Reflections of a Minister

Resumo: idéias principais do texto

– Importante examinar a situação sócio-cultural.
– Há diferença de um ministro cristão e outro qualquer fazendo o mesmo trabalho.

– Na experiência pessoal do autor há uma preocupação para identificar a base: para quem e onde ele exerce o seu ministério.
É um desafio: quais as bases religiosas, até onde as escrituras o influenciaram no seu trabalho.
No exame e evolução do seu trabalho, foi analisado a cultura, tradição e a experiência para uma reflexão.

– Foi feita uma observação sobre os termos masculino ( para o homem e Deus não o é) e sabedoria ( feminino) numa abordagem bíblica do Gênesis.
– Há uma dificuldade: pressão de adaptação: ponto inicial teológico.
O homem e a mulher foram criados à semelhança de Deus.
Ele nos deu o sentimento de pai para o homem e o sentimento de mãe para a mulher, mas Deus é maior do que isso.

Podemos ver nos outros a qualidade de Deus: busca de paz, honestidade, fé.
– Reflexo de Deus= alimentar amizades e nos revelar…
– Crescimento nas novas experiências… Nunca podemos nos revelar totalmente…

– Deus pode se revelar = a Palavra, fala João
– Jesus encarnou a palavra = beleza dos pássaros, seres humanos.
Somos a imagem de Deus quando fazemos o trabalho de Deus.
A avó diz que os netos são iguais aos pais…
Deus nos coloca em dupla a obrigação: criação, salvação e santificação.

– Família e comunidade = igreja
O homem e a mulher religiosa = chamado especial de ensinar ( ministério) = estar disponível

– Os sacramentos do Batismo, da Crisma e do Matrimonio = são sacramentos de integração.
A Reconciliação, Extrema-unção e Eucaristia = sacramentos para (re)construir,curar e unir a comunidade.
O significado dos sacramentos tem mudado.
O entendimento teológico tb tem mudado desde 1960 ( Conc.Vat,II)
– O autor diz que tem a fé nas crenças básicas. Acreditar na Trindade e na divindade é diferente de como acreditar na virgindade de Maria e na inefabilidade do papa.

– Uma mudança social sem a mudança do coração é como um barril virado de cabeça pra baixo, sem resolver nada.
O clero brasileiro mudou muito.
Carismáticos se encontram para rezar, curar… Eles também precisam achar no chão o espírito de Deus.

– O autor diz que a liberação teológica dele é = ser livre de qualquer coisa que possa impedir que a graça de Deus flua entre as pessoas. Na Igreja há a possibilidade de ser esse espaço.
O poder libertador pode ser encontrado nas conversões do coração, curas e reconciliações, nas comunidades em oração.
– A busca do autor pela verdade foi uma experiência dolorosa e quanto mais questionava, mais solitário se tornava. Poucas pessoas se aproximavam dele, mas ele nunca deixou de pedir graças para essas pessoas.
– Questionamentos devoram a conclusão do ministério e o autor reflete sobre alguns elementos e se liga que a Eucaristia é uma ação ( verbo) e que o Cristo foi reconhecido em Emaús.
Nenhum autor escreveu tanto da Eucaristia como João ( que lava os pés = serviço)

– O autor faz uma reflexão sobre o seu trabalho na educação em relação às notas baixas dos alunos: há uma conversa pessoal com cada aluno sobre esse problema e eles se conformam.
Legalmente os alunos seriam os patrões do autor, pois pagam, mas como professor, ele é o responsável pelo ensino.
Seria injusto ignorar seus pedidos.
Como cristão o autor divide os fatos e comenta sobre a classe.
Coisas novas acontecem quando começamos amar os outros.
– Como ministro, o autor deve respeitar os alunos ( há uma variedade de idades: alguns em fase de transição, outros bem jovens ainda querendo ser tratados como adultos). São todos diferentes ( há uns 5 que já são avós)
– Os alunos lembram a variedade de pessoas que seguiram Jesus, sempre aberto para todos…
– Continuando a reflexão do autor, ele diz que faz o que Jesus fazia., ou seja: ele lava os pés dos alunos, quando ensina individualmente e desafia os alunos para fazerem o melhor e demonstrar para os outros. Não tolera a deteriorização no progresso deles.
Suas aulas são iniciadas com uma oração de petição.
Tenta expressar o amor e o respeito por cada um deles, mas quase ninguém diz obrigado.
– Narra de um fato onde recebeu um cartão onde dizia: vc tocou as vidas dos seus alunos. Continue a brilhar, porque este velho e cansado mundo precisa de você.
O autor apreciou e acreditou que a luz dele pode estar no lugar onde possa ser visto.

