When the smallness of the Church is not insignificant -
POPE GREECE APOSTOLIC JOURNEY CATHOLIC CHURCH
천주교회 공동체가 소규모로 작다고 무의미하지는 않습니다 ! - "그리스 내에 있는 가톨릭 교회가 규모상 작다고 하여 무의미할 수는 없으며, 작아도 오히려 고귀하고 소중하다"는 -교황님 말씀은 우리 모두에게 하시는 말씀입니다 !
- 천진암 이벽 독서처 시절과 천학당 강학 당시의 소년들 모임에서 마치 교가처럼 천주 공경가를 부르던 심산 궁곡을 찾아들던 적은 수의 공동체나, 수표동 이벽 성조의 자택이나, 명례방 김범우 토마스의 집을 집회소로 삼아, 마치 시골 작은 공소에서처럼 매주 정기적으로 모이던 우리 한국 천주교회는 베들레헴 주막거리 주막집 마구간 말구유 여물통에 구세주 아기 예수를 모시고 둘러 앉아 기도하던 성가정처럼,세계 인류의 구원 은총을 베푸는 로마의 사도 성 베드로 대성당을 비롯하여 .많은 성당들처럼, 그 거룩한 의미와 가치와 교훈이 한결같이 함께 힘차게 뿜어나오고 있다. 추가: Msgr. Byon-
Andrea Tornielli On Saturday, Pope Francis spoke to the Church of Greece about the value of smallness, because being a small Church - as in the case of the Catholic flock of this country - makes it an eloquent sign of the Gospel. The God announced by Jesus chooses the little ones and the poor, He reveals Himself in the desert and not in the palaces of power. The Church, not only the Greek one, is being asked not to boast and pursue big numbers, but to abandon the wordly desire of wanting to be important and a relevant global player.
Howevwer, Pope Francis also explained that being small is not the same as being insignificant. Being a yeast that ferments silently hidden “within the dough of the world” is indeed the opposite of resigning to a quiet life moved by inertia. As a way forward, the Pope indicates the path of openness to the others, of service, accompaniment, listening, and of concrete witness of closeness to everyone: this is the opposite of a withdrawn Church that does not come out of her shell and is complacent with her own smallness.
Faced with secularization and the difficulties Christians are confronted with today in transmitting their faith, we might be tempted to close up, trying to create perfect communities that withdraw from the world to preserve their small, or very small, flock, waiting for the storm to pass, looking with nostalgia to a past that no longer exists.
On the other hand, another real risk today is that of hyperactivity: we might be tempted to invest all our energies in missionary strategies, thinking that proclamation, witness, and even conversion are not fruits of the Spirit we should give space to, but the result of our skills and protagonism. As a consequence – and, unfortunately, this happens more and more often in our digital age – the risk is that the evangelizer and his ruses rather than the Gospel and its Protagonist become the focus evangelization. Indeed, we need to leave space to the Protagonist: this is the real meaning of conversion as a metanoia, a change of mentality in light of the Gospel.
The smallness Pope Francis refers to is therefore a gift. It is being aware that without the Lord we can do nothing and that it is God who precedes us, converts, supports, changes. And this awareness is also precious for the Churches that are still numerically significant: the opportunity offered by the synodal path that has just begun can help the Christian communities to free themselves from the snares of bureaucracy, clericalism, institutionalism, to build, or rebuild, a fabric of human relationships, in which witness flourishes.
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Pope to Jesuits in Greece: Humility is true path God offers to religious
교황님께서 그리스에서 일하는 10여명 내외의 예수회 회원들에게 하신 말씀 ; 겸손한 덕이야말로 천주님께서 수도자에게 제공해주시는, [천주님께로 가는 진솔한 길]입니다. ,,,,,!
- 1958년 내가 예수회에 입회하여 수련자로 있을 때, 우리 예수회원들은 33,000 여명이었읍니다.,,,,
그러나 이제 성소가 줄어서 그때 보다 아마 약 절반 정도가 되어, 숫자적으로는 사향 길을 걸어 내려가고 있다는 생각을 하기 쉬운데, 겸손한 마음을 잃지 말아야 합니다.,,, !
Pope to Jesuits in Greece: Humility is true path God offers to religious
By Devin Watkins
Pope Francis met with 7 of the 9 Jesuits working in Greece on 4 December, the first day of his Apostolic Journey to the EU nation.
He held an hour-long conversation with the community whose members hail from various nations.
Following a long-standing tradition related to these events, the Jesuit review La Civiltà Cattolica published a transcript (in Italian) of the exchange, entitled “The Logic of the Inexplicable”.
Insight of religious brothers
During the meeting, the Pope invited his brother Jesuits to ask him questions freely and share their stories.
The first to speak up was a religious brother—a Jesuit who has not been ordained a priest. The Pope praised the insight that brothers often have into situations and personalities. He also told a story about a time when he was Jesuit provincial in Argentina and had to decide whether to approve one seminarian for ordination.
Even though the young man was full of promise, a Jesuit brother urged him to send the man to work for a while in the apostolate before priestly ordination.
Creative indifference
Pope Francis then took a question from a Korean-born Jesuit who founded a centre for refugee children in Athens and now works merely as a volunteer in the same organisation.
The Pope praised the Jesuit for stepping down from the helm of the centre, saying every Jesuit should do the same.
A message of humility in declining numbers
He also spoke to another elderly Jesuit who noted the decline of the Order in Greece, which has given up various apostolates as numbers have declined.
Pope Francis said the Order had over 33,000 members when he was in the novitiate in 1958, but that it now counts around half that number of vocations.
The Pope added there is meaning behind this continuing trend, which has its roots in God who sends vocations.
He recalled that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius always point to humility and humiliation, making reference to the “Third Degree of Humility”. It reads: “I want and choose poverty with Christ poor rather than riches, opprobrium with Christ replete with it rather than honors.”
Pope Francis said this is the “only Jesuit fecundity that matters,” saying “we must get used to humiliation.”
Smiling through difficulties as a song to hope
In the same vein, another Jesuit asked the Pope what the future holds, since years ago Greek Jesuits dreamed about dialoguing with the Orthodox, though the focus has now shifted to helping migrants.
The Pope said Jesuits must be “faithful to the Cross of Christ”, adding that “only God knows.”
However, he said, ecumenical dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox is now going well, which shows that “you have sowed well through prayer, your hopes, and the things you were able to do.”
To a Belgian-born Jesuit who works with refugees and was once arrested as a suspected human trafficker, the Pope said this type of dedication to the needs of the mission must have been “quite a humiliation!”
Yet, he said, the important thing in religious life is to grow old and tired “with a smile”.
