THE SHEPHERD’S VOICE
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
You will recall the beginning and the end of our diocesan synod, which took place in 2002. We began with the motto ‘United in love and reaching out in service’ and we ended with another version of it “Love will be our norm and service our life style”.
The first encyclical letter of Pope Benedict XIV ‘Deus caritas est’, “God is love” (I Jn. 4:8) gives a solid foundation to our motto which has been implemented in various degrees by our various commissions to which the task was entrusted. The Commissions for Justice and Peace as also the one for the Small Christian Communities are very closely related to the synod motto and have done very well in following up the synod pastoral plan.
The Holy Father’s encyclical drives us to the heart of Christianity. ‘Where there is love there is God’. (I Jn.4:16) And we know from our own experience that where there is no love we not only make others’ lives miserable but ours as well. No doubt, in the mind of Jesus, love is the answer to all our problems. The Holy Father not only discusses in the encyclical the philosophical and theological aspects of St. John’s briefest summary of the Bible, he also very concretely indicates the practical aspects of living by love. I was very much struck by a few statements on which I would like to share some reflections with you.
The Holy Father says that charity was a decisive feature of the Christian community - the Church, and he shares two essential truths in his reflections:
(a) “The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in her threefold responsibility of proclaiming the word of God…, celebrating the sacraments … and exercising the ministry of charity … These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable. For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being”.
(b) The church is God’s family in the world. In this family no one ought to go without the necessities of life. And a little later he adds without in any way detracting from the commandment of universal love, that the Church also has specific responsibilities within the ecclesial family: no member should suffer from being in need. And to support this, he quotes from the Letter to the Galatians “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are from the household of faith” (6:10).
My brothers and sisters, it was these quotations from the encyclical that prompted me to propose two clear objectives at the end of the Chrism Mass that we need to follow up seriously and concretely.
(1) No Catholic child in our archdiocese should be deprived of Catholic education just because s/he is poor.
(2) No Catholic in our archdiocese should go to bed hungry. We must somehow provide for the basic necessities of life because in a very special way the poor are our brothers and sisters and we are their keepers, and they represent to us Jesus Himself. (Mt. 25:34-40 )
Is this possible? I think it is. And the solution was given to us two thousand years ago by the first Christian community. Pope Benedict XVI refers to Acts 2:44-45 & 4:32-37 which we must keep reading and reflecting on so that the Word of God really touches us and transforms our understanding of our faith and its social implications, our perceptions, our attitudes and our personal and community lives.
The movement of the Small Christian Communities is being spoken of as a new way of being church. Think of the archdiocese where there is no Catholic family or individual who does not belong to one SCC or other. Think of your neighborhood Catholics coming together once a month, once a fortnight or perhaps even every week and reflecting on the word of God and trying to implement the message it communicates to you personally and as a group, and in concrete action responding to the problems you face. Imagine the solidarity these practices are bound to generate among you and the sharing that would result. In such a situation would anybody be compelled to go to bed hungry? I do not think so. I have personally witnessed the tremendous potential the word of God has and can generate in our lives when we surrender to it, and the joy it can produce. To quote a recent convert to the Catholic faith who has dedicated his life to the service of the poorest of the poor: “My heaven has already begun here. There is tremendous joy in giving my life to the poor”.
Today the self-help groups have revealed how responsible, accountable and powerful the poor can be. They are a sign of hope for the country and can well become a national movement from the grass roots that can transform our country. Chetanalaya, our organization for social development, has been able to set up over seven hundred SHGs and these have been able to save Rs.127,00,000 and mobilize resources of Rs.167,00,000 as loans from the funding agencies with 100% recovery. Chetanalaya is prepared to help so that our poor people also can live in dignity and build communities. But then the parishes under the leadership of their Parish Priests need to take the initiative to invite the animators of Chetanalaya, get the people trained and follow up the groups.
Is it not time that all our parishes had Conferences of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul so that wherever there are no SCCs they can take over the privilege of looking after the poor until the SCCs are established in the parish. Once they are established, they could only take up problems that are beyond the capacity of the SCCs themselves. Is it not time that when poor Catholic students find it difficult to meet the expenses, the school authorities respond to the opportunity of helping them and if it is beyond their capacity, contact the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and/ or the parish and see what can be done? We should never make the poor run from pillar to post, beg and lose their self-respect. Is it not time that all of us including the societies and the organizations at the diocesan level like the Society for the Education of the Poor together with the SVP Conferences and the SCCs and our institutions work together to ensure a decent life for the poor among us and a better future for our children? I think it is definitely possible.
