A Catholic Pastor Preacher

Introduction: The evangelisation is the key to every Christian. This evangelisation entails primarily proclamation of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This must be our priority as the Church. There needs to be an explicit proclamation of Jesus Christ. The evangelisation is the task of the Church and since we make the Church we are called to be evangelisers in the world.

1.     Everyone proclaims the Gospel: The task to evangelize falls on everyone not merely the hierarchy. This task must begin in our Church. “Everyone must feel welcome and loved in the Church.” (114). Our Church is diverse; diverse in cultures, yet the Church must be a place of unity and love. “However defective we are, we have to go on being missionary” (121). Parents and children, both hold same good for evangelisation. Therefore, everyone is called to be evangelizers.

Question: What is my role in spreading the Gospel?

2.     Popular piety: Inculturated Gospel can help us to strengthen ourselves in God. Popular piety is one of the evangelizing power and “must not underestimate. We need to promote and strengthen it. Expressions of popular piety have much to teach us especially in the new evangelisation.

Question: Do I encourage popular devotions in my family or in my church community? 

3.     Homily, a heart to heart conversation: The Church is a communion of people. The Church has a relationship with every member of the community. Church is like a mother and faithful are like children, thence, the Church must speak the mother tongue to its children so that they understand. “The homily is the touchstone for judging a pastor’s closeness and ability to communicate to his people. The homily must be an intense and happy experience of the Spirit, a consoling encounter with God’s Word, a constant source of renewed growth” (135).

Question: Do you think your homilist talks to you heart?

4.     Keep silence and allow God to Speak: The preacher’s primary task is to synthesis that joins hearts together and not ideas or detached values. It is part of the liturgical celebration between God and His people. Therefore, a homily must be part of that dialogue not a lecture (138). “The preacher should radiate the qualities of closeness, warmth, simplicity and joy” (140). A homily is not speech or an extempore rather it is a heart to heart conversation (141). It is God who speaks through the homilist.

Question: Do your preacher has a heart to heart conversation with you?

5.     Homily must be prepared: “A preacher who does not prepare is not ‘spiritual’; he is dishonest and irresponsible with the gifts he has received” (145). The gifts that a priest received at the Sacrament of the Holy Orders to live and spread the Gospel. A preacher needs to spend time in to understand the words and convey it to the faithful. “Preparation must take time, interest, and undivided attention” (146). A preacher must follow in his life what he is preaching. “The clarity of the message must first resonate to the heart of the preacher, before this can happen to the people” (149).

Question: Do you think your preacher has spent enough time in reflecting, praying, and preparing his homily?

6.     Preach what people what to hear: It would not make any sense if a preacher preaches what people don’t want to hear. Hence, it becomes a monologue, a non heart to heart conversation. “Whoever preaches should first discover what message the people need to hear” (154). “A preacher should never respond to questions that nobody asks” (155).

Question: Do you hear from the preacher what you don’t want to hear?

7.     Speak people’s language: A preacher needs to use different techniques and images to convey the message effectively (158). “A preacher should avoid seminary language or professionalisms: they should use people’s language” (158). A preacher must understand the feeling and emotions among the faithful in order to preach effectively; a language of feelings and emotions of the people. “A preacher must always be positive, even when pointing out negative things” (159). Therefore, pulpit is not a place to point out to people their mistakes by excluding the preacher. A negative preacher will make his listeners negative people.

Question: Do you think your preacher understands your language: language of your feelings?

Conclusion: A homily must well up from the preacher’s heart and not from his head. A preacher must speak the language of the people and to heart to heart. Through the preacher God speaks to His people, hence, renewing the relationship with God. In order to be a good preacher, one has to listen before he preaches; listen to the word of God in silence and listen to the people of God. This way a preacher can speak to the heart of the faithful.

