Can you recognize the one who pronounced this: “As and when Jesuits take up parishes, let them first check with themselves whether they adequately possess a deep sense of MAGIS. Only then, they could and would make THE PARISHES CREATIVE AND CELEBRATIVE!”

It was none other than the great Pedro Arrupe. He could sharply say so, since he himself was parish priest in Yamaguchi, Japan (1939-1942). He also said that the Jesuit Provincials should not accept parishes, even when the Bishops insist because they do not find Jesuits with the required imaginative calibre and initiative character.

Now all the more, as we have Pope Francis, a worldwide pastor-par-excellence at the helm of affairs. Francis shows the way. He walks the talk. More than being a professional pontiff, he is edifyingly a pastoral pontiff. Remember, he was also once parish priest in Buenos Aires. In a way, he seemed to have then discovered his ‘vocation within a vocation’ to be a full-time pastor. If he can make it and also manifest it in Rome, why not you and I do it at home in our given local pastoral scenario!

WHERE ARE WE NOW?
As for the South Asia of today, all the SAARC nations are passing through certain critical contexts. Any crisis, as we know, is nothing but a moment that demands changes for better. That could also apply to our parish ministry. For, it is a time-tested channel of God’s Massive Mission of Cosmic and Human Transformation (Rev. 21:1-7).

Surveys indicate that the parish ministry around the world, so to say, has increasingly come to be clergy-centred, tradition-bound, cult-based and ritual-focused. This in itself is nothing new. But, still, what is new is that this pastoral culture has come to be ‘conveniently compromised’, ‘corruptively contaminated’ and ‘commercially corroded’ due to the current globalised pulls and pushes. Modernisation has diluted and distracted the parish ministry, moving it to be one of ‘spiritual worldliness’.

Shall we then make an honest attempt to re-discover our parish ministry with some imagination? Can we chalk out certain challenges, with some fascination, to be given to ourselves?
“Questions can form us,” as Socrates said. Let us take a look at the following set of questions that the USA-Jesuit staff had some time back posed to themselves for a collective deliberation: How do we define the difference between Jesuit and Diocesan parishes? How do we inspire young Jesuits to serve in parishes? How do we balance Jesuit apostolic priorities with diocesan priorities? How do we negotiate the tension between Jesuit apostolic mobility and parish stability? Can we establish forms of lay collaboration in the missioning of Jesuits to a parish? How can we move from the feeling of plugging Jesuit parish holes to a well-discerned and researched apostolic strategy?

Enquiries like the above would provoke us; moreover, evoke in us a new consciousness. Accordingly, along with our JEPASA-search, the following 25-PASTORAL POSSIBLES UNDER 5-DIRECTIONS could be considered for the purpose of stirring us and for substantially stimulating our Jesuit parishes.

CREATIVE PARISH:
Ignatius, certainly, did not want Jesuits to be pastors of parishes. The Constitutions are explicit in stating that Jesuits should not take up any beneficed ‘curacy of souls’ in the canonical sense of the term. Why? Jerome Nadal explained this by comparing the apostolic ministry of Paul with that of Peter. Paul was always on the move, that is, on mission. Contrast this with the institutionalized ministry of Peter which was rather stationary. In other words, the parishes belonged to Peter and the missions, to Paul. Ignatius preferred the latter for Jesuits.

Moreover, parish ministry at the time of Ignatius was packed with routine liturgical celebrations and formal sacramental administrations. As such, the parish ministry did not gel with our creative way of proceeding.

Fortunately, we are now living in the privileged time of the Post Second Vatican Council when the environment of the parish ministry has gone through a sort of revolution. Accordingly, the GC 31 (D27:488-490) and the GC 34 (D19) have opened the doors for Jesuits to move into parish ministry affirming it as “an appropriate apostolate for carrying out our mission of serving the faith and promoting justice”.

A big call and at once, challenge! As for creativity, there is no choice for Jesuits. The Magis is not one among others in a list of Jesuits characteristics. It permeates them all, especially when it comes to the parish ministry. There is many a pastoral temptation just to keep going, and not to keep growing. We need to stop giving yesterday’s solutions to today’s pastoral problems. Jesuit pastors have to be persons of surprises, so to say.

A creative Jesuit parish can attempt some of the following, depending upon the local situation:
1) Developing creative paradigms of pastoral approaches to inculturation, and thus, bringing the Adivasi, Dalit perspectives into all our pastoral commitments including Liturgy
2) Promoting local symbols of Grace, along with the universal ones, while administering the Sacraments
3) Making the popular devotions and pieties relevant to contemporary needs
4) Freeing the parish from being one ‘for the poor’, like an NGO, and forming it to be one ‘with the poorest’
5) Re-finding themselves, Jesuits in the process would emerge progressively as ‘shepherds with the smell of sheep’

COLLABORATIVE PARISH:
The GC 34, way back in 1995 itself, had powerfully extended this invitation: “Jesuit parish opens itself progressively to ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue, and reaches out to alienated Christians as well as to non–believers. It grows into a participative Church through such means as basic human and ecclesial communities and promotes opportunities for LAY-PARTNERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP.”

