“Mission demands great holiness”
(Joseph Allamano)

“Moreover, as missionaries, you must be not only holy,
but holy in a superlative way”
(VS, 111)

To start reflections, activities and programs, in view of the closing date of the Biennium on holiness, it is being offered to Confreres and Regions this work instrument which describes in a simple way the profile of the Consolata Missionary as a holy person.

Its aim is not to be a complete and exhaustive study, but it intends to leave to the individual Regions the possibility of working on it, supplement it, adapting it to the people, places, circumstances and cultures it comes in contact with.

Besides, it is being suggested that it be read in the light of “Our life and mission style”, a document of the XI General Chapter, held at São Paulo in the Spring of 2005. This document intends to propose to the Institute a summarized and sure synthesis of the life of the Consolata Missionary.

To describe the profile of the Consolata Missionary as a holy person, it implies the presentation of the spiritual principles, characteristics, attitudes, sentiments and activities inherent to his identity, vocation and service.

Identity and holiness, being and duty to become holy, must nevertheless be always considered together. It is not properly correct to make holiness, duty to become holy, originate from the identity. In fact holiness is being realized when the missionary lives his own identity. When one is a true Consolata Missionary, then he is holy. In other words, holiness is being brought about by living well one’s own identity.

It does not look difficult to identify the fundamental areas for outlining our identity.

First of all, our life is to be read again in Christ Jesus and his gospel. His life, his word and action, his paschal mystery, become for us undisputable and inalienable models for outlining our identity. Through grace we have met him, welcomed his call, and have become his disciples, consecrated in the Holy Spirit for the proclamation of the gospel to the peoples, determined to practice his own style of life and we ourselves having his same sentiments. Our relationship with him is growing, through daily prayer and the service we wish to offer him, announcing him to the brothers.

The second area which outlines our identity is the Constitution, precious rule, to be held constantly in our hands. It specifies for us, in our daily living, how a disciple of Jesus, a missionary of the gospel, lives and qualifies himself. By proposing typical characteristics and attitudes, intended by the Spirit though the mediation of the Founder, it has the task of conferring to the disciple the name of Consolata Missionary. To be consecrated in chastity, poverty and obedience; to live in international communities which make visible the universality of salvation and the reality of paradise; evangelization carried out through a methodological style which draws inspiration from Mary Consolata and makes her an authentic mother and sure partner along our journey; these become for us inalienable elements which qualify us within the Church.

The third reference point is the Founder. His fatherhood, manifested in words and writings, in advices, in proposals of concrete means in order to live our vocation having attitudes and characteristics to be adopted in our daily living, is received by us, his loving and obedient sons, as a precious inheritance. In fact we recognize in him the wisdom that comes forth from the Spirit and the acquired knowledge of a Father who seeks the good of his sons.

Finally, also the time and cultures in which we live color and enrich our identity. They remain a stimulus to constantly verify whether our testimony is active and efficacious. Confrontation with modernity and diversity of cultures has always the merit of making us question the mediocrity of our life, urging us to get across towards “more” and hope.

The sincere wish for all is that holiness, meditated and lived during this biennium, may make us all the more similar to Christ, missionary of the Father.

Rome, 6 February 2008
Ash Wednesday

1 – LET US LIVE HOLINESS AS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

1.1 – Every missionary is such, only if he is committed to the journey of holiness. Tension towards holiness is inborn in our missionary vocation; it constitutes its foundation, the motivation and reason of all our being.

This intuition of our Founder, the Blessed Joseph Allamano, even today, in a period of globalization, must be made evident in a journey which passes through the personal experience of God, the centrality of Christ in his praxis and announcement of the Kingdom of God up to the paschal mystery, and which flows out into mission, incarnated in the different realities where we live and work.

The axiom “first holy and then missionaries”, must therefore transform itself into “an option for holiness of life” which places Christ at the center and nourishes itself with:

• A high level of spirituality and prayer
• A humble and careful listening of God in his Word and in the events of history
• A knowledge of one’s own personal reality
• A PPL which includes times and ways for nourishing the spirit
• A habit of praying and celebrating with the people, being especially faithful to the daily Eucharist

Missionary holiness is born and formed in the encounter with Christ. The lessening of our relationship with Christ weakens the very root of mission. Perhaps it is to be found here the reason for some of our mediocrities. Today, missionary enthusiasm requires a strong missionary spirituality, supported by an adequate theological vision.

The missionary liveliness of the first Christian communities – reported by the book of the Acts of the Apostles – was born out of the experience of a personal and intimate encounter with Christ. Still today, the urgency of mission and the conviction that Christ is awaited by every human being is evinced, starting from one’s own experience of an encounter with him. It is this the answer to “why” mission. Let there not be fear for this strong emphasis on the centrality of Christ.

