Our Mission as Life-promoters

ST. ARNOLD’S VISION AND OUR MISSION AS LIFE-PROMOTERS

Fr Freddie Santhumayor, SVD

1. St. Arnold Janssen has bequeathed to us a spirituality based on the Prologue of Jn’s gospel (1:1-18). In it, Jesus is called the Word of the Father. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God” (1:1). Just as our words are an expression of what we think in our mind, so also Jesus is the perfect expression of God’s mind and thought. Just as we communicate our thoughts, intentions, love and desires through our words, so God communicates and reveals His love and designs for humankind through His Son Jesus Christ. St. Arnold’s legacy motivates us to base our spirituality on Jesus as the Word or the Mind of the Father. This legacy constantly impels us to put on God’s own mind, i.e. to put on God’s way of thinking and loving, as revealed by Jesus. 

2. What is God’s way of thinking?

    Jn tells us that His thoughts are thoughts of total and self-giving love. That is why the core verse in John’s gospel tells us, “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life (3:16).” In 17:3 Jesus defines eternal life thus: “That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. This word “to know" is used throughout scripture to describe the most intimate and personal relationship that you can have. So Eternal Life is a close, personal relationship with Jesus and through him with the Father. Or, eternal life is a loving communion of life with Christ and through him with the Father. We come to know who God really is through Jesus. It is through him we have achieved an intimacy with God.

Now we understand that by giving his Son as a gift to a world deprived of the knowledge of true God (17:3 = intimacy with Him), God’s way of thinking is to embrace the whole of humanity (= everyone who believes in him) – saints and sinners, good and bad, just and unjust people. He gives fully without holding anything back, to the extent of letting his Son die a criminal’s death on the cross. The purpose of this ‘irrational’ love is (1) to give all those who believe (= put their faith and trust in Jesus) eternal life, i.e. a share in divine life (3:16), and (2) to save them by sharing his divine life with them (3:17). Through Jesus, we come to know God’s own mind, that is, how he wants to save us by sharing his divine life with us. How can Jesus share with us the life of God? Right at the beginning Jn says, in him (Jesus) was life of God (= divine life, 1:4) in its fullness. That is why Jesus is the Life itself. (“I am the way, the truth and the life”, 14:6; “I am the resurrection and the life, 11:25). By revealing the truth (reality) of the Father’s divine life, Jesus becomes the way for us to experience that divine life now to a great extent and at our resurrection to the fullest extent. In Jn’s gospel, “to believe” does not mean conceptual or theoretical knowledge, but to put one’s faith and trust in Jesus or to be personally attached to him by faith.

3. Further, according to Jn, Jesus reveals to us what was in God’s mind when he sent his Son into the world. The purpose or mission for which God sent his Son was not to steal, kill and destroy life, but that we may experience God’s own life, not in a little measure, but in abundance, or in fullness. “The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”. (10:10). Still further, Jn in his letter says that what the apostles proclaimed was the Word of life. “We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard…. concerning the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1). In Jesus the Word of Life, life was revealed (1 Jn 1:2-3). When Jn writes, “The Word became flesh and lived among us” (1:14), we understand that God’s Mind (Word) becomes a human being (= Jesus) in order to impart to those who believe (put their faith and trust in Him) the fullness of life. Hence, the Gospel of life is at the heart of the evangelizing mission of the Church. Though Jn speaks of divine or supernatural life, our participation in this divine life by faith in Christ, should influence us to be committed to the cause of human life in all its aspects. John insists that, for a believer, the glimpses of eternal life and already present in earthly life. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (3:36). Now let us see how we can be committed to the life-giving mission or to our mission for the cause of life here on earth.

4. Human life is precious but fragile; it is constantly threatened by anti-life forces. Besides age-old threats to life such as massive poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, cancerous corruption, unjust caste system, violence, war and murder, new threats are emerging in an alarmingly vast scale, such as terrorism, Maoism/Naxalism, abortion (esp. female foeticide), euthanasia, suicide (esp. of farmers and students), arbitrary imprisonment & torture, deportation, ruthless exploitation of tribals, Dalits, women and children, religious fundamentalism and fanaticism, communalism, racism, ecological degradation or environmental destruction, arms race, threat of nuclear wars, criminalization of politics, fake encounters by the police, violation of human rights, genocide & ethnic cleansing, land alienation and eviction, and HIV/AIDS. These are the signs of a CULTURE or CIVILIZATION OF DEATH. This is surely a BAD NEWS for humanity. "Abundance of life" promised by Jesus directly contradicts the fragility and vulnerability of life, the scarcity of life because it is everywhere negated & threatened by countless misdeeds and acts of cruelty from womb to tomb.