Portanto o ministério = é fazer o trabalho de Deus, servindo com amor; responder às necessidades dos outros e isto depende dos dons e talentos e do tempo disponível de cada um.
MAS, todos os cristãos, ressalta o autor, são chamados de ministros: um pode ser apóstolo para espalhar o amor, outro para nutrir a doutrina, etc numa visão de instrumento.
Finaliza dizendo que se os cristãos não são missionários, não são cristãos.

Tradução por caureb

To develop my own theology of ministry, my initial considerations will be with myself as a minister. I need to examine the socio-cultural situation where I minister and the people I minister to. Finally, I have to discover if there is a basic difference between the actions of a Christian minister and someone else doing the same work.

This paper is both mine and about me. I hope the reader will be patient while I try to sort through many questions. What, for instance, is the platform I try to stand on in regards to the culture and society where I minister and of those to whom I minister? I find I challenge all of these to some degree. What are my initial religious assumptions and biases? In what ways do Scripture and Tradition influence the way I work and relate to those to whom I minister? Do these sources accompany me in my heart and thinking or do I pick and choose to support my decisions? And finally, does my experience allow me the freedom to examine and evaluate what I find contained in culture and tradition. These three, culture, tradition, and experience, are the basic areas of the model proposed by the Whiteheads (6) for theological reflection in ministry.

I have various initial social and cultural assumptions and biases. Some are related to the pressures around me where I live and work. While I am certain, for example, that some people, especially in academic and religious spheres, equate the concepts of sex and gender, I do not. They refrain from using masculine pronouns to modify masculine nouns, as God. They apparently confuse masculine with male, which God is not. Still, they view other nouns, such as wisdom, which is feminine in other languages, as female, which it is not. This may not appear at first to apply to theology of ministry, but, as a bias, it is part of mine and part of me.

How can I understand where these people are coming from and appreciate their concern without being overwhelmed by the conflicting currents and tides? The difficulty here is the pressure to adapt to feminist or ‘inclusive” language which, in my experience, comes almost exclusively from the above spheres. I have found most people outside these spheres use the usual language for God and do not seem perturbed by it in any way.

I must also make some basic assumptions about Scripture, which is my theological starting point. For instance, Genesis 1 says we–men and women–are, in some way, created in God’s image and likeness. This tells me that God gave some of his qualities, like “fatherness,” to men, and “motherness” to women, and both share many common godly traits. God is much bigger for me, of course, than all this, and the reflection continues.

We say a portrait is a good likeness, when it looks like or resembles the subject. We are like God by living out all those god-like qualities we can see in each other, such as loving, peace-seeking, respectfulness, honesty, and faithfulness. We resemble God, for example, in the need we all have to make and develop friendships by revealing ourselves and experiences to the other. Also, since we ever growing and changing with new experiences, we can never completely reveal ourselves to another; God can and did.

John calls this revelation, or image, the Word (Jn 1:1). Everything that can reveal God belongs to the Word. Besides Jesus, the Word incarnate, the Word also includes the beauty and substance of mountains and seas, of plants, birds, and animals, and of human beings; for in all of these, God is revealed or, as is commonly expressed: God’s hand is seen.

