Francisco Grondona, Diego Asili, mkf. What is Schoenstatt’s gift to the Church for 2014? “We are the gift, as a Schoenstatt Movement renewed in the Covenant of Love”, is Father José María García’s answer. A year after Conference 2014, Diego Asili and Francisco Grondona interviewed him on the contribution of Schoenstatt to Church and World in the context of the centenary of the Covenant of Love. This third and final part of the interview (first part here – second part here) revolves on Schoenstat’s message to the church and the renewal in the Covenant of Love on October 18, 2014, as expresión of Schoenstatt’s renewal.
D: Into the Church…..How will the 2014 Celebration of our Movement be significant for the Church?
Fr.JM: We are Church. From that standpoint, we do not have to go into the Church because we are in the Church. If we were not in the Church, we would not understand each other. We are not a group separate from the Church.
We want to contribute to the renewal of the Church. If we are a Movement of renewal, our contribution to renew it lies in that we be a renewed Movement. The contribution which we make to the Church is we ourselves. For that reason, I was saying to a group of youths with which I met yesterday: “In the first place, the product which Schoenstatt has to offer to the Church is its members.” They are the ones who embody and make present in a believable way that which we are announcing. Christians…..is the message of the Church to the world. That is what makes it believable. Evidently there has to be a reflection, a conceptualization of that message, but what renews society are the heroes and heroines who embody that message. So then, what is our message to the Church, within the Church of which we are a part? It is precisely a Movement renewed in the Spirit, a Movement of renewal in the Spirit of the Lord. What Blessed Mother does is to form men and women who are open to the will of God for their time and that is a great renewal…..and with a vocation to service, that is, there where the institutionalized conceived Church needs, wants or demands a renewing force. The Schoenstatters would have to be there. Responding, not to a strategic vision or power, but to a vocation to service which is the most Marian there is. The role of Schoenstatt within the Church is what the Blessed Virgin presents in her visit to Saint Elizabeth: She goes to serve her cousin, Saint Elizabeth, when she needs it…..and She takes along what She has. In the background, She sings the Magnificat as a confirmation of what God has done in Her and that spirit is what is translated into an action of service. That is how we will make our contribution to the renewal of the Church.
It would be very arrogant on our part to say that we are going to renew the Church. The one who renews the Church is the Holy Spirit. We are, if we are open, instruments of the Holy Spirit. We are not going to renew anything if we only have well-formulated ideas.
The renewal occurs in the power of the Spirit and in the charisma of Father Kentenich and his mission which is a gift which he undoubtedly received from the Holy Spirit. It will be effective according to the measure in which Schoenstatt lives it and transmits is as such…..that Schoenstatt be an instrument like Mary at the service of that Church which has a mission which belong to everyone and without which we have no meaning. The most succinct formulation of Schoenstatt’s charisma is Father Kentenich’s “Dilexit Ecclesiam.” When we formulate the charisma of the Church, of the Christian, saying that the Word of God became incarnate and that Jesus redeemed us on the Cross, that is like the basic expression of our charisma as a Christian. What is most succinct is that “Christ is the Lord” and we can say that also. In Schoenstatt, our charisma, that which gives the grace to our Covenant is the “Dilexit Ecclesiam.” That “He loved the Church” and the Blessed Mother gives us the Covenant for the love to this Church which has to lead to a mission.
F: In conclusion, it has to be an awakening of the entire Family and a making of 2014 not only a celebration but a Jubilee…..making it a yearly Jubilee and being aware of what it is and projecting it into the future, toward something concrete, something which has meaning.
D: An interior renewal and a renewal of the branches in order to do something meaningful and proper. It is therefore important to plan now and not wait until the last moment.
Fr. JM: Being a process of life, the process is slow and has to be, as Father Kentenich would say, organic…..from the inside to the outside. We believe in that. We are going to do everything possible that the Jubilee develops from within toward the outside. But it is the renewal of the Covenant of Love, a renewal of the spirit. The renewal of the Covenant is not something automatic.
D: No, to truly renew it, to rekindle the flame.
F: The challenge is for this Jubilee to not be only for 2014, because one has to have that renewal constantly.
Fr. JM: They are moments of grace. In God’s guidance, there are moments of greater “density of life.” They are moments where life condenses, it merges and becomes aware of itself, but not to convince itself of what one is already convinced about nor to ratify what others already know. It is for renewing itself and projecting itself into the new situations where it is and that is the great gift of 2014. What I would not like is that we simply have something to read on behalf of the commission, the organization, which is a great challenge because we are lacking the means corresponding to the Celebration which we are imagining. In this it is important to have an exercise on awareness and reality. What means are at our disposal?….. that is not what is important or fundamental. What is important and fundamental continues being that renewed life which the Blessed Mother wants to give to us and, therefore, the Jubilee is a great moment in which we have to have a religious document like what was done at the planning conference: “What does God want?” And then a very honest document from the human point of view in the sense of saying: How are we? In that dialog between grace and nature – “Nothing without You, nothing without Us” – a Jubilee joyfulness develops, a moment of Jubilee celebration. It is like an internal dynamism. Now we have to define the project: how are we going to do it?…..where are we going to gather?…..etc….. That is still ahead of us and we have to talk about it at a meeting we will have in May. But what is important,( without which that would have no meaning), is the real life of the Family and the awareness of renewing ourselves in the Covenant for the newest times, as Father Kentenich used to say.
F: How can the Families who are in a rut be motivated?
Fr. JM: There will always be groups who take more active parts than others. Not because they may be more powerful, in the sense that they have greater means or because they may have more influence, because within the structure they have been conceived that way. Here, the strongest life will dominate. If we are believers that that life comes from God, it must not be taken as a threat for others, but life awakens life. For example, that life which can come from the Girls’ Youth…..great currents are incarnate in the Girls’ Youth which are capable of renewing them. It can cause the Girls’ Youth to awaken and instead of talking a lot, they can do more, for example. Life can come from one corner or another and not feel it as a threat, but feel it as a gift which motivates us to awaken or generate one’s own or at times to be taken by one’s own. Service to life also requires a great deal of humility in this also. One has to see where life is strongest and give that life space without leaving aside the other weaker spaces, the less developed spaces and the more incipient because from Bethlehem, which was the smallest city, is where the Messiah came from.
Translation: Carlos Cantú, Schoenstatt Family Federation, La Feria, Texas USA 030710