1.2 – Holiness is manifested in the awareness of being consecrated ad gentes, ad vitam, ad extra and ad pauperes, for the service of the mission in the Church, through Consecrated Life. It is our specific way of being disciples of Christ, giving witness through the vows of obedience, poverty and chastity.

To be religious it points out a style and an awareness of a radical fellowship, which shows the evangelical alternative to the prevailing culture, it inspires prophetical choices and qualifies mission. By our daily living we state that Jesus Christ is our only good and the supreme norm of our doing. We continuously strive to be like him, living and witnessing among the people the typical values of the Kingdom of God.

The measure of the radicalism of our love for Christ and our brethren finds in martyrdom the supreme seal of self giving, through the offering of our daily fatigue, the suffering in sickness or the sacrifice of life itself.

Each one of us knows his own limitations, and even in community one may experience disappointments, frustrations for projects not achieved in the various areas of our missionary service. This may cause us to loose sight of, and even extinguish our passion for the Kingdom. In the choices we make, some times we are resigned and ready to quit rather than try new ways. We risk becoming employees rather than witnesses, custodians of the past rather than sentinels of the morning.

Why does this happen? What remedy to contrast it?

We must regain our falling in love with Christ Jesus, as the total investment of our life, because the Lord cannot be reduced to a fringe, an appendix to the overall clothes of our existence. If love for Christ does not bear the mark of totality it is ambiguous. Part-time involvement, service by the hours, is not admissible with Christ.

To fall in love with Jesus Christ it means: deep knowledge of him, familiarity with him, daily presence in his house, assimilation of his thought, placing him at the center of our life. The spiritual practices proposed to us by the Constitution, like praying the breviary, rosary, spiritual reading, adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament, are not to be considered old junk to be kept in the attic; they are still valid manifestations of love for the Lord.

If they were lacking, inevitably they would be replaced by other loves: for a woman, one’s own image, carrier and money.

We must state again with clarity that, without the freshness of the love for Christ, the centrality of the Eucharist, prolonged time in front of the tabernacle, we deceive ourselves in thinking that we are working for the Kingdom of God.

It is therefore indispensable to rediscover holiness as a falling in love, because to put Christ at the center will guarantee a renewed harmony of life and apostolate for the whole consecrated life and it will show with clarity how it places itself close to the heart of the life and holiness of the Church.

To start again with Christ, as priests, also it means to look at the Eucharistic Jesus: celebrated, welcomed in the heart, witnessed in life, proclaimed. The Word of God, Prayer and Eucharist, bring us to experience intimacy with Jesus, identification with him, total conformation to him, in order to contemplate his suffering face, which manifests itself in the new material, moral and spiritual poverties and in the defenseless poor, crucified by the injustices brought about by the prevailing  idolatry of money and gain of our globalized society.

Our consecrated life needs to take up vigor again through a journey of conversion and renewal which, as it happened in the first experience of the apostles, before and after the resurrection, it is a starting again from Christ. The first Galilean disciples, called, sent and accompanied during their work in the mission, set out from Christ. At every age, from basic formation up to the last moments of life, we must find again that first love, the inspiring spark which initiated our fellowship along with that intimate awareness which made the apostle Paul say: “Christ has loved me and has given his life for me” (Gal 2:20).

In times of widespread ratification, conformism, lack of creativity, we need to remember that also our spiritual life runs the same risks, a “living on past surplus” which indulges in the idolatry of doing over being, activism, individualism and the cult of efficiency as if mission were just our doing. Facing these temptations a fight is needed against missionary exhibitionism and a renewed endeavor to build the culture of inwardness.

Mission is inscribed in the event itself of Jesus. It belongs to the indicative of revelation, not to the imperative of the answer. Mission, in fact, is not immediately placed in the chapter of duties, but in the chapter which tells what God has done for us.

The most shining place where one may view the evangelizing image of mission is the face of God revealed by Jesus. It is to be emphasized again that Jesus did not only announce the Kingdom, but he has rather shown it in the concreteness of his existence. God’s salvific action (and this is the Kingdom!) has been manifested in him with elements of surprising novelty, like mercy and universality.

If the first coordinate of the life of Jesus has been the mission, the second one has been the community. Jesus has gathered around him a group of disciples so that “they would stay with him”, he has given them time and care, though his concern has never stopped to be also for all people. He has considered the group of his disciples in relation to the mission and not vice versa. Thus Jesus has overcome by just one stroke the old logic – hard to die – of formation of the group coming first, and then its sending to mission. Jesus, from the start, goes to those who are far away with the group of those who are near. This is not just a pedagogic strategy, but a question of identity: if the community does not go to mission, if it does not stand in front of the crowd, it shows that it has not understood and welcomed the Jesus event and does not make itself sign of that event in the world. Salt is no longer salt! In the gospel of St. Mark (cf 3:14-15) it is written that Jesus “appointed twelve that they might stay with him and that he might send them out to preach”. The action of “staying” is not a premise to the action of “sending”, but more than this. The relationship between these two moments is simultaneous and circular. It is by staying with Jesus that one understands the necessity of going. But it is by going that one really stays in the company of Jesus: in fact his life is itinerant and missionary. To stay is not the premise for the sending, but rather the manner of such sending, not alone, but in the company of the Master, in his fellowship.

