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June 9th, 2005 An Open LetterTo the Parish Council of the San Jose Chinese Catholic Community at the Parish of Saint Clare in Santa Clara, Introduction 1. Although I have grown up in this community, I can safely say that I am still new to it. I have learned many things this past year through my involvement at different levels in this community. Naturally, it was only this year that I started to attend the parish council meetings for our community. I have to say that it has shown me the hopes, the strife, and the commitment that people have to make this community what it is. Currently we have our elections for the parish council and have encountered some challenges. We all know the problem: no one is volunteering for the presiding position of the chair of the parish council. For those that have attended the parish council meetings, we have experienced the same problem on another level: no one positively volunteers for the coordination of tasks. For those that work in serving the members of this community, we have experienced the same problem yet on another level: no one positively volunteers. I don’t pretend to know what to do in response to it, nor how to remedy the problem. I do intend to propose what I see as the root and source of the problem. I believe this time in the life of this community is a turning point. What the Greeks referred to as kairos. This means that whatever happens now, the future will never be the same again, for better or for worse (Kreeft). Don’t misunderstand me; this is not because it is an election year, although to some extent it is related. As with anything human, I see our community at the beginning of one of two paths: one leading towards God and the other leading away (Lewis). Our community’s history “is not simply a fixed progression toward what is better, but rather… a struggle between freedoms that are in mutual conflict, that is, according to the well known expression of St. Augustine, a conflict between two loves: the love of God to the point of disregarding self, and the love of self to the point of disregarding God. (FC 6). However, it is with a sense of hope that I write this letter in this crucial time that I perceive to be a defining moment for our community. Community 2. The very last word in the name states that we are a “community.” But do we really know what it means to be a part of a community? What is a community in general and what should be its purpose? Our Church has defined the family as the “first and vital cell of society.” (AA 11). Our community is made up of our individual families, not just our individual selves. We must keep that in mind when decisions for this community are made. So community naturally forms from the social interactions of different families that come together. The family then “nourishes” the community “continually through it’s role of service to life” (FC 42). But this service that the family performs for the community can only be “inspired and guided by the law of ‘free giving’” just as it is supposed to be between family members themselves (FC 43). 3. So the existence of our community SJCCC exists because of the gifts brought by each of our families. As a church community, these gifts are then given back to nourish and serve the families as a whole. And so we come to our current crisis. There are many positions in which to serve the community of SJCCC, but there is no one willing to give. I know we all deal with this when we’re dealing with our small groups such as Bible studies, faith groups or classrooms: we have to ask for people to perform certain tasks, from meeting at their houses, to bringing the food to share. I know we all deal with this - even when working with the more mature leaders of our community - whether it is in asking them to teach a class, to go attend a meeting to represent us, or to find people to help. In the three levels of this community I must make it very clear that I have only witnessed this lack of giving most seriously here, at what we think to be the top of the community. 4. Every month, the second Thursday night, we meet and it feels literally like pulling teeth. Only I don’t leave the meeting with less teeth, only with less faith and less hope. This is what I have observed. The servants of this community no longer feel support from other people. More and more responsibilities and duties are pushed back and forth, lower and lower, until it is pressed upon the last person: the parish council chairperson. The servants of this community no longer feel support from the community as a whole. Fewer and fewer people in this community feel the need or the willingness to volunteer their time and energy. So more and more tasks are thrust upon those already with many responsibilities; so much that those who were already willing become burnt out. On the other side, the individuals of this community are reduced and seen only as a work force. Each individual’s worth as a Child of God is stripped away and they are judged only on their ability to work. This “materialistic and economistic” way of thinking is not only a threat to the right order of values, but is vehemently opposed by the teachings of the Church (LE 7). When someone is volunteered by someone else, not only is the individual’s dignity as a human being taken away, but so is their life: their time and energy. It seems that these voluntary tasks are no longer voluntary, but in reality are coerced into completion. 5. Why is this happening? Because the community is no longer giving. The attitude of service has reversed. The community, whose existence was to serve the families and lead them towards God, now exists for the sake of itself. The work that needs to be done to keep the community alive is now just that: works that keep the community alive. They no longer give joy; they no longer help people grow closer to God. The individuals of the community now serve to keep the community alive, and not the community to serve the families. If we look around, I’m sure we can all testify to the fact that the work this community calls us to do actually rips us away from our own families. How can we grow as followers of Christ in this type of community when families are already in a struggle between a life towards God versus a life away from God (FC 6). If this community is not guiding the families that make up the community towards God, this community can only be guiding individuals away from families, and families away from God. Heart of the Community 6. But even after all that, it is still not the heart of the problem. What we have been dealing with so far has all been just the symptoms of a disease that is cancerous. The root of our disease is our lack of Love. This is not wishful thinking, nor is it impractical. On the contrary, this is absolutely essential! From what we’ve seen, we obviously lack love for each other; the love that Christ taught us. I have personally observed a lack of love for ourselves and, in our families, a lack of love for our very own children. Most disturbing of all: the lack of love for God Himself. How can we claim to love God when we don’t love our neighbors? “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn 14:15) and what did Jesus command us to do? If we don’t follow the teachings of Christ, can we even call ourselves Christians? Jesus Himself said we are known to be his followers by our love for one another (Jn 13:35)! To emphasize the morbidity of the situation, let’s look at the fruits of this community since Jesus had said “every good tree bears good fruit” (Mt 7:17): one generation has passed, the children of this community are married and having children, and still there are no religious vocations from this generation. Again looking at the children of this community from the beginning to now, how many have returned? How many are still Catholic? How many are still Christian? How is it that there are so many children that came from this community who don’t go to church anymore when we know that people are attracted to God since we were made for God Himself and God “never ceases to draw man to Himself” (CCC 27). Conclusion 7. I’m sure we’re all aware that without love, the family cannot grow and perfect itself as a community of persons (FC 18), in fact it ceases to be a community. And this community cannot go on any longer without love. Especially since none of these things we do matter without love (1Cor. 13:1-3). But as I had stated in the beginning of this letter, I am hopeful. Because the solution is simple: love God. Love our neighbors (Mk 12:30-31). That’s it. And “love never fails” (1Cor. 13:8). But we, as individuals, as families, and as a whole community have to want it. We have to have a reason to want it. From here, we can only move towards God, or away from Him. I see hope in your children. I place my faith in all of you. So I beg each and every one of you followers of Christ and children of God: please do not take my hope for the evangelization of the Chinese people. Please do not take my one reason to love this community: Love itself. Most Sincerely, Henry Shu
LE: Pope John Paul II, Encyclical LABOREM EXERCENS, 14 Sept. 1981. FC: Pope John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation FAMILIARIS CONSORTIO, 22 Nov. 1981. AA: Vatican II (Pope Paul VI), Decree APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM, 18 Nov. 1965. CCC 27: Catechism of the Catholic Church #27 The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for: The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being. For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence. He cannot live fully according to the truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator. Kreeft, Peter. Making Choices, St Anthony Messenger Press, Cincinnati, 1990. Page 155. Lewis, CL. The Weight of Glory. Harper Collins, San Francisco, 1949 (first Harper Collins edition 2001). It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption, such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. <
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