In preparing this short paper, I tried to keep in mind its precise purpose: to initiate and to facilitate the discussion of this workshop of the Sixth FABC Plenary Assembly. For this reason, I tried to keep it brief, suggestive, rather than exhaustive, more concerned with clarifying the questions than with providing the answers. The latter, I presume, is the task of the participants of the workshop, and, ultimately, of the whole plenary assembly.

To facilitate the discussion, I have appended two items: the Theme Statement of the Preparatory Commission for FABC VI (Appendix I); and an article which I wrote for Landas, the theological journal of the Loyola School of Theology, on "Spirituality in PCP ll: Integrated, Scripture-Based, Communitarian" (Appendix II). The PCP II is the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, which met in 1991, and whose decrees were approved by Rome in 1992. The Philippine situation is the one with which I am most familiar, having first come to the country as a missionary in 1956.

One striking feature of Asia and the Asian Church is its extraordinary diversity. As others have noted before me, it is extremely difficult to say anything which is both specific and true of Asia — the largest continent with the greatest population of any in the world — as a whole. Given my limited field of ministry, I would not even pretend to do so. But perhaps my reflections, in Appendix II, on the part of Asia I know best, the Philippines, can be a primer (priming the pump, as it were) for the discussion of the Asian situation as a whole. In Part II (Definition of Terms) and Part III (Questions for Discussion and Reflection), I suggest how this move to greater generality and wider applicability might be effected. It will certainly be very helpful to me personally — and, I would hope, to the others as well — to discover which parts of my experience of Asian spirituality are universally shared, and which parts are unique to my own adopted culture.
 
 

1. Life-Giving ... for the Service of Life

This seems to be the specific focus of the FABC Sixth Plenary Assembly. The general theme is, "Christian Discipleship in Asia Today: Service to Life." And in the preliminary statement of this theme (Appendix I), the following rationale is given:

Thus it seems, as one might expect, that the challenge of abortion was very much on the minds of those who formulated the theme of FABC VI. They situate this, however, within what Cardinal Bernardin would call "a total ethic of life." That is, we must be concerned not only with contemporary threats to the life of the human foetus — serious as these are — but with all the ways (violence, socio-economic and political repression, the arms race) in which human life is threatened, and the quality of that life is compromised. We must not be "single-issue" preachers; and we must attack abortion precisely from the perspective of a concern for all in our cultures that is life-threatening and dehumanizing.

2. Spirituality

The Theme Statement (Appendix I) goes on to say: "In order to flourish, life needs a healthy environment. But the forces of death are at work also in the destruction of the environment necessary for sustaining life." The statement distinguishes between an external (pollution, irresponsible technology, etc.) and an internal environment. The latter is described as "a sane inner, moral and spiritual environment." This presumably is where our discussion of a life-giving spirituality enters in, although the statement goes on to affirm that "the external environment and the inner environment are very much interconnected and mutually interdependent."

Within this framework, what do we mean by "spirituality"? In Appendix II (page 9), 1 quoted the definition provided by George Lane, S.J.:

It seems clear that our concern here is with "spirituality" in this deeper sense. All the great Christian spiritual traditions are represented in Asia, and we wish to speak to all of them at the deeper level common to every one: their commitment to, and possession by, God in Christ Jesus our Lord. At this level, our spirituality must be scripturally based, since we who live in "the age of the absence of Jesus," as the Fathers of the Church often called this time between the two comings, can only come to know him through the Scriptures. We do not walk with him in Galilee or journey with him to Jerusalem. But the Gospels are given to us, as John expresses it so beautifully (20.31), "in order that you (i.e., we "who have not seen and yet believe") may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through your faith in him you may have life."

We should also note that our Christian spirituality includes, but is not restricted to, our life of prayer. It includes all the ways — prayer, action, discernment, suffering — in which we relate to God in Christ Jesus. As I experience my part of Asia, there is indeed a real need to teach people to pray: not merely to say prayers (a monologue) but to learn to listen to, to dialogue with God. But it is also true that there is a need for greater integration of prayer and activity in the life of our people. We will say more of that in the next section. But first, let us also note that our faith is primarily a commitment to a person and not to a body of doctrines. As I like to note, we profess faith "in one God," and not merely "that there is one God." Thus, our spirituality must be person-centered, centered on the Person of Jesus as revealed, often mysteriously and paradoxically, in the whole of the Gospels and not just in some favorite proof texts.

