The interior life – Reflections: Cardijn Today

24 March 2023

Is it about spiritual anthropology?

(St) Joseph Cardijn spent his working life teaching by word and example about the eternal and temporal destiny of each person and of the moral responsibility that each worker has to lead the workers of the world to achieve their divine destiny. In one of his writings from 1945, he said, “The body of the young worker and of the young working girl is a living temple of God; the home they will found is inseparably linked up with all these necessary convictions, it is a spiritual ideal incarnate in time, lived in time. This spiritual training, this spiritual conception of life imply a morality, which is not a burden, but a responsibility.” In saying this, Cardijn attempts to describe a spiritual anthropology.

The Australian Cistercian monk, Michael Casey offers a reflection on spiritual anthropology in his book Grace: on the journey to God (2018). He proposes as a starting point the belief that all people are created in the image and likeness of God. In Genesis 1, it is revealed that we are created in the image of God: “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… (1:26). I have always regarded “image and likeness” as a “double-barrel” expression, done to emphasise the first word, in this case, “image.” Casey has a different view: the word “image” refers to God’s act of creating us. We have no say in the matter. It is God’s grace at work. It is God’s intention that we be seen as images of God. But the moment we say, “Well, this is what God is like”, pointing to another individual or to ourselves, then we are working with the word “likeness.” We have the potential to be like God. It is up to us to desire to be like God and to seek to be like God.

The desire and the action are acknowledgements of the eternal destiny of each person. And at the same time, they are the temporal destiny of each person. In the Gospel reading for Mass for Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent (John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30), the evangelist recounts a story from the life and ministry of Jesus. He contrasts Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father with the lack of faith of those who were quick to judge him as being unworthy of God’s grace, or who were uncertain about God’s presence in their lives. Ever aware of his eternal destiny, which is for all people, to give glory to God for all eternity, and which is fitting for all created in the image of God, Jesus called out those who chose to be not like God.

In every situation in his life, Cardijn tried to ask himself what Jesus would do if he was in that situation. He taught his young leaders to do the same. Reflecting on the source of their faith, that is, the Tradition of the Church, involved participation in the life of the Church. He encouraged them to immerse themselves in the Church and in the world. Is there an action within this framework that is possible to carry out and to invite others to be involved also? It seems to me that self-transformation and the transformation of the world need a spiritual anthropology like that described by Cardijn in 1945. The challenge for us in the twenty-first century is to work out what it will look like now, almost eighty years after Cardijn wrote his reflection.

Author

Pat Branson

May our faith not be mere ideology

Greg Lopez posted a reflection titled Declining members in Christian organisations in Australia on 10 March. He stated that there are 11,400 Catholic parishes in our fair land. Between 1991 and 2016, the number of Catholics going to Church regularly decreased by about 40% and in 2016, only about 11% of Catholics attended Mass in their parishes each weekend. However, this is not the case with Catholic schools. Catholic education has continued to grow nationally. Clearly, the mantra of “family, parish, school” no longer has meaning for most Catholics in Australia. The Australian culture was at one time Christian, but that is no longer so. Have most Catholics come to view the faith as an ideology? Have they forgotten the faith stories given to them through the Mass? It would appear that certain human values have gained the ascendency over Christian values related to forming their relationship with God and with Christ.

Pope Francis has warned against viewing Christianity as an ideology: “Be careful, for the Gospel is not an idea; the Gospel is not an ideology. The Gospel is a proclamation that touches the heart and makes you change your heart.” When people choose to ignore the stories conveyed through liturgy, then eventually, the values that are conveyed through the Gospel are soon replaced by values that are characterised by convenience and immediacy. The message of the Gospel has been drowned out by the cares of the world.

Fr Joseph Cardijn described this phenomenon as a “worker problem, world problem, human problem, apostolic and missionary problem!” When and where “apostles” and “missionaries” accompanied Christians in the manner of Christ accompanying them, then faith in Christ shaped their lives. That this accompaniment has declined significantly in Australia was inevitable, given the increasingly materialistic and consumerist character of our culture. The call of the Gospel is to live with a generous and forgiving heart and to be attentive to the struggles of those around us.

