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THEME
OF THE VIII GENERAL CHAPTER
"To be St. Paul alive today.
A Congregation that strains forward"
The VIII General
Chapter is inserted in line of the preceding Chapters, and taking as
point of reference Paul, model of believer, apostle and saint, it
carries hope, renewal and apostolic zeal. Besides, the first three days
of the Chapter will help us to reflect deply on our being pauline today,
beginning from Paul and Alberione.
The
theme of the 8th General Chapter is a the same time biblical and
charismatic. It is biblical because it takes as its point of reference
one of the most important personalities of the New Testament: Paul, the
Apostle. It is charismatic because 50 years ago, Don Giacomo Alberione,
proposed him to the entire Pauline Family with these words: "The
Pauline Family must be St. Paul alive today, according to the mind of
the Divine Master; laboring under the gaze and the grace of Mary, Queen
of Apostles" (San Paolo, July-August 1954, p. 2).
4.1.
A charismatic theme
At
the start of the third millennium, our Congregation takes as its own
this biblical-charismatic heritage and feels the urgency to be "A
Congregation that strains forward" in order to proceed, faithful to
St. Paul and to the Pauline charism. Already in the introduction of
the "Quaderno del 1918," the Founder thus referred to St. Paul:
"The Lord has bestowed on us a great grace for giving us St. Paul
as Father, Teacher, Model, Friend, Protector. He is a miracle of
doctrine, a marvel of zeal, a hero of every virtue. He was converted by
an extraordinary grace, he worked more than the rest of the Apostles, he
illumined the world with the splendor of his doctrine and of his
examples. In heaven, St. Paul enjoys a special glory: proportionate to
his great merits. From there he protects, blesses, prays for his
devotees; and his supplications are so strong as on earth he was dear to
Jesus. Hence, love him much; pray much to him; gladly read his biography;
meditate on his letters; seek to imitate his lofty virtues. In a special
manner, remember that he is the great protector of the good press and
that one of the greatest ways which one can do this saint homage is this:
to work in this vast and holy apostolate."
Forty
years after its birth, the Congregation was urged by Don Alberione to
"be St. Paul alive today": fifty years later, the 8th
General Chapter assumes the same objective, leading us to reflection
regarding our "today" and its challenges. In all this, we feel
the obligation to be creative and dynamic as a Congregation that "strains
forward."
Don
Alberione, in new circumstances and times, knew how to keep as his own
the ‘today’ of St. Paul, or, he has made the hermeneutical passage
to be St. Paul alive today at the start of the 20th century.
Our Congregation is called to strain forward and to be St. Paul alive
today, at the start of the new century.
We
are hence urged "to be". This verb comes from Latin (esse),
and it is from it that the word "essence" is formed, that
composite of attributes which makes something to be what it is. In the
language of philosophy, essence is what constitutes the marrow of a
being, its very nature. With this, one can affirm that "to be St.
Paul alive today" is the very essence of being a Pauline and,
according to the Founder’s words, it is the essence of the entire
Pauline Family. In other words, if in a Pauline the imperative of "being
St. Paul alive today" were wanting, he stops being a Pauline; he no
longer what he ought to be; he has lost his essence.
4.2.
A biblical theme
St.
Paul himself asks us these things. More than once in his letters, he
asks that he be imitated and that others be as he is: "Be imitators
of me" (1 Cor 4:16). In the same letter, aside from the expressed
request, he adds: "as I am of Christ" (11:1) and thus he
establishes an unbroken chain that starts with Jesus Christ, passes
through St. Paul, and continues among the Corinthians and to us. In one
of his first letters, he makes the Thessalonians understand that they
had to imitate him according to what they had seen him personally do,
and that is, work with one’s own hands, without leaning on the
privileges that come from the fact of his being the founder of the
community and an apostle: "For you know how one must imitate us.
For we did not act in a disorderly way among you... Not that we do not
have the right. Rather, we wanted to present ourselves as a model for
you, so that you may imitate us" (2 Thess 3:7,9).
Paul
lived, preached the Gospel and died during the first six decades of the
Christian era. To be like him, to be his imitator, was something limited
to his time and in the space of a specific culture. Welcoming him in
their own time, in their own "today," his imitators had,
indeed, opened themselves to the grace of God, transforming their own
"today" into a favorable time, a kairós of salvation,
as St. Paul himself affirms: "Working together, then, we appeal to
you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: ‘In an
acceptable time I heard you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.’
Behold now is a very acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation"
(2 Cor 6:1-2).
The
theme of the 8th General Chapter is optimistic, challenging
and full of hope. It does not propose a "dismantling" but a
building. It does not ask us to look behind, but ahead, where the future
and hope are found.
