The first reading for the feast of Arnold Janssen is from the letter to the Ephesians. Paul prays for blessing upon the community as he writes:

I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph.3:14-19)

This blessing was not meant only for the private benefit of the members of the Church, rather it was meant to strengthen them for their part in mission. The Second Vatican Council encouraged the Church to be a “Light to the Peoples.” Her light is meant to help all peoples find their place in the Father’s household, in the Reign of God.

Witnessing to Universality and Openness: Over the centuries various groups in the Church have found creative ways to give particular emphasis to one or another aspect of the Kingdom. For instance, Benedictines stress the values of community liturgical prayer and hospitality. Salesians are widely known for their attention to youth and to education. Christians working in hospitals and other medical facilities give witness to healing and reverence for our bodies. Our own Sisters of Perpetual Adoration emphasize the values of prayer and of adoration. Christian wives and husbands, in their lives together and through their matrimonial embrace, witness to faithful and fruitful love. These few examples hint at the broad range of Kingdom-values that we Christians are called to embody in our witness to the “breadth and length and height and depth” that is the love of Christ.

We, ad gentes missionaries lay particular emphasis on the revelation that God’s plan includes everyone. All are called to share in God’s new heaven and new earth. All have a place in God’s household. This inclusivity of the Reign of God expresses itself in two dimensions. It is universal, including every person and all peoples, and it is open, accepting and valuing people’s differences. This is a foundational grace for an ad gentes missionary vocation and it is a helpful indicator for vocational discernment. Ad gentes missionaries rejoice when everyone gathers and we suffer when some feel excluded.

Models of Universality and Openness: The accounts of the missionary outreach of Paul, the apostle, are a constant reminder that in God’s plan everyone is included and their differences must be respected. Those same accounts underscore the tension that his inclusive outreach caused in the early Church. The resulting disagreements and conflict required careful discernment at the council of Jerusalem – gentiles would be encouraged to follow Christ as gentiles, they were not to be transformed into Jews.

For our own missionary family, I think Saint Arnold Janssen is a good model of universal and open inclusivity. Paintings often show him with a map of the world in his hands as a sign of his concern that everyone be included. He cared about people far beyond the borders of his homeland, even when persecution at home seemed to completely preoccupy other Church leaders. Some of his contemporaries suspected that Janssen was more than a little crazy. After an interview in 1874 with Arnold, the archbishop of Cologne remarked to a visiting bishop: “Take a good look at him. He doesn’t seem to be entirely normal in the upper storey. With the Kulturkampf raging around us, he wants to start a mission seminary!” While universality was a strongly evident trait in Janssen’s vocation, his openness to diversity emerged more clearly only after some very difficult struggles during the early years of the Society. Nevertheless, one Polish confrere who knew Arnold Janssen during the later years of the Founder’s life recalled:

“The majority of the seminarians at St. Gabriel’s from eastern Europe were of Polish descent and were often the butt of the jokes of their western confreres. Although our Father Founder was also from the West he had no prejudices. In the Rule he had composed, as well as in his conferences, he forbade that disparaging remarks be made about any nation. On one occasion… he said: ‘It is not enough to have mission spirit and to work zealously in the missions; one must also love the people one finds there…’ Such was our Founder. He thought like a Christian, a Catholic, a supra-nationalist, because that was how he felt.”

At the beginning of our formation for mission, and all along the way – it is essential that we cultivate the values of universality and openness. We remind one another and encourage others both in the Church and outside of it – to celebrate these values and to delight in them. Our liturgies should consciously reflect God’s open and universal inclusiveness. Our houses should be filled with reminders of the same. I always feel more at home in an SVD house when it is decorated with portraits of people from all over the world. It is even better when the confreres themselves embody a similar diversity.

Learning to say a wider “We.”: There is a story I heard in Mexico that illustrates both the fundamental grace of and the permanent task for missionary spirituality.

There once was a young man named “Juan” and he showed up outside the home of a young woman named “Maria” late one evening. He knocked on the door and called out. Now Maria’s father and mother were already in bed, but on hearing so much racket, the man opened the window, leaned out and yelled down to the street: “Who’s there at this hour of the night?” The voice coming up from the street responded: “It’s me, Juan, and I’ve come to ask for Maria as my wife.”

