In yesterday’s reflection, Stefan explained how Cardinal Cardijn saw the role of the Young Christian Workers (YCW) and the parish. The foundation of the YCW was the parish, and the social action that the YCW undertook was part of parish life.
Pope Francis, in 2022, would develop further what Cardinal Cardijn said in 1925 when speaking to the French social organisation, “Village de Francois (Village of Francis).”
“Jesus Christ alone fills our thirsty hearts,” Pope Francis stressed to members of the Village of Francis.
The Village of Francis develops and runs innovative shared living spaces, i.e. the Village. It brings together vulnerable people and those who care for them, focusing on three areas: living together, economic activity and integral ecology.
The Village of Francis, the Pope said, “is an ecclesial place that goes out of the usual framework to propose something else.”
“It is the Church as a ‘field hospital,’ concerned more with those who suffer than defending its interests, taking the risk of novelty to be more faithful to the Gospel.”
“I hope that the Village of Francis will contribute to rediscovering what a true village is: a fabric of concrete human relations, in mutual support, in attention to those in need, in the coexistence of generations and the concern to respect the Creation that surrounds us.”
After reading Cardinal Cardijn’s and Pope Francis’s views on the role of the Church (parishes and parishioners), can we conceive parish life as reduced to only going to mass and receiving sacraments?
SEE
Why do I go to Church?
Why do the people I know go to Church?
Is my parish actively involved in the life of the community where my parish is located?
Is my parish “a fabric of concrete human relations, in mutual support, in attention to those in need – within and outside the parish?”
JUDGE
God saw that it was good. The first reading (Genesis 1:1-19) is the creation story. What God created was good, and more importantly, He created the universe, the world, and everything in it in abundance and for everyone.
All those who touched Him were cured. Today’s Gospel (Mark 6:53-56) shows a broken world filled with suffering, and Jesus is the healer. Those who touched Him were cured.
ACT
How can my parish – followers of Jesus Christ – help restore God’s creation?
How can my parish – followers of Jesus Christ – be an instrument of His healing?
Author
Greg Lopez
Raised in Australian English usuge, I am put off by the ‘field hospital’ image the Pope uses – tones of war and conflict. I prefer his images about the oneness of the human family, together on a journey, compassion for others on the journey. I like to view the human family as a place of nourishment and formation in the ups and down of life. It is closer to the Jungian psycological view of growth rather than a Fraudian one of sicknees to be healed.
Thank you for your views, Charles.
I prefer the ambiguity — that there is no binary.
The image of the oneness of the human family, together on a journey, with compassion for others on the journey, and that the human family as a place of nourishment and formation in the ups and downs of life, coexists with the brutality (inhumanness – war, conflict, sickness, deprivation) of human nature.