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Italian version
 Sr.
M. Marcella Farina, Figlia di Maria Ausiliatrice, is the ordinary
lecturer of Fundamental Theology and of Systematic Theology in the
Pontifical Faculty of Sciences of Education "Auxilium". She is the
responsible director of the "Rivista di Scienze dell'Educazione"
in the same faculty. Moreover, she is a member of the "Pontificia
Accademia Theologica" , member and foundress partner of the "Società
Italiana per la Ricerca Teologica" : a member of the "Associazione
Teologica Intersciplinare" and of its council. She ha collaborated with
the preparation of the proposal of the Holy See for the World Conference
of the ONU held in Pechino in 1995. Among her publications on the gender
reflection we have the following: "Donna e umanizzazione della cultura
alle soglie del terzo millennio".
"La via dell'educazione", ""Donne
consacrate oggi. Di generazione in generazione alla sequela di Gesù".
On the theme of
poverty and service to the poor, she has written, "Chiesa di poveru e
Chiesa dei poveri. "La
fondazione biblica di un tema conciliare (approccio alla povertà dal
punto di vista della Bibbia" e "Chiesa di poveri and Chiesa dei poveri.
La memoria della Chiesa". We have interviewed her on the
next relevant appointment for the Church in Italy: The Ecclesial
Congress of Verona. She has answered with an exceptional richness of
hints for reflection.
On 16-20 October 2006, the Church in Italy will celebrate
the 4th Ecclesial Congress in Verona. The theme is meaningful
and challenging: Witnesses of the Risen Lord hope of the world. It is
very intense and demanding. Please, tell us: what does it want to mean?
"The
choice of the theme is the result of a journey of reflection and
discernment on behalf of the Italian Episcopate, whose privileged moment
was the 51st General Assembly of the Bishops, held in Rome
from 19th till 23rd May 2003.
It is in deep syntony with the message launched by John
Paul II who, in his apostolic letter "Novo millennio ineunte",
encouraged the Church and the individual believers “to move beyond",
announcing with ardour and courageously witnessing to Jesus. He exhorted
us to welcome Him, the Lord, the Saviour of the world, contemplating Him
in his mysteries, above all in his Easter, and allowing the Spirit,
whom He sent us on behalf of the Father, to conform us with Him. The
Holy Father, therefore, has urged us to bet the holiness of the Spirit,
as the high measure of Christian life.
The theme takes the Pastoral Orientations, to
communicate the Gospel in a changing world (Cvmc), giving
value to the spiritual richness of the Jubilee, the post-jubilee journey
and the spiritual fruit of the National Eucharistic Congress.
The Risen Jesus is at the centre, the Son of God made one
of us for our love and salvation. He loved us till the end, till he gave
up his life for us. Glorified by the Father in his resurrection, He is
the beginning of a new creation, the source of life, of holiness and our
testimony.
Generated afresh and made new creatures, filled in with
his grace, we cannot help announcing Him. We want to witness to Him
with our work, our word and our life, proclaiming the hope, which does
not disappoint us. In fact, our hope is not a simple utopia projection,
a human construction, but a divine gift, an active welcome of the
victory of Christ over sin and death.
The Church has the mission of announcing this hope to the
world, which seems to have lost its sense of the future and of seeking
the immediate things.
We, sometimes, experience the present as dramatic and
paralysed. This generates fear, reducing the spaces for the culture of
life and of gratuity. Often it is lived in a kind of self-sufficiency,
which alienates the soul from God and leaves the person orphan, in heavy
solitude, despite the multiplication of new and powerful means of social
communication. Today we meet with explicit or hidden hostilities against
the Christian proposals. There is the tentative of marginalising it in
the private opinion of man.
Yet, it is just in this time that the Lord keeps on
radiating the light and joy of his resurrection throughout the world. He
does it through his disciples, calling them to a courageous profession
of faith, free from every form of evasion of responsibility and from
fundamentalism.
He calls us to adore Him in our
hearts, always ready to answer all those who ask us the reason of the
hope, which is in us (see 1Pt 3,15).
Yes, the chosen theme is arduous and demanding because it
expresses synthetically the divine revelation fulfilled in Christ.
