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"COMMUNION GENERATES COMMUNION"
Brother John Johnston, FSC
In his address last Friday afternoon Monsignor Peter Coughlan used an expression which caught my attention. I decided at that moment that his remark would serve as the point of departure for my words closing the assembly this morning.
Emphasizing the centrality of community and mission in the life of the followers of Christ. As well as the need and appropriateness of the variety of religious institutes, secular institutes, lay groups, associations, societies, movements, and other forms of community life within the Church, Mons. Coughlan declared that "communion generates communion."
Communion Generates Communion.
That simple but profound sentence expresses succinctly but accurately a truth which is at the very heart of the mission which God through his church has confided to our Lasallian family today. Members of the Lasallian family are called to communion — communion which in turn is to generate communion.
During these past several days you have reflected on the nature and mission of the Lasallian family in the world today. This morning I would like to offer some personal reflections which I hope will help you to situate your own reflections within a broad context.
I have divided my remarks into three categories: 1) The Lasallian mission in the world today; 2) Our shared mission; 3) The spirit of the Lasallian family.
1) THE LASALLIAN MISSION IN THE WORLD TODAY
Our Lasallian mission is lived today by some 8,400 Brothers, associated with at least 33,000 lay men and women teachers and a number of priests and religious of other institutes, in collaboration with more than 1,500,000 parents, aided by I don't know how many thousands of former students, as well as friends. This mission is at the service of at least 817,000 young people in more than eighty countries of the world, that is to say, in more than half the 159 countries which constitute the United Nations. The statistics I have provided are perhaps too low. They are based on the information we have available, information which might be incomplete.
The mission of the Institute, according to our Rule, is "to give a human and Christian education to the young, especially the poor." It is exercised in a variety of educational institutions at the service of youth of all ages, that is to say, from pre-school through university. There are kindergartens, elementary schools, middle schools, secondary schools; university preparatory schools; teacher training institutions; schools of art; technical, professional, agricultural schools; universities. There are residential programs for young people of various age groups; there are programs for migrants, itinerant workers, handicapped children, for boys and girls with learning disabilities, for youth with behavioral difficulties of all types, for young people suffering from drug dependency. There are pastoral centers offering a variety of religious and apostolate activities; there are centers for sport and other forms of recreation. Our mission is extended to adults; particularly through literacy programs and evening schools at primary, secondary and even tertiary levels.
I have compiled that list rapidly from memory, not from research. There are certainly omissions. I apologize to those whose activities were not mentioned explicitly.
ECONOMIC REALITIES
Our Lasallian mission is lived in countries which are highly developed economically; in countries which are moderately developed economically; in countries which are extremely poor.
POLITICAL REALITIES
Wherever we are, we operate not only within the particular economic realities, but also within existing political frameworks, which range from highly favorable to our work to highly opposed to our Lasallian family and its mission. The eyes of the world are focused these days on Eastern Europe, in several countries of which our institute was completely suppressed, Brothers forbidden to associate, and a number of them imprisoned or sentenced to years of hard labor. While most of our Brothers have died, there are still eighteen Brothers in these particular countries of Eastern Europe, Brothers whose histories are stories of extraordinary fidelity to their religious commitment.
You have already been informed that our Brothers left Cuba in 1961 following the takeover of their schools and acute harassment by the government. You share our joy that this year we have returned.
Our schools in Burma were taken some twenty-five years ago. The Institute exists but with limited opportunities for a Lasallian apostolate. We still have some seventy-five Brothers in Vietnam. The Institute is permitted to exist, but the schools were all taken and the Brothers forbidden to teach.
SITUATIONS OF VIOLENT CONFLICTS
It is safe to say that no year passes in which some area served by the Lasallian family does not suffer violence and even war.
Lebanon has been on the front pages of our newspapers for much of this year. We have more than forty Brothers and hundreds of collaborators conducting seven schools in this tormented country. Some thirty Brothers lead the mission of the Lasallian family in Israel and the occupied territories. They are responsible for three primary and secondary schools, a center for orphans and youngsters with behavioral problems, and have responsibility for the University of Bethlehem which the Vatican, some seventeen years ago, asked us to found for the service of the Palestinians. The frequent and prolonged closures of some of these centers tests the faith, the love, the patience, and the creativity of our Brothers and collaborators.
You are aware of the violence which has unfortunately characterized Sri Lanka during this past year. But you may not be aware that we have sixty- seven Brothers working with hundreds of lay collaborators at the service of both Singhalese and Tamil youth.
