When we see so many people of other cultures in our churches, when we see priests and Sisters from other cultures ministering in our midst, let us give thanks to our God who gifts us with the challenge of intercultural living so that God’s kingdom may be realised in our world of conflict and change, writes Columban missionary Fr Trevor Trotter.
In June this year, we Columbans held our once-every-six-years General Assembly. The members of our Society’s new international leadership team elected are: Society Leader, Andrei Paz from the Philippines, Peter O’Neill from Australia, Kim Young In Gregorio from Korea, and Salustino Villalobos Mondragon from Peru.
Our last team was multicultural, too, but this is the first time our Society Leader is not from Ireland, Britain, the United States, New Zealand, or Australia. This is not a sudden event. We have been moving in this direction for some time, but now it has happened.
Most religious orders are multicultural, which is not surprising given that our countries are made up of people from many different cultures. Our means of travel and communication have also changed rapidly over the last fifty years, enabling more interactions between cultures.
Fr Andrei Paz
All this change has had its difficulties but looking at this pattern of multiculturalism, I am wondering what God is doing. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit blessed the apostles with the gift of speaking to multilingual crowds and being understood.
This is often seen as a reversal of what happened at the time of the Tower of Babel when the people were trying to build a tower to reach heaven. Their arrogance was punished by God. No longer were they one people with one language but now spoke different languages and could not relate to each other.
Fr Peter O’Neill
Is God continuing the work of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? As Columban missionaries, learning to speak another language has always been part of our history. Learning the culture of the people where we work is a great joy but not easily achieved. Even after many years of living in another country, we do not always understand the culture.
As Christians, we believe that the Spirit is at work in our world building communion amongst us. Reading the very first chapter of the Bible we see that “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them”. Often, we use this text to speak about the wonder of each human being.
That we are made in God’s image is rather amazing. This text can also refer to the whole human race. When we acknowledge that God continues to create us humans, we realise that we are all being created in the image of the Trinity – three persons in one God.
Fr Kim Young In
Our desire to form relationships with others and the need for community is not just something we have made up so that we can have a functioning society with all the politics and economics that go with that.
Our desire for relationships with one another is a sharing in God’s desire for a relationship with us. The circle of love that flows within the Trinity is the model for us. Our love of others mirrors the love of the three persons of the Trinity.
Some theologians have been writing about the work of the Holy Spirit not just in other religions but also in other cultures. A question in the green catechism was, “Where is God?” Answer: “God is everywhere”.
Fr Salustino Villalobos Mondragon
In every person God is present. In every culture, God is working to help people grow in freedom and love. The Kingdom of God is being realised in every culture. Along with the weeds in every culture, the good seed continues to grow.
As Jesus said, do not tear up the wheat with the weeds. To cooperate with the way God works, we need to have patience for the slow and careful way God leads us into the fullness of life.
When we see so many people of other cultures in our churches, when we see priests and sisters from other cultures ministering in our midst, let us give thanks to our God who gifts us with the challenge of intercultural living so that God’s kingdom may be realised in our world of conflict and change.
Columban Fr Trevor Trotter works and lives in Australia.
