Quarterly Bulletin

Christianity in Africa owes much to religious life. As one example out of thousands, we can take Fr. Joseph Moreau, a Jesuit priest, who arrived on July 14, 1905, to found the Chikuni Mission in Monze, Zambia. Chikuni apparently means “the place of firewood”. He chose this place because there were trees and water in abundance and people to whom he could proclaim the good news of the coming of their Lord, Creator and Saviour, to whom they owed their existence and to whom they were destined to return at the moment of death.

As a religious, Father Moreau followed in the footsteps of Jesus, who did not only preach the message of salvation but showed his love for his people by deeds. Jesus healed  the sick, helped and defended the powerless, the voiceless and the persecuted, gave bread to the hungry, brought peace to the troubled. So Father Moreau, along with planting the seed of Christianity, worked at developing the region, especially in the area of agriculture. Through the introduction of the ox-plough, he made it possible for the farmers to increase their harvests. He was also involved in education. From the early 1920’s, he promoted primary schools and provided for the training of teachers.

There have been many others who, like Father Moreau, have worked for the spiritual and material welfare of the people of Zambia. As an expression of gratitude to these many sisters, brothers and priests who lived out their vocations in service to others, I would like this morning to speak about religious life in this present age.

RELIGIOUS LIFE AND THEIR INVOLVEMENT IN THE CHURCH

It is not easy to state exactly how many religious there are. There is an overwhelming diversity of religious families, with different spiritualities, apostolic involvement and organization. Very likely they are over a million, of which 80 per cent are sisters, half a per cent brothers and the rest priests. But what is their position in the Church and in the work of evangelization? Some of these religious belong to the monastic life centred on the Divine Liturgy. Others, like Father Moreau and Father Peter Prestage, one of the founders of the Northern Rhodesia mission, are oriented more toward apostolic service in imitation of our Lord. It is a recognized fact that religious, here as elsewhere, have been pioneers in the spread of the Christian gospel. Without their wide-spread activity and generous zeal, whole areas of the earth would not have been evangelized. They were practically the only workers in the field.

CHANGES TO MISSIONARY WORK

Over the years, the situation has changed. Religious themselves worked at preparing local clergy to take over the pastoral care of the churches they had established. Under the encouragement of the popes, not least the late John-Paul II, the laity has taken on responsibilities in the missionary endeavours of the Church. The Spirit of the Lord is drawing us more and more into a real community of service and sharing of responsibilities, each one according to the vocation he or she receives in the context of a large and rich diversity of cultures and spiritualities, of charisma and devotions and of gifts.

The Lord continues to animate and inspire the Church, to call people to become shepherds of his flock, to be a light for all those he places on their path. These apostles are present in all domains of human existence, in work and in leisure, in the family and in social activities. Among the many and diverse callings, religious life maintains a vital presence. The Council called it a gift of the Spirit to the Church. The Lord draws men and women to live the Gospel in this way, so that none of Christ’s features may be lost or forgotten.            

EVOLUTION OF THE CHURCH’S EVANGELISATION

At this point, I would like, if you allow me, to make a quick and necessarily incomplete review of history as it concerns our topic. In the third century, the Church came out of the period of imperial persecutions. It started to organize itself and became very administrative, even somewhat bureaucratic. As a counter-balance, one could say, the Spirit inspired Saint Anthony of Egypt to take up a life of prayer and contemplation, reminding the people of God---as the monks still do today---that Christian life is not only work. It must include prayer, because we labour in vain if we are not in union with the Lord. In our efforts to respond to the many challenges that face us, we can easily forget that it is the Lord who grants that our planting and watering produces a harvest. Later, during the European Middle Ages, the Church became very rich and powerful. To recall it to the true spirit of the Gospel, the Lord called Francis of Assisi to witness and to preach the virtue of poverty, to give freely what has been freely received.

Then came Ignatius. The Church in the 16th century was beset with so many internal problems that missionary activity was curtailed. Christ’s command to go out and teach the nations took a secondary place. So the Society of Jesus as a new expression of religious life came into being. The Jesuits, as they came to be known, were to be free to go out wherever there were needs. And so Saint Francis Xavier, followed by countless others, including Father Moreau, were sent throughout the world with a mission. Ignatius formulated it in a few words: “Help the people to have a personal encounter with the Lord, who alone gives meaning to life. Help them to know his love for them.” Jesuits were and continue to be very innovative in finding the most appropriate ways to attain their goal: education, health care, preaching, and social work. The list is endless. Most often they did not come as specialists. They were motivated by their love for Jesus. In imitation of him, they developed a preferential option for the poor; they preached a faith that promotes justice. By the example of prayer and work, they revealed the Lord’s love for humankind.

