The Nature and Spirit of the Carmelite
Missions
Fr. Dámaso Zuazua, OCD
General Secretary for the Missions,
Discalced Carmelites.
The era of
globalization in which we now
live, presents a heavy challenge to
consecrated life and, therefore, to Carmel.
There is the danger of a scattering of
concepts, of convictions, of options, and of
priorities that could have an effect on our
Carmelite vocation. In this new cultural
universe we move in, with such a variety of
information, of new ideological offerings
and attractive theories, there is an ever-increasing
need for us to discern, to scrutinize and to
revise just what are the valid motivations
for our life. There is a strong need to
reaffirm ourselves, to base ourselves firmly
on the convictions making up the Teresian
charism. At this time in the life of the
Order it would be useful and timely to
adhere to the missionary dimension of our
vocation. This will give us a focus, and
guide us on the road to be followed in
Carmel.
The missionary aspect of our calling is an
essential component of the Teresian
vocation. It is not something that is
optional, expedient or superfluous.
Rather, it forms part of our genetic makeup.
Right from the beginning of the foundation
of St Joseph's, the Holy Mother herself
infused into Carmel her missionary desires.
In the writings of Teresa there are striking
and well-known references to this topic.
A deep and faithful expert on Teresian
thought, such as Fr. Gracián, in this way
describes the importance St. Teresa of Jesus
placed on the missionary aspect of
Carmel: “Anyone looking to discover the
spirit of the Discalced Order of Carmel in
all its detail and perfection, by using
Mother Teresa of Jesus, would find within
her writings such a strong prayer and an
ardent zeal for souls, that thousands of
times she longed to be able to have the
freedom, talents and opportunities that men
have to draw souls to God by preaching,
confessing, converting nations, even to
shedding their blood for Christ. She never
demanded anything of me except that I would
not stop preaching, giving me much advice
and counsel on the matter, and I was to be
concerned with things that removed what was
offensive to God and that led souls to
heaven. She said that, when souls are on
their way to hell, it was impossible to have
true love for Jesus Christ who was crucified
and died for souls, and to remain locked
away under the excuse of obtaining some
quietness for the soul. This is why we were
all formed from the beginning in this
vocation to go to convert nations; and it
was so effective and fervent, that nothing
else was discussed with such seriousness in
our monasteries.”
This witness comes from the very first
moments of the Teresian Carmel, “among the
first fruits of the spirit.”
Another important period of rethinking our
Carmelite vocation took place at the time of
the restoration of the Order in Spain
(Markina, 1868). Someone who could really
tell us about that period is the Venerable
Fr John Vincent of Jesus Mary (1862-1943).
He was a missionary in Kerala for 17 years.
He offers us this reflection: The sons of St
Teresa are truly the fruit of the cries and
tears of Our Mother, saddened and solicitous
for the salvation of the millions of souls
without faith in distant lands, who are
going to be lost because of the lack of
preaching and missionaries. This is why I
have here what we Discalced Carmelites are 'de
ventre matris meae', from the very womb
of our mother. Our holy mother Teresa
conceived us in the hermitage of the garden
of her first convent, which means that we
are essentially hermits, like our ancient
Fathers of Carmel, hermits above all; but
she conceived us between longings and tears
for the salvation of non–believers, and this
means that we are essentially missionaries.
In the intimate meeting of these two lives,
eremitical and apostolic, both aspects
raised together to their greatest
perfection, lies the “quid”, the
characteristic, the particular nature of the
sons of that Mother who, to the highest
degree, managed to unite in herself the
sublime contemplative life of Mary with the
active and caring life of Martha".
On another occasion, this same conviction
was expressed by the Venerable Fr John
Vincent in similar words, concluding with
this statement: “Action without
contemplation would not be Carmelite;
contemplation without action would not be
Teresian.”
With these presuppositions, missionary work
forms an integral part of our charism, it
will do no more than consolidate our
vocation and make it robust in the face of
the various offers and fragmentation of
Marshall McLuhan’s global village.
2. Fruit of Missionary Work
The Carmelites arrived in the Orient in
1607, with the foundation of Isfahan, in
Persia. An off-shoot from it was established
in 1613, in Tatta, today Pakistani
territory. In 1620 they came to Goa. The
usefulness of a foundation here had been
foreseen by the Venerable John of Jesus Mary
already in 1613. In 1632 Fr. José Elías, who
had been residing in Goa, set out with
another missionary to examine the prospect
of establishing Carmel in Malabar. They set
up residences in the Diocese of Cochin and
in the Archdiocese of Angamally. Ten years
later in 1642, Fr. José Alexio and Fr.
