Monthly Reflection: OCTOBER 2002
Preservation of the Faith: Our mission and challenge.
Josefina Morales, MCA
"Our specific mission is the preservation of the faith in those areas and among those people who are spiritually neglected and abandoned, especially the poor." Rule of Life #5
The greater we value something, the greater effort to preserve it. Some work to preserve a work of art, others a rain forest, still others their fortune, their reputation or their culture. We may ask: "What in this world is worth preserving, and at what cost?"
For Father Judge there was no greater work than the preservation of the faith. From the earliest days in the immigrant filled cities of the Northeast, to the rural poor of the deep South, to the spiritually abandoned of Puerto Rico and beyond, the "watchword of the whole Missionary Cenacle movement" has been and still is the Preservation of the Faith. (cf. Meditations, p. 272) It is for this that the energy and resources of the Missionary Cenacle Family are dedicated.
At the heart of the Missionary Cenacle charism is the conviction that to have the gift of lively faith in God is to have that which is most important, and to lose it is the greatest of all tragedies.
If an individual, if a people should lose their faith, what is left? What is to make life worthwhile? Without faith how would we answer such questions as these: what am I here for? Is there nothing in life except to be a tooth in the cog of some industrial plan, or of the social world? (cf. Meditations, p. 272)
In Father Judge's vision the mission of preservation of the faith was the most wonderful service to humanity.
"There is no greater humanitarian than he who keeps the Faith alive because there is no greater boon to humanity." (cf. Meditations, p. 272)
"Greater and more wonderful is the act of the one who traces this Cross upon a little child and teaches its use than of one who takes a kingdom with many battles, for in one instance the conqueror had a triumph that will last but a few days; in the other there has been a victory of faith that will be celebrated for all eternity, with the exalted Cross of Jesus in Paradise." (cf. Meditations, p. 105)
However, a big question at this time is: What does Preservation of the Faith mean to us today in the 21st Century? While the mission is the same, many circumstances have changed. We are in a new missionary era. What does Preservation of the Faith mean in light of the call for a new evangelization? What are the challenges we face in moving beyond a Catholicism by birth to a Catholicism by choice? It becomes clearer that we cannot preserve the faith simply through our traditional catechetical and sacramental ministries alone. More and more the very preservation of the faith calls us to bear prophetic witness to it in the world in which we live.
Moreover, as we enter the 21st Century I believe in the truth of Fr. Judge's vision that preservation of the faith rests in a "highly spiritualized and apostolic laity."
Sr. Joseph Miriam Blackwell, MSBT writes in Ecclesial People:
"Lack of ardent faith and therefore lack of apostolic charity constituted the chief anxiety Father Judge placed before the lay people he invited to meet with him in the spring of 1909. He believed that the problems of the church were as much their responsibility as they were his. "Where is the hope to come from?" he was to ask later. "It is to come from you, to come from an enlightened laity, a laity enforced with a missionary spirit…with a Catholic Spirit." (Ecclesial People, p.120)
Father Jim O'Brian, S.T. based the title of his book on this well known quotation from Father Judge: "The Catholic laity is a sleeping giant; awakened and enlightened, it will save the Church". (cf. "Awake the Giant," Foreword) Well, I think the giant is awakening. And never before was the need of the Church greater.
("Awake the Giant" p.218).Never were there such opportunities for the laity to advance God's cause as now, to oppose its active enemies, and exercise the apostolic spirit, which has been given to us all as our most precious birthright. There is work for all, an insistent duty is crying to each and every one.
The mission of preservation of the faith is to be carried out together as members of the Missionary Cenacle Family. Can any one of us do it alone? Can any one branch do it alone? Who will be responsible for the preservation of the faith in ten, twenty, or fifty years?
We have been entrusted with a wonderful mission and a great challenge. What relief it is to not be alone with this overwhelming responsibility. After all, the work of the preservation of the faith is not just my work, or our work. It is God’s work.
Questions for Reflection:
What do you think about the value that Fr. Judge placed on the preservation of the faith?
What does Preservation of the Faith mean for you in the 21st Century?
What can be done to foster a highly spiritualized laity in the work of preservation of the faith? Is it worth the effort?