If holiness is “to start again from Christ”, if it is “to stay” with him who is the sign and image of the Kingdom, then it is indispensable to verify the quality of our familiarity and knowledge of Jesus in order to take up a missionary style which is in keeping with that of Jesus. If it is true that Christianity is not the religion of the book but of the Word, it is equally true that only the Gospel makes possible the knowledge of Jesus Christ, center and heart of Christianity. “Ignorance of the Holy Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”, as Jerome used to state. What type of a missionary can possibly come up without a direct knowledge of Christ Jesus? What kind of proclamation, what choices could we possibly make without the knowledge of his exemplary humanity and of the elements of newness of the Kingdom of God, if it is not proceeding from the reading of and familiarity with his gospels?

It is always desirable a course of serious deepening, for individuals and communities, which takes into account two needs. The first one is that of placing emphasis on the study, reading and meditating the Word of God, certainly contextualized, in community and together with the people. The second one is that of listening to the humanity of today, men and women, moaning and suffering, abandoned and without hope.

2.1 – When the disciple lives holiness in the style and according to the charisma of the Institute, he becomes a Consolata Missionary.

• Apostolic zeal and desire of making the Lord known to all peoples
• Distinctive love for Mary Consolata
• Eucharistic devotion
• Fidelity to the Church and its spiritual leaders
• Love for liturgy
• Brotherly life experienced as in a family
• Practice of manual work

It is known to everybody how the Evangelist John, instead of the Institution of the Eucharist, as reported by the synoptic Gospels, relates the passage of the washing of the feet within the context of the last supper.

This action means that if we do not get up from “that” table, every service of ours is superfluous, useless, and good for nothing. Here we reach the core point of the whole revision of our spiritual life and of our journey towards holiness. Let’s face it, perhaps we offer a great service to the people, through much “diaconia”, which though often does not proceed from “that” table.

Only if we start from the Eucharist, from “that” table, that which we shall do will bear the true signature of the Lord. If we do not start from the Eucharist, our action will be just a busy involvement, we shall always be super-burdened by thousands of things, yes, we shall do the works of charity, but without the charity of the works.

The works of charity do not suffice, if we lack the charity of the works. If love, from which works originate, is lacking, if the wellspring is lacking, if the starting point, that is the Eucharist, is lacking, then every pastoral commitment ends up to be just a pinwheel of things.

“He got up from table” signifies the need for prayer, abandonment in God, extraordinary trust, growth in the Lord’s friendship, to be able to address Jesus Christ in a familiar way and become his intimate friends. If we are detached from Christ, we give the impression of being just some sale representatives of his goods, who handle his things without much conviction, but just for reasons of survival. Some times we lack this deep tieing up with the Lord. Some times we just clutch unto the Lord, rather than abandoning ourselves unto him. An embrace given out of fear is different from one given out of love. To abandon oneself means to let ourselves be cradled by Him, carried by Him, simply saying: “My Lord I love you!”

2.2 – From the Founder we have inherited filial love for Mary Consolata, our “Mother and Foundress”, model and guide. By her motherly style she directs the daily experience of our charisma “ad gentes”, fills and molds our being and doing mission. By the inspiration of her name, consolation becomes Good News to the poor, aiming at human promotion, the wellbeing and happiness of the people, freeing them from every slavery and suffering, fear and oppression.

“I would think of failing my duty and special affection to the Most Holy Virgin, if I would not use all opportunities to talk to you about Her. It is a grace to be able to talk about the Blessed Mother; one contributes in some way to the realization of what She had foretold about Herself: All generations will call me blessed (954).

The very desire of the Blessed Mother is to save souls, to cooperate so that the Blood of her Divine Son may not be poured out in vain. She wanted to give her name to our Institute so that as more souls as possible be saved. All the souls which you will save, it will be so through Mary. If one wishes to save himself without the Blessed Mother’s aid, he is mistaken.

Devotion to the Blessed Mother is not only a pledge of predestination, but also of sanctification. He who does not have true devotion to the Blessed Mother will never be a holy Religious, a holy Priest, and a holy Missionary. He, who wishes to reach holiness without the Blessed Mother, intends to fly without wings. Without Her nothing can be done. And what does She do for our sanctification? She supports us in our temptations and in all those miseries our life is full of; She shields us from Satan; She gives us strength to overcome all difficulties” (JOSEPH ALLAMANO, Spiritual Life).