We are the image of God when we do God¿s work. Grandparents will say a grandson is the image of his father because they see the little one doing what his father did at the same age. While designing humans to be different from other creatures, God placed in the couple, the man and woman (Gen 1: 27), the task of continuing (Jn 14:12) his work of creation, salvation, and sanctification of the world (Gen 1:28). This triple task for couples means being masters of the world created for the good of all, being equals or brothers and sisters of each other, and being submissive, obedient children of the loving God.

To aid the couple to work out this task, God endowed each person with some gifts others would lack and need. This not only brings men and women together as life partners but brings families together in community (Mt 18:19-20). These communities I call the local Church. It is made up of those who put down roots, establish a home, and build their future and security on their faith in the indwelling, faithful God (Jn 14:23).

The unmarried are usually consecrated and/or committed to the educational, nurturing, and health ministries to aid the married couples and families live out and realize their vocation in community. The Religious men and women belong to the missionary Church. They assume the apostolic, teaching, and pastoral ministries (1 Cor 12:29) through a special call to be like Jesus: ready, available, and without putting down roots (Lk 9:58).

An important human support is found in holidays and holydays. Certain celebrations are found to have had special meaning and importance in the community since the dawn of history. When these were conducted by a faith-led Christian community, the life and power of God¿s Spirit was evident. These came to be defined later by Thomas Aquinas and others, as the Seven Sacraments. Baptism, Chrism or Confirmation, and Matrimony are the three Sacraments of integration into the Christian community. Reconciliation, Eucharist, and Anointing of the Sick are sacraments to build, rebuild, heal, and unite community. Orders is the investiture of community authority or leadership.

While the understanding and meaning of these sacraments have developed and changed over the centuries, Orders has changed the most. In the early centuries, the ordained was commissioned for a certain community. Gradually this meaning was changed to be an indelible mark given to the anointed to preside at the Eucharist (Bernier 245).

My theological understanding has been challenged and modified greatly since the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. I had both the grace and the gall to look at and question everything in my faith matrix. I began to sort out the basic beliefs of the Christian faith, as repeated every year during Holy Week with the renewal of the promises of Baptism from other beliefs. Belief in the Trinity and the divinity of Christ, for example, are quite different from belief in the continual virginity of Mary and the infallibility of the pope–some are basic, others are nice.

During this time of ongoing prayerful reflection, I participated in workshops and confronted some of the Brazilian clergy who were leading the people toward Marxist socialism. I felt they demanded social change without a change of heart, in effect turning over the barrel to put the bottom on top, resolving nothing. I also challenged those who were leading the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in the prayer meetings to settle back into singing, hand clapping, and prayers for healing. In my view, they needed to also walk firmly on the ground with God’s Spirit to seek and aid the needy with their natural and spiritual gifts as did the Good Shepherd (Mt 18:12).

My liberation theology centered on becoming free of anything that could impede the flow of God’s grace to and among the people. Churches were the space where community could assemble to celebrate the liturgy in divine worship. Jesus said if we kept his word, we would be his disciples; and knowing the truth, it would set us free (Jn 8:31-32). Truth is found in the works of God. Its freeing power can usually be seen in the conversions of heart, healings, and reconciliations continually realized by a community at prayer.

Truth is so difficult to grasp, as McGinnis stresses, since my truth and your truth still do not equal “the truth.” Others, even back-sliders, opponents, and persecutors, may hold part of “the truth” as well (24). This all came about in me as I struggled daily with what was meaningful and constructive in our tradition, what I had to continue to challenge until my questions were answered, and, finally, what from the past was worth retrieving for the good of the community.

My searching for truth was an on-going, frightening experience, and the more I wondered and questioned, the lonelier I became. It was like walking the plank, and not many people were willing to go with me or even talk about meanings and changes in our lives, belief structures, and apostolic planning. In my daily prayer and reflection, however, I never lacked for petitions to make and graces to be grateful for.

