Apostolic
living denotes witness to the mission handed over to the church through the
apostles. We are heirs of the teaching tradition of the church; otherwise we
would have been heirs of something not known if nothing is handed by Christ to
the apostles who finally handed to us. And in vain shall we proclaim, praise
and serve the word of God and our Lord Jesus Christ who laid the foundation for
many and many brothers and sisters. They preached, we are now preaching and we
shall preach his words of eternal life. What we preach is what we learnt and
lived by our lives. Aware of the globalization era, apostolate has become a two
way path in which; first, we are too taught by the world on how to live the
good news and secondly how we are to witness effectively the gospel in the
global village. Most often I see three things as the manifold of apostolate at
the heart of formation;
Being a philosopher at the heart of
apostolate
By
being so does mean being a humble and inquisitive learner among the learned and
the learner and if possible you become a ‘learnee’. Apostolate indeed inspires
a lot of people and it’s where one discover real mission of his call. What I
always put in mind is that, I first be like a blank slate (the tabularaza)
notion, which I mean encountering apostolate without preconceptions and biases.
This most often makes people during apostolic allocation very hyper alert; even
others decline appointment because of such biases and preconceptions. Allowing
one-self as empty as a blank slate would help one learn and be formed. This is
because to learn means to leave the negative traditional and cultural beliefs,
ideologies, practices and norms that one had imprinted in his/her own mind, but
embracing the new ones. Doing so would help us to embrace inter-culturation and
we can inspire the people in the way we pass the gospel by their own culture
and our own lives. They learn from us as we learn from them too. However,
imposition of philosophical theories and ideas would mean assimilating the
people into our own selves, ideas, and opinions which I think leave defect
rather than good. Above all, Apostolate is love and ‘sequela Christi’.
Being a family member in apostolate
Much
as we may perceive it to be nearness to the families, nevertheless does it
reflect being like a family member. Though you may ask how about interreligious
apostolate, all the same becoming human to all and “nothing inhuman is foreign
to me” (Charles Lavigerie). Which I think does not apply only to particular
situation but to all situations, where no apostolate is smaller or greater than
the other. Live in as family member in all and never subtract any of the family
responsibilities of whether being a parent, or a child. My question is, have
you become a visitor at the apostolate place or a son, daughter, mother and
father?
On
my own awareness this is how I felt like one of the family members at
apostolate; As a son, parishioners supported me spiritually through
living examples of being committed Christians, gave me necessary advice, showed
me a sense of direction, gave me courage educated me through earning the way of
life of the people around and even fed me well.
As a brother, we shared common
advice, ideas, corrections and listeners to one another. As a parent,
being available to the Christians, being listened to, implementing ‘domestic’
roles in the apostolate, giving sense of direction and advice. As a pastoral
agent, delivering the word of God and bringing the body of Christ closer to
them. The vital aspect is living the identity of each family member without
assuming the other’s duty, which I mean maintaining pastoral territorials to avoid
confusion. Indeed, apostolate is a manifestation of Trinitarian family love.
The fact of challenge at apostolate
Pastoral
challenges are indeed inevitable of every pastoral agent. Some of the short
comings are already before one’s arrival to the place and others are
encountered at the time of carrying out responsibilities. For example,
too much exaltation. My corporate identity as a seminarian made many
Christians to elevate me high in matters of advice and faith, some even went
ahead to demand that I put on cassock whenever I’m going to the chapel. Anyhow,
such exaltations are good and inspiring to one’s discernment process, a source
of faith to the Christians and dignity to the Eucharist. The risks of pastoral
gap might be high. Negligence of pastoral identity which might lead to
violation of duties should be avoided because pastoral agents proclaim the word
of God holistically by their way of life. The fact of challenge should be meant
for self-realization, where one’s sense of belonging is reached i.e. vocation.
To
be concise enough, a life of “supererogative” (doing extra good) be avoided
otherwise we shall leave people in the world of utopianism. However, it is our
duty and responsibility to raise people high spiritually and where possible materially.
It becomes un easy when one becomes a donor to the Christians because it makes
them weak enough to support themselves in developmental initiatives. It reminds
me of my spiritual inspirator who said that, the white man handed to us Jesus
on the crucifix, Mary in the rosary and the saints in the devotions. So to meet
our personal, community and church demands, we should not wait to contribute
generously for ourselves and for the church when in need. The riches are
actually hidden in these great men and women. We shouldn’t be challenged by the
theory of supererogative to incapacitate us to fulfill our moral obligations
and duties in the apostolate. Challenges shape, prune and form us only if
we do not allow them to woe us.
BY
MUKULIA JOHN BOSCO