2.3 – Having Allamano as “Father” and Mary as “Mother”, we live in the Institute as in a “family” in which we consider ourselves as brothers, concerned about one another, in unity of intents, sharing joys, sufferings and hopes.

Community life in brotherhood is for us a primary, fundamental and inalienable value, which animates our mission through the method of communion, makes our testimony assertive and our missionary pastoral work authentic.

Our CPL is a privileged tool of ongoing formation, active insertion into the community, analysis and assessment of the reality, a flywheel round which our activities rotate and without which there would be dispersion, individualism and fragmentation.

Today sloth – after being a victim of a prolonged amnesia, on account of which one would not even know what type of spiritual illness it was – enjoys a renewed and large interest: it is being talked about by philosophers, sociologists and also by those who are interested in spirituality

What is, therefore, sloth or apathy? Akedia in classical Greek indicates the lack, the decrease, of interest, attention, concern: it is therefore a condition of discouragement, dejection, a feeling which comes close to being despair since one does not see any more the possibility of meaning and, therefore, of “salvation”. In the Christian tradition, Origen is the first one who talks about apathy, indicating it as the temptation suffered by Jesus in the desert and defining it as drowsiness, daze, and loss of vigilance. Later on, Evagrious shall identify apathy and describe it among the eight passions, the eight temptations against which the monk will have to fight: a dominant force, an efficacious suggestion, a «demon» which attacks trying to invade the person until it obscures the eyes of the heart, it overcomes the person itself in order to drag him to the limits of a grave psychic illness, up to depression. Evagrious himself, taking up again a rabbinic exegesis of Psalm 91, 6, defines this temptation «midday demon» because it is really towards midday – a time particularly hot, humid, in the desert, when the fatigue for fasting is especially felt – that the obsessive question rises in the heart of the monk: «But is it worthwhile? To what end so much stress? Who can make me do it? ». He who knows well this temptation is aware that it manifests itself as an illness, as a bad relationship with space, and he knows also that sadness, which is a bad relationship with time, can aggregate itself to it – this other temptation, close relative of apathy which the western world has unified in just one «capital vice».

Apathy is truly the «obscure evil»: a person ends its “habitare secum”, he is no longer able of living in solitude, in the desert, in silence, in a reconciled calm. People attempt escapes from themselves accompanied by loss of adherence to reality. Interior anxiety is perceived as spiritual disgust, it invades the whole person and it becomes matrix of dominant feelings which may lead towards emptiness, abyss, the «nothingness», cynicism regarding life and the others. Whereas some times what prevails is a dream of an impossible diversity, the thought of a «somewhere else» in an unreal situation where there is no more spiritual stress, nor practice of vigilance and not even presence of God who is even perceived at times as oppressive.

It is a radical and chronic illness of the heart, a situation of the soul which leads to disorientation, to the un-building of all that was done in life, to a non-vocation of what one has become. Evagrious says that apathy has the terrible power of extinguishing the light of God in the eyes of man.

Umberto Galimberti calls apathy «boredom», «intellectual vacuum», «melancholy»: expressions which do not just make reference to a vice or a neurosis, but rather to a feeling of «exile on the earth». There is some truth in this, but let no one think that this temptation is foreign to him who lives in tension towards «another heaven and another earth »: some times apathy is seduction of atheism.

Atonia of the heart, asphyxiation of the mind, paresis of the will cause man to live in infernal zones, to dwell in the «netherworld», that is in abysses of nonsense where man has lost his dignity. Nevertheless, even in this situation, God’s voice may be heard, even asking, as it happened to Silvano of Mount Athos, to live in the netherworlds without despairing! The fathers of the desert, of yesterday and today, the solitary ones capable of discernment, not only do they know this temptation and are capable of diagnosing it from its first symptoms, but - as authentic «cardiognostici», people who know the human heart, - they also know how to indicate those behaviors suitable for preventing it and the right remedies for curing it. They know that this «passion» is born first of all in a life lived on a daily bases, a life nourished with a wandering spirituality in which love is not tied up to a story, a happening, but only to the instant and experience of a moment. He who lives a life which is obedient only to an unrestrained activism – even if it is taken up «for a good purpose», to help others – and does not know “habitare secum” in order to draw from the spring, he who wears himself out in manifold superficial relationships, who does not train himself on a daily bases to discern his own desire, his own will, his own doing, assuming failures and successes, this person will end up meeting, sooner or later, apathy in its devastating progress.

