The Faithful Challenge to a Renewal of Communion and Communion with the Weak and the Broken
A crisis is said to be a two-faced reality. One face of this reality evokes feelings of fear, despair, and sometimes even anger. At the height of the El Nino during the hot summer months, a wide area of Manila and nearby cities experienced water crisis. When it was announced by the water concessionaires that there will be rotational water supply, fear struck the heart of many since it means businesses that depend heavily on steady water supply would suffer greatly from loss of income. Others would desperately line up from the crack of dawn until midnight in order to have water for their daily use or hoard big bottles of water from groceries to ensure that they have enough water for drinking and cooking. Still others got angry at the concessionaires and the government, blaming them for the crisis. Almost often, crisis is associated with this face that people hardly see its other face – opportunity. Looking at crisis as opportunity brings out the best in people. In the context of the water crisis, it made people look for and try alternatives. Moreover, crisis brings about renewal. Again, in the height of the water crisis, there was a renewed cry for environmental consciousness and for conserving water and other resources.
The Church has gone through several crises. While they subjected her members to conflict and even division, these crises brought about opportunities – the opportunity to look at herself deeply, to re-examine her commitment to her mission, and the opportunity to be sensitive to what her members are clamoring for. The councils in the Church, beginning from the very first – the Council in Jerusalem during the time of the early Church to the time of the Council of Trent in the 17th century were all occasioned by a crisis, yet they brought about renewal in the Church. There was renewal in the Church’s commitment to be faithful to the mission entrusted to her by Jesus Christ, the commitment to listen to the voice of her members, the commitment to journey with and have communion with the poor and those who suffer. The Church in the Philippines is especially challenged to make this commitment of communion with the weak and the broken. Who are the weak and the broken?
In Rerurm Novarum, the ground breaking maiden encyclical by Pope Leo XIII, the weak and the broken the majority of the working class who are subjected to misery and wretchedness, who are unprotected, isolated and helpless, and who have no recourse, except to turn to usurers (cf. RN, 3). Pope Leo characterized these working people as carrying a yoke which is just a little better than that of slavery.
In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II points to those who are defenseless against the threats to human life and dignity as weak and broken. He says that “In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence and war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale” (EV, 3). Quoting Gaudium et Spes, 27, he enumerates these new threats, “Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others like them are infamies indeed (EV, 3).
In Laudato Si, Pope Francis mentions the migrants who are seeking to flee from the growing poverty caused by environmental degradation, who are not recognized by international conventions as refugees and bear the loss of the lives they have left behind, without enjoying any legal protection (LS, 25). These people are weak and broken since they have no means to end their suffering and are always at the mercy of countries who will accept them as refugees.
In the Philippines, it is not difficult to see the weak and the broken. They are the homeless, the powerless, the oppressed, victims of injustice and violence, the sick who have no access to medical care, the hungry who would scour mounds of trash for food to eat, those who do are innocent but are languishing in jails simply because they cannot afford a good lawyer. There are also the elderly, especially those who have no one to care for them and provide their needs, children in conflict with the law, those who suffer from disabilities and are not given opportunities for advancement, those who come from families in challenging situations, those suffer from abuse – physical, emotional and verbal, those who suffer from drug abuse and those who suffer from mental illness. In the face of her members who are weak and broken, how does the Church in the Philippines respond to this challenge?
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in a Pastoral Statement, Conquering Good with Evil (http://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/conquering-evil-with-good) calls on the members of the Church to manifest the following disposition towards those who are weak and broken:
Manifest respect for the innate dignity of each human person. The Bishops emphasize that “Our faith informs us that no human being in this world deserves to be treated as a “non-human”, not even the mentally ill, or those born with disabilities” thus we have to be vigilant in our defense of the right to life even of the unborn.
Besides, the mentally ill, those with disabilities and unborn children, we also need to run to the defence of those who are brutally murdered or summarily executed by armed groups simply because they are suspected of being opponents of government. While justice demands that those who have committed criminal offences must pay for their crime, still, the Bishops state they sill should be treated in a humane way.
We need to strengthen and support institutions that care for children in conflict with the law rather than lowering the age for criminal liability. The reasons given by the Bishops for this appeal, made especially to legislators is because they believe that children who get involved in crimes, come from very poor families and were born and raised in an environment of abuse according to the Bishops. Thus they need to be rescued rather than penalized.
As members of the Church, we are called to manifest communion with the weak and the broken in the way that Jesus did.
Word of God
First Reading: ISAIAH 24:1-3
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me;
He has sent me to bring good news to the afflicted,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
release to the prisoners,
To announce a year of favor from the LORD
and a day of vindication by our God;
To comfort all who mourn;
to place on those who mourn in Zion
a diadem instead of ashes,
To give them oil of gladness instead of mourning,
a glorious mantle instead of a faint spirit.
