Rome, 16th July 1992

 

Now I am making the whole of creation new

Rev. 21:5

 

       Dear brothers and sisters in Carmel:

 

Peace in the Lord.

 

     1.  The celebration of the 5th centenary of the first evangelization of the Americas and the Church's invitation to a New Evangelization have prompted us, during our fraternal meetings, to take stock of our common carmelite roots within the Church.

     2. In obedience to this call from the Spirit of Jesus, we, the General Councils of Carmelite (O.Carm) and Discalced Carmelite (O.C.D.) Orders, as a demonstration of our sense both of fraternity and of church, surmounting the problems and hurts of the past, have met together many times with the intention of initiating a process of reflection in common.  Our aim is to discover how we can renew, creatively and faithful­ly, the gift that the Lord has given to our families of religious and to place that gift at the service of New Evangeli­zation in today's world. We recognise that we have two basic traditions with a common origin. We are enriched mutually by both of these traditions.

     3.  By means of this letter we hope to share the fruits of our reflection with you.  It is also our fervent wish that meet­ings of brothers and sisters of the various Orders and Congre­gations of Carmelites will be repeated in all the communities of our family.  Thus we may be able to discern what God is asking of us and be able to build avenues of fraternal collabo­ration, in order to witness to the carmelite charism at the threshold of the Third Millennium.

     4.  On this, the occasion of the Church's 5th centenary celebrations, our message is one of peace and hope, not just for those brothers and sisters who live in the Americas, but for all Carmelites worldwide.  We invite all those who draw inspiration from carmelite spirituality to remain watchful, as Elias was on Mount Horeb, for the God who passes by and asks "What are you doing here?"

 

REMEMBERING THE PAST

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     Our two Orders were involved in the first Evangelization of the Americas, especially in Brazil and Mexico.  In their work of evangelization, they were close to the people through their witness to a life of prayer and the spreading of devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.  As well as that, there were people who stood out because they became involved in the joys and hopes, sorrows, anxieties and afflictions of the poor and oppressed peoples.

     6.  In these 500 years, the presence of our contemplative Carmelite sisters has constantly been an evangelizing influ­ence.  The witness they gave with their lives emphasized the absolute nature of God and the need for prayer.  At the same time our active sisters provided a fruitful presence of commu­nion, service of God, attention to the Word of God and apos­tolic witness.

     7.  There have been groups of lay people who lived, witnessed to and enriched the carmelite charism.  We remem­ber in particular the work of the Third Order and the Car­melite Confraternity who, especially in the many places where the brothers were prohibited, gave witness to the Gospel, spread devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel and kept the Church alive.

     8.  We acknowledge that the past is still part of us, and we feel close to those brothers and sisters who have gone before us, in their carmelite and pastoral life, in good times and in bad.

     9. Thus, while we thank God for the lives they led and for their making the Kingdom present, we also ask forgive­ness, in their name, of both the indigenous and the afroameri­can peoples for the mistakes and shortcomings in the process of evangelisation.

 

TAKING ACCOUNT OF THE PRESENT

 

     10. We are the heirs of these brothers and sisters of ours. We are the tree that grew from the seed which they sowed. We have spread throughout the world. We are now in each of the continents. Our sisters of the contemplative life continue to be a prophetic and missionary sign of the presence and proximity of God in history. The Holy Spirit has given rise to a great variety of Congregations and Secular Institutes whose lives are shaped by the values contained in the Car­melite Charism, each according to its own identity. By the same token, the number and quality of lay people associated with us have grown. 

     11. The passage of the 500 years since the beginning of evangelisation in the Americas has made us Carmelites aware of the need of getting to know our past, especially if we are to take on our role as prophets and contemplatives today.

     12. The memory of our past history in Latin America, brought to life in us by the celebration of these 500 years, inspires us to take account of what we have in common and to look for ways to express that in the most suitable fashion: the Rule of St. Albert, the men and women saints, the significant moments in our history, the different aspects of our spiritua­lity, the approaches to evangelisation and the forms that our presence among the people has taken.