I believe that remedy par excellence is the Eucharist: Eucharist as an exercise of thanksgiving, Eucharist as a relationship with the things which are God’s gifts, Eucharist as a means of cosmic and Christ-centered communion. Now, apathy is the very opposite of the Eucharist, that is the spirit of thanksgiving: unable to grasp the relationship with the «space» and meaning of things, he who is prey of apathy lives in a non-Eucharist, in the inability of being astonished at beauty, love, and therefore, in the inability to give thanks. As already Giovanni Climaco used to say: «in solitude, without consolation, one is tempted by the demon of apathy and of non-Eucharist ». Yes, apathy means not to believe in love, whereas a Christian says with the apostle John «we believe in love »! (Enzo Bianchi).

2.4 – The Institute has gone through a significant change in the composition of its members. Our communities are all the more international and multicultural, a richness and a challenge at the same time. In today’s globalized world, often tormented by divisions, sectarianisms and fundamentalisms, mission requires the prophecy of “kenosis” in interpersonal relationships. That consists in the acknowledgement of the other in order to give value to the diversity, overcoming prejudices and being testimony of the values of the Kingdom, which gathers together persons from every race, language, people and nation.

The Institute which was born in Italy, in these recent years it has enriched itself with features of internationality. Many of our communities are already multicultural, that is, made up of members originating from different cultural contexts. Mission summons us, in the light of the Gospel, so that our communities may experience unity in diversity, and witness the possibility of a life communion which harmonizes diversities and gives value to the cultural elements of everybody. For this reason interculturality has rightly found a place of relevance in the official documents of the Institute, in continental and regional planning, in courses of ongoing formation as well as in the educational programs of base formation.

In 2008 there will be the beginning of the Biennium on interculturality, a “kairos” for the whole Institute in order to change mentality, deepen the knowledge of the dynamics of the encounter with the other and instill a renewed impetus to the many initiatives already on the way.

Then, which are the authentic attitudes required by a missionary in order to take up, live and witness interculturality?

Let us very briefly introduce some practical attitudes and indications on which to start reflecting together, carry out initiatives and journeys at the personal, communitarian, regional and continental level.

First of all to take up and affirm the other person’s difference: the other person is not the same and his difference must be respected and welcomed as such. The foreigner, because of the color of his skin and physical features, language and culture, religion, ethics and traditions, constitutes the other, radically different from me: he was far and now he is near, he was unknown and now he stands before me. And following the example of Abraham at the oaks of Mamre (cf Gen 18:1-15), it is important to remember that one chooses to give hospitality to the other who is coming, even before knowing him, appraising him, discerning the reason for his coming. The other is a gift in his difference and anyway his presence is always an “opportunity”!

Fear of the other may ensue, a feeling that is not to be laughed at nor minimized, but rather to be seriously examined. It is important to face and not to remove fear, otherwise one risks of denying it up to the point of relinquishing one’s own culture or of making it guilty. Fear which is born out of radical difference may become the base for authentic communion through making the other person’s difference take place within one’s own self. From “hostis”, (enemy), the other will become “hospes”, (guest).

Next step is that of listening, intercultural attitude, which allows taking the other for what he is and says of himself, and not for what I think he might be. To listen to the other is to say yes to his existence and to allow our differences to contaminate each other and thus lose their absoluteness. It is not a matter of acquiring information on the foreigner, but of opening oneself to the “story” which he makes of himself and of his own history in so many different ways: thus the other will not dwell in our midst but within ourselves. It is not a matter of “giving him hospitality”, of living under the same roof, but rather of welcoming him in our heart and in our life!

This listening needs a renunciation of prejudices: they, like a background noise, confuse us and draw us away from the fatigue of thinking and really know the other in order to welcome him. We are all molded with generalized stereotypes, preconceptions and prejudices, which generate misunderstanding, sterile gossips and sometimes intolerance. In such event we should interrupt our judgment and allow the other to define himself through his own imagery, we should learn the wonderful art of listening, accepting diversity, we should train ourselves to welcome difference in order to give it support in all its complexity.

From listening without prejudices a look unhindered by mistrust and capable of sympathy is born, towards the foreigner and those characteristics that he carries along with him: the radical difference born by him becomes a reality observed in a sympathetic way, with desire of understanding it, and the foreigner’s claim for truth has the same legitimacy than ours. To understand does not mean to accept everything. What is needed is a look capable of dialogue, in which words are exchanged, time is given to the other, the experience of oneself and of the other is done in a logic of a free exchange of gifts.

The communications which ensues then it becomes authentic dialogue, journey of conversion, towards what our Founder often loved to define as “unity of intents”. It is not only, as it is always stated, a matter of changing mentality, but of acquiring a mentality of change, of “homo migrants”, of being on a journey, the proper virtue of us missionaries.

