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You are here:Home / Family News / NEF 2017 / Family News - September 14th, 2017 / A word from the Superior General
Sep 14, 2017

A word from the Superior General

Embracing life's call in a context of crisis

A word from the Superior General

Dear Betharramites,

Some time ago, when I was starting to work in the Fr. Etchecopar Region as Regional Superior, I attended a meeting of the Conference of Religious of Argentina. Pierre Arnold, a Belgian theologian working in Peru, spoke to us on this occasion of Consecrated Life in times of crisis. As he specialized in Andean Theology, he used an image of his culture to characterize the situation: we Christians, he said,‘must learn to dance during the earthquake.’

It was an expression as rare as eloquent, an optimistic proposal but difficult to put into practice. I have only once witnessed an earthquake (a frequent phenomenon in the Andes) and it is not pleasant. Above all, it does not give the desire to dance, but rather to run away or take refuge under a bed. You wait hoping the earth will quickly and definitively cease to tremble. There are always aftershocks. And this is what happens with what is called the “crisis - earthquake” that has been going on for a few years...

Eight years have passed since that time, and in 2017 the CIVCSVA (Congregation for Religious) proposed another image: “New wine; New skins!”. This biblical metaphor, so familiar, refers to the situation in which many congregations are today, including our own. Indeed, the “law of freedom” that Jesus evokes for the extension of the Kingdom is embodied by persons who are like the “new wine”, while the institutional, religious and symbolic forms are “the skins”, called to contain this wine with renewed flexibility. It is a Consecrated Life in which this wine, expressed by the new generations of religious, tries to ferment, breathe and to ripen in our community, as if it were in these “soft leather” bottles. All our life we must be able to expand to let the new wine mature. If it is dry, it cannot be done. And then we know what happens: it bursts.

Moreover, to this intergenerational challenge is added that of interculturality. The new skin prepares the dialogue with the new vicariates, which often come from the young and flourishing churches. These must interact with the apparent weakness of those who have belonged to the roots of our charism, the ancestral wisdom of countless Betharramites who gave their lives for our family. This is a task we are working on, but it remains to be accomplished.

The new wine must also acquire its own flavour, which comes from a strong experience of the God of Love, an experience which, as we know, is not merely cultural or from secular means, but which is a genuine spiritual journey. Unless this transcendent passage from the Word Incarnate to the concrete reality, which transforms Life involving a process of pain and joy and a paschal itinerary happens, I do not think that the essence of our Betharramite being is reached. This spiritual orientation, which transcends all the circumstances of a given epoch, is always new. It is born of the Gospel itself, and becomes prophetic to the world, a witness among us which is intimately bound to our mission as consecrated people.

Simple statistical data tells us that, from 1965 to 2010, nearly 370 religious institutes have disappeared. The causes are many, but it shows that the “crisis” reaches more than a few: it affects everyone. It challenges us to go out to meet life, with the vital forces of the vocations that the Lord of the harvest sends us. To use the metaphor of new skins, we are called to contain the new wine, to soften our lives by listening with sincere dialogue, and not to lock ourselves in rigid positions, mutual criticisms, which would eventually burst the skins and spill the wine.

In Africa and Asia vocations are more flourishing. For those churches where Betharramites have been established for years, the wakeup call has sounded in several senses of the word. At the same time, new missions are challenged by the departure of the missionaries who came from abroad (France, Italy, Spain, etc.). Thailand, India and Vietnam show a generous strength. We must reinvent ourselves in love, while remaining faithful to that “first love”, without which it will be difficult to reproduce and manifest the same generous impetus that has seduced us.

In Latin America, the seeds are growing, and we must accompany them with a clear identity and an attractive mission. The vocations that are still seen in the New World are like the buds of an ancient vine. They are always there, and they must be valued and taken care of. As they are the result of an ever-changing and secularised society, these vocations expect from us a constantly adjusting pattern of formation. Do not expect them to come to us. Let us go to them without delay, as Jesus Himself asked His disciples to do.
Let us go and look for the workers for the vineyard.

The context of the crisis in Europe has been spoken of for long enough. More than a crisis, it would seem that this is a “opportunity”, which we can certainly change, as long as it is seen as such and not as a call to withdraw into oneself and ‘to provide against a difficult future’ ... The absence of vocations and the growth of a high percentage of Betharramite religious at an age where they are in need of care speaks of a state characterised by a mature religious wisdom in the midst of a growing process of human weakness. There is a great paradox here, which challenges many of us and tempts us to huddle together, while others are inclined to pessimism, stagnation, and be distant from society and those who suffer more than we do. It is as though we are the bearers of a charism, but in a “vegetative state.”

Is there something we can all do? Make this crisis an opportunity that calls, awakens, convokes and challenges.

Could it be possible to transform this crisis into “kairos” - as we have proposed so many times - without going through a profound process of personal and community conversion?

Will we succeed if we dialectically oppose one another?

Will we be able to discover in the Church the signs of God in the signs of the times?

Some think it is still possible. I believe it too, having in mind the words of St. Michael, when he spoke of the incessant fermentation of the Holy Spirit. I believe in that style of life to which we were called to serve Christ and the brothers, humble and obedient.

In fact, Consecrated Life in itself, has this character of witness. It is like an aspect of “Come and see” (Jn 1:39). Even if today’s Church does not extend as much as it should, even if all the institutes were to disappear one day, her charism will probably still be there...

Will not this “last hour of the day”, on the contrary, be the occasion to go out into the street to call the idle workers, so that they too come to work in the vineyard? (Mt 20:6).

Let’s prepare our communities, as the harvest approaches. Let them be like a space of “supple leather” so that the new wine of those who feel called to Betharram find the conditions conducive to “ferment, breathe and ripen”, by the care of some brothers who love each other as much as Jesus loved the friends the Father had given him.

Eduardo Gustavo Agín scj
Superior General

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