The Year of the Parish as Communion of Communities is about
to end and we are about to begin the
Year of the Clergy and Consecrated Persons (or Religious).
The focus of this year
has been building up the parish into a
network of small communities – of Basic Ecclesial Communities.
There have been a lot of
efforts made in forming BECs as agents of communion, participation and mission.
This should continue even
beyond 2017.
The Greek word “Paroikia” from which “parish” is derived is associated
with “sojourner” - journeying together.
Thus, the parish and the BECs within it
may be regarded as a “journeying community” – a pilgrim community. This is what
the Church is.
The journey towards a new
way of being Church continues .
Focusing on the Clergy and Religious in 2018 does not mean
forgetting the themes of the previous
years: the parish &BECs, the family & Eucharist, the poor, the laity,
integral faith formation.
All of these are
interrelated and should be linked with the Clergy and Religious.
The sub-theme for 2018 is
the Renewed Servant-Leaders of New Evangelization.
This is apparently drawn from PCP II where the discussion on the
Clergy and Religious is placed in part IV – Agents of Renewed Evangelization.
The section on the clergy in PCP II provides a holistic vision of the ordained ministry
based on Vatican II: the clergy are servant-leaders of the Christian Community
which by nature and mission are:
Prophetic and
Evangelizing Communities
Priestly &
Eucharistic Communities
Kingly, Servant
Communities.
This can be correlated
with part III of PCP II document which affirms that renewed integral
evangelization has three components:
Renewed catechesis, renewed
worship, renewed social apostolate.
The vision of the
ordained ministry based on the ecclesiology of Vatican II and PCP II has five constitutive
dimensions:
A ministry
of pastoral leadership and communion
(building up the parish as communion of communities & BECs)
A prophetic ministry -
a ministry of evangelization, integral faith formation, of denunciation
of evil and formation of conscience
A liturgical/sacramental
ministry - presiding over the priestly, worshipping community, promoting active
participation in liturgical celebration
A ministry of service,
of social action –working for integral development & liberation, justice
& peace, promotion of human rights, environmental advocacy.
A ministry to the poor
in the Church of the Poor.
The five dimensions may be applied to the religious,
consecrate life to a certain degree.
Pope John Paul II , in
Vita Consecrata, affirms that
religious life has often been the bearer of the communion model of the Church
and that religious are experts of communion and should be engaged in the
promotion of communion.
The apostolic, missionary
character of religious life should be
constantly emphasized.
Religious communities are
called to be prophetic communities and must take the lead in the work of evangelization, integral faith formation,
formation of conscience, of denouncing
and resisting evil in society.
Religious should take the lead in promoting active participation
in liturgical celebration, in prayer and contemplation as an integral part of
the Christian life.
Religious should also take the
lead in social action – in works of charity, development, in justice and peace,
in the defense of the environment, in the promotion of human rights.
Religious must take the lead in making the Church of the Poor a
reality as they embrace evangelical poverty and a simple lifestyle, in the their love and option for the poor
and in enabling the poor to actively participate in the Church liberating
mission.
As the Clergy and
Religious exercise their role as servant leaders in the Church that is
called to be a community of missionary disciples , they must do this in active collaboration with the lay
faithful who also share in the Church’s mission by virtue of their baptism.
The coming year , 2018,
provides an opportunity for the clergy and religious to reflect on their life
and ministry and assess how they have lived up to the holistic and mission-oriented vision of the
ordained ministry and religious life provided by Vatican II and PCP II
It is high time to go
beyond a narrow, cultic and exclusively spiritualist view
of the ordained ministry and
religious life characterized by maintenance mode and lacking in missionary
dynamism.
