Incultured
Evangelization
The
interest in Christianity in Japan is a religious phenomenon of our
times. The competitiveness and materialism there is also an expression
of a desire to transcend, to go higher, to move on. It seems that
more spiritually minded Japanese find more space in Christianity,
where God is found walking with people in their history, than they
find in their traditional beliefs. However, a Japanese priest shared
with me the difficulty he had in his early days as a Christian. While
he could accept the basics of Christianity he had a lot of difficulty
with the trappings. For example he found celebrating a fellowship
meal - celebrating Mass - standing up went totally against his own
culture and his instinctive sense of what was appropriate. It was
only when he went to India and saw Christians there celebrate sitting
that he got the courage to change his practice to something more inculturated
on returning to Japan.
One
of the in-phrases in religious circles today is inculturated evangelization,
the wedding of culture and the beliefs and values of the Gospel. Conceptually,
culture is how I deal with life - it gives me bearings and clear values
in my particular place and time. It is a sharing of meaning and makes
life bearable. To be uncultured is to be ignorant of the values of
our group. Both the one visiting and the one being visited can be
uncultured.
Inculturation
calls for a reverent walking with people in their beliefs and practices.
Listening to the truth that is expressed through other cultures is
to be enriched, to be evangelized. In the past the culture of those
on the margins of society was seen as primitive, today it is seen
as precious. Now, it is recognized that the God in whose image all
people were made reveals himself in all cultures. Sharing between
cultures can be mutually enriching. Destruction of any culture is
an impoverishing of the whole universe.
However,
not everything found in a culture is sacrosanct. The culture may need
to be challenged. In fact this is what brought about the death of
Jesus. While he himself became truly a Jew of his time, by his parables
and actions he began to challenge the attitudes, values, and behavior
of the leaders. This they could not take and so they had to get rid
of him.
In
the Emmaus story we have incultured evangelization that had a more
positive result. The story begins with the two disciples walking away
from Jerusalem - the place of failure and disappointment. They are
so depressed that when Jesus walks with them they do not recognize
him. By asking them why they are so gloomy he gets them to tell their
story and through the story he enters into their world of meaning,
their culture. Then he goes further and tells them other stories from
the Old testament Scriptures. Suddenly a light shines on their minds.
Their eyes are opened and they read the events out of another framework.
What was first seen to be disaster was the God-planned road of salvation.
They see HIM and his physical body is gone.
Very
naturally they go back to tell the other disciple what had happened
on the road and how they had seen the Lord. Jesus appears to them
again. As they were full of joy at his presence with them he also
recalled the message "You see what was written: the Messiah had
to suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Then repentance
and forgiveness in his name would be proclaimed to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem. Now you shall be witnesses to this."
He
enters into the life of the disciples but a life that would pass through
suffering and call for repentance and forgiveness. His presence and
their presence would be incultured and evangelized.
The
first thing in inculturation is to BE reverently and gently with what
is. This demands stillness and contemplation. We cannot BE in reverence
on the run. Meditation, prayer without words or thought, opens us
to the truth in both culture and Gospel.
