New Evangelization for the Transmission of Christian Faith in Asia
Introduction
Every morning when we get up from
the bed we happen to see the world from our windows and experience a new day
that tells us wonderful tales about our dream heroes in the field of politics,
business, science, sports, cinema etc, which bring us joy and happiness to our
mind and heart, but we fail to see the other world of the peoples who are great
values and cultural heritages, from our windows. One among them is the Asian
people. Asia is the vast continent of four billion people where less than four
percent of the masses are Christians. Geographically Asia is a vast continent
in the world. Every country in it has its own rich variety of cultures,
religions and languages. The nations like Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan
hold the majority of people belonging to Islam. The countries such as Japan,
Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Srilanka, where majority of people are belonging
to Buddhism and the nations like India and Nepal have more than 80% are Hindus,
except in Philippines where there are more than 80% people practice their
catholic faith, yet in all these countries we could find a significant number
of Christians are living and practicing their faith.
This shows the emergence of
Christianity in Asia. Therefore, the church has invited us to go for new evangelization
to strengthen the growth of Christianity more and wide in Asia. The proposed
title New Evangelization does not mean to re-evangelize the Good news rather it
invites everyone to reflect how the words of Jesus, particularly his faith in
God, the father can be transmitted to the people in Asia creatively. New
evangelization is a call to adopt new methods. We cannot live by the old methods
that were formed yesterday. Every day is a new reality that calls for a new
life because life has to be renewed now and then. Otherwise, it will remain
static where there is no hope for future. In the same way, our evangelization
in Asia has to be renewed in order to evangelize the
word of God in Asia. In this essay, I have presented my views on how we can
transmit the Christian faith in Asia. The first part deals with the identity of
Christianity in Asia and the missionary character of the church. The second
part zeros in on the evangelization in the life of Jesus and the pastoral life.
The last part deals, the new evangelization can be achieved through cultural
identity, dialogue with religions and theological education.
1 The Christianity in Asia
Christianity in Asia is mostly
identified with well-organized institutions as it is in West. Many in Asia
particularly in India people appreciate their services to the societies through
these institutions. The services done in the name of evangelization not fully
made impact on the lives of people in Asia to experience Jesus. The “Jesus” we
preached never reached the hearts of people because he was not able to give
solutions to the problems (poverty, various oppression, and dehumanization of
men and women) faced by people in their everyday life. The reason is “the Jesus who was part of our
history was replaced in the risen Christ, regarded as above history, as eternal
and immutable.”[1] The savior Jesus, who was born in Asia, was
brought up in Europe, he was crucified on the cross in the name of doctrines
and dogmas and the people in authority never allowed him to rise in the hearts
of people as the redeemer of the world. As a result Jesus was exiled from the
human community and imprisoned in divine level. In addition, the mere dogmatic
concepts about Jesus hid him permanently in the world of utopia and
intellectuals. The doctrines and dogmas are needed in order to facilitate
people’s faith in Jesus not to destroy.
Unless he is freed from the doctrines, dogmas, institutionalism he has a
less chance to rise in the hearts of Asian people.
1.1 The Church is Missionary
The Church by its nature is
missionary. It is highly impossible to separate the church from evangelization.
Since the church was established by Jesus Christ it has the duty to evangelize
the world through sharing the gifts of
love, joy, brotherhood and sisterhood, human dignity and more than that the
faith in God. Pope Paul VI rightly points out, “the church exists in order to
evangelize, that is to preach and teach the word of God, to be the channel of
his gifts of grace, to reconcile sinners with him, and to perpetuate Christ’s
sacrifice in the mass which is the memorial of his death and resurrection.”[2]
What does it mean by Evangelization? Evangelization
is nothing but sharing our faith in God through Jesus Christ. Faith is the
experience of God. As Jesus experienced and tasted God, we too through risen
Jesus Christ are called to experience and taste God. Moreover, our faith in God
should help us call God as Abba boldly through human relationship. The
experience of the person of Jesus Christ is very necessary for authentic
evangelization. Only through such an authentic experience of risen Christ, evangelization
becomes possible to human beings. It is
not only to transmit the faith in Jesus but also it is “a call to denounce sin
and sinful structures” [3]
in Asia and in the world. Jesus experienced God, the father. His experience
enkindled his spirit in him to work towards building up humanity and denounced
all the sinful structures that prevailed in Israel because of his spirit filled
messianic mission, he brought a radical transformation in the lives of people.
