The words of the Pope simply affirm that as the Sacrament of Baptism calls every Christian to become an evangelist, (become a missionary) so too, the Sacrament of the Eucharist should awaken our mission vocation calling each baptized Catholic to create a better world as missioners.
How to do that was the theme of this year’s TMC Conference. We know our vocation must begin by first of all making us aware of the need to relate to the persons to be evangelized in terms of their own culture with the understanding that we also will be evangelized by them. For, as we learned in the documents relating to mission in Vatican Council II (1992-1995), we must not only bring the Gospel (the Good News) to others as evangelists, but also be evangelized by them because God is also present in their world before we came, and indeed in the entire universe, and so the missioner must find that which is of God in the other’s culture as we do in ours.
To accomplish this, TMC divided the conference into three interconnected dialogues on Culture, presented by three well qualified social-scientists in the area of culture.
- The first dialogue, given by Dr. John Donahue, looked at the essence of culture in its basic scientific sense, including fundamental questions like, “who names you”, “who rears you”, “who feeds you”, and “to whom do you belong” because each one of us represents the culture of a specific society.
- The second dialogue, given by Dr. Arturo Chavez, concentrated on the specific culture of Latin American with the culture of Mexico and its Mexican American roots in today’s world.
- The third dialogue, given by TMC Board Member, Dr. Sharolyn Durodola, invited audience participation with several models of how to open our hearts to see the culture of other peoples. Dr Durodola opened the participants up to recognizing sub-conscious values that each person possesses which aid us to recognize the cultural values in others.
TMC has produced a booklet and a DVD from this conference which includes the three presentations and strategies to implement these ideas in dialogue among individual mission groups.
TMC 2010 Conference - February 12-14
TMC, in preparation for its 2010 conference on February 12-14, 2010, has chosen to hold it in San Juan, Texas, on the US side of the Mexican border, inviting participants from the other side of the border to participate in a dialogue. Being close to our neighbor in Mexico, we will be able to dialogue with people of a different culture, and address issues like the crisis of Immigration today and its economic foundation in the perspective of another culture.
The document from the Latin American Bishop’s conference in Aparicida, Brazil, and the US Bishop’s document on “Welcoming the Stranger” will be focal points to direct the dialogue.
More details, including time, place, and expenses will be forthcoming in the TMC newsletter for November, 2010 on the TMC Website.
To emphasize the value of discovering the jewels in another’s culture, I would like to quote two small example from a new Orbis book,” What They Taught Us", on the lived experiences of Maryknoll and other Missioners.
“I was always impressed by the Africans I worked with in Tanzania and Kenya. Their capacity to share and their generosity seem to strike everyone who visits. One day I had the chance to see how early they learned to be so spontaneously generous when I met a lovely young mother who was taking a small child securely wrapped on her back. Her other children were walking alongside her, and we were all having a nice conversation. I offered the little one a small sweat candy, and the child held it out to the mother for a lick and then offered the candy to each of the siblings for a lick before enjoying it. I was amazed and realized that sharing had become a fixed part of their lives from the time they were very young”. Fr. Thomas P. McDonnell, M.M.
“One day we were walking trough a poor section of Lima. We came to the one-room house that we were looking for and were invited in. As we came in the door, a little boy greeted us. He had a small package of Oreo-like cookies. We were three, two women and myself. The boy carefully took cookies from his treasure and gave one to each of the women. Then he looked at me and looked at his package. One cookie was left, which he removed and carefully separated the layered delicacy and gave me half, keeping the other half for himself. For a moment I enjoyed the taste of chocolate, but for a lifetime I have enjoyed the memory of a little boy’s generosity.
Brother Martin J. Shea, M.M.
- MISSIONERS DISCOVER THE GOSPEL AS IT IS LIVED IN OTHER CULTURES - |
