CHAPTER FIVE
THE PAULINE FORMATION PROJECT
AS FORMATION TO POWER IN POWERLESSNESS
The heart of the whole doctoral
project is contained in this chapter.
It proposes an approach to Pauline formation that has never (to the
writer’s knowledge) been systematically developed before in congregational writings. It therefore is the most original part of
the doctoral project. Nevertheless, as
the presentation will show, “formation to power in powerlessness” is present
already in congregational documents, particularly in the Constitutions and
Directory (C/D). The power in
powerlessness perspective is intrinsic, not alien, to the fundamental
understanding of Pauline religious life.
Previous chapters have brought out the importance of this perspective in understanding Alberionian Christology which centers upon Christ as Master-Shepherd, Way, Truth and Life. The concept of powerless power has also been a key to the formative dialogue between the Alberionian spiritual master tradition (rooted in the Christian faith tradition) and some spiritual master traditions in Hinduism and Buddhism. This dialogue has paved the way for the inculturation of Alberionian Christology in Asia, which is part of the goal of the doctoral project.
This chapter has
been written principally for the Daughters of St. Paul, especially for the
formators—the persons entrusted with training those who aspire to become part
of the congregation, and with facilitating the self-formation of the
full-fledged members. Keeping in mind,
however, that this doctoral project will be read not only by Paulines but by
others who may not be familiar with what Pauline religious life is about, the
writer offers here an overview of the contents that will be treated in this
chapter. This overview is also needed
to avoid confusion because the points to be covered are many.
The whole chapter
ends as usual with a concluding synthesis.
Background:
To understand what a formation
project is, one should recall that every
religious congregation has its own history[a]
and its unique identity, formed by the way that the three basic dimensions of
religious life—consecration, community and mission—are linked together and interact with one
another. What holds and shapes these
connections, ultimately, is the congregation’s spirituality, that is, the relationship of the religious group to
Jesus Christ, who is at the center of its life. The spirituality of a congregation also determines the image of
Christ that the group proclaims and witnesses to. According to Lumen Gentium (LG), every religious congregation makes
visible a particular aspect of the mystery of Christ.
Let religious see well to it that the Church truly shows forth Christ
through them with ever-increasing clarity to believers and unbelievers alike -
Christ in contemplation on the mountain, or proclaiming the kingdom of God to
the multitudes, or healing the sick and maimed and converting sinners to a good
life, or blessing children and doing good to all men, always in obedience to
the will of the Father who sent him (LG 46).
The response to a call or vocation to religious life is not learned all at once; the personal acquisition of a congregation’s specific identity needs time. A period of apprenticeship, of formation, divided into clearly defined stages, is required. During this period, the candidate, or formand, progressively acquires a knowledge of the congregational vision and mission, of the spirituality that informs this particular society, of its manner of living the vowed life, community life, and mission. The formand is also given training in the skills needed to follow her vocation. She is given time to test herself in the actual living out of the responsibilities that go with membership in the religious group. During this entire formative period, known also as the period of initial formation, the formand evaluates her suitability for religious life, and is in turn evaluated by authorized representatives of the congregation. Among these representatives are the different formators, older members assigned to supervise the formand’s training, as well as the superiors who have the power to admit her from one formation stage to the next, up to perpetual profession which is the official moment that she becomes a member of the congregation for life.
Formation
does not end with perpetual profession.
In what is known as “ongoing formation” or “continuing formation,”
which lasts for the rest of one’s life, the religious fully undertakes the
responsibility of self-formation, meaning her personal efforts to be
dynamically faithful to what she has professed, and to grow in her chosen state
of life. The congregation, for its
part, is committed to provide structures and means that facilitate the person’s
self-formation.
The
formation project, therefore, is the over-all plan that guides the whole
formative process. The description
given by the General Guidelines for Formation
and Studies (GGFS) of the Daughters of St. Paul describes the formation
project in terms that are expressive of the Pauline identity:
Pauline formation
is a vital process by means of which we grow in discipleship and become always
more conformed to the Divine Master, following the example of St. Paul. It is a development of the whole
personality, starting from that foundation which is the upright and honest
person, and moving progressively towards the heights of Christ lives in me, according to the project of life delineated in
our Constitutions. The formative
process involves the person and the Congregation in a gradual and progressive
journey of fidelity whose purpose is to help us embrace, develop and witness to
our specific vocation in the Church and world: to live Christ and to announce
him with all the means of social communication so as to respond to humanity’s
longing for salvation. (GGFS 23)
The formative
effort of our entire life is to place ourselves in the school of the Master,
allowing him to shape us into docile instruments and intelligent collaborators
in the work of evangelization.
The principles of Pauline formation find their foundation in Christ the
Master Way, Truth and Life. Fidelity to
humanity, to the Church, to history and to our specific charism comes into
being as a consequence of our fidelity to Christ, the sole way to the Father,
in the Holy Spirit. Every aspect of our
personality and every dimension of our life is modeled upon and unified in him:
consecration and mission, formation and study, spirituality and poverty.
The desire that the entire person find total fulfillment
in Christ implies that the formative process must respect the principles of
integrality, formation for the
mission and in the mission, universality,
and inculturation. (GGFS 29)
THE
CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION: [b]
CONTEXT
OF THE PAULINE IDENTITY AND FORMATION PROJECT
The relevance of Pauline religious life in the present time cannot be fully understood and appreciated unless some idea is given of developments in the human area of communication, particularly in relation to what Paulines refer to as “mediated communication,” meaning that which makes use of the media (means) of social communication.
The world of the
communication media is a technological world.
Viewed from the perspective of power, technology represents human
mastery over creation, over life itself—a mastery that holds out seemingly
unlimited possibilities for control over all reality. Technology flows from the human capacity for ingenuity and
creativity, which is God’s gift. It
can, however, very quickly lead human beings to “play God”—a temptation as old
as the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit because
they wanted to be like gods. Human
pride finds a bastion in a technological world, from which God is excluded as
something out of date and irrelevant.
Jacques
Ellul—called the prophet of the technological society because he has analyzed
its menace more thoroughly perhaps than any other thinker—makes a distinction
between technology and technique.
Both these terms, however,
hold out a common danger for human beings:
Technique refers to any complex of
standardized means for attaining a predetermined result. Thus, it converts spontaneous and
unreflective behavior into behavior that is deliberate and rationalized. The Technical Man is fascinated by results,
by the immediate consequences of setting standardized devices into motion.… Ours is a progressively technical
civilization … committed to the quest for continually improved means to
carelessly examined ends. Indeed,
technique transforms ends into means.…
And, conversely, technique turns means into ends. "Know-how” takes on an ultimate
value. The technological person is one dominated by the search for more and
more efficient means to the point of being unconcerned about ends. Indeed, the means become the ends.[1]
The glorification of functionality—how to
get things done efficiently—brings with it an intoxicating sense of power that
obscures the goals, the “why” of this functionality. Ellul points out that
technique has its roots deep in humanity’s “mystic will to possess and
dominate.”[2]
In
the area of communication, technique is rampant and technology evolves at a
dizzying pace, making possible an instant network—a world-wide web—of connections among human beings by means of
increasingly sophisticated inventions. It is taken for granted that this
technological progress will automatically lead to a better quality of human
life; deeper questions are ignored, such as those that relate to human nature,
its hunger for communion, and its thrust toward transcendence and ultimate
meaning.
One
priest of the Society of St. Paul, Silvio Sassi, has long studied the
phenomenon of communication development in our times; he points out:
From
the [latter] half of 1800 onwards, one sees … in the field of communication a
bursting out of inventions which, related with the other social changes of the
industrial revolution, create a special environment which exalts progress and human capability.[3]
The
ideology of the “modern” and “industrial” period (which was presented in
messianic terms as being able to resolve every problem) has been forced to cede
its position to the “utopia” of an information society.…
The “communications
opulence” in which we live gives rise to unbridled projections into the
future.… Communications technicians and inventors … foresee the further
strengthening of communication… presented as “humanity’s future...”.[4]
Relevant
to the doctoral project is a reflection Sassi makes regarding the influence of
the passage from a mass media world to a multimedia world upon the traditional
concept of “master” as “teacher” in society.
The privileged access to and possession of knowledge that is at the heart
of the master’s power and gives him control over the process of communicating
the truth comes up against the fact of interactive media technology, by which
the control over the communicative action is put in the hands of the receiver.
The
communications culture is a culture that takes the self as a reference point,
since the receiver is both the starting point and the finishing point of the
communication process. The data to be manipulated are in function of the
curiosity of the receiver who becomes autonomous
in all the traditional phases of the communication process.[5]
It is to be noted
that the basic concept of power has not really been transformed. Only the locus of power has shifted, from
the master to the pupils or disciples.
Each individual has the potential to be his or her own master in the
communication field, and to be master of those who wish to listen and to accept
one’s message. Alberione’s prayer about
the men and women of our time, “many of whom are wandering in darkness, without
a pastor, a father, a teacher (master)”[6]
should be revised to read “many of whom have set themselves up as their own
master.”
In regard to the truth, the concept of metaphysical and
absolute certitude is challenged by a plurality of viewpoints, by a mutually
constructed, open-ended piecing together of possible interpretations of reality
undertaken by teacher and audience.