2 The Spirit Filled Messianic Mission
To
evangelize the word of God in Asia it is our duty to know how Jesus did his
mission. Evangelization in the life of Jesus deeply rooted in the kingdom of
God. The Holy Spirit anoints the Mission
of Jesus. Evangelization becomes a successful one only if it is the activity of
the Holy Spirit. Marcus Borg identifies Jesus as a “Spirit person.”[4]
He views Jesus as “one of those persons in human history to whom the spirit was
an experiential reality.”[5]
Jesus articulates his experience of the spirit of God, in the inaugural address
of his messianic mission. “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.” (Luke 4:18) This
statement clearly indicates the profound and continuous relationship of Jesus
to the spirit of God. With that profound experience, he called God as Abba. In
the same way, “the spirit enables us to cry Abba, Father. In that cry, the
spirit of God joins with our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children.”[6]
Jesus reveals his vision of establishing
God’s kingdom on the earth. From the manifesto of Jesus’ mission (Luke 4:
18-19), we can understand that his mission was a spirit-anointed mission. As
Mission is meant for the needy, the spirit anointed mission is always in favour
of proclaiming good news to the poor.[7]
The experience of the indwelling spirit of God in Jesus makes him realize that
he is sent by the God to take the side of poor who are oppressed, imprisoned,
and lost their sights by the Roman Empire and the priestly aristocracy. The
spirit filled mission made him sacrifice his life on the cross for the
salvation of humanity. The spirit of God worked as driving force to establish
messianic kingdom on this earth by bringing liberation to people from their
various oppressions.
The
profound experience of spirit led him to transform the society and to work for
the marginalized and oppressed people. The spirit of God in Jesus made him
break through the unjust cultural, religious, and societal barriers imposed by
the religious leaders, brought renewal in the Jewish religious system “that
challenged and shattered the social boundaries of his day.”[8]
Thus, Jesus created a counter culture of liberation, justice and equality with
the help of God’s spirit and Jesus relaxed some religious and social laws, for
an example, the Sabbath restriction, and speaking to a Samaritan woman in
public. His evangelization is an invitation to everyone to be filled by the
spirit of God for new evangelization. We should remember well that the spirit-filled
evangelization reaches the hearts of people through the gift of prophecy given
by God.
2.1 Evangelization, the Gift of Prophecy
Evangelization is not an easy task.
It is the gift of prophecy given by God. Unless a man inspired by the spirit of
God, he cannot communicate the message of God to the people. All the prophets
in the Old Testament had the gift of prophecy given by the spirit of God. From
Moses to the prophets Malachi, and from the disciples of Jesus to till
now, by the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, all communicated God’s message to people of Israel and others. Their
prophecy not only communicated God’s words but also brought radical changes in
the minds and the hearts of people. The gift of prophecy by the spirit of God
activates in the life of people in three ways. They are the following: “1.
Edification, 2. Exhortation, and 3. Comfort.”[9]
As Jesus opted for the poor he expects every priest, nun, and Christian people
in Asia to participate in struggles of poor for justice. One of the leading
theologian Michael Amaladoss indicates rightly that evangelization is the gift
of prophecy, which has to be used for right cause, not for one’s benefit.
Prophecy should bring conversion. And “this task in view of the kingdom can be
seen as prophecy. Prophecy is a call to conversion. But this conversion can be
a turning to God without a change religious community.”[10]
Evangelization should challenge the
rich and the powerful in Asia to convert themselves from their unjust acts and
to build up an inclusive community from which emerges a new human community.
