Fr. Thomas Vijay SAC

 

Collaboration is the soul of UAC. The Kind of Collaboration called for in the Union is the that which is ‘urged by the love of Christ’. We collaborate because we love. Jesus accepts a full partnership with human beings because

  • His love for us is total
  • He accepts us as his sisters and brothers in spite of whatever we are.
  • His trust in our goodness is very deep.

 

In spite of all our misery and repeated failures God has not changed his mind of loving partnership with us. In the parable of the prodigal son Jesus depicts the Father as a totally forgiving, accepting and celebrating person. Jesus shared with Peter an illiterate fisherman, the role of shepherding his flock. Peter denied him in public and left the job and went back to fishing. Jesus calls him back and re-energizes him and renews his faith to take up that partnership with him. In the Union we collaborate with our brothers and sisters because we re-live this partnership of Jesus with his disciples. Jesus told them ‘I consider you my friends, not servants’ (Jn.15:14-15). The church is about this loving partnership between God and humanity. Jesus told his disciples that it is he who chose and appointed them (Jn.15:16), appointed them to this loving partnership. It is not a matter of our choice. I don’t decide to collaborate with some and reject to work with others; rather I am called to collaborate with all human persons around me motivated by love. In doing this we make Christ alive in our midst and the kingdom plan of God come true among us. The Union is a model of this collaboration. Thus it is impossible to think of UAC without a real sense of loving collaboration.

 

 

How can we create such partnership among the members of the Union?

 

  1. We need to be convinced that living the spirit of Union is the essence of the Pallottine way of life. Everything else, our life, our apostolate, our attitudes, etc. flow from that. Therefore a member must want to imbibe the Spirit of Union in his/her life. The Union is our spiritual power house from which we draw our energy and to which we contribute by the way of our living, acting and interacting. A member who thinks that I don’t need this spirit of Union is either ignorant of our charism or proud.

 

  1. We need a lot of humility and faith to accept UAC as our call. Just as Jesus told his disciples ‘you did not choose me; I chose you and appointed you to bear fruits’ we need humility and deep faith to accept that this is the grace we are called to live in a spirit of loving collaboration with the rest of the members of the Union.

 

  1. Let us love one another, for love is of God. We love and respect the members of the Union whoever they are, because God loves us unconditionally. Union will never become a reality if we d not accept all the members of the Union as our sisters and brothers. The experience of the ‘Love of Christ’ is the reason for this way of relating to the members of the Union. Collaboration becomes the natural form of life when love is the basis of our relating with each other. This loving relationship can grow among us if each one invest a lot of our energy in developing and fostering it.

 

 

  1. In our journey to accept one another as sisters and brothers we need to be tolerant with each other. Reacting too much to others blocks us from accepting others. Often we may be reacting to people making collaboration difficult.

 

  1. Our growing up as clergy, religious or laity without a deep link with the other groups in the Union tends to make us talk and behave like people living in a closed island. We need to go out of our world and be willing to enter into the world of others and understand them from their perspectives of things, from their experiences of church and faith.

 

  1. Dialogue with love and mutual respect is a way we can grow into the spirit of loving collaboration. Clinging on to oneself / one’s way of seeing realities can only make us travel like the two rail lines – go long distances without meeting. Dialogue is the only way we can reach a meeting point and make the Union a graceful reality. We have to dialogue not once or twice or not just when we need to do something; in the Union it is our attitude to life.

 

  1. In that long Journey of collaboration there will be a lot of mistakes, misunderstandings and hurts. But that is true of all efforts to walk new paths in life. Let us also be sure that all those who dare to make mistakes and learn, will make a difference in building up the Union.

 

The Spirit of loving collaboration gives dignity to every member of the Union and builds them up in faith and in loving service. The Union will emerge as a strong spiritual force to revive faith and love in its members and help them to discover the deeper meaning of their vocation. It will stand a model of renewing the Church.

 

 

Cllaboration Begins In Our Formation Houses

 

All our formation houses must become nurturing grounds of collaboration. The candidates learn the basic attitudes of collaboration there. Therefore we need to discuss at length how the long years of formation a student goes through can be a strong foundation for collaboration. We need to cultivate in our students a genuine spirit of acceptance and respect of others especially women as equals and sisters. Girls need to learn to overcome socially engraved fears and inhibitions to relate to boys and men as equals. In formation years there must be a lot of opportunities to plan and involve in activities together, helping them to learn to interact in a mature way, moving away from dominating tendencies to collaborative and mutually respectful life-style. The experiences of the Sacred Hearts Communities narrated here and the PSDP communities at Nagpur can show us the way. Ofcourse it takes a lot of humility to be willing to learn from experiences of others.