Truth shifts with every recontextualization and becomes relativized in
the light of new insights.
This plurality of
truths is matched by a proliferation of models and projects for “the good
life.” One’s way or life direction is no longer clearly and univocally mapped
out.
For both truth
and way, then, human freedom is faced with a multiplicity of choices, and this
freedom is jealously guarded as a sign that the human person has at last come
of age.
Life is seen as the fruit of this freedom to choose one’s preferred truths
and paths from a variety of possible directions. Sassi states that “life in multimedial communication finds a
totality of meanings, a totality of interests and of ends. …The communication
universe of life pushes toward a totality of ‘experiences’…”[7]
There is indeed an opening also toward a possible spiritual quality to life,
but its adoption is not a foregone conclusion, much less an ideal valued above
all others.
What will this
postmodern world make of Christ as Master, Way, Truth, and Life? There is a subtle implication in this
question, which favors the image of the world as putting Christ in the dock,
demanding that he explain himself. For Alberione, instead, it is Christ who
asks the questions, challenging the world to give an account of itself, of its
deepest hopes and needs, and whether or not it is seeking what will truly make
it happy.
What
makes this questioning even more urgent is the fact that communication
technology has worked its way into the very psyche of the human being to the
point that the media are no longer to be regarded simply as instruments
external to the person which he or she can manipulate without being changed
from within. The media have thus given
rise to what can truly be called “a culture.”
This culture by now is global, though the concrete expressions and
spheres of influence may vary from place to place. Sassi has already described some dangers of such a culture in
the passages quoted above: the increased temptation to center on one’s
autonomy, one’s power to choose from a seemingly unlimited range of life
directions and values. There tends to
be a leveling of these very values, none of which is seen as objectively more
significant than others.
The
specific identity and therefore the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul is
precisely to insert themselves within the technological world of communication
and probe its conscience with Christ’s own questions regarding the ultimate
meaning and values of life. The Pauline
formation project, then, works within this context.
Alberione poses this challenge to his Pauline
apostles:
How many times do
you ask yourself the great question: where is humanity heading, how is it
moving, toward what goal is it aiming as it continually renews itself on the
face of the earth? Humanity is like a
great river flowing into eternity. Will
it be saved? Will it be lost forever?[8]
This question
flows from the faith that human life is not an end in itself but is set within
the infinite horizon of a divine, transcendent reality that is the source, the
ground, the meaning and the ultimate goal of all existence, human as well as
non-human. This faith is anathema to
postmodern pretensions regarding the human being’s absolute autonomy, freedom,
power. The real issue of
evangelization in our time ruled by the technological mindset, especially in
the communication field, is to proclaim Christ as challenging the presumption
of human pride and self-sufficiency by the fact that he, as the incarnate Word
and Son of God, is the only Master, the Way, the Truth and the Life for all
humanity.
Sassi’s
talks bring out this issue of power, but he does not develop the possible
answers to the questions he raises. He
merely indicates directions in which answers may be found. For example, he points out not only the
dangers but also the positive side of the present communication culture, which
allow for many points of contact and interfacing with the Christian view of
existence. An interactive, multimedial
communication set-up is certainly preferable to the earlier one-way, easily
manipulative mass-media communication
which treated the audience as passive receivers of the message. Interactive communication opens a door to
dialogue and participation in one’s development, and a truly global
intercommunication. The weight given to
human freedom, too, could be an enormous gain, as also the broader range of
possibilities to choose from for a life direction. The importance given to the imagination brings a much-needed
balance to the tendency—which has prevailed for centuries—to favor the rational
and voluntaristic aspects of human nature.
Creativity and a more integral human development are thus fostered. All these positive aspects could allow
powerless power to emerge as a real possibility, there where the danger of
worldly power is greatest.
Sassi also
insists on the need to understand inculturation not only in reference to the cultures
of peoples and nations, but also in regard to communication culture. EA refers to this when it points out: “’it is not enough to use the media simply
to spread the Christian message and the Church’s authentic teaching. It is necessary to integrate that message
into the “new culture” created by modern communications’“ (art. 48, which
quotes from RM 285).
In regard to
power, Sassi says in one brief but meaningful sentence: “The mentality
which inspires our ‘teaching activity’ is the witnessing that rejects
every form of [worldly] power (emphasis added).”[9] Simply to proclaim Christ as Master to a
world that clings to self-centered power could easily arouse antagonism or
rejection, or a defensive stance, or worse, arouse no reaction except
indifference. What is needed is witnessing, says Sassi, the
type of witnessing that sustains the message with the example of one’s own
dedication to an alternative, other-centered power. The more radical and counter-cultural the witnessing, the more
effective it becomes. Apostles of
communication do have to inculturate themselves in media culture, but
paradoxically, they are also to challenge with their very lives whatever in
that culture is opposed to the Gospel that they proclaim.
If witnessing is
the way by which the Daughter of St. Paul most effectively lives her
discipleship and communicates Christ as Master, Way, Truth and Life in a
postmodern world, religious life offers a possibility of witness that is of its
very nature a radical form of Christian life.
Alberione’s first
insight into the Pauline vocation did not include religious life for the
members of his congregations. He
writes:
His initial idea was for a Catholic
organization of writers, technical people, book-sellers and retailers;
Catholics to whom he would give direction, work, and a spirit of apostolate.…
Toward 1910 he
took a definitive step. It became much
clearer that the writers, technical personnel and promoters [would have to be] religious men and women. On the one hand,
[this would] lead people to the loftiest perfection—the perfection of those who
also practice the evangelical counsels—and to the rewards of the apostolic
life. On the other hand, [it would]
give more cohesion, stability and continuity, [not to mention] a more
supernatural sense to the apostolate.
[He was] to form an organization, an organization of religious. Here efforts would coalesce, dedication
would be total and the doctrine purer.
A society of people who would love God with all their mind, all their
strength; people who would offer to work for the Church, happy with the wages
God pays: “You will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Mt
19:29).[10]
The perspective
on religious life and the vows expressed by this quotation from the Founder
reflects that of the Church of his time and has undertones of triumphalism and
functionalism. But the point to be
grasped here is that Alberione saw as essential that his apostles of
communication uphold their proclamation of Christ with a witness of life that
prophetically challenges the assumptions of power as domination, as the lust to
have and to hold, and as self-centeredness.
Paul VI points
this out in Evangelii Nuntiandi:
Religious … find
in their own lives consecrated to God an instrument of special excellence for
effective evangelization.… they are the
living expression of the Church’s aspiration to respond to the more exigent
demands of the beatitudes. By their
manner of life they constitute a symbol of total dedication to the service of
God, of the Church and of their fellow men.
Accordingly, religious have a special importance in regard to that form
of witness which … is a primary element of evangelization. This silent witness of poverty, of
detachment from the things of this world, of chastity, pure innocence of life,
and voluntary obedience, as well as offering a challenge to the world and to
the Church herself, constitutes an excellent form of preaching which can
influence even non-Christians…(EN 69).
Spirituality: “Called and Consecrated to Live in Christ the Master…”
The
Founder has made it abundantly clear that Pauline life, and Pauline formation
therefore, is Christocentric. The
following quotations specifically pointed at formation, summarize the
conviction of a lifetime on this matter.
When it comes to religious formation, we should let ourselves be guided
by the words of St. Paul: “that Christ may be formed in you” (Ga. 4: 19) and “I
am alive, yet it is no longer I, but Christ living in me” (Ga. 2:20).
“You have only
one Master: Christ.” He is our sole
Master because he is Way, Truth and Life; our formation will be complete when
the image of Jesus Christ has been reproduced in us.
In Christocentric
formation, the Pauline too becomes, in due proportion, way, truth and life,
according to the spirit of the Constitutions
(cf UPS 2: pp. 190-191). [c]
To
Asian formands among the Daughters of St. Paul, the presentation of Pauline
religious life as a call to follow Christ Master should be easily grasped as
resembling in many respects the call of a disciple to leave her former way of
life and to follow her spiritual master.
Previous chapters have given the elements that justify this approach. This call “consecrates,” sets her apart, so
that her entire life is henceforward dedicated to the pursuit of salvation,
enlightenment, perfection, holiness through the guidance of her Master to whom
she pledges total obedience and trust.
This chapter examines further the relationship between the Asian
Daughter of St. Paul to Christ the Master, from the perspective of “power in
powerlessness.”
There
is no doubt whatsover in Alberione’s mind that in Jesus Master dwells the
fullness of power, the power of the only-begotten Son of God. At the same time, the figure of the Master
that he presents is of a person distinguished for his humility and meekness,
his compassion, his love even to death on a cross. Alberione’s choice of favorite Scriptural passages highlights the
figure of God’s Son choosing powerlessness and vulnerability as his way of
being Master. Among these passages are
the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12), Paul’s passage in Philippians (2:5-11) regarding
Christ’s kenosis or self-emptying, Jn
10 on the Good Shepherd, Jn 13:1-17 regarding the washing of the feet, and of
course the Gospel narratives of the Passion, Death and Resurrection. Jesus is a Master who does not hold himself
aloof from human suffering and weakness and even sinfulness, but one who
identifies himself with the weakest of the brethren.
How
did Christ, then, live out his being Master?
What were his characteristic uses of power? How did he, the Son of God, secure a foothold in human affairs? How did he enter this world, he who has
power to dominate his creatures if he chooses?