The list could continue: Columbia, Peru, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama...and, most recently, the Philippines.
I have frequently suggested that we learn to read the newspapers and watch the television news with the eyes, ears, and heart of a Lasallian, thinking of and praying for the Lasallian family and for all those God has confided to our care in these countries.
DIVERSITY OF RELIGIONS
Most of you attending this assembly are from areas where the population is predominantly Christian in religion and culture. Those of you from countries where other religions prevail have brought an important dimension to this assembly. It is necessary for all of us to realize that God in his providence has confided to our care many thousands of youngsters who are Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Shintoist, Confucianism ...many of our youth in Africa and in some other continents are strongly committed to and influenced by their traditional religions. This reality demands, of course, that our Brothers and the teachers who are Christian learn the meaning of inter-religious dialogue in all its dimensions. They need to establish sound relationships not only with the pupils but also with the non-Christian parents and teachers.
OUR MISSION
I have presented a rapid and necessarily selective panorama of our Lasallian mission as it is lived today. But let me offer a few thoughts on the nature of that mission. What is it we are trying to do? What is the contribution we are striving to make?
Over the past thirteen and a half years I have been privileged to encounter literally thousands of Lasallian youth in assemblies or special meetings in nearly all of the countries of the Lasallian world. I very frequently share with the young people an impression and conviction that grows deeper within me every year.
I tell them that I am of course aware of the differences that exist among the youth of the world: differences of race, ethnic groups, culture, language, religion, economic levels, political freedom, educational opportunities, etc. The differences are real and must be taken seriously.
Nevertheless, I tell the youngsters that as I watch them at play, or in informal conversations among themselves, or as I listen to the questions that they pose during our meetings, what invariably impresses me is not that young people are different, but that they are the same.
As human persons they are the same. The differences are real, but secondary in importance. Young people everywhere have the same dreams, the same fears, the same frustrations. They wrestle with the same questions and struggle against the same problems as they grow through their adolescence to maturity.
We are all essentially the same. We have the same creator, even if we have different ways of thinking about him or of worshiping him. We are the same because we are all sons and daughters of the same God. Therefore we are all brothers and sisters in this world. We are of different races, we speak different languages, we worship God in different ways, but we are all Brothers and Sisters.
But how obvious it is that we don't live in this world in the way brothers and sisters should live. There is so much injustice, exploitation, crime, political corruption; there are scandalous absurdities such as starvation, hunger, and homelessness; how many men, women, and children are the victims of violence and war because their leaders cannot or will not resolve their differences by peaceful means.
I like to think — as idealistic as it might sound — I like to think that our international Lasallian family is contributing significantly to the construction of a world where people can and will live as brothers and sisters, a world where all can live in dignity, in justice, and in peace. I like to think that the young people of whatever race, creed, or culture leave our schools not only well prepared academically, not only motivated to develop their personal potential, but leave us convinced that they have a responsibility to participate actively and creatively in efforts to build a more just society.
What I have just said doesn't say everything about our apostolate goals. But is does express a goal that is valid for every country and every institution regardless of level, type of institution, or of cultural, religious, political, or economic differences.
Communion generates communion. Our Lasallian mission is to generate communion. It is to help create a world where people can live like the brothers and sisters that they are.
2) OUR SHARED MISSION
During the past several days you have spent many hours reflecting on our shared mission. I doubt that I have anything to add. But perhaps my thoughts can help you to organize or integrate the hundreds of ideas you have already heard.
I think that it is essential for all of us to understand clearly and with a certain compassion what has happened over the past twenty-five years or so. The change has been rapid, dramatic, and profoundly disturbing for a number of Brothers. How striking it is that our official general chapter of renewal in 1966-67 made only passing references to the laity associated with us.
I am a former student of the Brothers. Nearly all of my teachers were Brothers. I began teaching in 1955 with ten other Brothers and only one lay teacher. We were responsible for three-hundred-forty secondary school youngsters. Over the past thirty years the number of lay teachers in our schools has increased dramatically and the number of Brothers decreased dramatically. I am not going to dwell at this time on the reasons for this change. I limit myself to describing the fact. As Visitor during the early '70's, I can recall profound frustration and even bitterness among many Brothers. I heard such remarks as the following: "They call thi s school a Brothers' school. Where are the Brothers?"
We were operating out of a model that no longer made sense. I have called it a triangular model: The Brothers in reduced number at the apex; the lay teachers and other members of the educational community at the base, in important but secondary roles. The school was a Brothers' school. It was understood that the Brothers would give the school its Christian and Lasallian spirit.
