Inclusive communities as icon of the Blessed Trinity
(Re-rooting Basic Ecclesial Community to Basic Human and Ecological Communities)
Fr. Reynaldo D. Raluto
LIBONA, Bukidnon (MindaNews / 15 June) – While the whole country is too pre-occupied with the questions on the constitutionality of the Senate’s controversial decision to “remand” VP Sara Duterte’s impeachment case to the House of Representatives, members of the Roman Catholic Church should not forget that today, June 15, is the Solemnity of the Blessed Trinity, the national celebration of the Basic Ecclesial Community (BEC) Sunday.
In its Letter to the theological consultants, the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)-BECCommission recalls that “BEC Sunday 2024 was a launching activity for the new direction of BECs, that is ‘rerooting and redirecting BECs to Basic Human Communities and Basic Ecological Communities, as new expressions in the BEC way of being a Synodal Church’” (Msgr. Manuel Gabriel).
This year, according to the Commission, “BECs all over the country are being enjoined to push forward in their identity and mission of re-rooting in and serving Basic Human Communities, Basic Ecological Communities, Digital Communities and Basic Urbanizing Communities” (Msgr. Manuel Gabriel).
The theme for this year’s BEC Sunday is “BECs: an encounter with peoples, sectors, and all of Creation in working for justice, healing, peace, unity and love.” This theme invites us to creatively explore the meaning of “community” in the shifting ecclesial, human, and ecological contexts.
Ecological Community
In the language of natural sciences, the members of “community” include all of the populations and groups of individuals of any kind of organism of a given area. An “ecological community” may be defined as “a collection of species living contemporaneously in the same place and comprising populations of individuals that are spatially interspersed and among which direct and indirect interactions can potentially take place” (Ichiro Aoki). In an ecological community, everything is related to everything else. As the recurring phrase of Laudato Si’ (LS) puts it: “everything is interrelated” (LS 16, 70, 91, 92, 117, 120, 138, 142, 240). Nothing exists in isolation.
The principle of relationality may be observed in two equally important dynamic acts of created reality: first, when a creature enriches itself by receiving the communicated perfections from fellow creatures; second, when a creature generously communicates itself by giving its perfection to fellow creatures around it. This dynamic act of giving and receiving spontaneously creates a web of intricate relationships and systems of interaction among creatures. In effect, they naturally form an ecological community.
From Christian perspective, the ultimate reason why all creatures tend to interrelate with one another is found in the relational nature of the Blessed Trinity who created all things. As Pope Francis explains, “The divine Persons are subsistent relations, and the world, created according to the divine model, is a web of relationships” (LS 240). In effect, creatures spontaneously strive to imitate the relationality of the triune Creator as they “make their own that trinitarian dynamism which God imprinted in them when they were created” (LS 240). From this perspective, the eternally existing communion in the trinitarian life of the Divine Persons is the source and pattern of relationality that exists in ecological community.
Human Community
There is no need to emphasize that, from evolutionary perspective, ecological community precedes human community. As latecomers in the stage of an evolving universe, human community emerged as integral part of the larger ecological community. In Laudate Deum (LD), Pope Francis affirms that “human life, intelligence and freedom are elements of the nature that enriches our planet, part of its internal workings and its equilibrium” (LD 26). Thus, without human community, the ecological community would be deprived of those human perfections.
As image of the Triune God whose being is essentially relational, human beings naturally form a community. It would be against their relational nature if they live in isolation. Theologians categorically affirm that “Only in the community of humankind is God reflected. God is … not mirrored as individual but as a community” (Walter Brueggemann). “It is not the human being as a solitary determining subject who is God’s image on earth; it is the true human community” (Jürgen Moltmann).
The relational property of all creatures is more developed in the community of human persons. Sociologically, the existence of a human community is “an achievement of common meaning and value.” A human community exists as “the result of common experiences, common understandings, common judgments, and common commitments” (Joseph Komonchak; Bernard Lonergan). Arguably, these levels of human achievement are needed to “form effective communities.”
In light of this sociological insight, the members of the church must be recognized as a human community. In its human dimension, “the Church itself … is a human product, made to happen, brought to realization, by human beings” (Joseph Komonchak). This leads me to the treat me to treat the particular component of human community—the ecclesial community.
Ecclesial Community
What makes human community an ecclesial community? The Second Vatican Council teaches that “The Church of Christ is truly present in all legitimate local congregations of the faithful which, united with their pastors …. For in their locality these are the new People called by God, in the Holy Spirit and in much fullness. In them the faithful are gathered together by the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, and the mystery of the Lord’s Supper is celebrated…” (Lumen Gentium, #26; cf. Christus Dominus, #10).