He
came by the back door, as it were, by the entrance reserved for the poor and
insignificant, the beggars, and the servants.
Member of an oppressed race, of a noble but impoverished lineage, he
grew up in a back-water village that even among his countrymen had an unsavory
reputation. As an itinerant preacher,
he had nowhere to lay his head; he depended for his livelihood on contributions
and on free meals now and then. His
closest followers were mostly of the poorer class.
It
is true that power flowed out from him to heal all. His followers spoke of him as a “prophet mighty in deed and word
before God and all the people” (Lk 24:19).
Even his enemies had to admit that he had the power to draw crowds to
himself by his eloquence, his miracles, his very presence. So popular was he that at one point the
crowds wanted to force kingship upon him.
His popularity and personal power were so great that the leaders of the
people envied and feared him, to the point that they finally succeeded in
handing him over to death.
Christ
possessed power as the world knows power.
But he revealed by his entire life that true power at its very core is
something radically different from power as the world conceives and expresses
it. At the heart of true power is not
the fist clenched around the scepter of domination and poised to crush all who
are in its way. Real power is strong
enough to be open-handed, vulnerable, ready to serve and empower others. It is self-forgetful and moves out to others
in love. It stoops down, and lifts up.
In
Christ, “master,” the word of power, takes on a new face and energy source.
Christ is Master, indeed, but a master with the heart of a shepherd, a servant,
a friend, a lover.
One
passage from Isaiah brings out the contrast between the power of Christ Master-Shepherd
and worldly power:
Here
is Lord Yahweh coming with power,
his
arm maintains his authority,
his
reward is with him
and
his prize precedes him.
He
is like a shepherd feeding his flock,
Gathering
lambs in his arms,
holding
them against his breast
and leading to their rest the mother ewes (Is 40:10-11).
In
the realm of knowledge, Christ Master Teacher comes bearing divine truth—a
truth superior to human wisdom, a truth that shatters and turns upside down the
usual categories of human thinking and re-frames the entire perspective on
life. But that truth breaks upon the
person only to expand and elevate his vision and his very being. It is communicated as secrets are shared
between friends and lovers, secrets that reveal the Lover’s mind and heart in a
gesture of profound trust and vulnerability.
“I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his
master is doing. I have called you
friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father” (Jn
15:15).
Christ
Master’s way to genuine fulfillment and happiness is a journey of self-emptying
and self-transcendence, at the service of others and ultimately of the Other,
God himself. He who could rightfully
have claimed his followers’ service and submission came among them as one who
serves. He washed their feet. He gave his life for them. Jesus Master Way, the royal road to life, is
not satisfied with simply indicating that way; he himself opened it up for us,
braving its perils, tasting its fatigue in his own person. He walks ahead as guide and model, and at
the same time walks the way at our side, smoothing out difficulties,
comforting, healing, strengthening, inspiring.
And
what of Jesus, Master of Life? Earthly
masters glory in subjecting other lives to their own, feeding on others,
exploiting and diminishing the very being of others. Jesus Life, instead, gives his followers unlimited access to his
own vital energy, to the infinitely superior quality of his undying life which
transforms them even as it unites them to him in an intimacy that fulfills the
human heart’s deepest longings for communion.
He gave his life for his own that he might share his life with
them. He nourishes that life,
cultivates it, makes it grow.
This is the Master at the heart of the Pauline formation project. And it is particularly relevant to the present Asian situation. EA states:
… the Synod Fathers stressed many
times the need to evangelize in a way that appeals to the sensibilities of
Asian peoples, and they suggested images of Jesus which would be intelligible
to Asian minds and cultures and, at the same time, faithful to Sacred Scripture
and Tradition. Among them were “Jesus
Christ as the Teacher of Wisdom, the
Healer, the Liberator, the Spiritual
Guide, the Enlightened One, the Compassionate Friend of the Poor, the
Good Samaritan, the Good Shepherd,
the Obedient One.” … In the midst of so
much suffering among Asian peoples, he might best be proclaimed as the Savior “who can provide meaning to
those undergoing unexplainable pain and suffering” (EA 20, emphasis added).
A
further word should be said regarding Christ, the suffering Master, since this
aspect is particularly relevant in the Asian setting. It was on the cross that Christ Master lived his powerless power
most fully, revealing the totality of his love for his own. Other Asian religious traditions contain a
similar ideal of master, for instance, the figure of the bodhisattva in
Buddhism. The disciples who want to follow him must walk the way he trod, which
is, ultimately, the way of suffering.
At ordination a Buddhist monk undergoes
the ceremony by burning—some spots on his body are burned. This is a symbolic act with profound
meaning. The pain caused by the burning
reminds the monk that life is suffering, that the world is pain. Through
the act the pain of humanity penetrates him.
The Buddhist ceremony of ordination is a sacrament of pain. The monk
takes up the pain of the world and bears it on his body. It is said in the seventh-century Buddhist
scripture:
All
creatures are in pain, all suffer from bad and hindering karma … so that they
cannot see the Buddhas or hear the law of Righteousness or know the
Order.… All that mass of pain and evil
karma I take in my own body.… I take
upon myself the burden of sorrow; I resolve to do so; I endure it all. I do not turn back or run away, I do not
tremble … I am not afraid … nor do I despair.
Assuredly I must bear the burdens of all beings … I must set them all
free.
This
is Buddhist faith at its most sublime.…
The divine power to save gets expressed in the human power to
endure. The divine compassion for the
suffering multitudes becomes actualized in the human compassion to bear the
burdens of karma for others. At this
deepest level the Asian spirit that gives glimmers of light through, for
example, Buddhist faith can and must move the heart of Jesus who bore the pain
and suffering of the world and died on the cross.[11]
This suffering
Jesus is the Master whom the Asian Daughter of St. Paul must be helped to
encounter, to experience and to proclaim in her own life and in the life of her
people. Her formation is to unfold at
the school of the suffering Christ. The image of the humble, suffering
Servant-Master overturns the fatal tendency to see Christ as a foreign master,
remote, unreachable, to be feared rather than loved. This tendency prevails for many Asians who come from a background
of Western colonization; Christ Master is often seen as part of the oppressive,
exploitative colonizing power. Only an
alternative counter-image of Christ can help to overcome this tendency and to
bring Asians to Christ.
Formative
Implications
From
the earliest stages of formation, the formation project should foster a
master-disciple relationship with Christ Master marked by intimacy, friendship,
total dedication, aimed at union as expressed in St. Paul’s “I live now, not I,
but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20).
Some concrete formative areas of concern to achieve this are:
1.
A prayer life
built upon the Word—the Master’s teachings—and the Eucharist as
the celebration of Christ’s total self-sacrifice as well as the humble abiding
presence of the Master in the midst of his own.
2.
The
Alberionian prayer of the “Pact” or “Secret of Success” (PPF 211-212) as
an organizing principle of one’s discipleship in as much as this prayer is
built upon a covenant of mutual love and trust between Master and disciple.
3.
The formation
to sacrifice and the loving acceptance of the cross. This becomes a challenge in today’s world,
with its stress on the pleasure principle and instant gratification.
4.
The offering
of one’s life in reparation for the evil that exists in the world,
especially the evil perpetrated by the abuse of the media of
communication. The Alberionian prayer
that best expresses this is the Pauline Offertory (PPF 46-48).
5.
The
development of a media spirituality, by which the means used to proclaim
Christ Master are first of all experienced as vehicles for the personal and
community experience of the Master speaking through these means.
6.
Growth in “contemplation
in action,” by which the Pauline develops the sense of her Master’s
presence in every moment of the day, in all that happens, in the midst of
activity, in the persons she meets and serves.
7.
A constant
effort to inculturate Pauline prayer in the Asian context.
To
follow Christ as one’s Master, Way, Truth, and Life does not lead to an
intimistic, spiritualistic, one-to-one relationship with him. To leave one’s former life behind does not
mean to detach oneself from “the world” and to forget one’s links to all
humanity and its suffering. Alberione
constructs the Pauline identity and mission around Christ Master as center, but
this Master with the heart of a Shepherd is, to use a phrase from Kosuke
Koyama, “always in motion towards the periphery; he challenges the power of
religious and political idolatry.”[12]
What
Koyama means by “periphery” is what Jesus Master refers to when he speaks of
“the least of my brethren,” the poorest, the most insignificant in the eyes of
worldly power, the most exploited, the mass of human beings condemned by
injustice and poverty to an inhuman existence.
As the preceding section has shown, Jesus is most truly Master when he exercises
his power to identify particularly with suffering humanity, to share its sorrow
and pain and take it upon himself.
… to make contact with the center
is to come into contact with salvation.
The center is the point of salvation.
It is there that the confusing reality of life finds a point of
integration and meaning.
The church believes that Jesus Christ is the center of all peoples and
all things.… But he is the center who
is always in motion towards the periphery.
In this he reveals the mind of God who is concerned about the people on
the periphery.…
Jesus
… affirms his centrality by giving it up.
That is what this designation “crucified Lord” means. The Lord is supposed to be at the center. But he is now affirming his lordship by
being crucified!.…
His
life moves towards the periphery. He
expresses his centrality in the periphery by reaching the extreme
periphery. Finally on the cross, he
stops this movement. There he cannot
move. He is nailed down. This is the point of ultimate periphery.…
From this uttermost point of periphery he establishes his authority. This movement towards the periphery is
called the love of God in Christ. In
the periphery his authority and love meet.