2.5 – During these past years, the Institute and the Regions have experienced a significant opening towards cooperation with other missionary entities, though with some difficulties. Nowadays we willingly cooperate with the Consolata Missionary Sisters, to whom we are bound by a special bond on account of our same origin, vocation and will of our Founder. That is so also with the Lay Consolata Missionaries, who wish to make mission their life choice, sharing all the more the IMC charisma and spirituality. Regarding the persons and peoples we meet in our work of evangelization, we not only cooperate with them, but furthermore we share their life, becoming voice of those who have no voice.

We have often interpreted the episode of the washing of the feet as Jesus’ invitation to the Church, that it may wash the feet of the poor, the marginalized. We have forgotten that Jesus had said to his apostles: “You must wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). In this phrase of Jesus there is his whole desire, his whole concern for communion within the whole group of his disciples, a deep communion, which we must rediscover and experience by placing ourselves at each other’s service.

What is at stake is the salvation of the world. If we, being in grater contact with the Eucharist, do not truly live communion, then our testimony is vain. We would be hypocrites if we proclaim the Word, break the Eucharistic Bread, but would then live by ourselves, humiliating one another, harboring petty envies and resentments, disassociating ourselves from one another, experiencing within community our mutual alienation, ignoring each other.

The religious community is the place where we are called to become brothers. All too often we forget that in community we are not already brothers, but we become brothers through a hard journey which demands, as its preliminary art, the acquisition of the knowledge of how to communicate.

Is there true communication in our communities? How and what is being communicated? What is the qualitative level of our daily exchanges? Our communication “touches”, somehow, what is at the center of our life, that is faith, consecration, personal and pastoral difficulties? Perhaps, isn’t this an obstacle on the way to holiness, whereas it should characterize the witnessing of our communities?

The courage for a verification could open the way for a renewed impetus in order to reach and live a more intense, wider and deeper communication.

There is a strict relationship between communication and community life, because lack of communication and poor communication cause the weakening of brotherhood, as also ignorance of the other person’s life and background makes the brother a stranger and his relationship be anonymous, besides creating true and real situations of isolation and solitude. It would be sad if some missionaries, through lack of authentic communication, would experience a dramatic feeling of “belonging to no one”, would live in some kind of subtle fraternal estrangement, a risky foyer of dangerous affective crises. Nothing, not even the weakness and sin of him who lives next to me, should allow that the other may remain alone, without anyone else entering in communion with him, helping him. (cf Qohelet 4:9-10). Solitude, often experienced in a geographical way by many missionaries, some times, is less dangerous than that lived by him who is forced to live in communities which have become silent deserts, partially interrupted by organizational and superficial communications in order to plan the daily activities. It is well to go back and reflect on the widespread vice of individualism, of a mentality of self-management of the mission, of a strict distinction of roles without sharing and co-responsibility, the lack of sensitivity towards the other, while some people slowly go looking for significant relationships, sometimes dangerous ones, outside the community.

Even more serious is the insufficiency of communication of spiritual goods. It is as if spirituality were or could become just the concern of the individual, something very private, secret, to be managed in the absolute intimacy of one’s own interior life, at closed doors. Community prayer itself, privileged opportunity for an exchange of spiritual experiences, of sharing the Word of God, if it does not become communicative and it does not draw from the wealth of each one it is reduced to a “saying”, a “reciting” together, which does not offer glory to God “with one soul and one voice” (Rm 14:5).

Communication is an essential part of living in community, and sharing is the typical way of being for a community of consecrated people

Putting in common the gifts of the Spirit is exactly what qualifies the living together of religious in a community, growing and becoming holy together. Important thing is not to immediately get there, but to work out strategies, show journeys to be made in humility and determination. Personal, spiritual and pastoral sharing should all the more become the normal way of communicating among us. There cannot be brotherhood in our communities without sharing, as there cannot be sharing without brotherhood.

3 – FOR THE EVANGELIZATION OF PEOPLES

3.1 – The missionary brings about his option for holiness of life, in fellowship with Christ, with the specific IMC style, in the evangelization, through his consecration to God for the mission “ad gentes”, “ad extra”, “ad vitam” and “ad paupers”. Thus he strictly binds himself to the vocation of the Church “sign and instrument of the intimate union with God and of the unity of the whole human race” (LG 1).

Today evangelization walks on uncharted roads of history, enters the life of peoples, reaches the hearts of persons, widens its horizons on a world filled with fear of the future, bewildered by sudden changes, afflicted by numerous contentions and injustices.

3.2 – The missionary is called to incarnate himself in the reality where he carries out his service which, for this reason, will express itself in different ways for the formation of mature Christian communities to which a qualified service of MAV is rendered.