PRESENT STATE OF RELIGIOUS LIFE

I would like now to examine with you the present state of religious life, and in particular of ourselves as Jesuits. Not so long ago we exercised sole leadership in our apostolates. Although we have a long history of partnership with others, such as the Fidei Donum priests for example and with lay people, we generally remained in charge. We considered all these generous and talented persons associated with us in our parishes and schools as helping us in what was our work. After Ignatius who received his call and composed the Spiritual Exercises as a lay person and never lost contact with the world of the laity, the first Jesuits looked on their work with them as an essential expression of their charisma. They organized them in confraternities and congregations, involving them in this way in the apostolate of the Church

Now the perspective has changed and this requires of us a change of approach, a conversion from our very human inclination to be masters in our house, even to be able to decide how the partnership with non-Jesuits will be exercised. We do not submit easily to a loss of control, influence or power. We have to learn to work with others. On different occasions, John-Paul II echoed the complaint that at various levels of authority within the Church there was incapacity or an unwillingness to listen, to learn from others, to look at the problems and the difficulties of the Church together in a spirit of genuine cooperation. He invited and  urged  all the living forces in the Church to share largely with others the gifts each has received. In the exercise of true partnership in mission, we need to take time to reflect on how Jesus related to those whom he had called to follow him. He stated that he had come not to be served but to serve. He worked patiently at the formation of his apostles; he involved them in his activities. Thus gradually they became ready to continue his work after he had left them. We also have been formed and have received great spiritual and material gifts and resources. We offer to share these with others, but we do not impose anything on them. One of the gifts that our partners bring to our joint ministry is their very freedom, a freedom that we must not only take into account but must respect and appreciate in the Lord.

SOLIDARITY WITH AFRICA

We come now to another and last point of religious life today. All that I have said about partnership concerns in a special way Africa. The Society is meant to be at the service of a continent faced with the challenge of building up a young and vibrant Church rooted in the richness of different cultures. We are called to cooperate in creating new bonds of solidarity among people often very diverse in language and customs. We must join our forces against global forces that tend  to marginalize the whole continent, abandoning it to what appears to them a hopeless future. Many of the world’s problems seem to be concentrated in Africa. Thirty of the world’s poorest countries are African as are two thirds of the refugees. Internal wars, corruption, ethnic rivalry have served to create a very negative image of the continent. In reaction to this dismal picture, we must encourage and support the peoples of Africa in their struggle to build a better future by helping them out of their poverty and misery with all the means at our disposal and above all with great compassion and charity.

However, more than charity is needed. We perceive charity as kindness and willingness to help others in their need. We must also work for justice. The problem is that the word has different meanings for different people. Lawyers, theologians, economists, biblical scholars have their own understanding of justice and their own interpretations of how it should be done. Simply put, it seems to me that I act justly when I respect and work for the respect and rights of those around me. So is charity and justice incompatible? My conviction is that justice will not and cannot be done unless it is linked to the Gospel and to the following of Christ. My predecessor, Father Arrupe, called justice “the sacrament of love”, meaning that love is not true if it does not find expression in a concrete commitment, a concrete issue, a concrete campaign to ensure that every human being created in God’s image, born as a son or daughter of the Father, become a brother or sister of Jesus the Lord, and made into a temple of the Holy Spirit, can live in dignity and freedom of his or her life. Charity prevents justice from becoming injustice when it defends the rights of all human beings without exception against the claims of the fortunate few. Charity and justice go hand in hand in making society more human and in that way more divine, according to the will of our just and loving Father. Justice without love becomes injustice and charity without justice easily remains in the order of pious sentiment and ineffective good-will unless it finds expression in concrete action.

For many religious families, the promotion of justice in the name of the loving Lord means becoming the voice of the powerless and voiceless in reaction to injustice whatever form it takes. It is also the acknowledgment that solidarity with the poor is an essential part of our faith. We cannot call ourselves companions of Jesus without sharing his preferential option for the poor. We must contribute to the building up of a more just world against the sinful structures of human society, as John-Paul II pointed out. It is clear that in the area of promotion of justice use must be made of the achievements and capacities of science and technology to alleviate hunger, discrimination and marginalization and to find remedies to diseases such as AIDS. The international community must become involved. For that reason, Church movements were united in presentations to the leaders of the G-8 nations meeting in Edinburgh in June 2005.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, let me return to a vital point that I made earlier. We are not confronted only with a socio-economic but also with a deep spiritual problem. Without a conversion of the human heart to the new commandment of love, we labour in vain, we lose sight of the essential of our calling. We are like the priest and the Levite in the story of the good Samaritan who are preoccupied with fulfilling the Law, but ignore the half-dead man on the side of the road. Let the example and prayers of those who began this mission as of those who have given themselves since in the service of the people of this country be an incentive to you who continue in their footsteps today.

Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.,
Rome