That model has been in the process of dying for the past twenty-five years. But it is only within the past ten years or so that a new model has begun to emerge. This model I have described as a circular model. We speak today of a school animated not essentially or exclusively by the Brothers but by the entire educational community, of which the Brothers form a part. Our new Rule tells us clearly that the Brothers exercise their apostolate within an educational community (Art. 17A).
Many persons, both Brothers and lay, have found it helpful to express this dramatic change in terms of a transition from Brothers' schools to Lasallian schools. The Brothers' school: A school animated primarily by the Brothers with others in a secondary role; a Lasallian school: a school animated by a Lasallian educational community of faith, of which the Brothers form a part.
I said above that we need to watch and guide what is happening with compassion. I think that many Brothers have found new meaning and see new possibilities in this very different way of understanding their mission. But I know that there are a number of Brothers who are still discouraged. They believe that this accent on the participation of the laity is an expression of loss of faith and confidence in our own vocation and of the future of the Brothers of the Christian schools.
We must be very clear. The educational ministry of the church, once exercised very predominantly by members of religious institutes, is today a ministry exercised predominantly by the laity. Quoting with approval a synod proposition, Pope John Paul II says in Christifideles Laici, "This synod appeals to the prophetic task of Catholic schools and universities, and praises teachers and professors, now lay people for the most part...(63)."
But the Holy Father continues: "The simultaneous presence of clergy, the lay faithful and men and women religious offers students a vivid image of the Church (63)." The role therefore of religious in the ministry of Christian education, religious such as the Brothers of the Christian schools, has changed. It is now, as our Rule has clearly stated in the article I have already cited, a role of collaboration.
But it is important to state very clearly that if the role of the Brothers has changed — almost before our very eyes — their identity has not, nor has their fundamental mission: That mission is to make Christ's loving and saving presence a visible and effective reality among the young. "As religious vowed to the ministry of Christian education, the first apostolate of the Brothers consists in the witness of their consecrated life." (Art. 24)
We must therefore guard against any careless confusing of "identities." The Brothers are consecrated religious men. They express that religious consecration by vows of chastity, poverty, obedience, association for the service of the poor through education, and stability in their institute. They live their consecrated life in community. Their manner living their baptismal consecration is different and highly significant — both for themselves and for others. Religious are "Public Christians." By that expression I mean that by their very visible lifestyle as Christians, if they live it authentically, they "say", so to speak, to all who observe them, "we believe."
We need, therefore, during this period of profound change in the manner in which the Brothers exercise their mission, to maintain a clear and unambiguous understanding and appreciation of the identity of the Brothers. I repeat: their manner of living their baptismal consecration is different and therefore complementary. To repeat the Holy Father's expression: "the simultaneous presence of clergy, the lay faithful, and men and women religious offers students a vivid image of the church."
We Brothers remain convinced of the value of our vocation. We remain convinced that God continues to call young people to be Brothers. We acknowledge that we have been too timid in recent years in extending invitations to young people to examine if God might be calling them to be Brothers. We intend to place an even greater accent on the pastoral ministry of vocations — and we invite all members of the Lasallian family to help us.
Having clearly affirmed this significant change in the exercise of the mission of the Brother, the Rule expresses two fundamental orientations: 1) "The Brothers make known to all members of the educational community the essentials of the Lasallian message;" 2) "The Brothers offer to those who desire it, a more intensified sharing of Lasallian spirituality, encouraging such persons to make a more specific apostolate commitment (Article 17C)."
You lay men and women present in this assembly are here because you desire a more intense sharing of Lasallian spirituality. That desire on your part is a source of joy and encouragement for all of us Brothers. You have shared during these days your own experience of living your baptismal consecration in a manner inspired by the spirituality of St. John Baptist de La Salle. On Sunday, Brother Genaro Spoke, to your great satisfaction, of the evolution of various groups in our Lasallian family and of the criteria which must be no further comments on that topic are required. No further comments on that topic are required.
THE SPIRIT OF THE LASALLIAN FAMILY
If you can bear with me a bit longer, however, I would like to make a few remarks on the spirit of the Lasallian family.
The word spirit is a beautiful word. It is a word to which we educators relate quite easily. How often we have said: "This group of youngsters has excellent spirit." Or perhaps "This group has no spirit, they are dead." De La Salle said something similar. He said that those who have the spirit of the Institute are alive. Those who do not, are dead. He went on to say that the spirit of the Institute is first, faith, and second, zeal. And since he entitled the third chapter of his Rule, "The Spirit Of Community," I have no hesitation in declaring that the spirit of the Brothers is one of Faith and Zeal, Lived Together and by Association.