They are one. His authority is
substantiated by love. His love is
authoritative....
Jesus
Christ moves toward the periphery. He
thus bestows his authority upon the
periphery. With the presence of the
center at the periphery the periphery becomes dynamic. Our thoughts on mission, evangelism and
theological education must be examined in the light of the periphery-oriented
authority of Jesus Christ.[13]
What
connection does this faith in a Master who suffers with and for humanity have
with the mission of the Daughters of St. Paul?
That mission is to proclaim Jesus as Master, Way, Truth, and Life as the
salvation of a suffering world, in the area of human communication, which
because of technological developments has become a stronghold for human pride
and oppression. There is need to
examine seriously the concept of social justice in terms of communication
culture. The exploitation of the weak
and the poor is not to be understood only in material terms, but also in the
more subtle manipulation of minds and hearts worked by the powerful of this
world through media. It is the
explicit task of the Daughters of St. Paul to lay bare this type of oppression
and to “redeem” the media by using them for their rightful purpose, which is to
proclaim the Good News—news that will subvert the anti-Christian values prevailing in modern society and culture. Alberione’s apostolic intuition at the start
of the last century foresaw this challenge.
He did not follow the trend in the Church of his time (a trend that
prevailed in ecclesiastical thinking until recently) to take the position of
lofty detachment from media and its evils.
At best, media were to be used in an instrumental, functional way, to
“dress up” the Good News, but these instruments were to be handled with caution
because they were sources of danger for the faith of the Christian. Instead,
Alberione founded two congregations—one for men, one for women—with the
explicit mandate to immerse themselves in the world of com- munication in order
to transform that world with Gospel values.
One
article of the C/D expresses this apostolic mandate thus:
In accordance with the clear-cut
directive of the Founder that “our priority is to give the doctrine that has
the power to save,” we effect the work of evangelization through the means of
social communication, above all by making the Gospel message known in a manner
that is unambiguous and by a catechesis that develops a growth of faith that
goes hand-in-hand with growth of life.
We evangelize the various human cultures, moreover, by communicating all
that promotes the whole person and regenerates the Gospel values present in
every people (15).
The Pauline apostolic endeavor cannot be
successfully accomplished if it does not emphasis the value of personal and
community witness to the message it communicates. Witnessing is the fundamental “medium” by which Gospel values are
transmitted. Without persons and communities dedicated to proclaiming with
their lives and actions Jesus Master and his commitment to power in
powerlessness, the mission is endangered.
The peril comes from the fact that Pauline apostles are inserted into
the very culture that poses serious threats to the validity of the Gospel
message. Paulines are to be in that
media world without being of it; the strain of living this paradox can at times
be overwhelming although the ensuing tension can also be creative.
Temptations specific to the Pauline mission
flow from the above situation. First,
the fascination with technology could take over, to the point that more
importance is given to the latest developments in this area, forgetting the
purpose for which the technology is to be used. On the other hand, Paulines bewildered by the proliferation of
technological means may refuse to open up to these new possibilities of proclaiming
the Gospel. A real, and at times
painful conversion of mind and attitudes is demanded.
Second, faced with the highly competitive
environment and the need for professionalism in the media field, Paulines may
adopt structures and methods that are based on worldly power and therefore against
their apostolic aims. The C/D warns
against this in such articles as the following:
So that the
Gospel proposal may reach the audience as an appeal to their freedom … we shall
reject … the temptation to change these means of apostolate into instruments of
power, profit, or ambition. For love of
the truth and out of respect for persons and the demands of professional
ethics, we will avoid all forms of pressure and manipulation (C 19).
So as not to
empty the cross of Christ of its power, our service to the Word demands us to
be faithful heralds of the truth—without any form of reductionism or alteration
(C17).
On the other hand, Paulines may fail to be professional enough in their apostolic field, satisfied with productions that are undoubtedly pious and blamelessly in accord with ecclesiastical standards, but inferior in the quality of content and technically flawed. These productions may not answer truly to the real needs of the audience in a given place and time. Again the C/D gives clear directives on the matter:
Imitating the
example of Christ, the perfect communicator, we commit ourselves to adopt a way
of expression consistent with the circumstances of the audience and suited to
the time, the place, and the instrument of communication. All this so that dialogue can be brought
about between God and men and among men themselves (C 19).
At the same time,
out of fidelity to the human person in his diverse socio-cultural situations,
we will know how to shape content to audience with wise pastoral
discernment (C 17).
Formative Implications
The personal and community experience of Christ Master, Way, Truth and Life as the ground, center and goal of human life is the dynamic source of mission. Apos-tolic formation then must facilitate contact with this source. Having made sure of this, apostolic formation needs to take into account several important elements:
1.
Growth in a
pastoral mentality. This means
cultivating in the formands, and in all the members of the congregation the
ability to grasp the deep-seated need of people for what will truly bring them
happiness. It also involves fostering
the ability to read the signs of the times and to perceive something of what
the Spirit is working out in human history.
It means feeling Paul’s apostolic torment which led him to spend and
overspend himself for the spread of the Gospel.
2.
Formation to
creativity and apostolic daring.
Working in the constantly developing area of communication demands that
Paulines cultivate a capacity for prophetic vision and the courage to try new
means so that the Gospel may be proclaimed in ways relevant to people of the
modern age.
3.
Professional
training. Without this, the mission
runs the risk of stagnating or being largely ineffectual.
4.
Capacity to
live creatively the tensions inherent in the apostolate, not the least of which
is immersion in communication culture while upholding Gospel values without
compromise.
5.
The acceptance
that what one can do is never enough in the face of an apostolate that
surpasses one’s abilities. The spirit
of the Pact is what sustains the Pauline apostle in her efforts to echo Paul’s
cry, “It is then about my weakness that I am happiest to boast, so that the
power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor 12:9).
6.
Capacity for
sacrifice and the mystery of the cross from which flows true apostolic
power.
Consecration:
“In the spirit of the beatitudes”
If witnessing is the way by which
the Daughter of St. Paul most effectively lives her discipleship and
communicates Christ as Master, Way, Truth and Life in a postmodern world, there
can be no more radical witnessing than a life consecrated by the vows, or
evangelical counsels, of chastity, poverty and obedience. Such a life is patterned after the Magna
Charta of Christian life, the beatitudes, which are founded on the paradoxical
kind of power in powerlessness that this study has been examining. The C/D begins its section on the vows with
the following article:
We live out the universal call to
holiness in the midst of the people of God by following the Master in the way
of the evangelical counsels. This
vocation, which is a special gift of the Father, brings to fulfillment in us
the grace of Baptism and Confirmation and makes our life a prophecy of the
Kingdom.
The
more radical our commitment to Christ, the more surely will there come into
being that apostolic community of consecrated persons willed by the Founder
which lives the demands of the Gospel, radiates the spirit of the beatitudes,
and announces the message of salvation with total dedication (C 34).
1. Pauline Chastity:[d]
In the
pre-Vatican II presentations of the three evangelical counsels, the list of the
vows started with poverty, followed by chastity, and then by obedience. The criterion used for ranking the vows in
an ascending order of importance had to do with what was renounced by the
particular vow. Poverty involved a
giving up of material goods, chastity a renunciation of marriage and of genital
sexual activity, and obedience—the most excellent of the vows—a surrender of
the more spiritual power of self-determination. After Vatican II, the list starts with religious chastity, which
is now emphasized as “the primordial and constitutive core of consecrated life,
and also what differentiates it most noticeably from other states and ways of
life in the Church.”[14]
Schneiders offers
an explanation for this affirmation:
Consecrated
celibacy is not first and foremost about what one does with one’s sexuality; it
is about what one chooses to love, or more exactly, who and how one chooses to
love. For all Christians the ultimate
love, the horizon of life toward which self-transcendence continually reaches,
is God. The primary life commitment one
makes to spouse and/or children, to the arts or the intellectual life, to the
welfare of the neighbor, to the care of the poor or the marginalized, to the
cause of justice or truth, is the mediation of that ultimate quest for God that
is the deepest motivation of Christian life.
The Religious
chooses to engage in the God-quest in an immediate way, exclusive of all
mediating primary life commitments. The
renunciation of the paradigmatic primary commitment, to spouse and family, is
the symbolic expression of the exclusive commitment to the unmediated
God-quest.… Remaining unmarried creates
a visible and tangible life form, not only expressing the bypassing of
mediating primary commitments but actually removing such mediation from the
life of the celibate. The immediacy to
God and social marginality that ground the prophetic character of Religious
Life … are the direct result of this choice.[15]
Celibacy is also
part of the search for perfection that motivates a disciple in many religious
traditions to go beyond the ties of marriage and the family in order to
dedicate himself exclusively to the spiritual quest. There is less of a difficulty in an Asian setting to understand
the rationale for this vow. It is much
harder for postmodern societies in the West to grasp the value of celibacy,
freely and perpetually embraced. It is
looked upon as unnatural and antinatural, says Schneiders, when it is rather
“nonnatural,” that is, not the ordinary and common choice of human beings as
the basic orientation for their lives.[16] It requires a special call.
