By Sr. Rekha M Chennattu, RA
What do we learn from Jesus and Paul? How does the church in India become the good news? How does the mission of evangelizing become a way of life for us in India?
Jesus was the good news, and we too must become the good news, that we want to proclaim, not so much by more words as rather by our life. Jesus presented God to people in the way he lived, namely in feeding the hungry, comforting the humiliated, celebrating the dignity of women, healing the sick, and giving hope to the hopeless, freedom to the captives and sinners, justice to the poor, and life to the dead. Jesus spoke about the “little flock” (Luke 12:32); we need to form meaningful small covenant communities where everyone is cared for. Through these small covenant communities of love and communion, the Church can gradually become an evangelizing Church, a prophetic presence of God’s immense love and everlasting peace in the world.
Paul was a man on fire. With his whole energy, Paul throws himself into everything that he takes up. Paul’s determined nature and whole-hearted commitment appear prominently in his writings. His passion for Christ was so intense that he considered everything else worthless (“I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” [Phil 3:8]).
Paul was fully convinced of his vocation to preach the gospel of Christ (Rom 1:16) and this conviction made him say: “If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation [anagke] is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel” (1Cor 9:16). In Classical Greek, anagke does not mean “obligation” the way we understand it in English, but it stands for “destiny” or ‘fate”. Paul thus understood his mission as his destiny, as a spontaneous response, at the level of his deepest being, to God’s never-failing love. Paul was passionately in love with the mission that he had received from God in the Damascus experience.
Also Read:
A Call to Become the Good News
A Call to Become the Good News: Jesus and the Gospels
A Call to Become the Good News: St Paul and Letters
In light of the above short survey, I would like to highlight three important aspects of the church in India, if she wants to become the Good News.
- A Praying Community – Rooted in an Experience of God’s Love
The short survey calls for a paradigm shift in our understanding and practice of mission. For us, mission/evangelization work is often no more a spontaneous communication from within of an experience of God; but to a certain extent a duty imposed from outside. The Gospels and Letters of Paul challenge us to become deeply rooted in an experience of God, and new evangelization stems from this experience. I am referring to a God-experience that gives us the power of love (and not the love for the power), an experience that makes us free to become rich in things which cannot be bought with money, power, positions and status, but rich in love, courage, happiness, peace and hope. It is an experience of God’s love which makes us secure in this most insecure and unsafe world, an experience which helps us to trust in God and have confidence in ourselves.
A life of constant prayer is an abiding relationship with God, the Creator. We are being called out of piety and ritualism into deep communion and communication with God. We are called to cultivate a life-giving spirituality rooted in an experience of God in all the events of our daily life. This experience manifests itself in a life of communion with others and the entire creation. This God-experience enables us to do ordinary things in an extra-ordinary way with great love, passion and hope, because it makes us closer to God, and more connected to people and committed to God’s mission.
- A Witnessing Community – A Dwelling Place of God/the Presence of God
People today appreciate more the visual manifestations of religious experience in the life of the individuals and communities than mere proclamation of the Gospel in words. The NT challenges us to shift the emphasis of our missionary work from proclamation to prophetic community witness. The new evangelization is the task and mission of all baptized members of the Church – all baptized are called to holiness and commissioned by the risen Lord to announce the good news. “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8); we are called to share in the prophetic ministry of Jesus. John 13 presents “the love for one another” as a sign of Christian identity in the world, and the Johannine Jesus prays for the unity of the Christians – that “they may be ONE” (John 17). We are called to recreate in our parish communities that special life of love, which will make others comment: ‘they are truly the people of God’! Communion (agape and koinonia) would manifest itself in a life-giving community that fosters the well-being of all its members.
The Catholic church in India then becomes a dwelling place of God in the secular world of broken relationships. In sum, we begin to evangelize when we experience God’s loving presence in our personal life, and when we make it available to others through our life, words and deeds. We are called to become the good news for the world today!
- A Discerning Community – Committed to God’s Will and Mission
The Johannine Jesus promises that he would send the Paraclete – the counselor or advocate – who will guide the members of the community in his absence to do the will of God or to do what is right as it “declares to them what belongs to Christ” (16:14). The mission of the Spirit is to “teach them everything” and “to remind them of what Jesus has taught them” (14:26). There seems to be therefore a strong notion of an ongoing revelation of God’s will in and through the presence and work of the Paraclete in the community. This has significant implications. In every new situation, empowered by the Spirit, the disciples of Jesus are called to discern the appropriate action.
In the context of change and novelty, Paul recommends his community members to be constantly in a process of discernment: Paul exhorts the Romans: ‘discern (dokimazein, ‘examine’, ‘discern’) the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect’ (Rom 12:2). Similarly, Paul urges the Thessalonians: ‘test (dokimazein, ‘discern’) everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil’ (1 Thess 5:21-22).
Change is radically unsettling; it is more comfortable to live in secure, safe, static and predictable situations. There is also a tendency to accommodate to what is pleasing to the culture and world-views of the community. We are being called out of our secure and safe environments into newer and deeper commitment in favour of God’s choices.
The passion for God’s mission calls us to walk the way of continual conversion (metanoia) and discernment (diakrisis) (1Cor 12:10), as we dare to dream a new society characterized by freedom from the slavery of sin, social justice (which includes economic wellbeing and political freedom), gender equality (which is more humane as well as divine), safety and integrity of creation (which is part of God’s project for humanity), thus making God’s Reign here on earth visible, leading us all to the eschatological salvation and the fullness of life. Our sharing in Jesus’ mission implies suffering and persecution (John 15:18-19), our participation in Jesus’ paschal mystery.
Conclusion
The Christian way of life emerging from the NT (the Gospels and Letters of Paul) is characterized by the following three dimensions: (1) contemplation – a praying community; (2) communion – a witnessing community; (3) commitment – a discerning community, committed to God’s mission. This way of life challenges us to remain rooted in an experience of God, to constantly renew ourselves and become closer to one another, and to make our presence and mission more and more transformative and relevant for our times. Our discipleship is a dynamic process of becoming; it is a journey with God, a journey together as a discerning community of disciples, always being the good news and becoming at the service of the good news. In this journey, if we want to go fast (as an African proverb would say), go alone, but if we want to go far, go together. If we run alone, it will be a race, but if we run with God, it will be a grace.
Dr. Rekha M Chennattu, RA is a Professor of New Testament and lectures on Biblical themes (exegesis, theology, and spirituality) and has published books and over 100 articles in India and abroad. She is currently the Provincial Superior of the Assumption Sisters (India) and a Member of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference – Office of Theological Concerns (FABC-OTC). She is also an Associate Faculty member of Pontifical Athenaeum, Pune, India.