However, it cannot exhaust itself in the preparation and development of
the congress. Verona is a favourable occasion to re-centre our life in
Jesus with a new impulse for our journey to holiness and our missionary
enthusiasm.
Being aware of the importance and depth of the theme, we
do not allow our limits to discourage us, but we repeat with Peter, "On
your Word, Lord … ", "Whom shall we go to? … You alone have words
of eternal life".
How does this theme stand within the present journey of
"our" Church?
As I have already said, the Congress places itself
explicitly in the perspective of the Pastoral Orientations of "To
communicate the Gospel in a changing world". It represents a meaningful
moment, a good opportunity of evaluation, of personal and ecclesial
discernment. It is the continuity of the previous three national
Congresses, evaluating them as an event of grace, which urges us to live
the Gospel more radically and to reflect actively on how to radiate it
in the world.
The text has the meaningful date of 29 April,
a day dedicated to St. Catherine of Siena, Patron of Italy. It puts the
Congress under the protection of a singular witness of Christian hope
and a particularly problematic historical moment at economic, political,
social and religious level.
The introduction
situates the Congress explicitly in the journey of the
Church in Italy, but also in that of the universal Church. Thus, it
recalls the 40 years of the Council and invites us to treasure up its
heritage. It takes afresh the perspectives and the orientations of the
Cvmc, giving value to the fruits of the National Eucharistic Congress.
It starts a theological re-reading of the present cultural and social
scenario at national, European and world level. It considers the deep
transformations in their positive aspects and in the ambiguity of their
effects, above all, on the way of conceiving the person and its being in
the world. It highlights that the event of Verona is the first congress
of the new millennium, which presents itself charged with challenges and
possibilities, before which the Christians receive the call of being
believable witness to the Gospel of hope.
In fact, though strangers in this world, the believers in
the Risen Lord cannot get disinterested of the difficulties, ambiguities
and aspirations of contemporary humanity.
With the intention of marking the continuity of the
Congress with the journey of the Church, a seminary on study, with the
title, "Remember, narrate, walk from Palermo to Verona 2006", was
held in Palermo from 24th to 26th November 2005:
to transmit the faith in the Risen Lord, hope of the world. They
were three days of confrontation and of proposal on the journey, which
we made in search of a communication of faith, paying attention to the
cultural dynamics of our time.
We may say that the Post-Council Italian Church has paid
attention to the theological dimension of Christian life: in the years
70-80 she insisted on faith and on the communication of faith, in the
years '90 on charity, now on hope.
On this occasion, they published "An outline of
reflection". The foreword carries the signature of Card. Dionigi
Tettamanzi, as President of the preparatory Committee. Which hints does
it offer for an adequate preparation?
In his brief presentation, Card. Dionigi Tettamanzi
situates this ecclesial event in the socio-cultural and socio-ecclesial
context, indicating how they have reached the formulation of the text.
He has highlighted the fundamental contents of the theme, the objectives
of the Congress and the meaning of the prepared instrument.
He has brought to evidence that the outline converges on
four fundamental elements: the Risen Lord present among us and in the
world, the world in its concrete reality, of which we also are part,
the expectations of the world, which the Gospel opens to hope. He
has mentioned also the commitment of the Christians, mainly of
the laity, in witnessing to hope with a style of new life, capable of
influencing history.
Here are the fundamental questions:
Ø
What does the Gospel communicate to the life of the
Christians?
Ø
How can Jesus Christ re-generate this lived experience,
above all in its daily dimension?
Ø
How can we mould a new anthropological perspective, in
this epoch of complexity?
Ø
Which forms and modalities can characterise the presence
of the Christians in this historical moment of our Country?
They reflect again on the consideration of the Cardinal
and make it explicit with an outline. This rotates around four
questions, which decline the elements indicated by the title:
Witnesses of the Risen Jesus, hope of the world:
Ø
How does the Risen Jesus re-generate life in hope?
Ø
How does faith in Him make us witnesses of hope?
Ø
How can we be men and women who
witness to hope in history?
Ø
How does hope help us to understand and to live the
situations, which question more our humanity today?