It is that same spirit which must characterize the Lasallian family today. It is that spirit which will enable us to be so well-united that we can legitimately claim to be an authentic "Communion of Persons", a communion that is called by God to generate communion, that is to say, help generate a worldwide community of brothers and sisters.
To be a man or woman of faith is to be a person for whom God is really alive. I am very fond of the Biblical image of "walking with the Lord," an image used to describe the relationship with God of a number of Biblical figures. The man or woman of faith — the Lasallian committed to the Lasallian mission — is a man or woman who walks with the Lord. God is real and always near. God, the loving father, who, in his love for others, has called us to some form of relationship with the Lasallian educational mission. To be a man or woman of faith is to live in union with Christ, who wants us to be his ministers, his ambassadors, his very presence. To be a man or woman of faith is to live under the guidance of the Spirit. As the Founder emphasizes in page after page of his writings, we are only God's instruments. Our power comes not from ourselves, but from the Holy Spirit.
The Lasallian spirit is secondly an ardent zeal for the Christian education of children, especially poor children. Those two words — ardent and zeal — are so strong that some of us fear them. Do they not suggest fanaticism, we ask? Let us not dismiss them too quickly, however. Fanaticism we certainly do not want. But an enthusiastic, dynamic, and creative commitment for the human and Christian education of those confided to our care is an essential dimension of the spirit of the Lasallian family. If ardent zeal is lacking, we are not fully alive as Lasallians.
You have heard so much during these days about "together and by association" — and I have already directly and indirectly spoken of this notion as it relates to communion — that I shall say no more about it at this time.
How do we acquire this spirit? There is only one way. That is through prayer. De La Salle's teaching of prayer can never be dissociated from his teaching on the identity of the Brother as minister and ambassador of Christ to youth. He tells the Brothers that they are to represent Jesus Christ so vividly that the pupils receive their words as coming from the mouth of Jesus. He then tells the Brothers what they must do if they want to acquire that spirit they require: they must give themselves totally and without reserve to God. God will then fill the Brothers with His Holy Spirit enabling them to touch the hearts of the young people confided to them.
As Lasallians we must be men and women of prayer, prayer that is nourished by regular meditation on the word of God in the scriptures. Prayer is a time of heightened awareness in faith of the loving presence of the Lord and of our presence to him. It is a time for praise, thanksgiving, contrition, and petition. Our prayers are always heard. God responds by sending his holy spirit upon us, enabling us to be the men and women he wants us to be.
Let me conclude with one of my favorite stories. I told it in this very room at the end of the General Chapter.
Ten years ago I had the unforgettable experience of visiting our Brothers in one of the countries of Eastern Europe, a country in which our Institute has been suppressed. The eight Brothers who were living at the time were scattered throughout the country. When I arrived at the dwelling of an eighty-five year old Brother, since deceased, I found him seated at a table praying the office of the Church. On the otherwise bare table was a copy of the French edition of the 1976 Rule, published in late 1976 and literally smuggled into the country in 1977 or 1978. It was likely therefore that that particular copy was less than two years old. I picked up the Rule and noticed that it was very worn, obviously from repeated use.
"Brother," I said, "It is evident that you read your Rule frequently." "Every day," he said, "This Rule is my contact with the Institute."
But that's not the end of the story. This eighty-five year old Brother took me next door to the parish church for mass. He left me in the front pew, then climbed up to the organ loft where he played the organ and conducted a choir of twenty or so children.
As I mentioned at the General Chapter, this Brother didn't play the organ like our Brother Georges Ley. And the children didn't sing like the Vienna Boys Choir. But they were magnificent.
As I left this Brother late that evening, profoundly moved by this experience of extraordinary fidelity, I though to myself: This old man of eighty-five years, cut off from the mainstream of the Institute for forty years, is truly alive; He is man with spirit, that spirit upon which St. La Salle insisted: A Spirit of Faith and Zeal, Lived Together and by Association.
If we members of the Lasallian family have that spirit, that is to say, if we live our membership in this international religious family as men and women of faith and zeal and in communion, we can be sure that we shall generate communion, because
COMMUNION GENERATES COMMUNION.
Brother John Johnston, FSC
Superior General
"Open" General Assembly of Lasallian World Confederation
CONCLUDING REMARKS
December 19, 1989
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