Jesus always dreamt such a new human community that loves, gives and sacrifices
what it has for the well being of human community and nature. Jesus wanted “his
disciples to struggle for justice, to serve the poor and the oppressed, and to
spread the message of love and peace here and now.”[11]
As the prophets of God, we have duties to overthrow the forces of globalization
and modernization because they have marginalized the poor from their
societies. The Asian prophets have the
responsibility to seek justice and assert the identity of subaltern peoples
like Dalits, tribals, women and children. Only through such an authentic
prophecy, self-giving, love and sacrifice we can become a servant of God. The
servant of God is enriched in becoming a good pastoral leader.
2.2 Pastoral Leadership, a Key to New Evangelization
To evangelize the word of God effectively to
the people in the Asia, leadership is one of the essential characteristics for
the Asian prophets. Leadership is very essential to transform the parish
community as the participatory ecclesial community. As we live in the world of
information and communication, the outdated style of leadership as Command and
Control will not work today. A priest who wants his parish as a participatory
ecclesial community must imbibe “the new models of Christian leadership which
are more participatory, creative, life giving and empowering.”[12] He can
make use of the leadership as a tool to achieve the mission and vision of God’s
kingdom in his parish.
2.2.1 The Priest is a Servant Leader
To bring changes in the ecclesial community the priest must
become a servant leader. “Leadership is bestowed upon him who becomes a servant
by nature.”[13]
The servant leader is a servant first. Then only he becomes a leader. It begins
with the natural feeling that one wants to serve first. As a servant-leader,
priest has to shepherd his people in the parish community. Shepherding means
exercising care of the people, protecting people, and guiding the entrusted
people. Therefore, servant leadership is an act of service to the parish
community, and understanding the responsibilities willingly, which will benefit
the parish community.[14]
2.2.2 The Shepherding Leader
As Jesus is a good shepherd, the priest is
called to become like Jesus. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:
14). “This proclamation of himself as the good shepherd has both political and
religious dimension.”[15] The
consecrated priest is expected to lead the entrusted people through service and
sacrificing his life for the well being of his parish ecclesial community. Only
through such a dedicated shepherding, he can bring about a just human society.
He always must look for or create the opportunities to serve and give his life
for the growth of his entrusted people. Like Jesus he is called and expected to
establish justice and to secure the welfare of all those who are under his
care. This shepherding leadership will bring empowerment in the ecclesial
community.
2.2.3 Empowering the Ecclesial Community
It is the duty of the priest to empower people
of God to do the work of God in their everyday life. As a leader, he will not
produce anything unless he transforms the community. Priest must make all the
changes into opportunities to empower people with significance. A process of
developing individual believer into resourceful servant-minister who can
contribute out of the giftedness and equipping of his or her life is the real
task of a true parish priest in his parish community.[16]
Therefore, his responsibility is to empower God’s people to serve according to
proper working of each individual part. To achieve the goal he needs to build
self-esteem in the minds and hearts of the people. Empowering people begins
with the affirmation of people, which will bring community living.
2.2.4 Affirming the People in the Parish
How does a priest build the self-esteem in
people? First as a church leader, he has to affirm people, but many a priest in
the world failed to recognize how desperately people are raised in the family
and society without affirmation. Affirmation is just flattery or sugarcoated
series of lies. Affirming people is one of the kingdom values. Affirming people
will give them courage to face daunting tasks ahead in their life.
The real ministry of a priest is not getting
the wok done, but getting the people done. Perfected people are more important
in the parish, but at the same time, the role of a transforming priest is to
make an unqualified person into qualified person.[17] In
reality, there is not enough time for unqualified to learn what they need to
know. There is no one available to teach the unqualified what they need to know
in their lives. They do not have any source except the priest in a parish. As a
leader, the priest must train people in such a way to do the works for the
transforming community.