3.3 – The various forms of material and spiritual poverty found in the world require today the testimony of God’s tenderness, closeness to the people with personal contacts and attention to their concrete needs, by a style of simple and fraternal life. Indispensable is the humble listening of the reality, being in the midst of the people, learning their language and life experience, in order to promote the defense of the rights of the powerless and denounce the structural causes of injustices at the local and global level.

We are witnesses of the dramatic outcomes of these modern forms of idolatry and its power: the tragedy of entire populations struggling for survival, the sufferings of refugees, the pandemic of AIDS, the desperation of the unseen people of urban suburbs.

They represent the crucified Christ today, the naked Jesus, helpless and powerless on the cross, who nevertheless can heal our eyes and free them from the perennial temptation of idolatry. In this regard the poor evangelize us and show us the way towards holiness: The absolute being other of God who is united with his people and who, by the coming of his Son, has set them completely free.

The cross is the outcome of the life lived by God’s Son under the sign of love. By itself it is meaningless, but it has to be contextualized in the whole life of Jesus of Nazareth and draw its meaning from Him who is crucified on it.

Also today, following the example of St. Paul, we are called to announce and personally live the “scandalous” message of the cross of Jesus. In the face of those who claim a way of power, miracles and signs, those who would wish to reach God by their own means and become similar to him, the missionary is called to hoist the banner of the cross (cf 1Cor. 1:23-25).

That which must accompany our journey towards holiness is not presumption and arrogance, but humility to the point of weakness. All our projects, all our cultural mediations, all our attempts of being present among the marginalized, must be brought before the cross of Jesus and be evaluated and reconciled with the Word of him who “has so much loved the world” (Jn. 3:16). Holiness is nourished by and lives in the memorial of the cross. So that evangelization may not proceed on barren pathways and become improvisation, let us look at the crucified Jesus, in order to recover the human sense of the life of faith which requires the gratuitousness of daily relationships with the confreres and solidarity with the people, the humility of feeling useless servants in the vineyard of the Lord.

The battle against this form of idolatry knows only one direction: fellowship, imitation of the Servant, and we are called to take on its form. What it implies is to live our life according to the logic of the Servant who gives his life for the others, makes himself a slave to wash his brothers’ feet, surrounds the sinner with the mercy of God, pursues peace with meekness, prays and wishes that all men be saved. What it implies is holiness! “Be holy, since I am holy” (Lv. 19:2 and 1Pt 1:16), according to the logic of the cross. In fact, the saints are the authentic “sequentia sancti evangelii” in history, the exegesis of Jesus among men.

3.4 – Through the reflection done in the last General Chapters, our Institute has identified some specific areas in which to invest our evangelizing commitment: they summon us and demand a change of mentality.

• The announcement to the non-Christians, without neglecting Europe and the Countries of the Northern part of the world where Christianity is an irrelevant phenomenon.
• Urban poverties, huge pockets of discomfort and marginalization, clusters of people in inhuman life situations. Today more than half of the world population lives in the cities, especially in their suburbs. Our preferential option for the poor in their reality of sufferings, yearning for justice and journey of faith and hope, is part of our charisma.
• Ethnic minorities, victims of discrimination, oppression and marginalization, on account of their culture and religion. Or just because they are stumbling block to the progress of the new forms of colonialism, plundering of raw material and strategic resources of which their lands are the ancestral guardians.
• Qualified services to the local churches: MVA as an integral and inalienable part of the mission “ad gentes” and communion among the Churches, the missionary qualification of our pastoral work in our parishes.
• It is also part of our evangelizing mission the inter-religious dialogue, which today acquires a fundamental role in helping the knowledge of truth, boosting attitudes of opening, developing mutual trust and promoting the search for values and collective ideals of peace, justice, reconciliation and forgiveness.
• Commitment to JPIC is a constitutive part of the preaching of the gospel and of our charisma. It invites us to listen to the moaning of creation and of entire populations who undergo violence, corruptions, oppressions and injustices.

3.5 – In our evangelization, a particular presence is being asked of us in the “new aeropagus”, that is, social media, youth reality, human migrations and participation in the life of civil society. We are being questioned by them and they force us all the more to qualify our services of evangelization, to listen to its new aspirations, to understand the living situations of the new poverties and also to live new experiences of world wide dimension and solidarity.

The discernment of the idols and the fight against them are an essential task for all Christians, but even more so for all of us missionaries. By listening to the Word of God in the Holy Scriptures, reading contemporary history and searching the depths of one’s own heart, the missionary is called upon to assign a name to the idols, to uncover them and to fight against them  In fact they undermine the holiness of God, place themselves in his stead and trample underfoot the moral law which God has placed in the heart of every person.

Idolatry is a theological fake, because it aims at turning God into man, making him harmless or an ally of evil. It is also an anthropological fake, because it brings about the dehumanization of man, it brutalizes him, subjecting him to the barbarism of his behaviors. When the face of man, the only true image of God (cf. Gen. 1:26-27), is being disfigured, then one necessarily falls into idolatry.

