Pastoral Letter Lent 2022 The Bishop's contribution to discernment in the Church |12 March 2022
• Some reflections for our communal journey towards Easter
Dear friends,
I would like to offer you these reflections, the fruit of my meditation. They are a contribution to our discernment and prayer as we set out on the road to Easter. May we have the joy of allowing ourselves to be renewed by the Lord during this time of Lent, so that we can be better witnesses to Jesus.
1. Undeniably Seychelles has experienced strong economic growth from the post-independence years.
1.a This economic growth has led to a clear improvement in living conditions for the majority of the population: more material comfort, an end to the abject poverty, (travay pour ganny manze tanto!) education for all, better health care, a retirement pension for all, valorisation of the Creole language and culture, openness to the outside world thanks to TV, travel as well as the development of computer technology. Most importantly, Seychellois have taken their destiny into their own hands in all sectors of Seychellois society.
1.b This growing social body has also experienced jolts and sufferings of which we are more aware after listening to various testimonies through the 'Truth and Reconciliation Commission'.
- Nor can we fail to notice that at the heart of our changing society (which is true for any society), our social body is experiencing strong feverish outbreaks, (which is true for any society), * the main symptoms of which are among others :
• A large percentage of our population is enslaved by addictions, mainly drugs, alcohol and gambling.
- A weakeningof families linked to violence, various forms of abuse, including abuse of minors; a trivialisation of sexuality and a blurring of reference points.
• A disturbing increase in crime rate, which we unfortunately hear about too often on the news or on the radio.
Our art of living together in its various components (food, language, habitat etc.), that is to say our Creole culture, is threatened by the headwinds of globalisation.
3. Nor can we fail to ask: what are the causes of these symptoms? What are the reasons for this malaise?
Is it related to the frantic race for consumption? ‘temples’ of consumption and shopping seem more attractive than churches!
Is it linked to a model of society where the appearance, ‘lanmizman’, the all at once, the excessive competition with my neighbour, my colleague at work etc. seems to have taken over traditional values such as: effort, principles of life, sharing...
Is it linked to the fact that this excessive competition leads to ever greater (non-essential) needs to be satisfied at any price, even if this means selling one's soul to the devil, for example, by becoming a drug dealer, and therefore a merchant of death?
Is there a link between this existential void - a life devoid of meaning because it is reduced to consumption - and the abuses we are witnessing in our families and in the different strata of society?
3. a. We are at a crossroads in our common history. Our choices (or lack of them) will have a heavy impact on the society in which we want to live and which we want to leave to future generations.
But as one theologian points out: "We must be concerned about the planet we are leaving to our children, but also about the children we are leaving to the planet".
4. Of course, the Christian community is at the heart of this human mixture and not beside or above it! As this text from the Second Vatican Council reminds us: “the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the people of this age, especially the poor and suffering, are also the joys and hopes, the sorrows and anxieties of the followers of Jesus.”(Gaudium et Spes.)
4.a The Catholic Church in the Seychelles, at the invitation of Pope Francis, like the other Churches, is currently undergoing a synod on synodality.
A synodal Church is a Church where there are no leaders on one side and followers on the other.
A synodal Church is a community of believers, a people on the move, in order to discern, in the Holy Spirit, what Jesus expects of us in order to be the salt of his Gospel in this human mixture, that is to say in each of our families, in the Church-family and in the great family of our Seychellois society.
A synodal church is a body with Jesus as its head and each baptised person as a member – each more important than the other – and with bishops and ordained ministers as humble servants. We need each other's support, even the most fragile and weak members, so as to move forward in our journey.
4.b. The first step was extremely important because, without a minimum of self-esteem, a person, a family or a human community will find it very difficult to move forward. If we tell a person all the time that he or she is nothing, he or she is likely to think that he or she is worthless! As a believer it is so important to recognise that we have value in the eyes of God and that, with all our frailties and weaknesses, the Lord is with us to help us take pti lepa - pti lepa.
4.c Therefore, after a very important first step where we took the time to take stock of all the positive steps taken within each of our families, the Church-family, within the great family of our Seychellois society, and after having given thanks to the Lord for the presence and the accompaniment of Jesus-Emmanuel, we approach the next step.
4.d. Therefore, with the Lenten season, we enter a new stage in our synodal journey. Lent is an opportunity. With the Lord, we can make a fresh start and begin our journey again, even if it is in a different way.
We are invited to ask ourselves a simple question: "With God's encouragement and strength, what conversions are we called to experience in order to be a better witness to Jesus?
Yes, what are the conversions to be lived within each of our families, the Church-family and the great family of Seychelles society so that we may be freer, more responsible and more fraternal?
I encourage you personally, but also in groups (in your family, among colleagues or friends, within the synodal groups) to ask yourselves questions, to speak out and to share your reflections with us (the team responsible for the synod). (Address: Miss Maryvonne Gabriel : PO Box 43, Victoria, Mahé; email secretaryrcc@email.sc). Everything you share is so important for our discernment: what does Jesus expect of us here in the Seychelles?
The synod we are living through invites us to truth. To acknowledge our adulteries, not to humiliate ourselves, but to hear again these words of Jesus. ‘I do not condemn you’. God forgives us of all our idolatries, that is, the false gods of money at any price, the false gods of excessive consumption, of trivialised sexuality. God frees us, freely and by his forgiveness, from all our demons that lead us to our ruin. ‘Go, and from now on do not sin.’ What good news! God believes in us. With his support Jesus (each one of us but also our community) believes in our ability to change, to rise up and to live a truly human life.
Many stonings happen every day and ‘live’ through social networks. How many people are harassed by nasty words or degrading pictures! How many people, like this adulterous woman, are dragged through the mud. Behind the anonymity of our screens, sometimes through our ‘likes’, we are actors or spectators of these modern-day stonings live.
By our terse messages we can so easily and cowardly destroy not only the reputation of a person but the person himself. May we hear the words of Jesus: “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
It is not, of course, a question of not denouncing situations that degrade the humanity in us and around us. It is certainly not a question of saying that in the end we are all corrupt. All rotten! No, we have a duty of truth and justice. On the other hand, as Pope Benedict XVI reminds us, charity goes beyond justice, which is also necessary. We are invited, even in the midst of our struggles against all that degrades humans, to have compassionate hearts. We fight prostitution in all its forms – which enslaves people – but we do not judge prostitutes.
6. Conclusion.
The time of the synod to promote a synodal Church is a time of discernment. We are all invited to be attentive to the realities of our lives and, by illuminating them in the light of the Gospel, to allow ourselves to be freed by Jesus. May this Lenten season be a favourable moment, with the strength of God, to cross (Easter) the 'Red Sea' again and take the road to freedom, brotherhood and the Kingdom of God.
+ Alain Harel
Ash Wednesday, 2nd March 2022