3. Asian

In PCP II, the focus was on the Philippines (Appendix II, page 10), one small part of Asia. Here our concern is broader: the whole of the Asian Church, as represented in FABC. Hence, bishops are generalizable to Asia as a whole. These concerns, as the title of Appendix II indicates (and see pages 11-12), are for a spirituality that is integrated, Scripture-based and communitarian.

Integrated. The bishops of PCP II felt that, all too often, there is a divorce, or a gulf, between faith and life in the worldview, and practice, of our people. They need to realize, as I put it above, that our spirituality encompasses all of our lives, the market place as well as the chapel, other persons as well as God.

Scripture-based. We have spoken above of the need for every Christian spirituality to be based on our Christian Scriptures. For various reasons, our people, in the judgement of the Philippine bishops, often have a very shallow and superficial knowledge of the Scriptures. And we ministers of the Gospel have to bear much of the responsibility for this sad situation. If their piety, while real, is based mainly on folk-beliefs and popular devotions, it is largely because we — to use the famous distinction of Pope Paul VI — often preach sermons instead of homilies. That is, we exhort and harangue the people instead of opening up to them the riches of the Scripture readings in the liturgy.

Communitarian. The PCP II participants also felt that, all too often, our people possessed a "me-and-Jesus" spirituality — and this despite the fact that Philippine society is famously communal. Because of the size of our parishes, and the mechanical way in which the liturgy is often celebrated, and the failure to integrate worship with social action, we have failed to tap into the strong sense of community native to our people.

In general, as the quotation on page 12 of Appendix II indicates:

The question, then, is to what extent this picture of the Philippine faith community is typical of Asia. As I write, it is clear that there are important differences between, e.g., a country that is 83% Catholic and one that is 98% Muslim — between a majority Church and a "ghetto" Church. Presumably through, what we said of spirituality in No. 2 above would be true everywhere. And perhaps the need for an integrated, Scripture-based, communitarian aggiornamento would also be felt everywhere in Asia. Or perhaps the basic needs are different elsewhere. And if so, can we find a common ground among our people in proclaiming a "life-giving Asian spirituality at the service of life"? That is our challenge and our hope.
 
 

1. It is worth noting that "spirituality" has been a recurrent theme of FABC assemblies. (See the anonymous discussion guide for FABC IV, 1986 (FABC Papers, No. 46b); and that of Adolfo Nicolas, S.J., "A Spiritual Journey through the Asia of the 1990s," for FABC V, 1990 (FABC Papers, No. 57).) Hence, the question can be asked: What conclusions concerning spirituality were arrived at in FABC IV and V? (Perhaps the bishops who were present at these assemblies could enlighten us on this.) And what has been the impact of these earlier discussions and resolutions? And finally, how might they form the basis of the ongoing discussion of spirituality in FABC VI?

2. What, then, remains to be said about the topic of Asian spirituality in general? The points which I made about PCP II (see Appendix II, and the discussion above) also seem to be important in the discussion guides for FABC IV and V. Do they need further elaboration or emphasis? And are there any other points that need to be made now? For example:

3. Specifically with regard to a spirituality which is "life-giving" and "at the service of life," which of the four attacks on life mentioned in the Theme Statement (Appendix I) for FABC VI (feticide, violence, socio-political and economic repression, the arms race) is of particular concern in your own diocese or region? And which do you see as of particular concern for Asia in general?

4. As noted above (Definition of Terms: 2. Spirituality), the Theme Statement goes on to speak of the environment in which life can flourish. Presumably, as I said earlier, "spirituality" would be concerned with the "inner environment." What, then, should FABC VI say to the Catholics (or to the people) of Asia today, concerning the nurturing and the development of this life-giving inner environment?

5. It is said today that Jesus' first followers had to become disciples (be converted themselves) before they could become apostles (converting others). Can we draw a parallel distinction between a "life-giving spirituality" and one "at the service of life"? i.e., must our Asian spirituality first be life-giving for us, before we can be at the service of life for others? If so, how is this relevant to the present teaching mission of the FABC?
 
 

1. Focus

Pastoral reflections on the increasing threat to life experienced in Asia today: how the Church can contribute to the defence and the improvement of the quality of life.

2. Rationale

Life is a precious gift of God; it is the expression of his life. All life, whose author God is, is sacred. Every form of life — from the blade of grass to the highest and noblest form of life, the human person — is enveloped in the divine plan of creation and redemption (cf. Rom 8:23). We Christians of Asia ought to co-operate with God's plan in our continent.