Our Nature and Creatures Our own Family: Pope Francis

This planet earth is our home away from our home. This home of ours is to be kept clean and liveable not only for ourselves but for the generations to come. The twelfth century St. Francis of Assisi acclaimed the planet and its entities as brother and sister. “Praised be you, my Lord, with all your creatures especially Brother Sun, who is beautiful and radiant splendour, Sister Moon and the stars, who are formed clear and precious and beautiful, Brother Wind, through air, cloudy and serene and every kind of weather, we get our sustenance for our living, Sister Water, which is useful and humble and precious and chaste, Brother Fire, from whom we get light and who is playful and robust and strong.”

Has it ever crossed your mind this wonderful way of expressing our love for the nature? If we did not, I think we can think about it now and treat our natural brothers and sisters as we treat our own biological siblings. Pope Francis in his encyclical (letter) “Laudato Si” (Praised to be to you) categorically warns the world addressing our nature and its creatures including human beings as sister. “This sister of ours cries out to us because we have inflicted harm on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her. We have come to see ourselves as her lords and masters, entitled to plunder her at will.” Pope Francis.

Can we hear the groan of our sister nature which has been desecrated to the extent that we will be unable to live in our home nature because of the drastic climate change in the last few decades. It is significant to treat our nature as our own home. It is not fair to think the public land does not belong to me, hence, I can do whatever I like on that land. It is simple logic, as Pope says, if we consider nature and its creatures as our own family members, I am sure we will be caring for it by keeping it spruce and healthy. This way we can be happy to get the utmost from the ecosystem. We need to upkeep our ecosystem because we are mutually dependable. The life cycle needs every creature and each one us. Therefore, we have to keep our natural diversity alive by caring for it. Our nature home needs to keep clean just like our own home. We cannot live in the filth for a long time. By doing this we contribute significantly towards a healthy ecosystem. We have been trying our best in different ways to keep our nature alive by various means but as Pope says, we have to do some serious work and a serious debate as to how we can control global climate change. 

Fr. Jerry Melwin Dias SJ

Diocese of Georgetown

Desecration of my home: Pope Francis' encyclical on Environment

Introduction

Our home is a beautiful home that God created and intended to be a clean and liveable. We have exploited this home and desecrated the home with our selfish consumerist motives. We have inflicted violence on our own home members, i.e. other living creatures who are part of our lives. They groan with pain and we have not listened to their groaning. The earth we live, the air that we breathe, and the water we drink is a free gift from God. We have make use of them for our upkeep and not for our greed. Our ecosystem plays a significant role in our lives, for it keep a balance among the living creatures including human beings.

Desecration of our home

Our nature has to be treated like our home. We like to keep our home spruce and whatever is foreign to our home is cleansed. This way our family can remain healthy and happy. Nature is somewhat more than our own home; our homes can be fixed if something went wrong, but our nature cannot be fixed. Our nature is irreplaceable with its natural complications and beauty.

“Following a period of irrational confidence in progress and human abilities, some sectors of society are now adopting a more critical approach. We see increasing sensitivity to the environment and the need to protect nature, along with a growing concern, both genuine and distressing”.

Pollution is a major issue in every nation. We have a ‘throwaway culture’ that impacts our nature. Sometimes one might very well think that pollution would not affect us but it does affect the human beings in the longer run. Pollution can not only impact in poor health but it might contribute to the premature deaths and eventually contribute negatively towards human births. Our naïve understanding of throwaway culture is going to see our own demise. For example recycling can help control waste and garbage in the planet.

Is my home filthy?

There is ignorance on the part of the people when one thinks that if one person pollutes the atmosphere, what does that matter? It is an uninformed and misrepresented understanding of how we use our natural resources. Climate change and global warming can happen even if my car is carbon clean. Carbon dioxide contributes harmfully to climate change. Our planet might become a run down house, and not in living conditions. One might enjoy sitting in an air-conditioned room, but the other part of one’s air conditioning might be emitting heat and other gases which are detrimental to the nature. Hence, we might end up enjoying ourselves for a moment but we might have to feel the brunt in the longer run.

