Over the next few editions, Province Express will publish a series of reflections looking in
more depth at the documents produced by the 35th General Congregation. In this
edition, we explore the decree on mission, titled ‘Challenges to our Mission
today: Sent to the Frontiers'. In this first
part of a two-part reflection, Fr Adrian Lyons SJ reflects on how reaching out
to the frontiers is central to what it means to be a Jesuit.
Even those who
know the Society of Jesus well, including its opponents, frequently have
trouble ‘placing' the Order. While its core members vow to accept any project
the Pope designates, it is still not easy to say precisely how the order fits
into the Christian scene, or how its members serve the Church's ministry in
distinctive ways.
In this
connection, one decree among the documents of the recent Jesuit General
Congregation is especially helpful. ‘Sent to the Frontiers' flags the
orientation of the new Decree on Mission.
Alongside ‘frontiers', a second metaphor used often in the decree is
‘bridge-building', signalling a desire to link thoroughgoing inculturation to a
commitment to dialogue. The strategy proposed is clear: Go to the frontiers,
immerse yourselves in the cultures you encounter, and share in the
conversation. These orientations are to drive Jesuit and Ignatian activity in the
postmodern era.
Ignatius' strategies
The Constitutions
of the Society of Jesus, especially Part VII, have much to say about Jesuit
choice of ministries, but less about the ways in which Jesuit activities and those
of their lay partners fit in with the work and worship of others, inside and
outside the Church.
Ignatius of
Loyola was an outstanding strategist. The criteria he developed for choosing
ministries show a keen awareness of the expanding world of his time, and of new
roles opening up for Church personnel appropriately equipped. However, given
the diplomacy required to steer his new order through the papal corridors and
into the wider world, he was not well placed to explain precisely why a new
order was needed. Certainly not if founding a new order implied that the older
ones were at a low ebb or ill-equipped for the new age.
I am delighted
that General Congregation 35 has chosen to describe the characteristic Jesuit
role, then and now, by reference to centre and frontiers. As the Decree on Mission
notes, this is by no means a new suggestion, though it remains paradoxical.
Moving between the centre of the Church and the world's margins helps to
explain why Jesuits are often considered ‘not-quite-out and not-quite-in'.
In fact similar
strategies have been hallmarks of the Society of Jesus from the beginning. From
the centre in Rome,
Ignatius sent Jesuits to the frontiers, to the new world, ‘to announce the Lord
to peoples and cultures that did not know him as yet'. He sent Xavier to India and beyond. Thousands of Jesuits followed.
Yet even in the
16th century the ‘frontiers' in question were not simply geographical:
‘Ignatius also wanted Jesuits to cross other types of frontiers between rich
and poor, between educated and unlearned.' Underlining this point in addressing
the General Congregation, Pope Benedict pointed to ‘the geographical and
spiritual places others do not reach or find it difficult to reach'.
A Pope missioning
the Society of Jesus in these terms, pointing to places at the margins that
others do not reach-and dispatching Jesuits there on behalf of the Church at
large-this scenario is profoundly important for the Society's
self-understanding and for articulating its profile to the Church at large and
to the world.
The special vow
promising obedience to the Pope in matters of mission remains the Jesuits'
passport to go to the frontiers on behalf of the Church. Those who challenge
their right to be in unaccustomed places may be assured that the Jesuits'
commissioning authority is the Bishop of Rome, and that their mission is not
self-chosen, eccentric or unauthorised.
Pastoral experience
Church-world
frontiers are encountered frequently in pastoral practice. Someone asking to be
initiated into the Christian community looks at crossing a boundary between
world and Church, bringing their secular self into the Church. Once inside, the
person hopes to be transformed by experiencing the rich symbolic world the
Church makes available.
Some time later,
after solid experience of community life and the sacramental life of the local
community, the maturing Christian will be encouraged to venture out again into
the wider world to make a difference there, crossing this time from Church to
world.
My sense is that
Jesuits are equipped to patrol this boundary in both directions, but especially
the second. Why? Because a multitude of Christian individuals and groups stand
ready to help a person negotiate the crossing from world to Church. But far
fewer mentors and resources are at hand to assist in making the more difficult
transition back to the world and to function well there.
Moreover, among
those available to assist at this second point, a majority may be expected to
focus on (a) making sure that those who venture out into the wider world remain
faithful to their Christian calling and return regularly for worship, and (b)
encouraging them to win new members for the Church.
The Jesuits have
a charism that works rather differently, namely a commitment to supporting
those venturing into the wider world animated by the Spirit of Christ, simply
to love the world and serve its needs, especially its spiritual needs-no
strings attached. The characteristic Jesuit movement is outward, and the Jesuit
specialty is accompanying people moving outward.
In part two of Fr Lyons' reflection-published in the
next Province Express-he will explore
how the Jesuit mission to the frontiers places them in relation to the rest of
the church, in particular where Jesuit ministries should be located.