Francisco Grondona/Diego Asili/mkf. In the second part of the interview wiht Father José Maria Garcia on behalf of the anniversary of Conference 2014, realized in the PressOffice, the conversation resolves around the task of Team 2014 commissioned in December 2009, the importance of the authentic life growing from the local Schoenstatt families as subject of all the celebrations, and how Schoenstatt will prepare for to celebrate, together, as a family, the birthday of the Covenant of Love. This is the second part of the interview; the first one can be found here, the third one will follow son. The entire interview is also available as mp3.
D: You mention Commission 2014 a great deal. You, along with Sr. Luciane, are advisers on this Commission. What does belonging to this important Commission mean to you?
Fr.JM: Undoubtedly it is an honor. It is a gift from the International Schoenstatt Family in the sense that confidence is entrusted to those of us who form this Commission to fulfill this service to the International Schoenstatt Family. Team 2014 is a job request and is thus a request for service. It is a service to the Family and with the Family for the entire spiritual world of the Family and from the Family to the Church…..that is, in that sense there is an attitude of gratitude for the confidence placed in us which is great. On the other hand, it is a challenge, being aware of the difficulties which a project implies so that we may really grow in confidence, in the presence and action of the Blessed Mother…..so that she can be the one who gives us the convenient means so that we may follow and fulfill this project.
Personally, it is a challenge for living radically the Covenant of Love because if those of us who are on the team and those who are going to participate do not live that which we are going to celebrate, then logically, it is not going to come about…..that is, good technical service may come about, but not with the convenient spirit which should mark the celebration…..somehow, to live in a distinguished form that which we are going to celebrate. The Team has the grace to celebrate the Jubilee through its work.
D: Being such a large celebration which expects 25,000 persons, how can the Family help the Commission with the organization?…..as volunteers or in other ways.
Fr. JM: First of all, the Family has to nurture its own life at the local level because that is exactly what we are going to celebrate. We are going to channel and we are going to express what the local Families are germinating. From that life, we are going to be able to organize something here. If that life is not present, we can organize a wonderful event, but not a Jubilee in the sense of a grace which God is offering us. How can the Schoenstatt Family help? Celebrating its Jubilee! Exactly like a moment of renewal in its life.
An example: when we are going to celebrate a birthday, what do we do? How is the family coming together?…..put the house in order…..bring out the best of everything……that is, it renews itself in order to celebrate. It is not only about commemorating, being aware that another year has gone by or seeing the consequences that there are more wrinkles or that the child has grown, etc…..what is important is to see to it that it is an authentic renewal, and that is what we are expecting from the local Families in the first place. A great Jubilee renewal which is what Father Kentenich always said: each Jubilee moment is a time for renewal for the Families, to make them anew from within their own sources.
The initiatives coming from there will make it possible for us to be able to work, that is, we are sure that people with the correct spirit are going to come as volunteers as well as people who will move so we may secure the financial and technical means needed for a celebration of this type. We will also be challenged to have a broad horizon because the Family wants to celebrate according to what “their love for Schoenstatt”is, that is, large or small, with audacity or less audacity.
The means: Who comes to help?….. Who comes to contribute?…..it depends on the actual means each local Family has independently. What is fundamental are those means, be they human or financial…..must have the corresponding spirit.
D: Is it important to prepare that spirit with the visit of the Father Eye Symbol to all countries?
Fr. JM: Undoubtedly! I think it is a gift from Providence which came from the planning conference. The visit of the Father Eye Symbol (what was sought at the beginning) is exactly the renewal of the Covenant of Love in that Family which receives it. It is not only to commemorate that we receive the Father Eye Symbol (a gift from Father Kentenich which reminds us of God’s paternity…..which awakens feelings in regard to Father Kentenich or awakens feelings as Father Kentenich’s Family…..), but to go from the affective domain to an effective renewal in those areas in which Father Kentenich’s Family must renew itself…..to put things in order, clarify things, correct ills…..these are normal things in all families. The Visit of the Father Eye Symbol helps us with that renewal and prepares us for the Jubilee…..and with the Jubilee, new life for our Schoenstatt Family. Therefore, the visit of the Father Eye Symbol cannot only remain as a pious or emotional time in Schoenstatt. These are also important because if we would not have them, then there would be important parts of the Family which would not be expressed. But also a conscious awareness (clear,daring and brave) of a Family who with Father Kentenich is capable of looking at the future, but from the aspect of the truth in which it exists. Father Kentenich renews us in truth and love, therefore, the Visit of the Father Eye Symbol has to be (as was seen in Conference 2014 by the same experience it had there) a moment of the Holy Spirit, a Cenacle moment. That is, the Family which receives it enters into a Cenacle environment of prayer, of bearing the Spirit, of placing the Covenant of Love, Blessed Mother and the Lord in the center…..of putting Father Kentenich in the center and from them, renewing ourselves in that encounter to prepare ourselves for the 2014 Jubilee.
F: What has to be done after 2014? We have a medium-long space until 2014, but what is there after that?
