Church and BEC Culture

Church and BEC Culture
Excerpts from the booklet, “Church and BEC Culture)
Msgr. Joemarie S.Delgado

Evangelization is the Church’s deepest VOCATION and MISSION.1 The CHURCH exists to PROCLAIM the GOOD NEWS of the FATHER’S LIFE in JESUS CHRIST through the HOLY SPIRIT to the World in order for it to attain SALVATION.

When the Church evangelizes, she acknowledges that her whole life is CENTERED in the TRINITY. She originates from it, is sustained by it, and is directed towards full COMMUNION with it at the end of time! The TRINITY is the source and pattern of the Life of the Church.2

The Church actualizes this Trinitarian Life in her Life of COMMUNION and MISSION.
This is mainly concretized in the Local Church today in her efforts to build and sustain Communion of Communities through the promotion of UNITY in faith, hope, and love in, through, and around the Hierarchy; enhancement of DIVERSITY of roles and charisms of priests and lay in the building up of the Church; recognition of EQUALITY in DIGNITY of all the baptized; and consistent SHARING and PARTICIPATION in the Mission of Salvation as identified and pursued by the Christian Communities.3

The primary resource, thus, from which the movement of renewing the life of the Church would come, is not external but internal to the various levels of her life. There is an inner dynamism of the Trinitarian Life at work in the Church (parish/diocese) – with the direct participation of the hierarchy and laity – transforming the Church’s life into a deeper experience of Communion and Mission! In this regard, the renewal of the life of faith of the community from within becomes truly empowering for it makes everyone a “stakeholder” in the mission of Evangelization.

Through all this, our conviction is that, as the Parish integrates the culture of BECs (which, by the way, does not come along at all easy) she is renewed in her fundamental life as a Church. BEC thus, is not a “foreign element” or an “appendix” but is a birthright in the Church. Her becoming into a communion of small communities is a genuine growth towards maturity in faith. The sustainability, thus, of BEC is vital as it is growth promoting for the life and ministry of the Local Church. It is a challenge for us to promote essential elements of BEC Culture, and help bring about a paradigm of partnership and co-responsibility through structures to sustain BECs through the following elements:

Four Elements of BEC Culture

The creative movement of evangelization in the Parish starts from what is basic – the home and neighborhood. With the chapel perhaps as its center, families in the neighborhood organize themselves into clusters of cells, building their life with more pronounced marks of the Church of Communion.

UNITY (Pakikipagka-isa) in Faith, Hope and Love in, through and around the Hierarcy; DIVERSITY (Pakikipag-ugnayan sa iba) of roles and charisms of the lay and clergy in the building of the Church. EQUALITY in DIGNITY (Pakikipag-kapwa) of all the Baptized. SHARING and PARTICIPATION (Pakikipagdamayan/Bayanihan) in the Mission of Salvation.
1. Pakikipagka-isa (Paghiliusa): Coming from various social classes, families in the neighborhood are organized into cells growing in personal relationships, in cooperative planning, and in the joy of celebrating together the sacraments, especially the EUCHARIST. Moreover, they are organically linked with other cells to the wider life and ministry of the Parish around their Parish Priest. This neighborhood community is usually facilitated by a regular meeting in one of the houses of the members led by their own local leader, where they pray the scriptures as a family. Such regular “faith-sharing” where hearts are opened, unique charisms are recognized and appreciated; conflicts are resolved; consensus for actions are done; and resources are shared bring different families together to an experience of deep communion and sharing in the neighborhood, the parish, and beyond. (cf. Eph 4:5, Phil 2:1-5, 1Cor 12, Lumen Gentium #4)
2. Pakikipag-ugnayan sa iba (Paghili-angot/Paghili-ugyon): In this neighborhood community, a variety of roles and charisms are discovered, recognized and respected. Therefore each one is encouraged to share, contribute, and cooperate with the thought that what he has is no lesser a gift than the others. Each contribution is an essential part in the completion of a more integrated and wholesome experience of community life. Within the neighborhood cells, there is hope of a rich display of charisms for leadersip and ministries in the areas of catechesis, worship-devotion, service, temporalities or finance, etc. (cf Eph 4:1-16, Jn 17:20-23). Bringing out these charisms, even if the neighborhood is poor, is a significant sign that indeed there are hidden treasures from within our poverty. These riches shall become part of the foundation of a community growing in the experience of being empowered and part of the resources to be shared to the Parish Community.
3. Pakikipag-kapwa (Pagpakigbagay): The experience of meeting Jesus in person through personal or common prayer and sharing serves as the anchor in recognizing the presence of the risen Lord in their midst and in one another. Among members, self-respect as well as deep respect ad compassion for each other, regardless of social condition, is recovered and corresponding resources are generously channeled to sustain community life. “Knowing” Jesus this way raises their conviction that all belong as one, to “His Body” and He is truly the foundation of their life in the community (cf Gal 3:28, Lumen Gentium #32, Mt 23:8-12, James 2:2-4)
4. Pakikipagdamayan/Bayanihan (Pagbinuligay/Pagdagyaw): Being transformed in the process, members see to it that te lonely, sick, downtrodden, and impoverished in their neighborhood experience not only “prayer and praising” but the caring love of the Lord through them, His present-day disciples. Indeed, they have become convinced that Christian life is not a life lived in comfort zones but in being involved in the affairs of their local Church, environment, justice and a wider range of other social issues, putting into action the love they have received from Christ by serving one another, especially the poor, downtrodden, oppressed and lost. (cf. Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-35/Acts 15:2-23, Gal 2:11-14, Mt 18:15-18)
At these marks of Christian life see light in the “grass roots”, we have examples of the “wheat” growing healthier than the “weeds”. CONVERSION towards a deeper Christian life is taking place and becoming the core-experience of the community, graced by God, through the efforts led by the members of the community. We see here, not only the birthing but the developing and the fostering of the paradigm of “Co-Responsibility and Partnership”. Here, we have a dynamic sign that an evangelized community is turning more concretely into an empowered, evangelizing “Community of Compassion”.
_______________
1Cf. Evangelii Nuntiandi, Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness Pope John Paul VI on the Modern Wrld. p. 14.
2Cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, #4, par. 2.
3Ibid. #4, pars. 30-34.

Msgr. Joemarie S.Delgado, M.A.