The articulation of the theme derives from these
questions in four moments corresponding to the four parts of the
outline:
Ø
the first leads to the heart of testimony, that is to the
living inexhaustible source of hope, which is
the encounter with the Risen Lord;
Ø
the
second throws the focus on the foundation, the root of the
Christian witness;
Ø
the third
narrates the testimony of the Christian in the Church and in the
world, underlining that Christian hope becomes life;
Ø
the
fourth manifests the exercise of testimony as a discernment and
research of a meaningful presence of lay Christians, who know how to
focus today's relevant situations for the life of people (see Outline
no. 1)
The
reason of all this is to favour the largest ecclesial participation in
the preparation journey of the celebration as a privileged moment of
growth in faith and a renewed missionary commitment. Therefore, the
Congress is not an end to itself. It is a reaching point and a starting
point of the entire Christian community. In this active research, Mary
is our guide, because, thanks to her "yes", hope has entered the world.
You have a good knowledge of the women consecrated life
here in Italy. You know its life, its reality and its dreams. What do
you tell the women religious so that -here and now- in this moment of
the Church, they may know how to live intensely their "passion for
Christ" and their "passion for humanity", a theme proposed for
consideration during the 2004 International Congress?
The third part of the outline considers the narration
of the testimony. The following expression introduces it, "You
are the chosen race, the royal priesthood, the holy nation. You are the
people God has acquired for himself so that it may proclaim the
wonderful deeds of him who has called you from the darkness to his
admirable light” (1Pt 2, 9). It begins by paying attention on how
to be men and women who witness to hope in history, not in
isolation, but as community, as chosen race, royal priesthood, a
redeemed and holy people.
Inspired by the expression of 1Pt 2,9, it brings to
evidence that the proclamation of God's wonderful deeds has the double
end of narrating the encounter with the Risen Lord and of arousing in
others the desire of encountering Him. Together with the content of
hope, it shows the journey towards re-conquering it through the sign of
resurrection, namely the new life. The first addressees of this
narration are the brothers in faith, the family being its privileged
place. The testimony of the parents and the adults proposes the dynamism
of memory, presence and prophecy. It joins tradition and the education
of faith, according to the paternity/maternity of faith.
In the past tens of years -No.10 of the text continues-
the Italian Church highlighted faith and charity. Today it wants to
underline the unsuspected strength of hope. This is why it will place
experiences of future prophecies on the candlestick. They are:
consecrated life, particularly the monastic life; the missionary
vocation, mainly the "ad gentes"; the self-oblation in matrimony and
family; the service to the poorest and the care for uneasy persons; the
education accompaniment of boys and adolescents; formation to civil
sense and participation in social life; attention to the world of work;
presence in places of suffering and disease.
It is evident that the consecrated persons, in the
variety of their charism, have many challenges to face directly. Their
narration is that of "putting the experience of future prophecies on
the candlestick". Several times people play the death bells on the
women religious life, expressing "prophecies of misadventure", insisting
on the falling in number, on the advanced age of the sisters, on a
climate of weariness. However, they also, within brackets, put the
capillary presence of consecrated women on the territory, particularly
in places of material and spiritual poverty. They praise their generous
service, their hard work; they admire the sisters as persons who never
shun sacrifices. I am not referring only to the "sheltering houses" for
mother/girls or the prostitutes who want to quit this dramatic
experience and for visiting the prisoners. I remember also the many
sisters who commit themselves to schools. Often they come across many
forms of poverty and solitude, of discouragement and fear. I think also
of the oratories and youth centres, of the parishes and movements.
The evangelical counsels, lived in coherence and radical
commitment, according to the post-synod exhortation "Vita Consecrata",
are a prophetic place, a possibility to proclaim the wonderful deeds of
God.
The consecrated women feel particularly questioned. The
Mulieris Dignitatem, by John Paul II, inspires them to grow in
the awareness that their dignity and vocation are come rom the "great
deeds of God", according to the spirituality of the Magnificat of the
Virgin Mary.
The canticle of the Mother of God is the "red thread",
which guides them, "with feminine genius", to express themselves in
history by generating a new life, by collaborating in building the
future in a spiritual maternity, which nurtures itself in the banquet of
the Word and the Bread.
