Insights

Volume III Number 2 | December 2011

FACING THE CHALLENGE TO SHARE IN GOD’S OWN MISSION

A Reflection on the Short Course on I.P. Ministry

By Br. Paulo Jesus Nazareno, OFMCap

Note: In the previous issue, we reported that five friars attended the ten-day course on Indigenous Peoples (IP) Ministry developed to respond to the needs of religious working in IP communities. After the course, those brothers almost immediately went to be immersed in our mission fraternities. Below is a reflection written soon after this brother’s return to his home fraternity in GenSan after almost two months of immersion.

The short course aptly covered the Church teachings about culture, even the spirituality of those who engage and devote themselves in the IP ministry. During those days, there grew in me the understanding that the Church too has been responding to these circumstances. There are a number of documents beginning the advent of the Second Vatican Council regarding respect for cultures and reorientation and paradigm shifts concerning evangelization of peoples, the Church and the modern world, new trends in the theology of the missions and other up-to-date approaches to various contemporary cultural and inter-cultural phenomena. There, too, was a remarkable exposition of apologies made by the Catholic Church to culture and indigenous traditions, including discussions on the place of the other marginalized members of the world.

These discussions became a springboard for me to ponder and reflect about the responses that our Province had taken and committed itself to in these recent years. It is to my humble satisfaction that I have found our missions in Nuing, Caburan, and Titay as strongly relevant to the current situations

to which the Church invites us to give ourselves in service. Our presence among some of the lumad (namely the Subanen, B’laan, and Manobo) soothed me with a generous consolation in my heart.

Having seen that our Province has taken heed of the needs of the local church in Digos and Ipil, I had to also ask myself what particular contribution, little it may be, can I give to further the sustenance and success of this our endeavor? I realized that there are actually many avenues for responding to these urgent pastoral needs of the Church: one only has to offer himself wholly, unreservedly and in charitable, ever-ready availability.

Our Holy Father Francis, towards the end of his life, proclaimed to the brothers that the Lord has shown him what was his to do and bade his brothers “May he also show you yours…” Perhaps now, the Lord is revealing to us what is ours to do as Filipino Capuchin lesser brothers! In my prayer, I shall ask the Lord to grant me the grace to discern what He wills for me now.

I am grateful to be here in Mindanao for the first time, and I hope this would not be the last. I resolve to be faithful to my post-novitiate formation here and even now I am learning, and slowly ever deepening my vocation as a Capuchin. As my days here pass, I am moved by the Spirit to further commit myself to this holy work of being here present as a brother, first to my fraternity and to everyone around us. It is sheer grace to have come this far and, indeed, there is much for us all to do—hand-in-hand as brothers, united in prayer and labor.

We can only do as much; our greatest consolation would be to entrust everything else to the Lord. We are, after all, privileged sharers in His mission. For truly and ultimately, all this is God’s Mission.

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