Poor countries have been on the receiving end in the climate change. Poorer countries sustain through agriculture. They are part of the ecosystem. For example, farming, fishing and forestry, and if this we manoeuvre this ecosystem, the sustenance of these poor people will in jeopardy. They will go hungry as it is already happening around the globe. Let us keep our home filth-free and liveable for our children.

Waters of life and death

We have been exploiting the nature with upmost vengeance, even to the extent of making this planet’s water poisonous. Water has been wasted and polluted so badly, it would be affect the water creature and would affect fishing. We have seen dirty and poisonous water is being diverted to our rivers and oceans, thinking that is not our own. The river and ocean is vast that it would not matter if we divert dirty water to it.

Fresh drinking water is a major issue and it must draw our attention before we go into red level. Polluted water can cause ecosystem to change drastically and cause health hazards. Have we ever experienced real shortage of water? It occurs to us when we have to economize water in our homes. Why do wait that to happen? Why not control before we go to red level? Let us stop wasting water and think of the people who crave for clean drinking water.

Human need for diverse natural resources

 It is significant to note the “life cycle” that we are part of. Every creature need every creature. As human being we need other species of creatures and other species of nature. “The loss of forests and woodlands entails the loss of species which may constitute extremely important resources in the future, not only for food but also for curing disease and other uses.”

It is a misconception that we do not need the nature and its beings. It is not fair to think that whenever I need I use and abuse the nature and its living beings for my benefit. So long as it benefits me, I use or even abuse. In this case we can see our own demise because we need each for our survival. We are already into red level when we take into account the extinction of the mammals and birds. This causes an imbalance in the ecosystem posing a serious danger to us. Most often our nature is exploited for our own selfish needs and further for our greed, in other words for our selfish commercial motives.

We need to safeguard our planet and its living creatures or else they will cause an imbalance in the ‘life cycle.’ It is important to note the work done by the environmentalist and other organisations to deploy measures to upkeep the natural beings. We have to keep our ecosystem up and running; first of all we need to understand our ecosystem, which works in conglomeration with others.

Mental Pollution

We are in an information world. This world has made us aware of our own existence as human person through technological advancements. This existence is proved only through information that is provided by the so-called Internet world. There is a mental pollution-taking place in our world. There is a breakdown of real and ideal society that our forefathers would have expected to see. We live in a virtual world; a world of Internet and a world social media.

Most times we might become well equipped to face the world if we have had enough data about anything, this is good in itself. But we know that dangers of hunting the data online. We have lost the interpersonal connection with each other. We should be concerned that, alongside the exciting possibilities offered by these media, a deep and melancholic dissatisfaction with interpersonal relations, or a harmful sense of isolation, can also arise.

Cry of the poor

There is an imbalance in the nature cause by our selfish motives. This is affected among the poor people. Over exploitation of the nature can cause not replaceable wipe away of resources which will in the end affect everyone us but most certainly poorest of the poor. For example, imbalance in the ecosystem can cause the fishes to extinct which will cause the poor fishermen to go bankrupt. Process of building urban cities can push the rural boundaries to the fringes and eventually rural beauty might turn into a wonderful coloured clad city. Hence, causing the real rural beauty to vanish in the thin air. “We have integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as to hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor.”

Food is an integral part of our nature. We need food for our sustenance. There is an inequality in food distribution. Gandhi said, “We have enough for our need not enough for our greed.” Hence, there is a consumerist approach to food, namely, when I don’t want food, I just dash in the bin. “We know that approximately a third of all food produced is discarded, and whenever food is thrown out it is as if it were stolen from the table of the poor.”

Conclusion

We as Church may not be able give our opinions alone, but needs to engage in dialogue with other experts to enhance our own home, the nature. Our home is in serious danger. There is someone trying to destroy our home without even our knowing. “If we scan the regions of our planet, we immediately see that humanity has disappointed God’s expectation.” We as Church and other organisational entities must scan every possible regions to stop abusing our nature and desecrating our home and home of many living creatures. 

