. We are at this position now. That is what has made ‘thinking people’ of diverse traditions to come together and address the anxiety together.

The growing volume of consumer goods, including digital utopias/deceptions, are turning the newly emerging Middle Class from spiritually motivated and community-guided persons to self-oriented individuals and wealth-hungry gadgets. They forget the sources of the principles and values they inherited: family, community to which belong, support from the village they grew up, religious traditions that provide them with inspirations. They fail to draw energy and motivation from the organic and life-giving dimensions of their own culture and (for Christians) the teachings of the Church, and lose the ability to see the value hidden in their own traditions, practices, norms, cautions, safeguards. The deviant members of diverse communities need to be re-integrated with their own culture, tradition, value-systems, moral principles, faith convictions. That remains a challenge for the Evangelizer.

3. Young People Under Pressure
The fact is that those who go for higher studies are exposed for the first time to different understandings of Religion that were proposed by different thinkers indifferent periods of history, e.g. Religion as alienation, an instinct provided by nature for softening painful realities, opium of the oppressed people; plain escapism, illusion, a useful emotion, a search for solace and inwardness.

Many are influenced, at least partially. They look at Church structures, its hierarchical order, the limits to freedom they impose, and the ‘interfering’ demands they make, with a questioning mind… an attitude that expresses itself from time to time. Some Christian youths are reported to have forgotten even Catholic basics, some have grown indifferent to practice. Others in ‘reaction’ have shifted to Pentecostalism! Or have become founders of Churches! Questioning of religious authorities that had begun at Reformation has reached our shores! Young members of religious congregations and seminarians too are affected by the vibrations of these trends. Their value-systems are put to the test. Vocations are re-evaluated. Some are caught between exaggerations: secular messianism (justice-fight, feminism, criticism of authority) and charismatic excesses.

Those who enter married life not as vocation, but as a social bond for practical advantages, see no difficulty terminating relationships when they feel that those advantages have ended. They fail to develop a sense of mission to the Church and society. They remain indifferent to the future of their own community even in the face of alarming demographic decline. Pope Francis lamented the “Demographic winter” of Europe. Some of our communities are just a generation or two behind the Western world.

In the face of all these challenges, we must congratulate the young people who have retained their balance and have not only remained committed to their faith, but also manifested their apostolic fruitfulness. The same thing should be said about those young religious and seminarians who have shown their maturity and have given witness to their over-abounding generosity….and most of all, special recognition to the Church leadership, clergy and religious who made this possible.

4. Wake up the World, Renew the Face of the Earth
We have referred to a world where the ‘consumer is king’ and ‘self-interest is the supreme law.’ There is no doubt that in such a world, heroism disappears from human ranks. Generosity, altruism, gratuity become unfamiliar words. Curiously, it is in such a world of ‘softies,’ that an intense hunger for ‘heroism’ arises in the collective unconscious of humanity. What you are not able to attain, that you profoundly admire!

That is where our religious/seminarians/priests (Missionaries) find their vocation. It makes meaning if it is accepted for what it is: an invitation to heroic heights in the service of humanity. Its challenge confronts one at the core of one’s being. Its acceptance confers an inner dignity, equips one with enormous self-confidence, and helps one to develop a sense of mission to remind the human family of its great destiny. In these times of haunting doubts, drooping hearts, and uncertain future, the human family is looking for Spirit-filled individuals and communities with fresh energies and generous hearts that can “Wake up the World” (Pope Francis) and renew the face of the earth (Ps 104:30).

It is truly exciting, therefore, to hear confident voices of religiously inspired persons who keep discerning in the midst of difficulties; who know how to enquire further, widen interests, deepen thought, and raise ideals. The intellectual ferment they stimulate and the spiritual energies they stir up for the benefit of the Church and human society cannot easily be measured. They set in motion a tidal wave of thought and action to evoke the most radical spiritual commitment.

They initiate a stimulating dialogue with scientists, thinkers; innovators in the area of technology, intellectuals in every field, movement leaders of every ideology, visionaries of diverse inspirations. They move ahead in defense of justice, human rights; women, children, indigenous communities, the downtrodden, and of God’s creation. They are in universities, in the media, in the streets and in relief camps. We are in courts, jails; and not a few have given up their lives for noble causes, stirred on by the Gospel.

They seek to answer the new ‘questionings’ that keep arising in modern and post-modern philosophies; counter-values proposed in art and literature in current times; beguiling interpretations of human history and irresponsible proposals in the area of physical, biological sciences. They equip themselves to dialogue with every enticing insight, holding firmly to core beliefs and learning earnestly from new discoveries.

They are eager to add new dimensions to inter-religious dialogue; join hands with people of all religious traditions in a common struggle against godless materialism, erosion of cultural values and ethical principles. They insist on giving a human face to our fast growing economy. They work hard to become agents of peace and balanced thinking in an era of tension between ethnic groups, religious communities, political alliances, economic interests; between ideologies, philosophies and even between contending styles of theological speculation. It is for this ‘superhuman task’ we desperately need religious who are deep, “Great-Souled Persons” (Mahatmas) that Vatican II longed for (GS 31). Wherever there is discerning thought and committed action, there you find the Missionary!