Benedict XVI (in Deus Caritas est, no. 20) simplified the constitutive elements of the Church into three-fold tasks: (1) proclamation of and witness to the word of God (kerygma-martyria), (2) celebration of the sacraments (leitourgia), and (3) the ministry of charity (diakonia). For him, when one of these elements is missing, the group of people cannot be called an ecclesial community.
On his part, American ecclesiologist, Joseph Komonchak, argues that a human community becomes an ecclesial community when its members, “by God’s grace, believe, hope, and love.” For him, if they cease to “believe, hope, and love in and because of Jesus Christ,” they would also cease to be an ecclesial community.
Along this line, Filipino Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J. (Bishop of Bukidnon from 1969 to 1984), affirmed that faith and charity are essential for the ecclesiality of community: “If there is anything that marks the BECs in their being and acting, it is the centrality of faith …. It is the faith that brings their members together and sustains them in their praying and acting as a community. And the sharing ethic we see … only means that it is the charity of Christ that cements them as community of faith. That faith, that charity—even without the Eucharist—are they not enough for solid ecclesiality?”
Re-rooting the Ecclesial/Christian Communities to Human Communities
Msgr. Manuel Gabriel significantly noted that “Basic Human Communities (BHCs) precede BCCs and BECs. In most instances, BHCs served as foundations for the building up of BCCs and BECs.” However, as time goes by, it has been observed that many BECs have been detached from their human rootedness and tended to be “too inward-turned” and exclusivist to the effect of neglecting their outward thrusts (Francisco Claver). Consequently, their Christian life exclusively revolved around the ecclesial space.
To overcome their tendency to be ecclesiocentric, ecclesial communities need to see themselves as situated within human communities characterized by a plurality of classes, faiths, races, and cultures. Msgr. Gabriel challenged the BECs and BCCs “to go back to the most basic reference point, the Basic Human Communities.” For him, to “re-root their being ‘ecclesial’ and ‘Christian’ to the dimension of ‘being’ human” is extremely important for becoming a synodal church as they “provide a common ground where we can co-journey with people of other faiths and beliefs, with unbelievers and even those against our credo.”
To overcome the prevailing anthropocentric view of community, there is an imperative to go beyond the sociological and ecclesiological meaning of human communities. A holistic meaning of human community technically includes creatures other than humans. This logically leads me to the next point.
Re-rooting Human Communities to Ecological Communities
We have affirmed that human communities, including ecclesial communities, are included in the holistic scope of ecological community. To deepen this affirmation, there is a need to overcome the problematic human/non-human dualism promoted by anthropocentric perspective. This can be done by turning to ecological sciences that repeatedly emphasize human species as equally subject to the same ecological laws that govern the community of creatures in the ecological systems.
American ecologist Eugene Odum (1913-2002) unambiguously declared that “[human being] is considered to be a dependent part of ecological systems.” The ecosystem is a community of diverse life and serves as the life-support system of human communities. Biologically, human beings are “species among species” and members of the animal kingdom, where they also fully depend on and are intimately related to other levels of trophic structure (or food web) in the sharing of energy and in the cycling of materials available in the finite environment.
Earlier, the pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) proposed to enlarge “the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land.” Theologically, “Human beings will only fulfil their special task as ‘the image of God’ if they recognize the community of creation in which and from which and with which they live” (Jürgen Moltmann). Arguably, the Final Document of the Asian Continental Assembly on Synodality may be seen as moving towards this direction when it affirms that we need “to widen our experiences and enlarge the tent” (no. 47).
The foregoing inclusive and non-anthropocentric perspective of community of creation serves as a horizon of meaning to understand deeply Pope Francis’ affirmation of the embeddedness of human communities within the ecological community of creation: “our body itself establishes us in a direct relationship with the environment and with other living beings” (LS 155); “we are not disconnected from the rest of creatures, but joined in a splendid universal communion” (LS 220); “the human person grows more, matures more and is sanctified more to the extent that he or she enters into relationships, going out from themselves to live in communion with God, with others and with all creatures” (LS 240).
Concluding Remarks
The church, according to the Preparatory Document for Synod of Bishops 2021-2023, is “constitutively synodal.” The word “constitutive” is derived from the word “constitute,” which means “a part of a whole.” In this sense, both body and soul are considered constitutive (not just integral) elements of a human being, for without them a human being could not exist. They are essential elements to being human.
Similarly, it can be viewed that a synodal church is constitutively human and ecological communities. Without being anachronistic, after Laudato Si’, can it be claimed that without one or the other, the church could not be a synodal community?
Let’s hope for the coming of a synodal church that embraces both the human and ecological dimensions of community.
(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Fr. Reynaldo D. Raluto is the parish priest of Jesus Nazareno Parish in Libona, Bukidnon).
Comments
Post a Comment