"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly" (Jn 10:10). As a community of the disciples of Jesus, the Church in Asia is called upon to follow and bear witness to this lofty mission of Jesus through its service to life in the Asian world. Our service becomes all the more relevant, urgent and imperative when we observe how the forces of death continue to diminish, corrode, maim and even annihilate life.

Some of the forms in which life is being destroyed in Asia:

• the unborn and newly born (feticide, the slow death of infants and children through lack of resources or care);

• the destruction of life through violence which is on the increase in Asia with growing numbers of victims;

• the destruction of life through socio-political and economic systems which have anti-life policies and practices;

• purchase and accumulation of arms by draining the resources necessary for fostering life.

3. What Can the Assembly Do?

Under the overall theme of service to life, the Plenary Assembly could go into these and similar issues. It can:

• deliberate, in the light of faith, on the pastoral strategies that could come to grips with the situation;

• inquire into the deeper causes of the present experience of destruction of life and its environment (both external and inner);

• search for fresh avenues and ways for tapping the moral and spiritual energies and harness them in the service of life;

• appeal to Christians in Asia to exercise their Christian responsibility to safeguard life by drawing from the sources of Christian revelation and from the cultural resources of the Asian peoples.

• spell out more concretely what individual Christians, communities of Christians, at the parish, diocesan, regional, national levels, can do to prevent the degeneration of life and improve its quality.

Introduction: A Graceful Camel

It has been said that the camel is an animal designed by a committee. By accommodating everyone's taste you end up with an ungainly, improbable type of beast. In the case of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP II), which was in session from January 20th to February 17th of 1991, the committee responsible for constructing the "camel" which is the Conciliar Document was extraordinarily large: there were 479 delegates, including 146 lay persons, from all over the Philippines. And yet the single document which emerged is clear, unified and readable. Much of the credit for this must go to the President of the Council, Archbishop Leonardo Z. Legaspi, O.P., of Naga City — whose firm leadership and listening ear kept the wide-ranging discussions on track — and to the three members of the "ad hoc committee for the final drafting of the document": Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, O.M.I., of Vigan, Bishop Teodoro Bacani, auxiliary of Manila, and Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J., formerly of Malaybalay. The document was accepted unanimously (with but a few abstentions) — testimony to the drafters' skill in catching the sense and intent of the delegates. At the same time, it reads well, particularly for a beast constructed by a committee.

One of the major themes of PCP II is the importance of a sound spirituality for the Philippine Church today. In the sections to follow, I would like to focus on two central ideas of the conciliar document: the need today for an integrated spirituality; and the importance of prayer as the core and heart of any authentic spirituality for our times. Before doing so, however, let us ask an important preliminary question: Just what is "spirituality"? The term is admittedly vague, in the sense that it can mean, and historically has meant, many things. It can sound very "high" and exalted to the average person. Or it can be identified with a "party line": Dominican spirituality, or Carmelite spirituality, or "creation" spirituality.

While PCP II does not attempt a precise definition, it is clear that they have in mind something down-to-earth and applicable to all Catholics, at least in the Philippines. In teaching a course on "Apostolic Spirituality" at Loyola School of Theology, I find the definition of George Lane, S.J., most helpful in clarifying just what "spirituality is."¹ Father Lane says:

But, as Lane also notes, given the diversity of ages, cultures and personalities, "various different styles of approach appear." He cites the great John Courtney Murray, S.J., as having said "that God would have each person wholly to be his witness, but not necessarily a witness to the whole of him. Only the Church, as the community of the faithful, in many-splendored variety can really bear witness to the whole counsel of God." I am reminded of the Buddha's story of the blind men touching and describing an elephant: each describes correctly the small part he is touching; but each is mistaken if he thinks the whole elephant is like that part.

PCP II, then, finds itself in a difficult position. It wishes to proclaim an authentic spirituality for all Filipino Catholics. It does not want to be sectarian or monastic. And yet it must be particular: particular in the sense that it speaks to this people at this "acceptable time" in their history. In seeking to be authentically Catholic and yet truly relevant at this moment in the faith life of the Filipino people, the Council (as I read the document) focuses on the two themes noted earlier: we need, especially now, an integrated spirituality; and we need a solid, scripturally-based prayer life as the heart and core of that spirituality. Let us consider each of these major themes in turn.
 
