35TH GENERAL CHAPTER: A YEAR LATER
Paolo Archiati, OMI, Vicar General
A year ago, our
last General Chapter concluded in an atmosphere of joy and brotherhood because
of the work accomplished, the new Superior General, his Council, and the
positive outlook of the Congregation as it looked to its future.
What’s left of
this experience a year later?
The key word
that guided the chapter itself and which the whole Oblate family worked on is
surely the word conversion. It is the
first document from a Chapter that has a single word as its title! It is a word
that perhaps we struggle with a bit in order to find focus as Oblates, but
gradually it draws us together and unites us, a word that continues to speak to
us and inspire us, inviting us to go deeper in order to understand the
challenges that our life and our mission today present us.
The biblical
image of the Chapter’s final letter continues to accompany us: that of the
disciples of Emmaus who are walking the road alone, discouraged and
disappointed because their world is shattered. Two disciples who are joined by
a traveler, a pilgrim like themselves, who by his words relights a fire in
their hearts until the moment when they recognize him; he disappears, but they
find themselves filled with fresh courage, so as to go back to their lives with
a new way of looking at things, with new hope and new energy.
“This General Chapter,” we read in the last paragraph of the letter, “has been an Emmaus walk. We have examined
our crucified worlds, met the resurrected Christ on the road, and leave here
with our hearts burning with new vision, new hope, and new energy.” This,
in brief, is the message and the hope that the Chapter wanted to offer the
whole Congregation.
Conversion. To translate
this word into a realistic and feasible call, the Chapter proposed five areas
in which it asked us to go deeper, starting with our commitment as disciples of
Christ, determined to follow him and to form a community around him.
What is the
heart of the Oblate community? With
this question, as old as the Congregation but always new, we are offered a
first area for work and conversion. The second is that of our mission, centered on the person of
Christ, and aimed at bringing the Gospel to the poor; today, this mission is
facing one of the most important challenges of our time: to overcome the
various barriers that continue to arise between individuals, between peoples,
and between cultures. The service of
authority is an area of conversion that involves every Oblate, within and
beyond the limits of the community to which he belongs; we are called to live
this service with courage and joy, keeping in mind the changes happening in our
family today. Formation too, first
and ongoing, is another area for conversion, one calling for a new excellence.
Profoundly rooted in Christ and animated by the Oblate charism, it will be open
to the needs of the community and of the mission. According to Constitution 47,
formation involves us in a continual conversion to the Gospel and requires us
to be ready to learn and to change in order to respond to new challenges.
Gathered around
the teaching of the apostles and the breaking of bread, the first Christian
community was of one heart and one mind. This ideal of life fascinated Saint
Eugene and he wanted to pass it on to his Oblates, right from the beginning.
The communion of goods in our family
is an essential prerequisite for the communion of minds and hearts. Even
regarding our worldly goods, we are called to be faithful and humble stewards
and this requires a change of mentality that can lead us gradually from
independence to interdependence and finally, to communion.
Conversion. One year after the Chapter, we find ourselves on the way to continue
to live this message and this call. All Oblate Units have engaged, in different
ways and according to their concrete situations, to respond to this call of the
Spirit. This will make us grow and will keep us united, despite the
fragmentation that we experience in our world at various levels. In the Central
Government, at the end of our third plenary session, we have the impression
that the Spirit is truly at work in each person and in the whole family. We
hope to continue to let ourselves be guided.