The Joy of the Gospel: Chapter Two

Introduction: We are called to be evangelizers in our world. This has to be done through adhering to the “signs of the times” (51). A scrutiny is necessary into our mutated evangelical questions. To do this, we have to be nourished by the “light and strength of the Holy Spirit” (50). There are fruits of the Kingdom that are in focus with God’s values and there are fruits of the world that are counter to God’s plan to the humanity. An evangelical discernment is necessary.

1.      Evangelization amidst economic inequality: There is an economic imbalance in the world. “An inequality is the reality in our society” (52). “Money has become a God, it has become man’s only value” (55), this can lead to greed and greed can lead into corruption. Money has an “ally called corruption” (56). Why someone becomes or remain poor? It is not noteworthy to “blame the poor for being uneducated" (60).

Question: How can I be an evangelizer in an unequal society? How can I proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom value in a corrupt world? 

2.      Relationship of Convenience: Our society is driven by emotional satisfaction and can be constructed in any way or modified at will (66). Relationship is merely for personal gratification with a naïve and mediocre commitment. This is because of the “breakdown in passing on the Christian Faith” (70) to our children and Church community. It is important to go back to our Sacred Scriptures to draw our source, “for many ills of the present world the Gospel offers very good remedies” (75).

Question: How can I avoid a relationship of convenience? How can I uphold the values from the Scriptures in the foggy world?

3.      A closet God: the present world tends to slide towards a naïve understanding of God and the poor. There is an element of “when I need God, I will take him out of the closet.” “Great importance is attached to personal freedom and relaxation; there is much individualism, a crisis of identity and a cooling of fervour” (78). At times my individualism and personal gratification can take precedence over religious calling, which can lead us into spiritual blindness. Religious calling might drift towards convenience. “When we lose our boldness and zeal we may well turn into credulous and sour pessimists” (85). A mere obligation to our religious calling might end us up in a danger of becoming a cold Christians, “mummification of Christianity, and a disillusioned clinging to nostalgia” (83).

Question: What is my priority in life: is God first and the rest OR visa versa? Is God a “whenever I need please come to my rescue”? 

4.      A self-centred Christian: We live in a highly competitive and an instant world. This on the one hand would help to be successful in our lives and on the other hand might make individualistic person (narcissism). “Advances in communication have created greater possibilities fro encounter and solidarity; but we should be on our guard against narcissism” (87). “There needs to a physical encounter with others” (88). It is significant to look around us for God created each one us in His own image and likeness. We ignore one person; we ignore God’s image and likeness in that person. “we should form a mystical fraternity, touching God, and aware of the grandeur in every weak human beings” (92).

Question: How can care for my fellow human persons whilst I have to fulfil my own dreams? Can a weak person be part of my life?

5.      Business mentality in the Church: The Church is the communion of the people of God; a union of minds and hearts. Every person in the Church has a role to play. The Church cannot be run like a firm, “ostentatious preoccupation with liturgy, dogma and the Church’s prestige, and also in a busy social life, business mentality, management, considering the Church as an institution” (95). “The Church must not turn into a museum piece or something which is the property of a select few” (95). Hence, the decisions in the Church affect both spiritual and physical life of the people of God.

Question: Do treat our decision-making process “as lead by God” OR we make decisions according to our whims and fancies?

6.      Labelling the laity: It is easy for someone to label the laity as “knows nothing”, or “I know better”. This attitude will make the only “pew Christian”. A laity who is confined to the pews and not to take active part in the life of the Church. “Room should be made for lad people in decision making positions” (102). Vast number of Churchgoers is women, “Women should be given many more opportunities, also in decision making positions” (103). Youth ministry must be our priority in the Church for often times, the youth are neglected, “many youths are keen to participate” (106).

Question: Do the laity is raised to the position of decision making the parishes? Do women feel significant in your community? Do the youth become merely a “pew Christian” or feel responsible in the Church?