Res. Ps.: PS 146 5-9
Blessed the one whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
The maker of heaven and earth,
the seas and all that is in them,
Who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
who gives bread to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free;
the Lord gives sight to the blind.
The Lord raises up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord protects the resident alien,
comes to the aid of the orphan and the widow,
but thwarts the way of the wicked.
Second Reading: JAMES 2: 2-5
My brothers, show no partiality as you adhere to the faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.For if a man with gold rings on his fingers and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and a poor person in shabby clothes also comes in,and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Sit here, please,” while you say to the poor one, “Stand there,” or “Sit at my feet,”have you not made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil designs?*
Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those who are poor* in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?
Gospel: LK. 14: 12-14
Jesus said to the host who invited him, “When you hold a lunch or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they may invite you back and you have repayment.
Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind;blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
Values/Attitude
Justice Dignity Love Communion Humility Selflessness
Doctrine
Communion is deeper than just unity or harmony. The Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on Some Aspects of the Church Understood as Communion by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith emphasizes that, “It is essential to the Christian understanding of communion that it be recognised above all as a gift from God, as a fruit of God’s initiative carried out in the paschal mystery. The new relationship between man and God, that has been established in Christ and is communicated through the sacraments, also extends to a new relationship among human beings. As a result, the concept of communion should be such as to express both the sacramental nature of the Church while “we are away from the Lord”(7), and also the particular unity which makes the faithful into members of one and the same Body, the Mystical Body of Christ(8), an organically structured community. It follows then that the communion we are called to establish especially with the weak and the broken is a fruit of that communion which Jesus Christ established between the Church and the Trinity by his paschal mystery (3).
Moral
The epitome of communion with the weak and the broken is Jesus Christ himself. He ministered to children, widows, the sick, the outcast and even to those who are considered non-believers. His example points the way for us to also minister to the weak and the broken among us. To walk in the footsteps of Jesus is to be in communion with the weak and the broken. Explicitly, this means “going to the margins” and reaching out to those who have been pushed there because of lack of opportunities brought about by their poverty and sharing with them one’s resources – time, talent and possessions. It means speaking up for the voiceless, they who experience oppression and exploitation. It means condemning acts that victimizes even more those who are already powerless.
Worship
The document “Christ in You, Our Hope of Glory, presents theological reflections that establish the relationship between receiving Christ in Holy Communion and our commitment to the weak and the broken. It says that, “In Holy Communion, Jesus gives himself as our bread to feed us. And so, we in turn should go to our brothers and sisters who are hungry, and become bread to feed them in compassion and love, in the works of mercy, in giving life, and giving it abundantly. The celebration of the Eucharist indeed abounds with such indications of how the Eucharist expresses Christ’s and the Church’s preferential option for the poor as she realizes her mission in Asia.”
Faith Realities in Local Context
Our appreciation of communion in the Church that fuels our solidarity with the weak and the broken engenders in us active responses aimed at ameliorating their condition. Each, in accordance with one’s status in life is called to make this response. Cognizant of your status in life and your membership in the Church, how will you help alleviate the suffering of:
1) Children who in their weakness cannot defend themselves against abuse – verbal, physical and psychological?
2) Young people who lead broken lives after having gone through traumatic experiences;
3) Farmers who work on the land they do not own and who remain poor despite many years of tilling the land;
4) Widows and widowers who single-handedly bring up their children, working through different jobs just to ensure that they will have a bright future.
Faith Response
Affirmation/Conviction
Our communion with Christ and the members of the Church calls us to take an active stance against the marginalization of the weak and the broken. Thus, we affirm our commitment to “be in the service of human development and of life itself by our engagement in the important work of healthcare, education, and peacemaking; to promote a disposition of solidarity among all—that “new mindset which thinks in terms of community and the priority of the life of all over the appropriation of goods by a few… which is the spontaneous reaction by those who recognize that the social function of property and the universal destination of goods are realities which come before private property” (EG, 188-189).
Action/Commitment: Having learned that each member of the Church, young or old, rich or poor, man or woman, do you:
*share with others your knowledge and experience on the Church’s call for her members to be in communion with the weak and the broken?
* commit yourself to contribute in whatever way you can and in accordance to your condition in life to help strengthen the weak and accompany the broken on the way to healing and recovery?
*Promise to lead others to the approach the Eucharist for healing and renewal?
Celebration/Prayer
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
You have faith* in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.
If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do,
and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
Jn. 14:1-4;12-14
Amen.
