|
|
|
|
|
Each month, an aspect of our reparative, Eucharistic charism will be explored. In December, the topic is Education. The following remarks come from a presentation of our Superior General, Sister Rita Burley, in February 2000. Every Handmaid, wherever she may be, is an educator. For a Handmaid with her mission of reparation, educating means discovering the good that there is in every man and woman and making it grow.
We value our educational centers. We see them as platforms for evangelization, not only of the young people of today, but of the family of today. There we are building the culture and the society of today and of the future. In different parts of the world, we are trying to open up new ways of alternative education, but we still need more training for this. In our pastoral action, we Handmaids try to recover the image of God that there is in every person, an image that is often hidden, deformed and despised. We try to cooperate in working "to bring about the birth of the new man in Christ" (Constitutions 6). We want to do what John Paul II said on last January 10, in his discourse to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See. Speaking of the phenomenon of globalization, he says quite firmly that "the citizen has become more
a 'partner' in the common effort. There is greater possibility today than
yesterday of influencing governments or states. This means that the men
and women of the 21st century will be called to a more developed sense of
responsibility. First their personal responsibility, in fostering a sense
of duty -- young people don't even vote -- and honest labor: corruption,
organized crime or passivity can never lead to a true and healthy democracy.
But there must also be an equal sense of responsibility towards others: an
attitude of concern for the poor... and respect for nature and the environment."
But to be able to achieve this, they need help to develop the sense of their responsibility. In education, we want to from 'new partners.' John Paul stresses that a citizen become s a 'partner' only by renouncing the idols of prosperity at any price, material wealth as the only value and science as the sole explanation of reality; and working for human rights so that equality of opportunity becomes a reality for all. This ideal supposes that God will have his rightful place in people's live: the first place. To be educators, we also have to be 'good partners' and form others for this. Education in service of the Gospel is a privileged platform for this human and Christian formation. Education in service of the Gospel in its multiple facets has the same goal, to establish the true dignity of men and women, their growth in faith in God who is father, in Jesus Christ as Savor, and in the living of brotherhood and solidarity. In education in the service of the Gospel, we Handmaids have a challenge in connection with new works. From the beginnings of the Institute, we have developed our mission in our institutions: schools, residences, retreat houses; and during the last twenty tears, in parishes and ministries of reconciliation, of Spiritual Exercises, of the defense of life, of human promotion.... But I see that today we need to develop activities so that these ministries may have a new face. This is the call today to education in the service of the Gospel.
Nowadays there is a nostalgia of goodness in the hearts of many people. I travel a great deal and I usually talk to the people I meet; many share their live with me, and I always find so much goodness. They don't name it, but there is a hunger, a thirst. Paul Ricoeur says: "The sense of culpability has been lost. But there is still a nostalgia for goodness." We Handmaids believe in this goodness in the heart of the other. How can we awaken it? How can we accompany others so that we may help them discover the presence of God in their lives, in their history? How can we walk the Emmaus road with them? Rita Burley, aci |
|
|
|
Another great challenge today
to education in the service of the Gospel -- the same challenge as yesterday's
but the answers have to be new -- is how to stir up interest and desire in the
hearts of others, to give a response to the questions: What is life? Why
was I born? What meaning does my life have? Who am I?