7.      A priestly lay Church: There is a tendency among the laity to make the clergy “Hero” of the parish community. This tendency might open up an attitude of superiority over the laity by the clergy. “Ministerial priesthood is reserved to males; but priestly power lies in the realm of function, not in the realm of dignity; the ministerial priesthood does not imply an exaltation which would set the priest above others; he has no superiority vis-à-vis the others” (104). Priest has sacramental powers not any other powers; “a power to administer the Sacrament of the Eucharist: (104). Hence, a priest must help enrich and enhance the lives of the faithful not prove himself as “someone who is more qualified and talented”.

Question: Do you see your pastors as a “person of love”; love for the Eucharist and its people? Do you consider your priests as your equals OR you make them “Heroes” and elevate them above you?

Joy of the Gospel: Chapter One

Introduction

We must be a church on a mission; a missionary Church:

“Ad Gentes” (1965): Speaks about the ultimate foundation of the Church’s missionary activity, it is participation in the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit; participation in the life of the Trinity. It is rooted in Missio Dei.

Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975): Apostolic Exhortation of Paul VI. It emphasises the essential missionary nature of the Church rooted in the mission of Jesus.

Redemtoris Missio (1990): John Paul, an encyclical talks about Christocentric Mission. Christ is therefore is the focus of any theological and missionary discussion and work.

An Overview

Missionary Church: we cannot stand still; we need to move forward – we need to be a Church that goes forth and does so with joy. We need to engage in the world, not separate from it. We need to begin by reforming ourselves and our parishes and even the papacy/Vatican. There is no room for complacency. As we take our message forth, we need to simply it and to use less church language. The message also needs to be more balanced, less judgemental and not always harping on the same issues or themes. It is important for the message we preach to be attractive to people.

Chapter One: The Church’s Missionary Transformation

1.     Christians of Easter: “There are Christians whose lives seem like Lent without Easter” (6). We have our joy in risen Christ; we are not good Friday Christians but Easter Christians. “Technological Society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy”(7). Our joy is in Christ Jesus. We are evangelisers of joy of risen Christ and we must never look like someone who has just come back from a funeral (10). Gospel of Christ is full of hope and happiness not static and melancholic fiction novel.

Question: can I still be joyful evangelizer while our society is bruised with violence, pain and suffering?

2.     Church as communion and missionary: The Catholic Church is not static but dynamic. We have to be in communion with Jesus and our fellow neighbours, this will impel us to mission; “communion and mission are profoundly interconnected.”(23). The Church that goes forth, Church (the Eucharist) sends us on a mission in the world.

Question: Do we really feel propelled to go out into the world to evangelize? How can we improve our Church activities so we feel propelled to go out to speak for God?

3.     Openness to pastoral conversion: We need a missionary openness for the contemporary times. Our world speaks a different language; our questions are different from the old times. “That the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channelled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation (270”. A change of complacent attitude of “we have always done this way (33)” must give rise to a holistic growth of the community. We need each other for we are all sojourners in this world towards the Omega Point (Teil de Charden).

Question: Do you think that your community is open to the changes even if it requires breaking away from traditional practices?

4.     Language of the faithful: In the missionary Church one has to transmit deposit of faith using a simple language of the people. It is the duty of the philosophers, scientists and theologians to speak that language and not to dwell on flabbergasting language. “The deposit of faith is one thing… the way it is expressed is another (41)”. Preaching has to be relevant to our current times (42). We need to evangelize more effectively without renouncing the truth (45) even if we need to use a different language than we used always.

Question: Do you think the Church speaks a friendly and welcoming language today?

5.     Non-filtering of God’s graces: The Eucharist must propel us to go out into the world and embrace the bruised and wounded like Mother Teresa. The Church sends us forth to the fringes of the society where Christ is present, “I have not come for the righteous but for the sinners.” Same way our Church doors must be open for every person in the society with all their problems because it is the house of the Father, not a “tollhouse”(47). The Eucharist is the powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. Frequently, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its facilitators. (47).

Question: Is our Church community open to people of every kind, divorced, weak, depressed, differently sex orientated, differently abled, other faiths (churches)? Do we filter God; who should experience God? Do we go out to see the bruised and dirty and hurting Church (49)? 