5. In the midst of all these life-negating forces, St. Arnold Janssen invites us to spread or create a CULTURE or CIVILIZATION OF LIFE. That leads us to the proclamation of GOOD NEWS against so much bad news in the world. We need to understand that our mission is a life-promoting/life-saving/life-preserving/life-sustaining mission. St. Arnold Janssen’s spirituality of the Word, inspires us to proclaim Jesus as the ‘Word of Life’ and discover a new love for life, and instil hope in human society.  All life-denying forces poison hope. We need to hear God’s call which comes to us today more powerfully than before, “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live” (Deut 30: 15,19).

6.    How do we promote the fullness of life?

By ­­- standing against all kinds of human rights violations and resource    exploitations.

- improving the quality of life through our social, educational, medical and pastoral ministry, going beyond the normal routine duties.

- raising people from natural to supernatural level, leading them beyond racial/ caste/ religious/ gender prejudices and discriminations.

- nursing, caring, nurturing, respecting, loving, saving, promoting, protecting, defending & serving life. especially of the defenceless and the voiceless.

- proclaiming the preciousness and dignity of life, especially of the   weaker sections.

- upholding the value of life, especially of the poor, the marginalized and the voiceless.

- eradication of social evils, such as addictions, crime, violence, witch-hunting, untouchability …..

- promotion of social justice, gender equality.

- instilling hope in hopeless situations.

- standing against violation of human rights & over-exploitation of natural resources.

- becoming voice of the voiceless.

- becoming sensitive towards life-denying forces & showing concern for life.

- helping people to sustain in moments of trial.

- imparting life through our compassion, care concern and instilling of hope in hopeless situations.

- becoming pro-actively pro-life.

7.How can we pro-actively promote lie?

We can do it in three ways: (1) personally in one’s own little way or by one’s own initiative (2) in an organized way within our parish/diocese/religious congregation, and (3) by collaboration with other people of good will.

8.    My personal testimony about life-promoting mission:

Though there are so many ways of promoting life as I have mentioned above, and so may are involved in this mission, I have taken up a pastoral ministry towards the alcoholics since 1985, which I consider as my life-giving mission. Through my de-addiction programmes, I try to contribute my bit for the promotion of life. Here in the diocese of Rourkela (Odisha), by God’s grace I could inspire a number of people addicted to alcohol to form Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Groups. Now we have sixteen A.A. Groups through which some 250 hopeless alcoholics have given up drinking. By living a sober life, they have received hope where there seemed to be no hope. This hope helps them to cope with life; it is a life-giving force. Alcohol steals, kills and destroys (as Jesus says in Jn 10:10) the life of addicts and their families. I see them experiencing abundance of life when they give up alcohol and become sober.

9.    Vision and motivation for this mission:

Though all of us are surely involved in this mission, we are not motivated enough to do it consciously and look for such opportunities in a pro-active manner on our own initiative and in our own small and little ways (if not in an organized way), without being told or appointed by anybody or any Body (= organization). Jn’s gospel, which is a Gospel of Life, invites us to give life willingly or voluntarily. In it Jesus says, “I lay down my life of my own accord” (10:18).  In his passion narrative, Jn emphasizes Jesus’ voluntary suffering/ service in order to do his Father’s will. Jesus says: “If you are looking for me, let these men go. …. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me (18:8, 11)?” As I reflect on the spirituality of the “Word of Life” bequeathed by St. Arnold Janssen to the Church, I am more and more inspired to willingly give life to others, out of choice, out of pro-active approach; without being told by anybody. St. Arnold’s vision is our mission. His wish for us is: “Can you dream about life-promoting mission and create a mental picture of it in your present situation. This dream is your vision in favour of human life in all its aspects. Are you intrinsically motivated enough to translate your vision into action even in a small way? Which life-promoting mission in the above-mentioned list would you like to make your own?”

“The cause of life is in fact the cause of the gospel” (John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae)

[Note: Quite a few ideas in this article are adopted from Pope John Paul II's Encyclical Evangelium Vitae].

(The writer can be reached at freddysvd@gmail.com)