 

The Text

PCP II uses the term "integrated" in at least two places. The first is in Part III of the document, "A Renewed Integral Evangelization." In speaking of the characteristics of this renewed evangelization, the Council discusses first "The Goals of Evangelization." The Council says:

It is brief, and appears in the Decrees, formerly Part V of the original document: "Agenda Towards Renewal." There are 132 Decrees, some encompassing several related resolutions, and they are intended to concretize and lead to implementation of the ideals espoused in the four parts of the Conciliar Document. The very first article mandates (in # 1) "forging and implementing a five-to-ten year National Pastoral Plan" for renewed evangelization of the country. Then in # 2 we read: "This new evangelization is aimed (a) at fostering an integrated Christian spirituality and (b) at building a truly local Church in communion with the Apostolic See" (art. I).

The Context

This resolution is evidently based upon the section of Part II extensively quoted above. What, then, was the context of PCP ll's stress on an "integrated" spirituality for all our Filipino people? The Conciliar Document, as we noted above, is divided into four parts: Part I: Our World —The Philippines: Lights and Shadows, is a situationer; Part ll: Envisioning a Church Renewed, which proclaims the ideal presented by the Council to the Catholic people and to the world; Part Ill: A Renewed Integral Evangelization, in which the means of realizing this renewal are presented under two rubrics: announcing a message of salvation (renewing worship and catechesis), and announcing a message of liberation (renewing and deepening our commitment to social justice and to political maturity — with a special role accorded the laity in both areas). Finally, Part IV discusses The Community of Disciples: Workers of Renewal. It treats in turn of the laity, religious, the ordained ministry, and "other communities of renewal."

Other authors will treat of important areas of this wide-ranging document. For the moment, my purpose is to see the call for an "integrated spirituality" in the total context of PCP ll's vision. It is evident, even from the titles, that the document's key idea is "renewal." It intends to take the good that is in our culture and our traditions — not as a fortress to be defended and protected, but as the starting point for a genuine deepening of our faith life as a people. One or two quotations may help to make this clearer.

At the very outset of the Conciliar Document the question of fundamental concern is posed:

Hence the necessity of the Second Plenary Council: to take stock of where we are; to look where we are going, to reanimate our life in Christ Jesus; to unite all things in him (no. 7).

As the title of this first part, The Philippines: Lights and Shadows, already suggests — and as the preceding quote implies — the Council sees both defects and strengths in the present situation of Catholicism in the Philippines. The defects are noted first:

This is also the context of PCP ll's call for an "integrated" spirituality. It was, I believe, a major achievement of the Council to make its own the desire of Vatican II to see spirituality as coextensive with life lived in Christ Jesus. As PCP II says: "All life is worship" (no. 167). We cannot afford to live, as many have done in the past, dichotomized lives. Since others will discuss various specific aspects of this integrated vision of Christianity, let us focus more specifically in the next section on the Council's vision of prayer as the heart and core of this authentic spirituality. Before turning to that topic, however, one final quotation - this time from the "Message of the Council to the People of God in the Philippines," accepted and published on the final day of the Council, February 17, 1991 can summarize well the holistic vision of which we have been speaking:

Knowing Jesus and Responding to His Call

One of the difficulties which any apostolic spirituality faces is finding the proper balance between prayer and action. From the time of the earliest apostolic spiritualities of the 13th century — notably the Dominicans, Franciscans and Augustinians, with their stress on prayer and service — there has always been a problem balancing and integrating the two. In theory the balance may be clear, but in practice there is always the danger that service will swallow up prayer. "My work is my prayer" — all the more dangerous because it is half-true — has been the motto of many dedicated apostles who gradually lost their spirit, their very reason for service in the first place.

PCP II was well aware that the same danger lurked in the dark corners of its proclamation of an "integrated spirituality." Thus we find a section ("Title VIII. Spirituality") in the decrees which seeks to strike a balance between work and prayer. The first of three articles, 36, proclaims the basic principle of balance which the Council proposes: "The integration of prayer and action should be a paramount concern in the formation program of seminarians and lay faithful." The following two articles, 37 and 38, address the specific components of this integration.

First of all, article 37 stresses "formation in a work ethic characterized by commitment, diligence, rigorous honesty and Christian love," as an essential element of any well-integrated spirituality ( # 1). It also inculcates ( # 2), "a more thorough-going dimension of social responsibility," as a necessary complement of the personal spirituality of all Church movements. In the same spirit, and strikingly, article 38 # 2 proclaims that: "Service should complement worship in sanctifying Sunday as the Lord's day."