A few quotations come to my mind that need to shake us up and inspire us to do what we should be doing as disciples of Jesus. “Feed the man dying of hunger because if you are not feeding him, you are killing him”. A frightening statement indeed! We easily understand murder of commission. Here we have an example of murder by omission. That was the sin of the rich man in the parable that Jesus narrated to show our responsibility for the needy. The sin was just indifference. This simply cannot go along with the Christian faith. If I do not recognize Jesus in my needy neighbour, the light of Christ has not come into my life. And, therefore, while we must first think of the members of the household and their needs, our life cannot be confined to them. It has to reach beyond them to all who are needy.
Another consideration that we need to reflect on is that what we do not need for ourselves does not really belong to us but belongs to those who need it. We have several quotations from the Fathers of the Church to this effect.
St. Basil says, “The rich declared themselves the masters of the common goods they usurped because they were the first to claim them. If people kept only what is required for their daily needs and if the surplus were given to the poor, both riches and poverty would be abolished”. Elsewhere he says, “Are you not a thief? The goods entrusted to your stewardship you have hoarded, the bread you store belongs to the hungry, the coat hidden in your chest belongs to the naked, the shoes rotting in your house belong to those who walk barefoot. Thus you oppress many people you fail to help”.
St. Ambrose who was a contemporary of St. Basil says, “ The Lord our God wanted this earth to be the common possession of all human beings and its fruits to be for the use of all, but greed has produced the division of the land. Consequently, if you claim as your own part of what has been given for the use of all mankind, and even of all the animals, it is fair to you to distribute at least part of it to the poor. They have the same rights as you; therefore, do not deny food to them. How could it not be evil to possess the Lord’s goods and to enjoy what belongs to everyone by yourself alone? Therefore, if we can call our own the goods that belong to the Lord of all, they also belong to everybody else, just as do we his servants. For the Lord’s things belong to all”.
Pope John XXIII says: “The obligation, the urgent obligation of the Christian, is to reckon what is superfluous by the measure of the needs of others, and to see to it that the administration and the distribution of created goods serve the common good. In extreme necessity all goods are common, that is, all goods are to be shared. Obviously for the correct application of the principle all the conditions that are morally required must be met.”
The Father of our Nation, Mahatma Gandhi who read the Bible every day said that we all are thieves because we keep to ourselves what does not belong to us and the simplicity of his life was a demonstration of his spirit of sharing with the poor. I think the encyclical of the Holy Father must make us think anew the implications of our faith for our day-to-day life. As our Holy Father very clearly indicates, our charity must be personal and concrete. Perhaps it is easy to share when sharing does not hurt us. But sharing becomes really costly when it implies sacrifice of something we think we need or cherish. Can we start living by these requirements of Christian love? Not only give from what we do not need but also give from what we need. It is this that makes life joyful.
Experience repeatedly teaches us that while we need to provide for our future reasonably, and that is part of God’s providential care for us, we do not need to be too anxious and worried about the future, all the more so when we have institutional security. We never know when our life comes to an end. Is it not much better that we serve the needy when we are alive and have control over our possessions rather than leave it to the future when we have no control over them and cannot use them for what we want anyway? If we accept the basic principle that the resources of this planet are meant for the whole of humankind and not just for some, then we need to keep evolving the best rational ways and means by which this principle is realized in our society. The early Christian community did it one way, we need to see what mechanism is required for the purpose in our present context. Ways may differ but the motive is the same. It is love and solidarity. And the target group: the needy, first those who belong to the fold and then the rest.
One of the very challenging developments in the Church today is the initiative that some of our lay faithful have taken in the service of the poorest of the poor beginning with accommodating people in need in their own homes and looking after them. This also happened earlier in the history of the Catholic Church. We are told that Christian families used to have a separate room for those who were passing through the city and needed shelter.
The care and concern for the poor as the Holy Father reminds us is to be put on a par with the Christian’s responsibility for the preaching of God’s word and celebration of the sacraments and, therefore, every parishioner has to assume responsibility for ensuring that the poor in the parish are looked after as their own brothers and sisters and not driven away here and there. Wherever necessary, support structures need to be set up and collaboration with them worked out. If we try to let the word of God become flesh in our lives, I am sure that the two small but clear objectives that I have mentioned above can be achieved and thereby we will be able to bear witness to the fact that the life of the early Christian community was not just a dream to be kept in mind or a vision to be only pursued but can be made a reality in our own day and time.
St. Luke adds a very revealing sentence to the description of the life of the first Christian community. They had all things in common and there was no needy among them and their numbers kept increasing. We have a clear indication here of the power of love that God is which Jesus came to proclaim and to leave behind for us as the greatest power on earth. May He give us the light to experience this love and the courage to share it with the poor and the needy.
With warm regards and God bless,
Yours sincerely in Christ,
+Vincent M. Concessao
Archbishop of Delhi