The
hope and dynamism proposed by the 8th General Chapter is
clearly manifested above all in the subtitle: "A Congregation that
strains forward." The phrase is drawn from the Letter to the
Philippians (3:3) and, as a title of a book that marked the 40th
foundation anniversary of our Congregation. The title of this
commemorative book was suggested by the Founder. In fact, he said that
this statement expresses the true sense of Pauline life.
Philippians
3 is fundamental in order to understand the dynamism of Paul, the
Christian. He begins by speaking of his behavior as a Jew. As a Jew and,
further on, as a Pharisee, he could boast of his superior behavior in
comparison with others (Gal 1:14). He had achieved the highest level of
respectability and consideration at which every Pharisee aimed, blamelessness
in the scrupulous fulfillment of all the 613 commandments (those of
the written Torah and those of the Pharisees’ oral Torah: "blameless
as regards justice that comes from the obedience to the law" (Phil
3:5)).
As
a blameless Pharisee, Paul believed he had nothing more to do. He
considered himself perfect and set to wait for the compensations that
God would have given him as the prize for his blamelessness. As a
Christian, however, what was meant to be the point of arrival turns to a
total loss and the starting point for a new undertaking. It is
worthwhile examining Phil 3:7-14 and to pay attention to the words
belonging to the economic sphere (gain/to gain x loss/to lose) in order
to perceive the radical transformation that took place in Paul’s life.
As a Christian, he recognizes as a total loss his past as a blameless
Pharisee and, hence, he feels the obligation to start all over again.
However, it was no longer as a Pharisee, nor with the entire luggage of
the Pharisaical vision concerning God, the world and people.
Thus,
a new figure emerges, very different from the Pharisee who,
self-satisfied, contemplates his behavior of blamelessness: his
is the image of an athlete who looks ahead, who aims at his goal, who
runs in order to win his prize (notice: in opposition to the "Pharisaical
status," the typical language of athletics—prize, win, achieve
strain forward, goal, etc.). As a blameless Pharisee, Paul had achieved
perfection and he had to do nothing other than wait, as a consequence,
that God reaches out to him with the due reward. In other words, a God
cut after the measure of the Pharisees. As a Christian, Paul senses that
Jesus Christ has reached out to him and he runs ahead. And Paul has no
way out but to run in order to reach him who is ahead. Let us say it
with his very words: a Christian called to reach "mature manhood,
to the extent of the full stature of Christ" (Eph 4:13). As a
Pharisee, Paul lived in a state of being well established, watching over
the past; as a Christian, his is pure dynamism, a real athlete who runs
in order to achieve the prize that lies ahead: "It is not that I
have already taken hold of it or have already attained perfect maturity,
but I continue my pursuit in hope that I may possess it since I have
indeed been taken possession of by Christ [Jesus]. Brothers, I for my
part do not consider myself to have taken possession. Just one thing:
forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I
continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling,
in Christ Jesus" (Phil 3:12-14).
Our
Congregation lives in an unique historical moment – this must become a
favorable moment (kairós) – and finds itself before a
crossroads. Ahead of us is the road to resignation of Qohelet ("What
has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing
is new under the sun. Even the thing of which we say, ‘See, this is
new!’ has already exited in the ages that preceded us – Eccl 1:
9-10), or else the road of newness of one who says like Paul and
Alberione: "I strain forward." We need to make the choice in
order to turn our time into a kairós, a favorable time and a
time of grace.
4.3.
Reinterpretations and life
Two
millennia after the birth of St. Paul, the 8th General
Chapter proposes to us as theme "to be St. Paul alive today,"
that is, to be and to do what he would have done if he were alive today,
at the start of the third millennium. We, therefore, have the mission of
becoming aware of our "today" and of turning it into a
favorable time, the kairós of salvation, as would have done Paul
if he were alive today. These two words – alive and today
are our challenge and the goal to reach. There is no today that
is like yesterday, and if we want to be faithful to the Founder who
wanted to do something good for the people of the 20th
century, we must be attentive to the calls and characteristics of the today
of our history. Unfaithfulness or indifference to today means
unfaithfulness or indifference to Paul, to Alberione, to the charism, to
this our specific journey towards sanctification. Furthermore, Jesus
himself teaches us that we must pay attention to today (Lk 4:21).
Without that due attention to "today" the best we can
do to St. Paul is to make him and show him as inadequate to our times.
It
is our duty to be courageous and creative, to dare and be enlightened in
order to know where and towards where Paul’s steps would lead should
he go back to the world. The greater difficulty is that of taking a
qualitative hermeneutical passage. It is easy to discover Paul in his
time, in the cultures of his time, etc. What is difficult is to perceive
Paul in our today in our cultures, that is, to perform Paul’s
hermeneutics for our times. To achieve this end, we need to find the
courage to free ourselves, if necessary, of that heavy cape called
"tradition." If it is not we who should do the hermeneutical
passage, who will do it for us? All of us know that the revival of our
Congregation depends on this hermeneutical passage.
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