Fr.JM: I expect the Holy Spirit to reveal that to us. As I told you in the beginning, what we are doing is organizing a celebration along with a celebrative gesture which is the pilgrimage. The gesture which is religious and social, is to go toward the original source and to the Church in Rome to renew ourselves in the Covenant of Love with a concrete commitment. What comes afterwards is exactly what we as Family may have secured what the Holy Spirit may have done in us. How this Family will be renewed is open to the Holy Spirit, to the desire and the expectations, the generosity and the creativity of the Schoenstatters. The Boys’ Youth expressed it very nicely in Latin America at the last conference when they said: “The culture of the Covenant of Love wants to change the geography of our surroundings, not as an imposition but by the offering which we make as an instrument of the Covenant of Love which leads to improve and renew our surroundings.”
F: The work with the youths is taking place with the conference of leaders of Latin America. Is this conference a pioneer with these projects of life currents?
Fr.JM: It has taken place 4 times. This is an initiative in Latin America and which began in Latin America. Primarily, the Boys’ youth and youth leaders meet with their advisers with the question: How do we prepare for 2014? And in an exercise with Providence: Where are the youth? What are the strongest signs of life? What motivates us the most to live our Covenant of Love, our vocations, our mission as Boys’ Youth in Latin America?: How is this expressed in concrete projects? – because that is where you really see the product which is born from that Covenant of Love life which comes forth from the different branches – What does the Youth offer at the Latin American level? That is how to cultivate the Boys’ Youth at the Latin American level…..this jubilee awareness to prepare ourselves for 2014 and there is the strong emphasis on being missionary. For that reason they described themselves in their second conference as “the 2014 missionary generation.”
The next conference will be in Tuparendá with leaders and advisers, and their idea, their project is that for 2014 there be a great missionary event which will be the gift from the Latin American Youth for the Jubilee. This project will take place in the city of Buenos Aires. The idea is that it be a kind of “Missionary-Expo” where all of the great and small projects which have taken place in Latin America or other places, can express themselves…..that there can be a great exchange…..a reflection on the topic “Missions”…..not only at the level of the youth, but also in other areas of the Family and that this celebration (congress) have in itself as an important part, missions in the city of Buenos Aires.
F: Is there any type of similar work taking place in the other branches?
Fr.JM: I do not know much about that. I know there are initiatives; I know there is some unrest, but many places are waiting for initiatives to come forward at the national or international levels and thus they can take part in these. This is not contrary with what I said earlier that we want this life to come forward from us. We have expectations, better said, we have expectations of the life which comes forth from the countries but there are countries which are stronger. There are countries which are smaller or less strong as a Schoenstatt Family and what is important is that a web is formed so that they can all help each other and in solidarity the projects for the celebration can be a success. The challenge on our part, what we are expecting is the initiative from the branches or the national Families for this Jubilee Celebration.
There are projects which are very beautiful and suggestive, for example, what the Schoenstatt Family of Argentina has done in the context of the Bicentennial…..a great pact for the Homeland. Being an initiative and a project of the Schoenstatters, it has transcended and has formulated into a more open way what we call “the culture of the Covenant.” In the background, it is through a pact between the Argentineans (in Covenant with each other) and those who strive for the fruitfulness of the Covenant since it is a renewed country…..a just country…..a more honest country…..which is what they want, but they come forth from the dynamism of the Covenant: it is the “with one another we strive for a common good.”
Let me mention two things…..the Boys’ Youth at the Latin American level and this. There are other projects which can also be seen within this context and I think that at the moment that they are presented in the context of the Jubilee they can be enriched greatly. For example, I see it here in Germany with the famous “Zukunftsforum” which is the “Forum of the Future” where the Schoenstatt Family asks itself how will the future of the Family be. Undoubtedly, 2014 is an important factor in this reflection. So, how will they see themselves within this jubilee project when they are asking themselves the question about the future?…..it will be a very important factor for the celebration of 2014 because the life which comes forth in the Schoenstatt Family from Germany will be very important for the International Schoenstatt Family. There are also other projects like the workshop which is being planned at the Latin American level for Latin American leaders in different lay areas and in regard to a new social order. They are projects which are coming forth in the context of 2014 and which respond to the same: it is a renewal of the Schoenstatt Family from its Covenant, in its service to the Church and world and it is like a great channel for expressing the message of the Jubilee.
As all messages, it has two dimensions: one message toward within and one exterior message. The message toward within is the renewal of our Covenant…..we renew ourselves in our basic faith, it is like the source which feeds us, nurtures us and gives us identity. The message toward the exterior is exactly that this Schoenstatt Family renews itself in its commitment with society and with the Church…..giving it what is most its own which is its Covenant spirituality, but an effective and efficient Covenant spirituality …..thus in concrete projects, not only explaining the theory of the Covenant, but demonstrating that the Covenant is really an instrument of spiritual and moral renewal of society and the Church. Ultimately it is what Father Kentenich defined about the Movement, as a Movement of religious and moral spiritual renewal of society within the Church. In that sense our message is coherent with what we are but assuming the challenges of the times in which we live.
Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 030610
