Embracing a Common Future

Edmund Rice Christian Brothers

North America

Thursday, 09 August 2007

Congregation Leader's Remarks At Manila Conference

A heart full of gratitude at this moment! ... for God who has given us this wonderful opportunity of Brotherhood ...  for God who brought us to this place when none of us ever heard of it ... for God who has been here with us and we have felt it.

I believe that it is possible to walk in the awareness of God’s abiding presence, however, we might feel that presence.  I believe that when we do so and we allow ourselves to be guided by this presence God makes the God-self known—as has happened to us over these days. ...

Brothers, I give thanks to you, for your participation, actually for the level of your participation.  I have been attending these meetings from 1987.  But I have never before experienced the depth of sharing that I did this time.  The stories were personal, from the heart, intimate.  We are trusting one another with the secrets of our heart!  God is bringing us to understand that his heart-centered spirituality is possible.  It is happening in our midst and we must notice it.

Brothers, you are the ones who are bearing the real burdens of leadership in the Congregation.  You get involved with actual day to day decisions that move the Congregation forward.  You meet our Brothers and walk with them with commitment:  for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, with concern and compassion—and rarely get thanked for it.  We on the CLT do not fail to notice what you do and are deeply grateful for the quality of leadership you offer.

I also wish to take this opportunity to thank each of you for your unfailing support of the CLT, for your graciousness each time we visit your communities and for your encouragement and brotherly love.  I could not thank you enough for all of this.  You make my ministry a real joy.

What do we take from here?

“The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at, but the moment when we are capable of seeing.”  (Joseph Wood Krutch)

I believe more and more that we are moving through a spirituality of exile.  This spirituality focuses not so much on preaching but on listening, seeking, journeying.  We are in the phenomenon of the awakening spirituality. 

In Isaiah we read, “Behold, I am doing something new.”  Do you see it?  It is already happening in our congregation.  We need eyes to see; we need prophetic eyes.  Remember the recent readings on Eli whose eyes were growing dim.  He instructed Samuel to say, “Lord, here I am…”  And Samuel did, and what the Lord told Samuel was that Eli’s days as high priest were over because there were elements in the old system that had to be changed—things his sons did which Eli had not corrected.  What can we possibly think about such a serious situation as this?  What can we possibility learn from it in our own time?

First, we must remember that Eli was going blind!  Eli was no longer able to see what needed to be done next.   But one thing you can say for Eli:  Eli, the institution itself, enabled Samuel, taught Samuel, ordered Samuel to hear beyond the institution to the voice of God in his life.  And more than that: we must realize that the voice of God to Samuel was that the very institution that had formed him was to be re-formed by him.  What Eli had taught him, he was to use to correct Eli’s world.

I believe that we have some significant learning from our time together.  This whole meeting centered on the theme, “A prophetic call to a quest for Justice.”  In the burning issues of today—that is where we meet God.  This is where the prophet meets God.  Is this where we meet God?  Who is our God?  Are we worshipping idols?  The great sin is always that of idolatry—we humans are prone to idolatry.  What are the burning issues in each part of the world where we come from?

“Is it possible to live in peace and happiness when you know that two-thirds of human beings are suffering, hungry and poor?  To be human we have to have compassion.  This solidarity is really the defining factor of our humanity and is gradually being lost in a culture of material values.  It’s not only the cry of the poor we must listen to but also the cry of the earth.  The earth and human beings are both threatened.  We must do something to change the situation.

“There won’t be a Noah’s Ark to save only some of us.  To meet people’s fundamental concerns change is needed.  The world as it is does not offer the majority o humanity life but rather hell.  I believe that change is possible, because I cannot accept a God who could remain indifferent to this world, but only one who cares about the poor and the suffering.” (Leonardo Boff)

Once upon a time an old Buddhist monk went to the town square every day to cry out for peace with justice and for an end to hostility and anger.  His cries went unheeded and unheard and had absolutely no effect on his country’s war-making or his own neighbors’ hatred and petty selfish lives.  After awhile even his own monks were embarrassed for him and sent a delegation pleading with him to stop, saying that his words had no effect and that people thought him senile or crazyl  They did not want to be associated with him anymore.  They begged, pleaded, and rationalized with him to stop.  They told him, “No one cares what you say.  They don’t even listen to you and more.  Everyone in the country has gone insane with fear and war, selfishness, greed and killing.  Why go on?”  His answer was given directly, looking his own monks in the eye:  “I cry out for peace and justice so that I will not go insane!”

I wonder if all of us realize the implications of this journey.  I pray for you, Brothers, that you would have courage, compassion, gentleness, and wisdom.  God knows we need it!

Br. Philip Pinto, January, 2006