Further,
consecrated celibacy provides a revolutionary witness to the absolute character
of religious life—revolutionary in the sense that celibacy provokes questions
and reactions, subverts the categories of postmodern culture.
… consecrated
celibacy also has the greatest potential witness value of all the aspects of
Religious Life, especially in the cultural
context of postmodern society.
Freely chosen, religiously motivated, publicly lived, chaste nonmarriage
cannot fail to raise questions in our sex-saturated and pleasure-obsessed
culture. Both poverty and obedience…
have high witness value in a materialistic and power-driven society. However, they can be easily seen as directly
conducive to community and ministry, which are the most visible aspects of Religious
Life. Whether or not our contemporaries
correctly understand Religious community or ministry, they can at least
understand that people desire connection and support (which might motivate one
to community) and that at least some people want to do something with their
lives that will make this world a better place both in the present and for the
next generation (which might motivate one to ministry). If some kind of common possession and
submission to a form of group government is necessary for or at least conducive
to community and ministry, they make a certain kind of practical sense. But the choice to willingly forego both
marriage and sex is a genuine conundrum within a rampantly narcissistic and
hedonistic culture.[17]
In the Constitutions and Directory of the
Daughters of St. Paul, the typically Pauline mode of living religious chastity
is described by the word “transparency.”
“Chastity lived as transparency of mind, will, heart, and behavior
causes us to become a communication of Christ’s love even in the demanding
field of social communications” (C/D 37).
This transparency brings out the primacy of God’s love, clearly seen as absolute and total, setting the person free to love with God’s own heart. As a consequence,
… we will grow in
the ability to view persons and events with the eyes of Christ. We will open our hearts to a great respect
for the human person and for authentic values, and so that every person may
know the dignity to which God calls him, we will commit ourselves with the means
of our apostolate to promote all that is true, just, pure, and good (C 37).
In
other words, the Daughter of St. Paul becomes a transparent communicator of
Christ’s all-mastering power of love.
She does not call attention to herself so much as to Christ whose love
shines through her. In that light, she
brings out Christ’s chal-lenge to the prevailing media culture that absolutizes
human love, over-emphasizes the bodily, genital dimension of human beings,
cultivates the pleasure principle as the standard of love, fosters unhealthy
and unrealistic romanticism.
Formative
Implications
1.
The need of
human maturity in the formand. Only
those who have reached a certain level of human maturity, especially in the
emotional sphere, can understand and live religious celibacy. Part of the reason why initial formation
takes a number of years is to provide the formand with the time to discern
whether or not she is truly called to this commitment, and to help her grow in
its observance.
2.
The importance
of providing guidance for a deeper fidelity to the vow even after perpetual
profession. The formation project should help the Daughter of St. Paul to live
with creative fidelity, in the various phases of adult life, this vow that is
necessarily absolute in character. This
is imperative especially for a Daughter of St. Paul who carries out her mission
in a media culture that is hostile or at the very least indifferent to the
values of a celibate life.
3.
The formation
to friendship. It is the paradigm of a
rapport built on “power in powerlessness,” used by God himself in relating to
human beings and proposed as the pattern of human relationships. As such, this capacity must be carefully
nurtured from the earliest stages.
If chastity is the core element that constitutes religious life in its essence, the vow of poverty and the life style that results from it is what distinguishes one religious congregation from another. The specific mission of the congregation determines its manner of living poverty. For Paulines, evangelization with the media results in a style of religious poverty that is in some respects unique.
The C/D
introduces Pauline poverty thus:
The Divine Master
who became poor for our sake is the way of our poverty. In communion with the mystery of his self-emptying and service, we abandon
our lives in total dependence and
freedom to the hands of the Father to proclaim his manifold riches and the
liberality of his gifts.
Following the
example of Mary who excelled among the humble and poor of the Lord, and of St.
Paul, who in abundance and in want relied exclusively on Christ, the source of
his strength, we open our hearts to hope, and we affirm that God is the supreme
good and that he takes care of our lives
(C 41, emphasis added).
The vow is
clearly based on the choice of powerless power, with its consequences of
letting go of egoistic control over one’s life, giving the direction of it to
the Master, accepting vulnerability.
The same can be said also of religious obedience; what differentiates
one vow from the other is the good that is renounced. By poverty one renounces material goods as central to one’s life
and one source of worldly power.
That this vow is
endangered in the Pauline mission of proclaiming the Gospel in the world of
communication is obvious. The media are
manipulated by wielders of worldly power, who use them to accumulate
wealth. It is by now a truism to say
that the media are “big business.” For
commercial purposes, the consumer mentality is deliberately cultivated in
society, to make sure that there is a market for material products.
To live her vow of poverty faithfully, the Pauline struggles first of all with her own human tendency to have, to have more, to have all, that is, to find security in material possessions. The struggle is intensified because the Pauline, inserted by her mission into the media sphere, must constantly stand up to being bombarded at close range with stimuli from a consumer culture that goes counter to the Gospel injunction to seek first the kingdom of God, not material well-being. By her vow of poverty, the Pauline commits herself to becoming “a credible sign [of Gospel values] especially in the field of social communication” (C 45), through “a daily process of conversion and evaluation, [by which she rejects] the lures of consumerism and the temptation to possess, placing all [her] trust in the Lord” (C 50).
So important is
poverty for the Pauline vocation and mission that the Founder considers it one
of four hinges upon which that vocation turns, or to use his metaphor, one of
the four wheels that have to be aligned to make the cart of the Pauline
vocation run. (The other three hinges
are spirituality, mission, and study.)
Alberione would agree with what Paul VI writes:
In a civilization
and a world marked by a prodigious movement of almost indefinite material growth, what witness would be
offered by a religious who let himself be carried away by an uncurbed seeking
for his own ease, and who considered it normal to allow himself without
discernment or restraint everything that is offered him? At a time when there is an increased danger
for many of being enticed by the
alluring security of possessions, knowledge and power, the call of God
places you at the pinnacle of the Christian conscience (ET 19, emphasis added).
After the tension on the personal level, other challenges come on the institutional apostolic level. No congregation can seriously and wholly commit itself to the Pauline mission without the investment of capital to meet the demands of a professional media apostolate. Costly equipment, buildings, business structures are required, which externally do not differ from secular enterprises in the same field. The impression given is that Paulines, like their secular counterparts, are out to acquire wealth and power. This can constitute a real danger to the integrity of the Pauline identity. So important is the need to safeguard that identity from being deformed, that in the C/D three articles are inserted on the subject:
So that the
Gospel proposal may reach the audience as an appeal to their freedom, the
service we offer will be a disinterested one.
We shall reject, then, the
temptation to change the means of apostolate into instruments of power, profit,
or ambition (C19, emphasis added).
In carrying out
its mission, the Institute excludes every speculative aim and avoids the
investment of capital for profit.
All income is ordered to the upkeep and formation of members, to the
development of apostolic works, and to the promotion of non-profit enterprises
for spreading the Christian message
(D19.1).
We will be
faithful to community discernment and evaluation, so that our activity will not
become a quest for profit, nor of efficiency for efficiency’s sake (D
46.1).
Is the ideal of Pauline poverty possible? It certainly requires a paradoxical “solution” typical of the Gospel beatitudes. The C/D says:
Compelled by the
ardent desire that the Word of God spread rapidly and be accorded honor, and
with faith in providence, we courageously adopt the swiftest and most effective
forms and technical means of social communication, even if they are
costly. As against this we will avoid
luxury and elegance in all that concerns our own person, our houses, our
furnishings, and our lifestyle (C 46).
Care must be
taken constantly to maintain a balance between costly apostolic means and a
poor, simple style of personal and community life—not an easy task.
It is not easy,
either, to grasp how the Pauline lives the preferential option for the
poor—specifically the materially poor—that the entire Church has undertaken as
a commitment. Can the Daughters of St.
Paul really claim fidelity to this task while retaining their costly media
enterprises?
The answer to
this dilemma is to be found within the parameters of the mission to which
Paulines have pledged their lives. The
liberation of the victims of oppression and injustice must include liberation
also from the subtle manipulations media are used to exert upon the very hearts
and minds of people. The distortions of
truth, the creation of false needs, the deceptive lure of materialistic goals
as the ultimate meaning of life and human fulfillment can be fertile ground for
oppression and enslavement as much as the more obvious forms of injustice. Paulines are committed to address this issue
by raising the consciousness of people to the need for a critical stance
against the camouflaged attacks upon their human integrity waged through the
media.
Formative
Implications
What are some of
the attitudes and convictions that formation should help to impart, in regard
to Pauline poverty?
1.
The virtue of
detachment from material goods and the power they provide. Concretely, on a
day-to-day level, this demands renunciations and a spirit of sacrifice. Only a teaching accompanied by the corresponding
personal and community life style will be effective.
2.
The option to
liberate those who are victims of consumerism. Because it means working for a
change of values and mentality and requires time and patience, it may seem even
to the Pauline herself to be less effective and urgent in the face of concrete
instances of poverty waiting to be relieved immediately by concrete and
externally verifiable actions. But this
task is to be understood as a legitimate expression of poverty, as much as
direct actions to help the materially poor rise up from their destitution.
3.