     13. Recalling the errors of the past serves as an example for us, so that, as St. Paul says, we may not repeat them (Cf. I Cor 10:6-11). Moreover, it will help us to be more open to what is new in what we see appearing on the margins of history, as a sign of God seeking to be more present in our lives both as individuals and as communities. What is new takes many forms: the option for the poor, the prophetic nature of consecrated life, our work for justice and peace, our welcome for the marginalised, our desire for unity, our search for a spirituality which is more inserted in the reality of peoples' lives today and more involved with this same life.

     14. The Church's call for a new evangelisation leads us to a greater awareness of the fact that our carmelite vocation is, above all, an ecclesial calling and that our spirituality is universal: "to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ". This call urges us also to face up to the demands and challenges which the present world presents to our charism: to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ after the example of Elijah and Mary. In all the reforms which took place in the most varied of contexts throughout the course of our history,  Carmelites returned again and again to this one source of their spirituality, and discovered its unfailing relevance. St. Teresa of Jesus, who instigated the most important reform in the history of the Carmelite Family, used to say with insistence that we have to be the descendents of the prophets just like the first Carmeli­tes.

     15. The tracks left by those who went before us in the work of evangelisation remain in  the devotion of the people: their devotion to Mary, the Carmelite Scapular, their way of praying. These signs from our past provide a constant chal­lenge to both our fidelity to our roots and our commitment to the people. They have to be the starting point in our new understanding of our Charism, in the context of a Church which in this world, a world divided between rich and poor, has made an evangelical option for the poor.

 

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

 

     16. The way we interpret our charism and renew our commitment to it today must begin from our reading of the signs of the times and of the great challenges of a New Evan­gelisation.

     17.  A New Evangelisation will be new only if it comes from a new spirituality. That is to say, new techniques or new pastoral resources are not enough. As in the case of Mary, Elijah, St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross, this new spiritual­ity must begin from a new experience of the living God in whose presence we stand constantly. As in the case of Jesus, it must begin with a passionate love for the Father which in turn must become a passionate love for the poor and marginalised.

     18. The New Evangelisation to which we are called must take into account the new cultural setting which humanity is entering and which implies a more complete vision of the human person and of the Church. If we wish to be faithful it is not enough to remain anchored in the past. "If people do not live fully in their own time, says John Paul II, they fall behind, and those who remain behind lose their qualification for their work; hence an inevitable disaffection." We have to renew our ideas and study our charism by beginning from this new experience both of God and of life, and from the situation of the people with whom we live and whom we wish to serve.

     19. During the meetings which we have had in Rome three lines of understanding of our Charism emerged which we would like to share with you now.

 

1.   The Contemplative Experience of God

 

20. All over the world there is a great need and a strong desire for a new spirituality. Traditional expressions of the presence of God no longer communicate their message. Hu­manity has entered a Dark Night, which, in different ways in the different continents, pose the question for us, "Where is your God?"

     21. This is the challenge.  Called to rediscover the human heart as the true dwelling place of the God-with-us, we have to be open to a new experience of God.  This will give us new eyes with which to examine our charism and discern the signs of the presence of God in today's world. Without this individual and community experience of God it will not be possible to interpret our charism and, as a consequence, we will not be able to fulfil our mission as Carmelites in the Church and in the world today.

     22. This means that we have to put our fears aside when new avenues towards greater insertion are being opened up in those places where the Night is Darkest, especially among the poor and marginalised, since it is there that God has made himself more present and that his presence can be discovered in new ways. It is there that, like Elijah, we can sense the gentle breeze (I Kg 19:12).

     23. To help us accomplish this task, the most important and urgent one for the Carmelite Family today, we have the example of Mary, Sister and Mother of Carmelites. She wel­comed, pondered and gave flesh to the Word of God in her life and so she revealed the Good News of God to all.

