Spiritual Life Committee - Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity    

Monthly Reflection: September 2004  
 
HUMAN DEVELOPMENT    
By Bro. Loughlan Sofield, S.T.    

"The essential elements of the life of Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity include human development as a life long project." 

Acts of the XIIth General Cenacle of the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity, 2003.  

 The XII General Cenacle emphasized the need to focus on our identity as Missionary Servants.  Among the "essential elements" identified was "human development as a life long project."   This phrase leaves itself open to many different interpretations.  I would suggest that the essence of human development is growing into the fullness of the person God has called us to be.  Human development is a life long journey responding to the question "Who is God calling me to be?"  It implies an integration of every aspect of our being, spiritual, emotional, physical and intellectual.  It is concerned with our relationship with God, self and others.  Human development is not a narcissistic endeavor.  Rather, the goal of human development is to help us to mature as generative disciples, responding to the hungers, pain and needs in others.    

As I struggled with the task of communicating this concept and finding a way to put a human face on a theoretical paradigm, the homily that Stephen Quinn delivered at the funeral of Cajetan McDyre arrived.  In describing his dear friend, Caj, Steve eloquently captured the essence of "human development." 

Steve described Caj as a man who integrated three separate but intimately related challenges:  his love of God, his personal development, and, his other-centeredness. 

Caj developed the gifts and attributes that he believed were truly Christ-like.  A mature, fully developed person is one who is "always gentle, gentle, gentle" as Steve said about Caj.  He has a "unique simplicity of heart and humility of spirit." Like many mature, generative people, these qualities have been developed "in the crucible of suffering."  Caj, like all mature people, had deep relationships and friendships and had a positive attitude toward all.  Caj "never expressed an uncharitable thought" nor did he judge others.    

The primary characteristic of the developed person is his generous spirit toward others. Caj, as Steve reminded us, had "a compassionate heart, without measure, self-effacing love, ever poised to do the good and thoughtful act of kindness…(Caj) gave of himself graciously, freely, abundantly with abandon throughout life."    

Each Missionary Servant, like Caj, is called to be a missionary, a man in service to others.  The more mature and fully developed a person is, the greater his capacity for being other-centered.
 
A short but profound document promulgated by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium, identifies the four calls of every Christian and sheds light on what the developed Christian should look like.  First, all are called to holiness, described by the bishops as an active spirituality, a spirituality that is equated with living the beatitudes.  Second, each Christian is called to community, a community though, which is not focused on itself, but a true Christian community which is as concerned about others outside the community as it is about its own members.  Third, in words that truly reflect the mind and heart of Father Judge, every single baptized person is called to ministry and to mission.  Every one is called to be a missionary, an apostle and a minister.  Interestingly, like Father Judge, the bishops begin their description of ministry by focusing not on what one does in the church but, rather, on the call to ministry in the daily circumstances of one's life, in the home, the workplace and the neighborhood.  The fourth call of every Christian is a call to Christian maturity, implying that we will be unable to be spiritual, communal and apostolic unless we focus on emphasizing our growth in maturity, one's human development.  The term the bishops use most frequently to describe the mature, developed person is dialogue.  Human development and maturity only occur in the midst of dialogue, a willingness to engage with everyone, especially those with whom one disagrees.  The bishops, in describing the mature Christian quote Mother Theresa, "We are not called to success.  We are called to faithfulness."  There is no such person as the fully developed person.  We are all in process.  We are called not to be perfect but to be faithful.     

Human development does not come easily or without effort.  Each of us must make a conscious effort to engage daily in the journey of human development.  At different periods in life human development will mean different thing.  For the younger men it means taking advantage of every opportunity to grow to be the best Missionary Servant they can be.  For those in middle age (and I'll let you decide when that is) it requires decisions about changes and commitments, maybe long delayed.  For those in "their senior years" it involves the spiritual grappling with the issues of aging and diminishment that are calling us to new ways of being.
Of course, the penultimate model of human development is Jesus Christ.  Pope John Paul II has said of Jesus that in the scriptures there are two gestures that are characteristic of Him, healing and forgiveness.  Ultimately, these are the two criteria to evaluate human development as mature Christians.    

Questions

1) What must I concretely do to ensure my own human development?
2) What would I want people to say about me at the homily of my funeral mass?
3) How can I create a climate that is more conducive to helping my confreres grow more fully into that person God is calling them to be?
4) What can we do at the regional and local cenacle level to foster human development?