Willingness to
share the community’s goods with the materially poor. This can be done through the sharing of facilities, of time. A typically Pauline way of serving the poor is
also the use of apostolic media to inform society about concrete situations of
poverty that exist in the world.
4.
Accepting a
life of hard work in solidarity with the poor who have to work for their
living. The Daughters of St. Paul are not permitted to undertake money-making
investments such as stocks, even for the apostolate, and much less to assure
themselves of financial security. The
only investment permitted is that of depositing income in the bank and making
judicious use of the interest Gained.
It follows that poverty requires a wise and professional administration
which makes the most of the income that the community earns.
Of the three vows, obedience is described explicitly as addressing the issue of overcoming worldly power and its spirit of domination and control with Christ’s powerless power. The C/D says:
The evangelical counsel of obedience helps us to live in profound
communion with Christ who, having come into the world to do the will of the
Father, Gave his life for our salvation, becoming obedient even to death on the
cross
With the complete
offering of our will to God, we enter more decidedly into his plan of salvation
and into the service of the Church for the proclamation of the Gospel; we
declare that by imitating Christ in his total obedience we conquer our spirit of domination and grow in true freedom (C 51,
emphasis added).
True freedom
and human maturity are not wholly attained by reaching a level of
self-determination and control over one’s being and life; this is indeed a
turning point that brings a person to adulthood. It is not the end-point of maturity, however. It becomes the foundation for what opens the
person to fullness of life, which is achieved in self-transcendence. One finds himself to give himself away,
freely, in love. Because love is at the
heart of obedience, this vow is rooted in religious celibacy as its
ground. Because obedience cannot be
practiced if the person has not attained freedom from inordinate dependence on
material security for his self-affirmation, this vow is linked to religious
poverty.
Obedience is commitment to Christ as
one’s only Master, to the acceptance of Christ’s absolute power over oneself
just as Christ was totally surrendered to the Father’s will. Christ’s obedience is the pattern of
religious obedience. In concrete, how
is this lived out?
One indispensable way
is the way of mediation. If chastity
is, as Schneiders has said earlier, “the exclusive commitment to the unmediated
God-quest,”[e] obedience
expresses surrender to God through submission to what the Constitutions call
“intermediaries,” particularly to the superiors, those who exercise authority
in the congregation: “Authority is … set up for the benefit of all, as a sign
of unity and a service of mediation in
the search for the will of the Father… (C 123, emphasis added). And on the part of those called to
obedience, “With the vow we take on the obligation to obey our legitimate
superiors in all that they command according to the Constitutions and the Directory”
(C/D 52).
With the element of authority comes
the whole question of power presented in the previous chapter of this
study. Obviously, the structures and
expressions of religious authority and obedience must adhere not to the norms
of worldly power but to Christ’s power in powerlessness. The key words then, are servant
leadership and service.
Christ Master is in the midst of his disciples whom he calls to
friendship, as “one who serves” (Lk 22:27), and said of himself, “The Son of
Man is not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life” (Mk
10:45). He repeatedly attempted to
teach them the lesson that the power categories of the rulers of this world to
lord it over their subjects must give way to another power by which those who
want to be first must put themselves as last of all and servant of all. This is the spirit behind the description of
the Pauline superior given by the Constitutions:
The Daughter of
St. Paul who has the duty of serving
in the government at whatever level is a sign of the presence of the Divine
Master in our midst and is called to a great exercise of charity. Therefore, she undertakes to live in
intimate communion with Christ, and she stimulates the fidelity of the sisters
by living in evangelical simplicity and in loyalty to the Pauline
vocation. Docile to the Spirit, she
animates the community and, together with the sisters, seeks the will of the
Father by rousing them to voluntary obedience while respecting them as persons;
she listens to them willingly and unifies the undertakings of them all, thus
fostering collaboration. At the proper
moment she makes the necessary decisions (C126).
On the part of
those asked to obey, the vow is a call to renounce the final control over their
lives, to work against the tendency to individualism, to turn away from the
power to dispose of themselves as they see fit. The vow is a call to let the Master truly be Master over
themselves, as Jesus was totally surrendered to the Father, hence it means
saying no to an ego-centered existence.
This is of course not possible if to begin with religious have not opted
for Christ as the absolute and total love of their lives.
In regard to the
Pauline charism, such a prophetic witness is vital in the culture of the media,
which are used not only as tools for material gain but even more, for
domination. In fact, one of the first
things dictators do when they seize power is to take over the media and use
them to enslave the people through the manipulation of information and mind
control. These go counter to the
fundamental purposes of media, which are instruments for the communication of
the truth and for the building up of free and mutually trustworthy dialogue
that is a necessary ingredient of communion.
There is one
other significant aspect of Pauline obedience which flows from the nature of
Pauline mission, and that is the emphasis on its corporate dimension. It is known in Pauline life as “mutual and
organic obedience” and is symbolized by Paul’s metaphor of the body and its head
and members. Again the Constitutions
provide the relevant norms:
We live obedience
by becoming involved in an intelligent and active way, linking our
participation to that of our sisters in mutual and organic obedience (C 54).
Just as in the
one body we have many parts and each part has a separate function, so all of
us, equal in personal dignity and vocation, have different gifts bestowed by
the same Spirit for the building up of the entire body (C 123).
With a strong
sense of responsibility, of justice and of belonging, we place our gifts at the
service of the common ideal: we
actively participate in the research, elaboration, accomplishment and
evaluation of apostolic programs, surmounting
individualism and the concentration of power (C 28, emphasis added).
The service of authority …rests on the
principle of co-responsible
participation, from which subsidiarity and decentralization derive (C 125, emphasis added).
Formative
Implications
In the formation
to Pauline obedience the task of formation to powerless power is most
explicit. It is to be imparted from the
earliest stages of formation. How can
this be done? The following indications
will have to be borne in mind:
1.
Ascertain in
the formand the presence of a mature sense of self-determination and personal
freedom. Whatever limitations she may
have in this matter should be attended to, and growth encouraged and assisted.
2. Verify the formand’s capacity for
self-transcendence. The ongoing
struggle between ego-centeredness and self-transcendence is a lifelong process,
but there should at least be the capacity for choosing and carrying out the
demands of selfless giving and loving with the heart of the crucified Master.
3. Include in the formation projects from the
earliest stages onward the training for leadership on the pattern of Christ
Master-Servant.
4. Promote co-responsible obedience, sharing of
gifts, collaboration, and the capacity to go beyond “individualism and the
concentration of power” in oneself (C 28).
The gradual development of the capacity for teamwork is imperative for
the media apostolate, which cannot succeed without the skills of networking and
collaboration. It is also a demand of
Pauline obedience.
Community: “In fraternal communion”
A song by Michael Card, a composer-singer of
songs on the Word, expresses the kind of power upon which fraternal communion
is based:
THE
BASIN AND THE TOWEL
And the call is to community…
In an upstairs room
A parable is just about to come
alive
And while they bicker about who’s
best
With a painful glance He’ll
silently rise
Their Savior-Servant must show them how
Through the will of the water and
the tenderness of the towel.
Chorus: And the call is to
community
The impoverished
power that sets the soul free
In humility to take the vow
That day after day we must take up
The basin and the towel
In any ordinary place
On any ordinary day
The parable can live again
When one will kneel and one will
yield
Our Savior Servant must show
us how
Through the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.
Bridge: And the space between ourselves sometimes
Is more than the
distance between the stars
By the fragile bridge
of the servant’s bow
We take up the basin
and the towel[18]
We come once
again upon the key words ”service” and “love” which mark powerless power. These key words define the spirit and the
praxis of community life among the Daughters of St. Paul. Other Congregations do not seem to need many
structures for living together, and confine their expression of fraternal
communion to a more spiritual bonding.
Each member has her apostolic expertise and can exercise it efficiently
without the help of her sisters. Some
religious women in our time live in apartments by themselves, and if there is
any networking it is with lay people working in the same field.
But the mission
of the Daughters of St. Paul, which deals with communication, requires that the
members live together and work together.
The media apostolate cannot be exercised without the networking and
interconnectedness of the members; this is a law of media before it is a
spiritual structure. Pierre Babin
expresses this reality clearly:
You can write a
book on your own. In the [electronic]
media you cannot work alone.…
Firstly, the
interconnectedness … is demanded by the nature of the task. Electronic technology does not master us
but, where we experience our interdependence, it can make a body of us. Any script is an image of this
interdependence: words, pictures, music, sound effects are minutely timed and
if the sound engineer so much as sneezes, you have to start again. At the end of a training course at the
B.B.C. several participants were not given the diploma and yet they were among
the most able and creative students.
The reason: ‘This work demands first and foremost the discipline and
control to work together as a team…’. [19]
The second
requirement is what Babin calls “professional solidarity.”[20] The emphasis here is on “professional,” that
is, the solidarity is not simply a warm, vague sense of “what a great group we
are!” It requires the discipline and
hard work that are part of professional expertise.
Our life-style as
a group is not set up according to the requirements of personal development or
of group dynamics but by what it is that we are producing for the public. Personally I have fallen flat on my face
each time I have tried imposing upon a production team the style or rules of
management training groups. Our problems
are quite different: the demands of the discipline; the need to respect roles
and artistic temperament; the need to learn patience at times of stress,
control of one’s irritation or panic, respect for lowly tasks, life in the
studio ... things that go wrong and things that have to be celebrated.[21]
Babin comments
that what creates a team is a common goal and the shared concern about the
quality of the production which is the service to be rendered to the audience.