Priest as a leader always has the duty to
encourage his people to participate in the project of God for humanity and for
the entire creation as revealed by Jesus and his mission. He must provide
vision, direction and opportunities to identify the discernment of God’s will
for the community as well as to achieve the goals of God’s reign. In other
words, he is expected to equip and to empower people to be at the service of
God’s project.[18] As a transforming priest, he needs to
identify and train people who are not qualified totally before. He has to
empower people by giving them a chance to blow it. When people are given
chances, they will surely succeed in their life. Once they succeed, they will
tend to become long-term contributors to the church. The evangelization we do
in the parish level will never bind us within the limited boundaries; rather it
will make us fulfill our social responsibilities to transform the society.
2.2.5 Social Responsibility is a Transforming Key for Evangelization
A man who evangelizes the word of
God will never cover himself with in a particular territory to safeguard
himself, leaving his social responsibility behind. Rather he will break the
barriers around him and work for the fellow human beings, who are also in the
image and likeness of God.
The God will always guide us in
evangelization to see ourselves in the needs of the people. There only we can
identify our identity. Identity is nothing but going beyond the boundaries that
we have built around us. It means breaking our barriers and breaking out for
others, like Jesus Christ. The spirit of God always inspired many people who
worked for the human dignity. The evil
forces (power structures) might have killed them who worked for human
liberation, and human dignity “yet these martyred activists were willing to
sacrifice their lives because they believed that it was possible to create
future that was more just and reconciled.”[19]
3 New Evangelization in Asia
The word of God cannot be
proclaimed in vacuum. The people in Asia who receive the word of God have rich
culture and religious values. Establishing an Asian church is possible through
recognizing their cultural, religious values and reformation in theological
studies in Asia. Thus, these kinds of reformation will create an Asian human
face.
3.1 Cultural Identity is a Sign of New Evangelization
Recognition of their cultural and traditions
is that “the Gospel does not come to destroy them but to complete the
revelation they have already received.”[20]
It is to identify how God reveals himself in other religions too. God is God of
the universe. Yet God always reveals himself to the human history in a
particular culture and in a context. One should not claim that a particular
culture only has the god experience. Negation of a particular culture will
always brings back of domination, rather we need to recognize the presence and actions
of God in every other cultures too. However,
we the Asians still hold the colonization of western hegemony in our liturgical
celebration even after the second Vatican council. “It was through inculturation that the church
salvaged the culture of the Greeks and Romans from being buried in the archives
of archeology.”[21]
A community gets its identity only
through its language, culture and religious values. The culture of a particular
community reveals the most significant elements such as political and economic
situations of the people. When the gospel is narrated through the culture of a
particular community it reaches people. In other words, inculturation brings
new evangelization to the Christian community. It acts as an instrument to
transmit a faithful community into new human beings. In Asia, it is not merely
introducing some local cultures in the liturgical celebration but an attempt to
create a space for gospel-cultural encounter.[22]
The renowned Indian theologian Michael Amaladoss in his essay Liturgical
Inculturation and Postmodern Culture rightly points out that the gospel-culture
is to bring conversion of the heart of people to God not to destroy the culture
of a community.
“When the Gospel encounters a
culture, it involves a call to conversion: a turning to God and as turning away
from egoism and pride. Culture is a social product. The goal of gospel culture
encounter is the transformation of culture through conversion… Transformation
through incarnation is the way of inculturation.”[23]
If the church really adopts the method of
inculturation for the benefit of humanity, it will present the complete message
of Jesus to the people in Asia. In the same way, it will also contribute to
enrich the life of the church in Asia. This inculturation will bring all people
in communion with one another in the kingdom of God. The leaders in Asia have
already initiated the process of inculturation in the liturgical reforms within
the local churches in Asia, after the second Vatican council by translating the
bible in vernacular languages, not only brought radical changes but also communicated
the Christian messages to the people of Asia with the use of Asian languages,
symbols, and cultures.[24]
Communicating Christian faith in local linguistic and cultural forms is the
sign of new evangelization in Asia. Thus, the cultural identity gets
strengthened in dialogue with other religions to establish the reign of God.