A work ethic, social concern, and service: the stress in the foregoing articles is on the action pole of the "integration of prayer and action" for which PCP II calls. In article 38 # 1, however, we read: "Those involved in every form of the apostolate should complement their involvement with continuing growth in the spiritual life and adherence to the laws and guidelines of the Church in their activities."⁵ It is this statement which is of particular relevance to our topic. How does the Council understand this "continuing growth in the spiritual life"? To find the answer, I believe, we have to return to Part II of the document: "Envisioning a Church Renewed." At the outset of this part, immediately after the situationer in Part I (to which we referred earlier), the Council says:

In the pages that follow, the Council gives a splendid summary of this experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ, the heart and soul of Christian prayer, which is also the substance of the Good News we preach to others. This is done under two titles: "The Way of Jesus" (nos. 37-61) and "The Call of Jesus Today" (nos. 62-86). While we cannot here survey the full content of these pages, we can note that the first section describes Jesus' sending by the Father, to proclaim and establish the Kingdom here and now, with a message of liberation especially for the "poor" — a message which he, as prophet, priest and king, realized in the Paschal mystery. And the second section, "The Call of Jesus Today," centers on our faith response to Jesus' call. It is a call to the will and the heart, and not merely to the head. And the faith it demands must be "informed and communitarian," "missionary and maturing," loving and inculturated. It must be lived by prayer and worship, by witnessing and by loving service. And, as a sharing in the Paschal mystery, it must join with Jesus in overcoming both personal sin and sinful societal structures.

The crucial element here, from the perspective of prayer as the heart and core of Christian spirituality, is the need to be deeply immersed in the Gospel story of Jesus, and to be truly sensitive (discerning) to the way that story is to be continued and lived out today in our lives — as individuals and as the Filipino people of God. It would be difficult to give a better description of the real essence of Christian prayer.

Conclusion: The Perfect Disciple

The remainder of Part II explores, under the title "Discipleship in Community — The Church," the ways in which this experience of Jesus and our faith response to his call are to be lived out today, in our time and place. Thus, the stress on "integration" is continued: prayer and action, faith experience and good works, must always complement one another if our Filipino Catholicity is to he authentic and solid. We must have the prayer, or else we have nothing to share. But (like Magdalen and the Emmaus disciples), we can only keep the Lord we have found by giving him away.

It is only fitting, then, that this Part II ends by referring to "Mary, Model of Discipleship" (nos. 145-153). Very much in the spirit of the final chapter of Lumen Gentium, the PCP II delegates see her as the perfect disciple of Jesus, her Son. They discuss her role in the drama of salvation under two titles: "Mary, the First to he Evangelized," and "Mary, the First Evangelizer." Just as every Christian, and the Church as the community of believers, must first be evangelized — must first encounter the Lord in prayerful openness, and respond to his call in loving faith — before evangelizing others, so too Mary was first "evangelized" herself:

As the last phrase suggests, Mary was also the first evangelizer. From the very beginning, when she hastened to share the good news with Elizabeth, and proclaimed in her Magnificat the word of God both to Elizabeth and to the Lord's chosen people, Mary was a model of the integrated spirituality which the Council seeks to inculcate in the Filipino people. "She was always a giver of Jesus to people. She gave him birth and presented him to the shepherds and the Magi. She gave him also to the old man Simcon who received him joyfully in his arms" (no. 150).

The Council concludes this Part II of the document with a tying together of a number of conciliar themes:

1. George A: Lane, S.J., Christian Spirituality (Allen, Texas: Argus Communications, 1968) 6f. The book was reprinted, with a brief "Afterword" by Robert Sears, S.J., by Loyola University Press in Chicago in 1984.
2. Acts and Decrees of the Second Plenary Council of the Philippines 20 January - 17 February 1991 (Manila: Secretariat, Second Plenary Council of the Philippines, Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, 1992). (Henceforth Acts and Decrees.) The numbers in parentheses within the article refer to the marginal numbers of the Conciliar Document. The Decrees are referred to by the number of the article. - The original text of the part studied here used the word "holistic" which was changed into "integrated" after the review of the Decrees by the Congregation for Bishops. For uniformity purposes the same terminology was adopted in the Conciliar Document, or the doctrinal-pastoral part of the Acts and Decrees; the Conciliar Document itself was left untouched during the review by the Congregation.
3. Ibid., Nos. 187-189. Underlining added. The quotation cited in the document is from "One People, One Mission," Reflection Paper of the Tagaytay Echo Seminar on the 1987 Synod of Bishops.
4. Ibid., XCVII-XCVIII.
5. Ibid., art. 38 # 1. Underlining added.
6. Ibid., no. 36. Underlining added.

END