New Evangelisation: A Church that Goes Forth

Indigenous Students after a liturgical dance

A small vendor at the corner of the market place had an interesting conversation with me about his own ordeal for not going to Church. He said that he has continuously to pray in recent times. He has neither time to pop into a Church to pray. It was his honesty that gripped my reflection on this vendor. He further explained that he has been a good person and has been honest in doing his business. He even has helped some of the poor people through his little contributions. His question was, whether he was wrong in the sight of God for not prayin

g and not going to Church? My immediate response was, well done good and faithful servant. You have not been malicious in your business; hence your work is prayer for you. It is said work is worship; an honest person does an honest work. The vendor gave me soaring thumbs up for my pragmatic approach to prayer especially in his life.

In a secular world “New Evangelisation” plays a significant role in the life of the people and the life of the Church. The postmodern ideals appeal to our mutative world. It is also true a robust dogmatic approach of the post-secular ethos have swept the nations to withdraw into a cocoon like life. At times, we wonder at our own world, which has constantly failed to uphold the religious and moralistic ideals. This has lead to steep decline in the religious commitment among the people of God. There is not an iota of attraction for people to hold on to religious ethos; ethos that Jesus came to teach, ethos that help us to love God and love our neighbour.

Our questions are different today. We ask questions are towards arriving at a genuine truth. Young people reason and question the way of the Church. Is there a way that can grip the young people to go to Church? One of the young persons told, that Church is in her heart, so why one has to go to Church to encounter God? One can encounter God and their neighbour right next to their house. Hence the New Evangelisation helps to understand to reach out to the people who are in need of our help. The possible drift among the Catholic folks can be avoided if we make New Evangelisation our own mission; mission of the Church.

Let us try to understand what is ‘New Evangelisation’? Pope Benedict XVI reflected three aspects of the New Evangelisation.

Firstly, “New Evangelisation applies to the ordinary pastoral ministry that must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit.” Jesus promised an advocate to us, that is a Paraclete, Holy Spirit to sustain the Church. In our present context, Holy Spirit guides our bishops and pastors to make decisions that renew the face of the earth. Holy Spirit helps animate the Church to encounter God in our day today lives both in the life of the Church and domestic Church, the family.

Secondly, “the Church’s task is to evangelise, to proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not know Jesus Christ.” Jesus sent the disciples to go to the ends of the earth and make disciples in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Hence, Church has been very a missionary Church, as it is said traditionally, missio ad gentes, or missions to the nations. We can draw our source from the early accounts of the apostles who went to the unknown lands to preach about Christ. It is a challenge to preach Gospel to the people who have not heard about Jesus. It is a naïve world, which is reluctant to entertain any religious aspects for it, can be deemed as un-scientific.

Thirdly, “the baptised whose lives do not reflect the demands of baptism. The Church particularly concerned that they should encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover the joy of faith, and return to religious practice in the community of the faithful.” It is a common jargon, which goes like this, “I was a Catholic…but I am not.” I understood from my Catechism that once you are baptised, you are always a Catholic. It is a trend in our Church to baptise with its pompous ceremony and after-baptismal party. There is certain amount of formation before and after baptism but eventually the zeal of our baptismal commitment slackens. Hence, we have a lot of the lapsed Catholics, who either do not practise or do not care to form themselves. There is a mediocre way of practicing our faith. I call them as, convenient Catholics; whenever its convenient one practices one’s faith.

Therefore, New Evangelisation is not doing new things to share the Gospel or doing creative ways of liturgy and other pieties but it is trying to share the Gospel to the people who are in need or people who are not aware of the Good News. The New Evangelisation is not specific action or activity of the Church, but rather a way of seeing a whole range of activities carried on by the Church to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ. As Pope Francis in ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ exhorted, the Church is a missionary Church and a Church that goes forth, we can be missionaries of New Evangelisation right in our families or in our work place by helping each other to experience God. This way, we can make New Evangelisation that goes forth to the frontiers of our society.