3.2 Inter-Religious Dialogue
Dialogue between the religions
becomes a necessity to establish the kingdom of God in Asia. Pope John Paul II
in his encyclical letter Ecclesia in Asia calls Christians to present Jesus “in
a way that appeals to the sensibilities of Asian Peoples” (no.20). Dialogue is a way to express one’s openness
towards others. It removes one’s egoism, prejudices and assumptions. It is a
platform to meet the other as human being. In dialogue, we have ample chances
to express and “share our faith with others mutually.”[25]
There is a chance to view others as the children of God “not as an enemy of
God. This would end viewing the other as a worshipper of demons.”[26]
It works for the development and justice of society.
Jesus the model of dialogue partner
took initiative to enter dialogue with others. He never went for any
extraordinary situation for a dialogue rather used “an ordinary life situation
as a starting point for dialogue.”[27]
Only in dialogue with other religions, we have the chances to share our faith
mutually and serve people in different ways.
Our evangelization will not aim at destroying other religious faith “but
as partners of dialogue to establish the reign of God on earth. Religion should
never be a source of division, but a powerful force for cooperation and
collaboration in meeting the challenges of modern society and culture.”[28]
Dialogue with others makes everyone
becoming a better Christian every day. Felix Wilfred says, “Becoming Christian is
a process that is not done alone, not even with institutionalized Christian
communities, but in the partnership of many peoples of other faiths with whom
we live and interact on a daily basis… Becoming Christian inter-religiously is
indeed on enriching and exciting experience.”[29]
Dialogue and collaboration with other
religions are the best ways of evangelization in Asia. The church should realize
that all the religions in the world or in the Asia work for the kingdom of God and
the liberty of human beings in their own ways. The dialogue should help us
“build a human community of freedom, fellowship, and justice that Jesus
proclaimed as the kingdom of God- a new heaven and a new earth.”[30]
The cultural identity, religious dialogue, social responsibilities, and
pastoral leadership should provide a space to live as a human being. To live as
a human being, we need to convert Asia into Asianization with a human face.
3.3 Asianization with a Human Face
New evangelization is a call to
read the signs of time and to act according to the will of God. Globalization in Asia is a brutal imposition
on the poor. Poverty due to
globalization pushed poor people to margins of society. It has created a
homogenic culture and conquered the world particularly Asia and Africa. It not
only overshadowed the cultures of many in Asia but sucked the powers and
strengths of poor. In the name of globalization poor people was alienated from
the world. Felix Wilfred calls the alienation of people as the eclipsing of
“social consciousness.”[31]
The economy, in Asia is not for the poor but for the rich, feeds them with
wealth and empties the poor and erases them from the human community. Religions are used to justify the existing
order of socio-political and economic structure, which overthrows poor to the
margin.
Globalization makes it “unfit for
human habitation. It also deprives future generations of their rightful
resources.”[32]
New evangelization invites us to make an Asianization with a human face.
Asianization with a human face is nothing but the engagement with context,
economic situation of the oppressed, their basic needs, and the rights of the
voiceless people. [33]
So the church in Asia must identify itself with the poor in Asia through its
commitment to the cause of poor. It may bring troubles and challenges to the
church but only through such identification the church in Asia can grow and
evangelize the word of God and transmit the faith of God to the heart of
people. Option for the poor proclaims God’s reign in Asia. Priority should be given
to the uplifting the poor. God’s presence is affirmed among the powerless. If
not so, the church in Asia by its own free will withdraws from the task of
evangelization in Asia.