Option for holiness should qualify our evangelization, our pastoral work, our commitment to JPIC as our fight against the various forms, personal and structural, of idolatry

First of all the ego-worship, some times veiled and justified as love for the people by him who places himself, by a form of a missionary narcissism, at the center of a mission which is made to his own image and likeness. Outside every communitarian project and expectations, mission becomes just a realization of one’s own projects and expectations. It does not place itself in a listening attitude and it does not keep in consideration the real needs of the people.

And finally, the forms of idolatry present in our society today, identifiable in attitudes, tendencies and fashions which aim at dehumanizing man, turning his existence into becoming narrow minded and base, whereas it is called to be at the level of divine sonship. Consider power as assertion of oneself, not in keeping with any logic of service, as ownership and uncontrolled hoard, unconnected to the need for sharing and solidarity. They are forms of idolatry which inhabit our world today; they are seen in the world of politics and economics of some Countries where we work or in some economical structures of the international scenario.

4.1 – The Biennium on Holiness has been an opportunity for hearing again the words of our Founder “I want you to be holy in a superlative way” and “first saints and then missionaries”. These considerations have directed us to identify important areas for our reflection, raise some questions, stimulate our personal journey and that of our communities.

4.2 – At the time of planning it is of crucial importance to consider a new and significant phenomenon: we must give up our future in order to open ourselves up to God’s taking place.

“Future” and “that which will take place” suppose two perspectives which ought to be clarified and properly distinguished, if we wish to open up new sceneries for our Institute. In fact “future” is often understood, interpreted and planned as a simple extension (and even improvement) of the present. It is reduced to a tomorrow molded on the image of today. At the most, we project some details and our unrealized desires, our frustrated needs.

Whereas “that which will take place”, seen in the light of faith (and which, in the expressions of a person of faith, takes up the name of Kingdom of God), is not just a simple projection of the present, but it is being shaped as a new dimension, thanks to the inrush of surprising, unforeseen dimensions which shape a substantial qualitative change.

We must strain towards this “advent” of God which manifests itself under the sign of fullness, of the impossible which becomes possible, and not just simply of quantity, of recurring events and fulfilled expectations.

4.3 – The Bible prefers to apply to the prophet the image of the watchman (cfr. Ez 3:16-21; 33:1-9), for whom there is constantly the question: “Watchman, at what stage is the night” (Is. 21:11). The answer is puzzling and perhaps even disappointing: “Comes the morning, then also the night; if you wish to ask, then ask, convert yourselves, come!” (Is. 21:12). Perhaps the prophet even today does not know when morning will come, but it witness its sure coming: the prophet opens the doors to the coming of God, his Word and action, and for this reason it inspires hope. He asks that, meantime, one may continue asking, questioning himself about the day and the night, that is, about the meaning of time, history and life. This image, applied to the concluding journey of the biennium on Holiness, thrusts us forward, inviting every missionary to live well the coming months, and it broadens itself even unto the future so that one may never give up, and that tension towards holiness may always be the priority in all the types of service rendered by our Institute, from basic formation to Mission Animation, from pastoral work to care of the sick.

We are aware that privileged place for forming ourselves in holiness is the daily life of our mission, in its various forms and expressions, made up of joys and hopes, limits and weaknesses. What matters is to live it imitating the Lord who “did every thing well” (Mk. 7:37) having the conviction that “good must be done well and without noise” (VS 128 – 129). The Holiness of our Institute depends on the commitment of every missionary, always and everywhere.

4.4 – Like Blessed Joseph Allamano each missionary is called to become a watchman of holiness who searches for the signs of the passing of God in history, he anticipates them through his testimony, being united with the expectations and concerns of the people. Like him, the missionary dwells in the space of hope by his humility and marginalization among the poor, where assurance of the dawn is more transparent and clear.

4.5 – Let us entrust our commitments and initiatives to Mary, our Mother, the Consolata, model of Holiness in the fellowship of her Son Jesus, so that consolation may become announcement of Good News to the poor, aiming at human promotion, the wellbeing and happiness of people, freeing them from every slavery and suffering, fear and oppression.

4.6 - One must announce and experience a credible hope. It is not a question of “hoping remaining seated”. Nor shall we accept to cynically give hope. Hope cannot found itself on volatile electoral promises nor is translated into a passive, religious resignation… Let us hope while walking… From hope to hope, walking, giving to each other hope, giving hope to the others. Worthy of trust is only the hope which is given, the hope which risks, that which fights against every injustice, lie and conformism. Christian hope is that which forms an alliance with the Poor of the Earth and “shares” their “destiny”.