God bets on us and gives us an anticipation of trust. We,
too, bet on God, by entrusting ourselves totally to his merciful love,
by hoping attentively in our salvation and in that of the whole world.
Our poverty does not block this hope, it rather increases
it, because our faith is in Christ, Son of God, Crucified and Risen.
Suffering, poverty, contradictions enter this mystery; they are not an
obstacle, but the concrete context in which salvation is realised.
We want to follow Peter's exhortation,
"Set yourself close to him so that you, too, may be
living stones making a spiritual house as a holy priesthood to offer the
spiritual sacrifices made acceptable to God" (1Pt, 2, 4-5). "But give it
with courtesy and respect and with a clear conscience" (1Pt 3, 16).
The only necessary thing is to welcome his love and to
remain in it with a grateful and joyful heart.
Herewith I write an expression of Juliana from Norwich, a
mystic of the 14th century.
"Well, do you want to know what the Lord meant by all
this?
Know it well: its meaning is love.
Who reveals it to you? Love.
What does it reveal? Love.
Remain stable in this and you will know him up to his
depth.
You will never know things different from these for
eternity.
They thought me that our Lord is love.
I have seen with absolute certainty in this and all
elsewhere, that God loved us even before creating us. His love never
decreases and will never vanish.
He has made all things in this love, making them
advantageous for us; our life will last in this love forever.
We had our beginning at creation, but the love with which
He created us was in Him without any beginning.
We received our origin in this love and we shall see all
this in God without end
Does the particular question on what the Gospel
communicates to Christian life stand out of the interrogatives, which
make the leading thread in the ecclesial Congress of Verona?
Jesus is the Lord and Saviour of the world! He is
everything! He is the Gospel, the good news, which God announces to the
whole world! He is our holiness; therefore, he is the high measure of
Christian life.
How can Jesus re-generate this lived experience in its
daily dimension? What is the task of the religious women in this
constantly changing multi-ethnic context?
The artificer is the Holy Spirit, a gift of the Risen
Lord. In the church and in the heart of the believers, He calls Jesus to
memory and witnesses to him. Here and now, in our daily life, He
remembers Jesus efficiently. He remembers his logic of love. He
remembers that Jesus is our Rock and our Salvation, the Bridge, which
joins creation with God.
The Spirit builds up unity, by leading all the forces
towards the unique point of universal convergence, towards the Son of
God, in whom God’s love created and re-created everything.
Often, we start from the differences, thinking of
allowing them to converge in unity. At times, this way is without an
exit: at the most, it produces parallel ways. From its very beginning,
Church History teaches us that we can build unity only on Christ, on His
Gospel. He alone eliminated the partition wall among the peoples. He is
our peace, he who “has made the two into one entity and broken down the
barrier, which used to keep them apart” (Eph 2,14).
“Christ himself died once and
for all for sins, the upright for the sake of the guilty, to lead us to
God. In the body He was put to death, in the spirit He was raised to
life” (1 Pt3, 18).
The conclusive reflections on the outline seem to be very
expressive. They are synthetic and practical.
It concludes by quoting 1Pt again, which exhorts to
courtesy and respect and to a clear conscience (1 Pt 3, 16).
“The reflection on the power of testimony and on the
dynamism of hope, finds its fundamental principle in the renewal of our
life in the Crucified and Risen Lord. This reference leads us to an
attitude of personal and ecclesial discernment, inspired by these
reflections. The exercise of discernment is already a component of
testimony: it prepares us to testimony and makes us to live it already.
Discernment is also elevation and purification. It
purifies our knowledge and the knowledge of reality enriches charity, by
making it alive and active in the daily history.
Discernment is patient vigilance: a Christian vigilance,
a particularly needed patience before the ambivalence of social and
cultural transformations.
Finally, discernment accompanies a humble attitude before
the truth. Attention towards others and the conditions of their
existence depends on the truth, so that testimony may never be a source
of division and contrasts, but always of edification.
We are sent to be witnesses to Christ Jesus, hope of the
world in “this stupendous and dramatic, temporal and earthly situation”
(see Paul VI, Testament), “keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus (Hebrews
12,2) and “and pouring into Him our worries, because he takes care of
us” (see 1 Pt5,7-8).
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