Inculturate the faith and evangelize the culture was the message of Pope Francis on August 13, 2021.
The Holy Father’s exhortation came in a video message to the Virtual Continental Congress of Religious Life, organized by CLAR, on the theme “Toward an Intercongregational, Intercultural and Itinerant Religious Life”.
“Your presence is necessary so that an inculturated theology can be offered and developed, one that can, of course, be adapted to local situations and can be a vehicle for evangelization,” the Pope said. “Let’s not forget that an uninculturated faith is not authentic.
“For this reason, I invite you to participate in the process that will provide the true sense of a culture that exists in the soul of the people. Enter into the life of the people of faith, enter with a respect for their customs, their traditions, seeking to carry out the mission of inculturating the faith and of evangelizing the culture.”
Follow the conference on the CLAR Facebook page.
Following is the unofficial text of the Pope’s video message, provided by the Vatican.
Dear brothers and sisters:
Greetings to all of you who are participating in this Virtual Continental Congress of Religious Life, organized by CLAR, on the theme “Toward an Intercongregational, Intercultural and Itinerant Religious Life”.
Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I would like to remind you of the importance of the challenge that inculturating the faith places on consecrated life. How much good it would do for us to discover that unity is not uniformity but a multifaceted harmony (cf. Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 220). And let’s not forget that it is the Holy Spirit who creates harmony. A pluriform harmony allowing us to accept differences and appreciate particularities, in the spirit of a healthy and open interculturality.
Your presence is necessary so that an inculturated theology can be offered and developed, one that can, of course, be adapted to local situations and can be a vehicle for evangelization. Let’s not forget that an uninculturated faith is not authentic. For this reason, I invite you to participate in the process that will provide the true sense of a culture that exists in the soul of the people. Enter into the life of the people of faith, enter with a respect for their customs, their traditions, seeking to carry out the mission of inculturating the faith and of evangelizing the culture. To inculturate the faith and to evangelize the culture go together. Appreciate what the Holy Spirit has sown in the peoples, which is a gift for us as well (Ibid., 246).
When this inculturation does not take place, Christian life, and even more so the consecrated life, ends up with the oddest and most ridiculous Gnostic tendencies. We’ve seen this, for example, in the misuse of the liturgy. What is important is ideology rather than the reality of the people. This is not the Gospel. Do not forget the binomial: inculturate the faith and evangelize the culture.
Consecrated life is expert in communion. Consecrated life is itinerant, a promoter of fraternity. Nevertheless, in our time there is the temptation to “survive”. How often do you count how many men or women religious are in my congregation, and calculate the decline. Survival is a temptation. It is good to renounce the criterion of numbers, of efficiency, as otherwise, it can turn you into fearful disciples, trapped in the past and giving in to nostalgia. This nostalgia is fundamentally the siren song of religious life.
Given this, the most sensible strategy and decision would be to take advantage of the opportunity to journey with the Lord on the paths of hope, aware that the fruit is under the exclusive guidance of the Holy Spirit.
So, what do we have to do? Be with the holy people of God, respect the holy people of God, evangelize, give witness and leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.
To help achieve the goal you have set for yourselves, I would like to remind you that joy, the highest expression of life in Christ, is the greatest witness we can offer the holy people of God whom we are called to serve and accompany on their pilgrimage toward the encounter with the Father.
Joy, joy in many forms. Peace, joy, a sense of humor. Please ask for this grace. On the Exhortation on holiness, I wanted to include a chapter on the sense of humor. How sad it is to see consecrated men and women who have no sense of humor, who take everything so seriously! Please. To be with Jesus is to be joyful, it is also the capacity of giving holiness this sense of humor. Read that chapter in my Exhortation on holiness.
I hope you have a good virtual meeting. May God bless you all and may the Holy Spirit grant you the light of his grace so you might always be men and women of encounter, of fraternity. May the Holy Virgin protect you. She knows all about encounter, fraternity, patience, inculturation. She knows all this. May she protect you. And now, as is customary, I will pass the hat. Do not forget to pray for me because I really need it. Have a good meeting.
© Libreria Editrice Vatican