Sebastian, also from Goa, paid a visit to
Malabar, with the intention of establishing
a religious house. Having failed in their
initial venture, they set up the Fraternity
of the Scapular of Carmel, which grew in an
extraordinary manner in the ancient church
of Kuravilangad.
But Carmel's true epic in India began on
February 2nd, 1656, with the
arrival by sea of Fr. Giuseppe (Sebastiani)
of Santa Maria and of Fr. Giacinto (Catini)
of San Vincente. On February 22nd,
1657, they settled down in Parur, their
place of destination.
In the midst of many other endeavors, they
had already begun the classic Missions of
Mount Carmel, Mesopotamia, Syria, ... Less
well-known is the existence of a Mission in
China which began in 1719 and lasted up
until 1791.
While all this is interesting, I do not want
to take up time by recounting a lot of
historical data which belongs to another
conference on the program for these days.
With the missionary expansion of the
twentieth century, we arrive at the
Carmelite countries and circumscriptions
represented here. It would not do to forget
the brief existence of the new Mission in
continental China from 1947 to 1951.
The Order was implanted in the Orient for
Mission. Mission gave birth to Carmel in
several countries of the Orient. Our
Carmelite presence in this continent is the
fruit of missionary work. This first
observation is deduced from its
consequences. It is the first consideration
that has to be evaluated. Born from
missionary work, we exist for missionary
work.
3.
Let us always consolidate our missionary
work
We are fortunate to have the eloquent
testimony of the Provinces in India, all of
which have been committed to some sort of
missionary work. This would also be the time
to appreciate more the significance of the
proto martyrs of the Teresian family,
Blesseds Denis and Redemptus (+ 1638), who
gave their lives for the faith during the
initial period of establishing Carmel in
Asia. It would be handy to place more
emphasis on their martyrdom, so that
Carmelites from the orient would be left
with a clear awareness of mission and always
maintained an alert attention towards it.
Carmel was born in the Orient as
missionary, and it must be consolidated as a
missionary Order, as in other parts of the
world. In his missionary encyclical, John
Paul II reminds us: “Faith is made strong by
handing it on.”
This principle can be applied to ourselves
as well: The Order is strengthened and
consolidates itself when, from its poverty,
it gives members and vital strength with
generosity and hope.
How will the Order in the Orient remain
missionary and how will it be able to boost
its missionary capacity and missionary
charism? Faced with this question, it would
be worthwhile to read in a meditative manner
“Ecclesia in Asia” (1999) and “Ecclesia
in Oceania” (2001), reflecting on their
guidelines.
Also of help would be to remember the
objectives of the recent First Missionary
Congress of Asia, which took place in
October of 2006, in Chiang Mai, Thailand: 1)
to share the joy and enthusiasm of our faith
in Jesus Christ, 2) to celebrate Asian ways
of mission through witness in the midst of
life realities, 3) to deepen awareness in
the Asian Churches about the renewed
understanding of mission Ad Gentes
during and since the Second Vatican Council,
4) to highlight priorities for a renewed
mission animation.
Pope John Paul II appropriately remembers
that in this part of the world, “the issue
of the encounter of Christianity with
ancient local cultures and religions is a
pressing one.
This is a great challenge for
evangelization, since religious systems such
as Buddhism or Hinduism have a clearly
soteriological character.”
At the plenary Assembly of the Federation of
the Episcopal Conferences of Asia, gathered
in Manila, the Pope presented evangelism as
“your absolute priority.”
That Carmel remain missionary in Asia and
Oceania, that Carmel become more missionary
in these regions, with effective commitment,
is a duty we should worry about. It is the
duty we should be teaching from the early
years of training, in our novitiates and
other formation houses. This is the wish
that I present to those taking part in this
Carmelite Missionary Encounter. If we
accentuate this line of action, we will work
at the same time for the consolidation of
the Carmelite vocation. Missionary work
always spreads a fruitful dynamism.
A practical outcome of our Mangalore Reunion
could be, if we decide, to organize in all
our circumscriptions, periodic courses or
cursillos on missionary history, on Carmel's
missionary spirit, for our new members in
formation, novices and students.
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