The third
ingredient is nothing less than friendship, which is the paradigm for powerless
power:
If you have
high-grade technology you also need a high degree of personal and affective
involvement. Our life in the studios,
times when we are being creative or meeting people in a journalistic
context—each of these demands human warmth, the optimism of hope and deep good
will. A media person has ‘human
warmth’: a media person has lots of friends.
Among them I believe that the media person has to have some friends. I would even say some people he loves at a
really deep level. This is an intimate
relationship based upon things we hold in common and things we believe in
common. Without this dimension which is
in a certain sense unspoken, I do not see how the media person can remain alive
and creative in the depths of his or her being. More than this, I do not see how he can survive spiritually in
this particular world which is made hazardous by so much excitement and
affective freedom. The two basic
charisms for communication are love and prophecy: you cannot have one without
the other.[22]
The Constitutions
go over the same ground though in different words. Some of these articles have already been cited above in various
contexts, but they are equally significant here. Regarding interconnectedness and teamwork, article 27
states: “The mission that the Institute
fulfills in the Church is accomplished by all the members together in a
community dimension and in an organized structure. This requires research, dialogue, collaboration, and coordination
at all levels…”. Article 28 follows
this up: there is no place, it says, in such an ideal, for domination and
individualism: “… we place our gifts at
the service of the common ideal … surmounting individualism and the
concentration of power.”
Professional
solidarity, which is founded on shared goals and a common effort to serve the
audience as effectively as possible, is known in Pauline circles as the
pastoral dimension of the mission. It
requires that Paulines give a disinterested service at which everyone
collaborates with her gifts; it demands that Paulines work together, forgetting
their own personal ambitions and self-centered aspirations, “so that dialogue
can be brought about between God and men and among men themselves” (C.19).
Friendship is a
valuable component of Pauline religious life:
“The sharing of joys, sufferings, and hard work will enable us to
progress in mutual respect and friendship, help us overcome difficulties with
courage and trust, and become a sign of communion” (C. 38).
The GGFS sums the
community aspect of Pauline life thus:
We live in
fraternal communion: the community is the place of formation and of mutual
evangelization, where together we grow, strive towards configuration with
Christ, and carry out the mission of the Institute. (GGFS 1.2.1)
Formative
Implications
The capacity to
live in community is such a key aspect for Pauline life that it is one of the
criteria for accepting young women into the Congregation: the person is to have
“an open, sincere, and sociable character, and the ability to work in
collaboration with others” (C 88, c). The
formation that develops this essential requisite begins from the earliest
stages, takes in the life within the group of formands and opens up to
interactions with the wider community especially in the periods of apostolic
exposure in the small, branch-house communities and in the larger community of
the central house.
Some specific formative indications
would be:
1.
Training in
basic communication skills: dialogue on all levels, proper information-giving,
honesty and sincerity in speech, objectivity and openness to seek the truth
where it is to be found, capacity to give and receive corrections, and so on.
2.
Growth in the
ability to accept the unavoidable disillusionment that comes to a formand when
she discovers that ideals learned in theory are not always carried out in
practice by others, especially professed religious.
3.
Growth of
communities that are truly formative.
Community life, as well as the other aspects of Pauline life, is not so
much taught as “caught,” through example and witness that makes visible the
otherwise hidden, humble, but central presence of Jesus Master-Servant-Friend,
source of communion.
The formator-formand relationship:
This
relationship prevails in the initial formation stages and is a privileged area
for living out the interactions between Master and disciple that is the basic
pattern of formation and fidelity to Pauline religious life. If Christ as Master lived the values of
powerless power in relation to his disciples, the formator must live the same
values.
The formator carries out a service
of mediation between individuals and the body of values proper to the
Institute; her function is to guide persons to vocational maturity.… This does not take place simply through
instruction, but almost by “osmosis”—through participation in an authentically
Pauline life, which is manifested by means of an intimate relationship with the
Master and a self-donation lived in a spirit of gratuitousness and commitment,
love and fidelity. (GGFS 1.7.4)
The formator’s
role in many respects is similar to the role of the guru in Hindu Catholic ashrams, in which the human master
represents the one true and absolute Master, the Sadguru, Christ, who is the true center of the community of
disciples. The human guru being his representative, prefers
to be known by some other term such as acharya,
which means “teacher.” Cornille notes:
While
some ashrams only verbally refer to Christ as guru in prayer and songs, others
dress the blessed sacrament (sic) in orange, place it on a leopard
skin, and hang a mala (Indian prayer
beads) and a garland of flowers around it while chanting the words:
Om Guru Hail, have mercy on us, world Guru,
highest Guru, true Guru, protect us; the first
Guru, the one-only Guru, bliss Guru, have mercy on us; great guru, Lord
Master, Om Guru, protect us. (Words
on a poster in the Christa Preme Seva ashram in Poona and the Jeevan Dhara
ashram in Jahairikhail.)[23]
Furthermore, the
uniqueness of Christ as Sadguru in
comparison with the Hindu guru
consists in his coming as servant and his call to his disciples to become no
longer servants but friends. Vandana
states that “the most striking
difference in Jesus the Satguru is
that he comes as one who serves”[24]
This is illustrated in the equivalent of the Hindu guru-puja or worship of the guru
in some Catholic ashrams. The guru-puja is a complex of ceremonies,
the main ritual being the veneration of the feet of the guru through washing, anointing, and laying flower offerings at the
guru’s feet or by his sandals if he
is no longer living. Cornille says that
in the Jeevan Dhara ashram, the human guru
receives no such tokens of absolute power from the disciples:
… the holy
sepulchre and a picture of the shroud are garlanded. Rather than having her own feet washed, Vandana [the human guru of this ashram] washes the feet of
all those present emphasizing that “Jesus, the Satguru, instead of having his
feet washed, as would be expected, himself washed the feet of his disciples,
and told them to do as he had done—a symbolic gesture showing his willingness
to serve and love, which means his willingness to die.” [Vandana, Waters of Fire (Madras: The Diocesan
Press, 1981) 99] Vandana thus
emphasizes the difference between the average Hindu guru and Jesus Christ and
the merely representational function of the human guru in Catholic ashrams.[25]
The following
description of the human guru by J.
Rajan could equally well be applied to the formator: he is “… a person who has
experienced God and is able to lead others to that experience. He is the Mediator between God and man, and
should be of spotless character. He is
the representative of God and the disciple is expected to respect the Guru and
see God in him.”[26]
Cornille gives
specifications to this basic description:
While the Hindu
guru is often characterized in absolute terms as “God-realized,” the Christian
guru is said to have merely “a certain depth of religious experience.” While the Hindu guru refers to his own
experience, the Christian guru refers to the experience of Christ [Vandana, “The
Guru as Present Reality,” ibid., 355]
And while the Hindu guru is believed to be “established” in a state of
realization, the Christian conception of the human guru is more dynamic: the
guru is moving with the disciples toward the ever-receding end. …While the guru
may have had “an experience of God in the depth of his being,” Amalorpavadass
insists that the quest is a relentless one, in which the guru, rather than
being “on the other shore” moves along, ahead of, but still with the disciples. Amalorpavadass defines a Christian guru as
one who is a true disciple of Christ, who possesses the spirit of service and
self-giving love of Christ, and who lives according to the values of
Christ. In this sense all Christians
are called to become a guru.[27]
Formative
Implications
With
this background, the requirements for a formator and the ideal formator-formand
relationship outlined in the C/D and the GGFS can be understood along
the lines of powerless power.
Previous quotations from the GGFS have
described the formator as a mediator who has developed an intimate relationship
with Christ Master, and lives her role in a spirit of service, self-donation,
gratuitousness, commitment, love and fidelity.
The Constitutions expand on this basic sketch thus:
The formation
mistress is a respectful companion to each individual in her personal
journey. She will search out the will
of God with the individual and help her to discern the authenticity of her
call. In this person-to-person
relationship that is sisterly and true, the mistress listens enlightens,
encourages, and loves even to the point of personal sacrifice. (C 84)
The
important and indispensable role of the formator requires training for persons
set apart for this service. “The
selection and training of those responsible for formation is of fundamental
importance” (C 85). Other related
formative indications would be:
1.
Building up a
formation team that truly functions as such, in mutual trust, openness and
collaboration. Such teamwork allows for
ongoing dialogue, peer supervision, constructive criticism, all of which are
directed toward the greater good of formands and members. No formator, however qualified and capable,
can adequately meet the formative needs of every individual under her
care. What she may lack, others in the
team may make up for.
2.
Possibilities
for supervision by qualified persons, given to formators as an ongoing resource
for them to grow and be supported in that growth which is indispensable if they
are to carry out an effective service.
3.
Possibilities
for updating and renewal. If needed, a
break from the role is to be given, not only for study but also for rest,
recuperation of energies, detachment that safeguards the formator from falling
prey to “professional deformation.”
CONCLUDING
SYNTHESIS
This
chapter has proposed a guiding perspective for the formation project of the
Daughters of St. Paul, by which Pauline formation is viewed as formation of
disciples to Christ Master’s “power in powerlessness.” As a foundation for this proposal, an idea
was given of what a formation project involves, as well as an overview of the
communication culture in which the Pauline identity and mission are rooted.
