n our daily life we meet, and live with, so many people. And we may think of having established a relationship merely because we have made a contact. But a contact must turn on a switch to give light. If the contacts we make in our lives do not switch on a light, they are useless and empty.
Physical nearness, exchange of greetings and formalities, talk about feelings, situations and the weather, remain in the dark if their meanings and intentions are not perceived: if they are not enlightened.
This is why to stop to think, to meditate and pray gives substance and context to the images of the persons with whom we share affections, memories, origins, friendship, ideals, failures and tasks.
My thoughts drifted under this light during the Xaverian Provincial Assembly that was held at the La Salette Spirituality Center, Attleboro, MA, from June 30th to July 7th, 2003. The Assembly, in which all Xaverians in the USA took part, had been convoked by the Provincial Superior, Fr. Ivan Marchesin, s.x., to discuss issues of current interest and import.
The focus of attention was the "Ratio Missionis Xaveriana" (RMX), 'The Mission of the Xaverian Missionaries at the Beginning of the Third Millennium', our new "Magna Charta" put forth at the last General Chapter of Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2001. That Chapter asked that: "On the basis of this Document, the Provinces must focus their own particular mission in accordance with the characteristics of the different Churches, cultures and situations."
This kind of reflection will eventually lead to the formulation of a "Provincial Mission Statement" following a journey of "discernment on our presence and activities in the United States... in view of the future." The RMX consists of 97 articles, subdivided, besides an Introduction, (#1-5), into three chapters. While Chapter One, (Who We Are, #6-21), deals with the "Basic Elements of the Xaverian Charism", and Chapter Two, (How We Are, #22-53), with the "Characteristics of Our Charism", Chapter Three, (What We Do, #54-97) describes "The Activities of the Mission" and takes up just about half of the entire document.
The document re-affirms and clarifies the three "inalienable and interdependent characteristics of our Congregation." Xaverians are missionaries "Ad Gentes," "Ad Extra," and "Ad Vitam." "With the joy of the Lord, we accept the gift to have been chosen to be sent in mission.
'Ad Gentes': to peoples and cultural contexts in which Christ and his Gospel is not known;
'Ad Extra': to leave one's country and culture of origin for the overseas missionary cause and find security only in the Gospel we announce;
'Ad Vitam': to serve the missionary cause and vocation totally and for life, to the exclusion of everything else, no matter how noble and holy."
"No matter what activities he may be asked to carry out, a Xaverian knows that he must continually strive toward the full realization of these three characteristics," (#10).
This task demands that we know how to channel all the energies of our religious-missionary Family, faithful to the charism and to the reality we live in.
For the US Province fidelity to the charism' means focused dedication on "informing and forming the people of God to share in the Church's universal mission." Thus, we place ourselves in the local Church as its 'missionary memory and stimulus', and for the promotion of vocations, "without, - in the words of Fr. Rino Benzoni, Superior General, - excessive worry because the Lord calls you to live in a time and place in which the exclusively missionary vocations Ad Gentes, Ad Extra and Ad Vitam are extremely rare, and because vocation is, first and foremost, a gift of the Lord."
Furthermore, "fascinated by the Lord Jesus and his cause, we Xaverians are called and helped by the Holy Spirit to live our vocation in koinonia, aware that the community is in itself already a missionary witness and that it, and not, the individual, is the most suitable subject of the mission,' (#19), through a personal and community life accordant with the Gospel we preach. However, today's milieu requires that we give priority attention to the person more than to the work. Article 44 of the same RMX "... presupposes the primacy of the person over work."
The desire to give preference to the 'quality of relationships' over the 'efficiency of the work' does not exclude that the commitments taken be set aside and the responsibilities neglected. Rather, it is only by giving more interest and attention to the person that the Xaverian missionary feels more involved in the task entrusted to him, rendering him joyful even in the midst of energy-sapping labor.
A focal point of this discernment is the fact that membership in the Xaverian Congregation is becoming ever more multi-cultural and international. 'In order that the quality of relationships improve, communication becomes important. It is the RMX itself that makes this statement. Communication is here understood as "knowing and respecting the values of others and the concepts through which they are expressed," (#44. 1).
All Xaverian Communities, multi-cultural or not, are to seek this 'quality of relationships'. The avenues for the values of others are opinions, views, feelings, constructive criticisms as well as non-verbal channels such as gestures, rituals, ways of dressing, attitudes, behavior, moods... All this is sign of thoughtful and prayerful people who form community. Not of individuals who barely rub along.
These personal notes, which have filled a couple of pages of my notebook, do not say it all, of course, but they reflect on how we should and strive to be. We are on a journey, a journey of humble and patient conversion. (#43)
"Communication is the purest act of love," someone has said. It is also a gift of the Pentecostal Spirit: "Each one heard them speak in his own language," (Acts 2:6). The language of love. The labor that our American Province is asked to do, of applying the RMX to its own reality and priorities, will continue. It will seek to "clarify goals in view of a realistic strategic project..."
We must keep alive the quest for new ways of announcing the Gospel... and question ourselves on our activities in order to verify whether or not they are the best way of serving the first proclamation of the Gospel," which characterizes the Xaverian charism.
The project will also promote a reflection on spirituality in harmony with the Xaverian tradition and the local cultural and ecclesial realities. The US Province must provide for the human and spiritual growth of each member and the integral development of the person, review its life style, its relationship with the surrounding milieu and the local Church, its use of the material goods that come from Divine Providence, in view of internal and external communion, and the commitment to justice and peace.
At the end of the Provincial Assembly, all participants returned to their community houses and assigned tasks. But the journey continues. Contacts were made or renewed, knowledge and respect for each other's values and concepts were conveyed. Now, contacts, even if sporadic and occasional, remain connected in the heart, because... it's enough to turn on the switch, the light goes on, and we see each other, as if present and alive, in the chamber of the heart.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)