Bridge-builders and Bridges, Instruments of Dialogue and Reconciliation in Asia

Bridge-builders and Bridges, Instruments of Dialogue and Reconciliation in Asia

110. Becoming “bridges and bridge-builders” is the image that best describes the mission of the Church of Asia and the Good News that we bring to our peoples and the rest of the world. It encapsulates the mission and purpose of Jesus, the one we proclaim as Christ and God-incarnate, who was born in Asia and raised as an Asian, and brought to birth a great spiritual tradition in this Continent. The Biblical narrative (cf. Gen 28:10-19) about Jacob’s dream of a stairway between heaven and earth sums up the story of salvation. It is the narrative about the God of Israel who takes the initiative to counteract the effects of sin, the human tendency to play god and to arrogantly cut off our connection to our Creator, our very source of life. It is sin that has brought about our alienation from God, from one another, from creation, and from our own selves. 111. We have since constantly “wrestled with God” like our ancestor Jacob, and have attempted to overcome sin assisted by God’s mercy. Despite our sinfulness, we are nevertheless called to serve as a “bridge over troubled waters”, as a stairway, through which “angels could ascend and descend” so that God could once again walk with humankind. In due time, Jacob’s dream would see its fulfillment in the very person of Jesus, the Son of God who came to serve precisely as the bridge himself (cf Jn 1:51). As St. Paul says, “For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the 46 blood of his cross [through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven” (Col 1:19-20). 112. We proclaim Christ himself as the bridge, the one in whom we have found “the way, the truth, and the life” (Jn 14: 6). Only in his name can the Church in Asia respond to the call of the Spirit to become a bridge-builder. Since the time the FABC was first convened, we have consistently proposed dialogue as one of the fundamental pastoral priorities of the Asian Church. Dialogue is the best expression of our call to be bridge-builders. We are called to expand our understanding of dialogue beyond the triple contexts of religions, cultures and the poor, to include also dialogue with youth and with women, dialogue with governments and civil society groups, with creation, with technocrats, entrepreneurs and scientists, the hungry, the homeless, the illiterate, the migrants and refugees, the indigenous people, victims of human trafficking, people with disabilities, undocumented people and rebels, as well as people struggling with addictions and other mental health issues. 113. It is within the context of dialogue that we highlighted the role of the Asian Church in peace-building and in the ministry of facilitating reconciliation. We have realized that in the promotion of peace, dialogue with the victims of violence is as essential as dialogue with the perpetrators of violence. Otherwise, there is no way we can arrest the vicious cycle of violence, where the abused become abusers and the victims become victimizers themselves. 114. In many parts of Asia, the Church navigates her way through many situations of conflicts and is called consequently to be an agent of reconciliation. We have much to learn from the wisdom of the four basic elements of the Church’s sacrament of reconciliation: confession, contrition, penance and absolution. As these elements are effective in addressing our need to be 47 personally reconciled with God, they are just as effective in addressing our personal, familial, communal and societal conflicts. How is reconciliation possible at all, if we do not even have the humility to admit our shortcomings and failures? If we do not find it in our hearts to express remorse for the harm and the hurt that we may have caused? If we do not resolve to make amends and to carry out concrete acts of reparation? How can we work for reconciliation if we do get people to see forgiveness as strength rather than as weakness? 115. To respond appropriately and effectively to the nine challenges that we have identified, formation becomes a crucial factor. Indeed, the challenges that we face and an appropriate response that needs to be made, would require the concerted response of all - Bishops, Priests, Religious and the Laity - to ensure that we strive to build a collaborative Church. Hence formation programmes of all, particularly of the laity, becomes a priority. Indeed, we cannot respond adequately to the challenges we face, unless we have the committed and coordinated involvement of all the baptized. It follows then that Bishops, Priests and Religious need to be trained to empower the laity to live their baptismal commitment, both in the Church and Society. In this manner will we have a `renewed Church’. And in so doing, we will have a better Asia for all her peoples. This is the calling the Church in Asia senses as she eventually works for a better world. 116. The Spirit invites the Church in Asia to restore the ministerial priesthood’s grounding on the common priesthood of the faithful. This could not have been expressed better than by St. Augustine who once said, “For you I am a bishop, with you I am a Christian.” There is no way we can meaningfully exercise our roles as ordained ministers for the community of the faithful if we cannot be fellow Christians with them, co-equals in dignity as fellow members of the body of Christ. The Second Vatican Council 48 stated this fact very clearly. “They cannot be ministers of Christ unless they are witnesses and dispensers of a life other than earthly life. But they cannot be of service to men if they remain strangers to the life and conditions of men (cf. 1 Cor 10:33). Their ministry itself, by a special title, forbids that they be conformed to this world; (Cf. Jn 3:8) yet at the same time it requires that they live in this world among men.” (Presbyterorum Ordinis [PO], 3). 117. At the FABC 50 General Conference, we reiterated the resolve made several times in our past FABC Plenary Assemblies to initiate the necessary reform of both our initial and ongoing formation programs for the ordained ministries in a manner that promotes a more participatory Church and empowers the laity for roles of leadership. To be able to do this, we have to attend to the ongoing formation of our seminarians, priests, religious and bishops. We need to come up with programs and structures of formation that are contextualized in our specific cultures and worldviews in the different countries of Asia. The ordained must learn to share roles of leadership with the laity and consecrated persons through the variety of ministries and services that we are all called to assume within the Body of Christ, according to the example of Jesus who at the Last Supper reminded the disciples, “I am among you as one who serves.” (Lk 22:27). 118. The participation of lay people, including women, in their human, spiritual, pastoral, and intellectual formation, the close personal mentoring by good role models, the guided immersion of the candidates for the ordained ministries in the life-situations of the poor, their exposure to the basic ecclesial and human communities and their involvement in interreligious, ecumenical and cultural dialogue will create the necessary atmosphere of formation that will raise “shepherds with the smell of the sheep”. We have also pointed out, specifically, the need to include the FABC’s teachings and traditions in their academic curriculum.

In FABC-Bangkok-Document-PRINT-2024-bc-6.pdf
Source: https://fabc.org/document/fabc-50-bangkok-document