Essential
elements of the Pauline formation project were then treated in succession, always
keeping in mind the perspective of powerless power. In the analysis, what surfaced was the presence of this
perspective already in congregational documents such as the C/D and the GGFS. Power was not the explicit organizing
principle of these documents, but is a viewpoint not alien to them. This fact supports the choice of such a
perspective in the task of Pauline formation, all the more so because “power in
powerlessness” also is the key to inculturating Alberionian Christology in the
Asian traditions of the spiritual master.
ENDNOTES
1 Jacques Ellul, “Foreword,” in The Technological Society (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965) vi. Emphasis added.
2 Ibid., 423.
3 Silvio Sassi, “The Total Christ for the Century of Global Communication,” in Jesus, the Master Yesterday, Today and Forever: The Spirituality of the Pauline Communicator – Acts of the International Seminar on “Jesus, the Master,” Ariccia, October 14-24, 1996, English translation by Andres R. Arboleda, Jr.,(Rome: Society of St. Paul General House, 1997), 518.
4 Silvio Sassi, “The Media’s Transformation of Post-Industrial Society,” p. 2 of an unpublished talk given to the Daughters of St. Paul at their Seventh General Chapter, Ariccia, 1995. English translation by the Daughters of St. Paul translation committee.
5 Ibid., 11.
6 James Alberione, “Ecumenical Prayer to Mary,” in The Prayers of the Pauline Family, trans. by the Daughters of St. Paul, Boston, U.S.A. (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1991), 227.
7 Sassi, “The Total Christ,” ibid., 524. Translation by the writer of this doctoral project.
8 James Alberione, SpieGazione delle Costituzioni: instructions of Father Alberione during the special spiritual exercises of the Daughters of St. Paul, Ariccia, 1961 (Rome: Daughters of St. Paul, 1962), 232. Quoted in Thoughts: Fragments of Apostolic Spirituality, trans. Aloysius Milella (Philippine edition – Pasay: Daughters of St. Paul, 1996).
9 Sassi, “The Total Christ,” ibid., 525.
10 James Alberione, Abundantes Divitiae Gratiae Suae: Charismatic History of the Pauline Family, trans. Mike Byrnes (Rome: Societa’ San Paolo Casa Generalizia, 1998), articles 23-24, p. 41.
11 C.S.Song, “Oh, Jesus, Here with Us!” in Asian Faces of Jesus, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah (London: SCM Press, 1993), 141-142.
12 Kosuke Koyama, “The Crucified Christ Challenges Human Power,” in Asian Faces of Jesus, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah (London: SCM Press, 1993), 153. The whole chapter (pp. 149-162) is relevant to the subject being presented in this section.
13 Ibid., 153-155.
14 Paul Molinari and Peter Gumpel, Chapter VI of the Dogmatic Constitutions “Lumen Gentium” on Religious Life,” trans. Sr. Mary Paul Ewen (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1987), 84.
15 Sandra M. Schneiders, Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life, Vol II of the series Religious Life in a New Millennium (New York: Paulist Press, 2001), 127-128.
16 Ibid., 129.
17 Ibid., 131.
18 Michael Card, “The Basin and the Towel,” in Poie’ma [audiocassette] (Brentwood, TN: The Sparrow Corporation, 1994).
19 Pierre Babin, “The Spirituality of Media People, The Way Supplement 57, Autumn 1986, 52.
20 Ibid., 53.
21 Ibid., 52-53.
22 Ibid., 53.
23 Catherine Cornille, The Guru in Indian Catholicism: Ambiguity or Opportunity of Inculturation? (Louvain: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 157-158.
24 Vandana, “The Guru as Present Reality,” Vidyajyoti 39 (11975) 353.
25 Cornille, ibid., 180.
26 J. Rajan, Christian Interpretation of Indian Sannyasa – dissertation on Bede Griffiths, 238. Quoted in Cornille, ibid., 178.
27 Cornille, ibid., 164-165. The references to Amalorpavadass are taken from the brochure of Anjali Ashram.
[a] It would be interesting to discuss the history of religious life in the Roman Catholic tradition with a view to showing that this kind of life is similar in many respects to the monastic tradition that exists in Asian religions. Its relevance to the topic of the doctoral project is found in the fact that very often the monastic tradition is linked to that of the spiritual master, around whom disciples gather, responding to a personal call to leave everything and follow the master in order to attain salvation. However, such a discussion would bring the presentation given in this chapter too far afield from its main goal. For a thorough, profound study of religious life which includes this aspect, see the two-volume series Religious Life in a New Millennium by Sandra M. Schneiders, particularly Vol. I: Finding the Treasure: Locating Catholic Religious Life in a New Ecclesial and Cultural Context (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 2000). A third volume is still being written, to complete the series.
[b] The greater part of this section is taken from a talk given by the writer of this doctoral project on May 10, 1997, to the Pauline Family of congregations and institutes founded by Rev. James Alberione. The occasion was an anticipated celebration of the 31st World Communications Day for 1997, and the point of departure for the talk was Pope John Paul II’s Message on the theme “Communicating Jesus: The Way, the Truth and the Life.”
[c] These appear on an introductory page regarding Pauline Formation, in the GGFS, p. 19.
[d] Sandra Schneiders thoroughly develops the theme of religious chastity in Vol. II of her work on Religious Life in a New Millennium. The title of the volume is Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life (New York: Paulist Press, 2001). Many of the ideas treated in this section are inspired by her presentation. It is to be noted that she prefers the term “consecrated celibacy” to “religious chastity,” because “chastity” is a more generic term applicable to other states of life.
[e] Cf p.129 of this chapter.
ENDNOTES
[1] Jacques Ellul, “Foreword,” in The Technological Society (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965) vi.Emphasis added.
[2] Ibid., 423.
[3] Silvio Sassi, “The Total Christ for the Century of Global Communication,” in Jesus, the Master Yesterday, Today and Forever: The Spirituality of the Pauline Communicator – Acts of the International Seminar on “Jesus, the Master,” Ariccia, October 14-24, 1996, English translation by Andress R. Arboleda, Jr.,(Rome: Society of St. Paul General House, 1997), 518.
[4] Silvio Sassi, “The Media’s Transformation of Post-Industrial Society,” p. 2 of an unpublished talk given to the Daughters of St. Paul at their Seventh General Chapter, Ariccia, 1995. English translation by the Daughters of St. Paul translation committee.
[5] Ibid., 11.
[6] James Alberione, “Ecumenical Prayer to Mary,” in The Prayers of the Pauline Family, trans. by the Daughters of St. Paul, Boston, U.S.A. (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1991), 227.
[7] Sassi, “The Total Christ,” ibid., 524. Translation by the writer of this doctoral project.
[8] James Alberione, SpieGazione delle Costituzioni: instructions of Father Alberione during the special spiritual exercises of the Daughters of St. Paul, Ariccia, 1961 (Rome: Daughters of St. Paul, 1962), 232. Quoted in Thoughts: Fragments of Apostolic Spirituality, trans. Aloysius Millela (Philippine edition – Pasay: Daughters of St. Paul, 1996).
[9] Sassi, “The Total Christ,” ibid., 525.
[10] James Alberione, Abundantes Divitiae Gratiae Suae: Charismatic History of the Pauline Family, trans. Mike Byrnes (Rome: Societa’ San Paolo Casa Generalizia, 1998), articles 23-24, p. 41.
[11] C.S.Song, “Oh, Jesus, Here with Us!” in Asian Faces of Jesus, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah (London: SCM Press, 1993), 141-142.
[12] Kosuke Koyama, “The Crucified Christ Challenges Human Power,” in Asian Faces of Jesus, ed. R.S. Sugirtharajah (London: SCM Press, 1993), 153. The whole chapter (pp. 149-162) is relevant to the subject being presented in this section.
[14] Paul Molinari and Peter Gumpel, Chapter VI of the Dogmatic Constitutions “Lumen Gentium” on Religious Life,” trans. Sr. Mary Paul Ewen (Rome: Gregorian University Press, 1987), 84.
[15] Sandra M. Schneiders, Selling All: Commitment, Consecrated Celibacy, and Community in Catholic Religious Life, Vol II of the series Religious Life in a New Millennium (New York: Paulist Press, 2001), 127-128.
[16] Ibid., 129.
[17] Ibid., 131.
[18] Michael Card, “The Basin and the Towel,” in Poie’ma [audiocassette] (Brentwood, TN: The Sparrow Corporation, 1994).
[19] Pierre Babin, “The Spirituality of Media People, The Way Supplement 57, Autumn 1986, 52.
[20] Ibid., 53.
[22] Ibid., 53.
[23] Catherine Cornille, The Guru in Indian Catholicism: Ambiguity or Opportunity of Inculturation? (Louvain: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 157-158.
[24] Vandana, “The Guru as Present Reality,” Vidyajyoti 39 (11975) 353.
[25] Cornille, ibid., 180.
[26] J. Rajan, Christian Interpretation of Indian Sannyasa – dissertation on Bede Griffiths, 238. Quoted in Cornille, ibid., 178.
[27] Cornille, ibid., 164-165. The references to Amalorpavadass are taken from the brochure of Anjali Ashram.