In the Gospel for Tuesday of the Third week of Lent (Matthew 18:21-35), Jesus responds to Peter’s question about forgiveness with a parable that contrasts God’s compassion and forgiveness with the actions of the unjust servant. Our relationship with our neighbour (Love your neighbour.) must be a reflection of our relationship with God (Love God.). When the commitment to religious observance declines, then peoples’ relationship with God suffers and there will be significant changes in the values that people uphold.

Reversing the trend does not mean returning to the past because often what existed in the past was merely religion on show, that is, people practised their “faith” without understanding or appreciating the relationship with God on which the practice is founded. We would do well to learn from others about living our faith through walking with those in need and strengthening our commitment through being in the presence of God. I listened to Amar Singh, an Australian Sikh, as he told the ABC presenter Richard Fidler about the importance of his faith and his religious practices to his compassionate responses to the needs of people he met in his work as a truck driver. He reflected on his experience of being in the presence of God and how in a sense it completed his life. May we, too, find fulfilment in being in God’s presence as we go about our work each day.

Author

Pat Branson

Who guards the threshold I cross over?

Just the other day, I went in search of a prayer for a meeting I would attend later in the day and by chance I opened Joyce Rupp’s The Open Door: A Journey to the True Self (2008) at a section titled “Guardians of the Threshold.” She referred to the writings of Joseph Campbell and identified the Holy Spirit, Mary, the saints and guardian angels as the Guardians of the Threshold in the Christian tradition. These “guardians” (guards, wardens, guerrillas “guarding against,” “warding off”) are placed at the “threshold” of our interior life to guard and protect us as well as guide us as we seek God in the ordinary and extraordinary events of our lives.

Rupp writes that the guardians we meet “will demand our full cooperation in accepting the requirements for spiritual growth” (p. 104). And what are these “requirements”? In his book Grace: on the journey to God, Benedictine monk, Michael Casey, OSCO identifies “making time” for prayer and reflection as a requirement for the interior journey. And we will only make time if we are prepared to attend to the feelings of dissatisfaction with the way in which we live in the world.

(St) Joseph Cardijn guards the threshold that thousands, possibly millions of people have crossed over. He was barely a teenager when he was confronted with the choices some of his peers had made when they entered the workforce. He was protected from making the same choices by his decision to become a priest. And such a choice would not have been made had it not been for the influence of his parents and the priests and religious who also acted as his guardians.

The Christian tradition confirms the presence of guardians of the threshold. When people of faith choose to cross the threshold they have the opportunity to do so in the company of saints, who have crossed it before them. Jesus warns his followers that what lies beyond the threshold is challenging. It will require letting go of what provides them with a comfortable existence.

The Gospel reading for Mass today, Monday of the Third Week of Lent, is Luke’s account of Jesus’ return to his hometown of Nazareth. After reading from the prophet Isaiah about his mission, which is to announce the coming of God’s kingdom, he tells those who have gathered that “a prophet is never welcomed in his hometown” (Luke 4:24). He then gives them examples from their tradition of guardians passing over the Chosen People to announce God’s salvation to Gentiles. When people turn tradition into a fossil, they will be barred from crossing the threshold.

The change that is sought here is one that allows for transformation, which can only happen when people seek God, not themselves. The response for the Responsorial Psalm for today’s Mass is a powerful reminder of the mindset needed to step across the threshold and to move deeper into one’s spiritual life and being: “My soul is thirsting for the living God; when shall I see him face to face” (Ps 41:3).

The action that we can take is one that lends itself to being imitated by others and a powerful way of building the Kingdom of God on earth. It is illustrated well by what a friend shared with me recently. He related how his life is governed by his prayer, which goes something like, “Okay, God, if this is not meant to be a part of your plan, then it won’t happen. And you know I’m fine with that, Lord.” He was referring to choices he made to better his life in material and spiritual ways. His actions were taken in a spirit of prayer and with considerable discomfort and unease. But that is what happens when we pursue the interior life of a disciple of Jesus.

Author

Pat Branson