 

2.   Community as the Fruit and Sign of Contemplation

 

     24. In the world of today, for many historical reasons, divisions have become accentuated. The capitalist system is intensifying its exploitation of the people of  the Third World. Hatred and divisions become evident even to the point of suggesting that community is an impossible utopia.

     25. This is the challenge.  Called to live in community, we have to make our communities such that they are a real proof that community is possible. We are talking about com­munity which is born out of listening to the Word of God, and so humanises its members, brings people together despite their differences and is thus a true presence of the Gospel. In this way our communities will become signs of hope which will cause the poor to say about us what the widow of Zarepta said about Elijah, "Now I know that you are truly a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth" (I Kg 17:24).

     26. Mary, for us, is a symbol and model of community life. Our devotion to her must lead us to imitate her example and make us free as people who are capable of achieving the kind of community of which she sings in the Magnificat (Lk 1:46-56).

 

3.   Prophetic Presence and the Commitment to Justice

 

     27. As "sons and daughters of the prophets" we cannot close our eyes to what is happening in the world.  As an internatio­nal family, living in each of the continents, we need to open our eyes to the fundamental injustice which is divid­ing the human race between rich and poor with all that this implies for the overwhelming majority. As contemplative men and women, we should be able to say a prophetic word, not only to denounce the evils, but also as a tender and welcom­ing word for the victims of injustice. Conscious of God's presence in the human person, we cannot accept that human dignity be trampled upon. Our love for our neighbour, the living image of God, leads us to stand on the side of the very poor, the least significant. Our option for the poor is a theo­logical option, born in the heart of the Emmanuel, the Incar­nate Word who calls us to work for justice and peace.

     28. In order to live "in allegiance to Jesus Christ and to serve him with pure heart and stout conscience, we need to learn, as Jesus did, to detect the gifts and spiritual reserves which are in the poor and the marginalised. Thus, united with Jesus Christ, we too may praise the Father, "I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere chil­dren. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do"  (LK. 10:21).

 

CONCLUSION

 

     29. At the conclusion of our message, we wish to make a call for unity. Only when all our forces are united will it be possible to offer to Latin America and to the other continents an authentic evangelisation and the kind of Carmelite presence which will truly be a fruitful ecclesial service: born of a new spirituality in prayer which is committed and liberating. We call on all of you, brothers and sisters, to look for new ave­nues for our carmelite fraternity in the following three direc­tions:

     a)Intensify among Carmelites, in the countries where we live, our fidelity to and a sharing of the spiritua­lity of our religious family.

     b)Create opportunities, in the spirit of our charism, for cooperation in retreat and spirituality centres, spiri­tuality meetings, publications etc.

     c)Join together in our service of the people in such a way that our spirituality may serve as a response to the challenges of the modern world:  the challenge of secularisation, modernity and the frightening impoverishment of more than half the human race.

     30. Finally, we direct our prayer of thanksgiving to God for having inspired in us this spirit of greater closeness. We are grateful for the memory of our brothers and sisters of the past which, on the occasion of these 500 years, calls us to renew our fidelity to both our charism and to the people. We are grateful to the Church which, from the poor in Basic Ec­clesial Communities and other groups, have restored to us our love for the Word of God and helped us towards a greater fidelity to our Rule which calls on us to "meditate day and night upon the Law of the Lord and to be watchful in prayer".

     31.  May the Virgin Mother of Carmel help us to be faithful to what Jesus asks of us at this crucial moment in the history of humanity and of our family. Just as in the past, may Mary come to help us. When the desire to be faithful, both to our charism and to the people, put us in crisis, the fact that we looked to Mary helped us to take on the condition of mendi­cants.

     Sister, Mother and Queen of Carmel, intercede for us with your Son and gain for us the blessings of God.

 

   Fr. John Malley, O.Carm. - Fr. Camilo Maccise, O.C.D.