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SCALABRINIAN TRADITIO An outline for further reflection 1. The larger picture
The relevant nature of migration
Migrations due to political, economic and religious causes, be they of single persons or of entire communities, can no longer be considered marginal events requiring only emergency intervention. They are now a structured reality involving all nations and effecting far-reaching changes in the social, cultural, religious and economic life of the nations from where migrants leave and of those who welcome them
Human migrations: a common responsibility for Church and society
Faithful to its evangelizing mission, the Church, as well as the countries of departure and arrival, shares a common responsibility in promoting new ways for people from diverse origins to come together, while respecting fundamental human rights. This calls for the promotion of mutual acceptance and good will between migrants and local residents alike. It means supporting development that will create widespread solidarity, so that no one shall ever again be forced to seek the means of survival elsewhere.
The need of a proprium
Only a specific spirituality lived in openness to the Holy Spirit’s action in everyday life can endow our presence in the Church and the world with prophetic force and give new vitality to our mission with and for the migrants in the local churches. Indeed, what is generic and vague cannot be an authentic gift to others.
2. Scalabrinian missionary spirituality
The meaning of a legacy and its development through time
The Spirit’s gift to Scalabrini is alive in all whom the Lord calls to share in it. Creative fidelity to this gift has led to the development of a spirituality that has its roots in Scalabrini and in the charism the Lord has given the Church through him for the world of human mobility. Confronted with the reality of migration, many, today, discover in Scalabrinian spirituality a treasure to draw from in order to live their Christian life more fully.
The plurality of its forms
This common treasure has been entrusted to histories that differ as to times, persons, vocations and approach: this is truly a wealth to be welcomed and valued as a first experiment in diversity.
Scalabrinian Traditio: a tool for our journey
We intend to search and point out those essential traits that characterize our way of living our faith, our vocation and mission in the Church and in society. These traits will bring unity and added meaning to the diversity within our Scalabrinian Family and motivate those who, for whatever reason, are involved in the phenomenon of migration and are laboring so that peoples from diverse origins may live together. The founding principals of Scalabrinian spirituality are found in each constitutional text approved by the Church. This spirituality needs to be incarnated in the very context where we are sent, and it draws new insights from an ever deeper study and knowledge of Bishop John Baptist Scalabrini, our founder and inspiration, from the charism handed down to us, from a wisdom reading of human migration, and from our mutual witness.
3. At the roots of our common treasure: the centrality of Jesus Christ, “stairway” between heaven and earth, in the life of John Baptist Scalabrini
The secret of John Baptist Scalabrini’s life and work is his passionate love for Jesus Christ. Enamoured of the Eucharistic, Scalabrini is in constant contemplation of the Son of God who became Man to reveal the Father’s love and to hand back to Him a renewed human family. In the view of John Baptist Scalabrini, all conflicts and differences are reconciled in Jesus, crucified and risen. Scalabrini’s heart beats in unison with the heart of Christ, obedient in all things to the Father and to His plan for the whole human family. As a living part of the Church, which is the body of Christ and a continuation of the Incarnation, Scalabrini becomes all things to all so as to serve the world in accordance with the Father’s plan.
4. Journeying in Christ toward full communion with the Trinity
The definitive fulfilment of the encounter between God and humanity, which took place in Christ, the universal man, urges us to go as a pilgrim Church among the men and women of today’s multicultural societies, announcing to them the mystery of the communion within the Holy Trinity, whose dialogue as Father, Son and Holy Spirit becomes for us the model for all relationships. On this journey, a welcoming attitude, itinerancy and communion in diversity are the specific traits the Church asks us to witness to. The Eucharist is our nourishment at every step, our inner source of transformation, and the anticipation of God’s future.
Welcoming: our sharing in the Father’s loving project
Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre (Gen 18, 1-10); The Good Samaritan (Luke 10, 30-37); “Strangers and aliens no longer” (Eph 2, 19); Hospitality (1Pet 4, 8-10); The Canaanite woman (Mark 7, 24-30).
By spreading appreciation for the migrant, we contribute to God’s plan to make of the earth a place of brotherhood, of sharing and gratuitousness, thus anticipating the banquet of the Kingdom, where no one is excluded and all are called by name by the Father.
Itinerancy: revealing in our lives the Son’s Paschal Mystery
“Go forth from your land” (Gen 12,1); Exodus (Exod 13, 18.20-22); The Alien (Lev 19, 33-34); “Walk humbly... “ (Mic 6,8); Incarnation (John 1, 11-14); Flight into Egypt (Matt 2, 13-14); Jesus the stranger (Matt 25, 31-46); Emmaus (Luke 24, 13-35); Kenosis (Phil 2, 6-11).
Mary, Mother of our journey and of hope, invites us to undertake ever new pilgrimages towards the other – the brother or sister in our community, the migrant, anyone – to meet as one body her Son, himself a migrant and the missionary of the Father, who died and rose for all. This inner disposition leads us to sacrifice our lives freely through the experience of the paschal exodus, made possible by the gift of the Spirit.
Communion in diversity: welcoming the Spirit’s new creation
Babel (Gen 11, 1-9); Gathering of the Nations (Isa 66, 18b-20a); Pentecost (Acts 2, 1-12); One body with many members (Rom 12, 4- 5); The early Christian community (Acts 15, 6-21); Jerusalem, open city (Rev 7,9; 21,25).
Feeling powerless and incapable of challenging those who seek to eliminate differences and impose uniformity, we turn to the creator Spirit of Pentecost. We always feel tempted to give up. But the Spirit is inviting us to move continuously from communion to diversity and from diversity to communion.
5. The fruits of the Scalabrinian missionary spirituality
The progress we make in Scalabrinian spirituality - which is our effective way to holiness - will bear fruit in the place where we are called to be and to work.
Appreciating diversity through personal, ecclesial and social relations
As individuals and as community, we invite those we meet to walk with us in that communion which can overcome all temptations to uniformity and has the power to transform the affirmation of one’s own identity into a celebration of diversity perceived as a gift.
Catholicity and communion in the local Churches
Scalabrini’s life, transformed by the Eucharist, reveals to us the true face of the Church as the house of communion, where differences are not left at the door nor forced into uniformity. Indeed, the person of Jesus, son of God and son of man, the true vestigium Trinitatis, is the only means to preserve and to keep alive in the Church the creative tension between unity and diversity.
The migrants as gift
From the depths of their drama of migration, which is often the result of injustice and exclusion, the migrants become the hidden and providential builders of universal brotherhood. Together with them, we too look for new heavens and a new earth. If welcomed and appreciated, their presence can become a source of enrichment for all. For the Church, especially, their presence becomes prophecy and the “sacrament of catholicity”, reminding it of its universal vocation.
Relationships of closeness and identity with the other
We are sent to announce the Father’s universal love and to serve. Our pilgrimage calls for an ongoing migration from ourselves to the other, to break with him the bread of our lives as baptized and consecrated persons, to humbly wash the pilgrim’s feet, to pour precious nard on the unexpected guest, pausing to look with love at our fellow pilgrims wounded or hurt in their dignity, caring for them with the tenderness and commitment of Jesus, the good Samaritan.
6. Conclusion
One’s own community is the first place in which to live the Scalabrinian missionary spirituality. The discrepancy between the ideals handed to us and the daily reality we face can become a laboratory in which it is possible to grow together. In Jesus, crucified and risen, in Him who is the Way, every step toward communion, motivated by trust in the Father’s promise, becomes prophecy and anticipation of the Kingdom.
June 2000
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