My wanderings and questionings have led me to conclude several things about ministry. As indicated in the beginning, ministry is not so much a call to do something as an expression of who one is. I saw this when I realized that “eucharist” was a verb, an action. I first noted that Jesus was recognized by the two disciples in Emmaus when he broke and shared the bread (Lk 24:30). Earlier he had broken bread with the disciples in the upper room and told them to do this in his memory (Lk 22:19). This notion is outstanding by its absence in the Gospel of John. No Biblical author wrote as much about the eucharist as he did, but he did not mention it in the Last Supper narrative. In its place we find Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, serving others, doing eucharist (Jn 13:15) with the command to imitate him. McGinnis took pains to show how, even from Amos and other Hebrew prophets, “ritual–worship, fasting–is meaningless unless we live that ritual. This means working for the liberation of the oppressed” (45). The above, with its innumerable applications, is what ministry is all about.

These recollections came flashing back to me recently in class. I had returned the latest test and the grades were quite low. One student asked if there were any A’s on the test; she said it was her measure of a good test. Another suggested I put their grades on a curve. A third complained he had studied a certain topic very hard which I did not include on the test. A fourth grumbled there was never enough time to finish. I said nothing, only thought and listened, then continued with the topic for the day. They seemed dissatisfied but settled down to work.

If education of youth is my ministry, would a Christian educator act differently in this situation than anyone else? Tulley says God “places a demand on those he calls” (14), which to me means, be ready to stand up and be counted. We preach “justice and peace with love;” I had for the moment in the classroom a quiet conformity. I knew I ought to respond to their observations in some way and soon. As I later considered their case against me and the test, I envisioned a double power structure. Legally, at least, they were the bosses, paying my salary, and I was their employee. But I too had power. I was employed as an authority–teacher, and morally responsible for maintaining a learning atmosphere in the classroom and a certain rhythm to the flow of topics. It would be unjust to put off or offend any of them and equally unjust to ignore their complaints.

As a Christian, a professional educator, and a possible role model, I had to respond. At the start of the next class I reiterated their complaints for them and shared certain facts that I had verified and explained my understanding as to why the class was not going as well as we all wanted. My reaction seems to agree with Francis Meehan. He explains how something new happens to people who begin to love others. My “very outward movement” toward the other “discloses something about God” (14).

As a minister I must respect my students. From my knowledge of them, I know they are vulnerable, are confronting new challenges, and are experiencing great changes within themselves. I must also remember many of them are, at most, barely out of their teens and too often fall back on poor high-school attitudes and habits. They want to be treated as adults, though lack the depth that life experiences bring. They are all different: some smarter than others, some more motivated, and some further along in school. Some are much older; in one class five are grandmothers. My students remind me of the variety of people that followed Jesus as he wandered over the countryside. He was open to everyone, both men and women; he favored those in need; he befriended the rich and the poor. I try to do as Jesus would in my place.

I “wash my students’ feet” by spending hours tutoring them individually when they find a certain topic difficult or fall behind the rest of the class (Lk 10:30). I challenge them to do their best (Lk 10:20) and give them opportunities to demonstrate their work to the others (Mt 14:28). But I tolerate no nonsense or detours in the class’ progress (Mk 8:33). Equally important, I begin every class with a specific prayer of petition (Mt 18:19-20). On the day after the American government authorities kidnapped little Elean Gonzalez with a uniformed and fully armed SWAT team, we asked God to touch all of those involved directly and indirectly in such a way that some good could result from this month’s long affair in spite of the violence.

Like the sower (Jn 4:37), I usually have no way of knowing if my purpose is understood, but I try to do all of this as an expression of my love and respect for each of my students. On rare occasions I hear a thank you from someone. Last year I received an unsigned card with a note in female handwriting. It said: “Brother Tom, You have touched many of the lives of your students. Shine on, Shine on. “Cause this tired old world needs you.” I appreciated it and hope it is reason to believe my light is sometimes on a stand where it can be seen (Mt 5:14).

In summary, Christian ministry is knowingly doing God’s work by serving others in love. It involves a call by God to respond to the needs of others and its nature depends on the gifts and talents we possess as well as the time we have available. Not everyone is a full-time minister, but all Christians are called to minister.