Jesuit parishes can come forward to show to the rest that the collaborative parish is not only commendable but much more, achievable:
1) Empowering the Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) and Parish Finance Committee (PFC) to be effective in communal discernment and pastoral decision
2) Transforming (as per the CCBI directive of 2008) the PPC and PFC and all the parish units with 33% to 50% women participation
3) Forming one or two Basic Human Communities in each of Jesuit parishes (along with the Basic Christian Communities) and thus, initiating ‘dialogue-in-action’
4) Bringing together the People of Good Will of our local area and arranging programmes to celebrate some select festivals of different religions in order to learn from one another
5) Organising, at least occasionally, some gatherings of alienated Catholics and non-believers in order to listen to their concerns with sensitivity and also, to give an honest and humble try to respond to them

CRITICAL PARISH:
This sub-title might look odd. Yet we know, analytical readings alone would offer us alternative proceedings. If we stop critically checking, the parish will become an outdated institution, out of touch with people or a self-absorbed cluster made up of a chosen few (The Joy of the Gospel, No. 28-33). Every parish is called to missionary conversion, undertaking a resolute process of discernment, purification and reform.
Pastoral ministry in a missionary key should dismiss any complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way!” For this, our Jesuit parishes can do something along the following lines:
1) Assigning a ‘think-tank’ in our parish composed of select people of IGNATIAN indifference, integrity and clarity coming from varied age-groups with the task of gathering data, undertaking some popular analysis, assessing current trends and making proposals to the PPC and PFC
2) Arranging periodical New Evangelisation programmes and thus, animating different age groups in the parish
3) Highlighting a parish-focus for every year so that all the parish community-sections and all the pastoral schedules would come around it to acquire, in the process, a coordinated and comprehensive growth in faith
4) Fixing a suggestion-box in the parish wherein people could deposit their critical and creative viewpoints and proactive ideas, with or without mentioning their names
5) Conducting an ‘open house’, once a year, for a free interaction not only between pastors and people but also, among people of God

CELEBRATING PARISH:
The GC 36 (D1:04) refers to our First Jesuit Companions having 3–Dimensional living: Sharing their lives together as Friends in the Lord, Living very close to the lives of the very poor, and Preaching the Gospel with joy.
Parish Ministry, even in today’s secularized world, offers ample opportunities to make the above 3 Ds come true (GC34.D19:02). This can be concretized and also celebrated in myriad means as follows:
1) Networking with other Jesuit apostolic works in the neighbourhood so that ‘SYNERGY’ can be experienced and resources and talents can also be shared for ‘greater good’
2) Collaborating with the local civil organisations and ecclesial associations which thus results in a ‘WIN-WIN’ environment
3) Recognizing ‘the existential peripheries’ of our parish-communities such as the Youth-at-Risk, Migrants, Single-Parent and then, preferentially labouring for their hope and liberation
4) Cultivating a genuine culture of solidarity which transcends parish boundaries and thus, contributing to National Integration especially in the present situation of ‘divisive forces’ that are fuelled even in the name of God and Religions
5) Embracing lovingly our Mother Earth and Nature and initiating ‘GREEN SERVICES’ (Laudato Si’) in our given parish geography

CREDIBLE PARISH:
Credibility is the quality NUMBER ONE that is very much in demand today. Though said in a different context, the GC35 (D2:08-10) observes, “We find ourselves at the centre of a tension pulling us both to God and to the World at the same time.” It is at those crossroads that both our Jesuits Pastors and our Jesuit Parishioners have to prove their mettle: Being credible, come what may!

We cannot only ‘preach’ the Gospel. Much more, we have to ‘practise’ the Gospel. Even more, we have to be ‘seen practicing’ the Gospel. It is nothing but a WITNESSING life, in the words of Pope Benedict XVI. Consequently, our Jesuit parishes become an evangelised and evangelising community committed to ‘Justice, Freedom and Love’ (GC34.D19:03) which are the core Gospel-Values.

This is feasible if efforts like the following are experimented:
1) Instituting a ‘Justice cell’ in each of our parishes with limited but committed members who would (via the ‘Justice-Board’) keep the parish community informed of local issues for some collective reflection and concerted action
2) Democratising the parish administration in order to make the Lay-partnership real
3) Conscientising the parishioners with the salient features of Ignatian spirituality in a systematic way
4) Reducing the varied meaningless expenditures of the parish so that the amount saved can be shared with the neediest for their basic needs
5) Emphasizing the priority of being “DISCIPLES OF JESUS” over ‘devotees of Jesus’ so that our parish communities would progressively become LOVING and LIVING GOSPELS

WE NEED A MYSTIC MINDSET:
In all, 25 PASTORAL POSSIBLES are enumerated above. Not all can be accomplished by all our Jesuit parishes. All we need is a mystical mindset. Nothing is impossible with God’s blessings (Lk.1:37). Guided by PASTORAL DISCERNMENT, each parish has to choose whatever is ‘MORE URGENT’ and do the needful. Once such a prophetic process is kick-started, it will certainly snowball into a good and godly progress. This all will make our parishes more and more graceful and fruitful. Also, more and more meaningful and beautiful. Not at all for their own sake. But for 3G: GREATER GLORY TO GOD!

The author is Founder-Director of Dhanam and currently directing programmes at Dhayan Ashram, Chennai.
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