3.4 Contextualized Theological Education
The present theological education
in Asia is centered on teacher and authority. The ultimate aim of theological education
in the seminaries is to make students be fully human beings. However, the
present traditional education produces students as machines without human
flesh. Such products limit themselves within their boundaries and never like to
cross the territories that they have built around them. They find more
satisfaction with the teachings of church’s dogmas and doctrines than experience.
Therefore, Paulo Freire coins this traditional theological education as banking
method of education. He proposes a new method of education that is problem
posing education or critical method of education, which conceptualizes
education as that proceeds from the situation of the students, in a dialogical
process, accompanied by the educator as a partner, towards the formation of the
society by transforming both the teacher and students to be fully human
beings.
“Education either functions as an
instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation
into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes
the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and
creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation
of the world.”- Paulo Freire from the book, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed.”
Tissa Balasuriya suggests three important shifts in
theological education to transmit faiths in the hearts of people. They are the
following namely:
1. The
theological subjects should be based on the contexts.
2. The
changing of the structural spaces and places where theology is taught,
constructed as well as learned.
3. The
goals of the students who study. [34]
3.4.1 The Traditional Concept of Education
The traditional based theological content
of education mostly is ir-relevant and alien to the culture and context of the
students. There is no possibility for
the students to think beyond the boundaries. This traditional based education paves a way
for an oppressed society. The traditional education becomes more irrelevant and
contrary to the context and environment of the students. This theological based
education in the seminary seems “to be value free and objective without
ideological presuppositions.”[35]
3.4.2 The Critical Method of Theological Education
The very nature of human being is to search for
truth that is possible only in the field of critical method of education. Human
being is not merely an object to be enslaved but a historical being. It is the duty
of the teacher as well as students in the seminary to have a constant search
for the meaning of human existence on the earth, because theological education
is an ongoing process, not a finished product. The method of education is
liberative because the teacher examines with students the problems related to
their situations. It urges the students to act upon their context to transform
it. It provides an opportunity to look at critically their existence in their
contexts. It gives rise to solidarity and education becomes a joint Endeavour
of both students and teacher. Theological education should become a channel of
envisioning new possibilities for social order, for relationship, for survival
of the earth. Theology is not a finished product but a process, which will
bring effective transformation in the society. Unless a student of theology commits himself
to the call of God, people and nature, theology will never become an authentic
experience because faith can be articulated only in the contexts. Otherwise,
theology will remain as a construct in abstract.
Conclusion
Do we look at new evangelization as
a token of trust or suspicion? If we
look at new evangelization as token trust, then the token of trust can be identified
through Faith, Community living, pastoral leadership, dialogue with other
religions, inculturation and social responsibilities because each one is
entrusted with certain tokens of trusts by God for our well beings as well as
for others. So let us make use of the token of trust-new evangelization to
establish the church in Asia in order to transmit the Christian faith from
individual to community. Any new form of
evangelization should lead us to experience community living. Community living
is not only meant to celebrate uniformity but the differences too. When the
community celebrates and encounters the differences, it becomes an inclusive
community and there everyone becomes the sacraments of God. The aim of new
evangelization is not adding numbers to the church rather living a life of Christian
discipleship in everyday life particularly in the Asian context.
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Electronic Document: From Internet
Affirm
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Contents
[1] . Sebastin Kappen, Jesus and Freedom
(New York: Orbis Books, 1977), 18.
[2] . Paul VI, Evangelization in the Modern World, The Pope Speaks, XXVI (1976) #
14, 10.
[3] . Paul Puthangady, “The Chruch’s
Vision for the Third Millennium in the Church in India,” in The Emerging Third Millennium, ed.,
Thomas D’sa, Bangalore: N.B.C.L.C., 2005, 48.
[4] . The author Marcus Borg
identifies that God and the spirit is one in the life of Jesus Christ. Jesus
Christ experienced the spirit of God through his life experiences. Marcus Borg,
Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time:
The Historical Jesus and the Heart of Contemporary Faith (San Francisco:
Harper, 1995), 32.
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