Now the father was caught totally unawares in the face of the unexpected request and so he went to consult with his wife. The woman asked her husband: “What exactly did he say?” The man replied, “He said, ‘It’s me, Juan, and I’ve come to ask for Maria as my wife.’” The mother thought over for a minute but then said, “I don’t think he’s ready to be married yet. Ask him to come back when he’s ready.” And that is what the father did. He leaned out the window, used some very “colorful” words, and Juan went away sad. A week later the same sort of thing happened. Once again a voice was heard from the street, “It’s me, Juan, and I want Maria for my wife.” But the mother’s counsel was the same and the father’s language was even more colorful than before. And so, Juan went away very, very sad.

Nearly a year later, again late at night, a knock was heard on the door and a voice came up from the street. The father got up and leaned out the window and yelled: “Who’s there and what do you want at this hour of the night?” The answer from the street below was different. The voices were two, not one. They said: “It’s us, Juan and Maria. We want to be married and we have come for your permission.” Now this was quite a change. The man once again went to his wife for counsel. She said: “Well, in a year’s time at least they’ve learned how to say “we.” Maybe they are ready to get married.”

All Christian spirituality urges people to dedicate themselves to the life-long task of learning to say “we.” Missionary spirituality urges people to learn to say an ever wider “we.” Thus we seek to cultivate an unrestricted experience of God that is “rooted and grounded in love.” According to the blessing from Ephesians, we seek “to be strengthened with power through (the) Spirit in (our) inner sel(ves)” so we can come to comprehend “the breadth and length and height and depth,” and “be filled with all the fullness of God.” What each of us needs is a heart that is sufficiently wide and spacious to accommodate all who are called to share in the Kingdom feast. When saying “we,” we mean to include everyone, and we mean to welcome their diversity.

Jesus taught us to pray to the Father that the Kingdom come. And as ad gentes missionaries we seek to give effective witness that God’s plan for a new heaven and a new earth includes all peoples. But experience shows that we must undergo some difficult changes if we are to be convincing witnesses. The 1988 SVD General Chapter introduced the phrase, “passing over,” to speak about such changes, and that language is echoed in the 2000 SVD General Chapter. Both Chapters emphasized the need for our own deeper conversion, insisting that our personal growth in holiness follow the model of the life and death of our Master. Paul wrote to his beloved community at Philippi as follows:

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him.... (Phil.2:5-9)

This classic text, reminds us that we too must be emptied. However, we must be stripped, not of glory as in the case of the Divine Word, but of sin and immaturity.

Community and Conversion: In my own life I find that I am only dimly aware of my limitations. But by coming into contact with those who are genuinely different from me, I have been able to recognize some of the narrowness in my judgments and some of the fear-filled prejudice that constrains my heart:
 • In reaching out to faith seekers I have realized that in some important areas of my life I do not believe that    God is powerful enough, or caring enough, to draw near.
 • In living with poor people, and through intermittent contact with people who are suffering abject misery, I    have come to know that selfishness is deeply rooted in me.
 • In sharing life with people of many cultures and races I have recognized the ugly face of my own    ethnocentrism and racism.
 • In meeting with disciples of other religious traditions I have discovered a deep-seated suspicion of other    ways of reaching out to God.

All of these discoveries have been painful and humbling. I have learned through prayerful reflection on my own experience that selfishness, ethnocentrism, mistrust and unbelief are not mere abstractions. I have learned, at least partially, that they are dynamics of my own interiority.

There is a contemporary proverb that goes – ‘the boy is father of the man’. But in this particular case I think it would be better to say – ‘the death of the boy is father of the man’. Such dying is not easily embraced. If not for the SVD communities that have been my home over the past thirty years, I would doubtless have been more successful at hiding from the truth. The community has been the vehicle that has carried me to the frontiers of my own spirit and has urged me to pass over.

By proposing life-giving ideals, SVD community has served me as a reliable guide to greater maturity. The community has consistently proposed living faith as an alternative to unbelief, solidarity as an alternative to selfishness, catholic appreciation as an alternative to ethnocentrism, and welcoming trust as an alternative to suspicion of other believers. Even when the community has not been faithful to its ideals, it has not lost sight of the goal.

But the community has done more than just propose alternative ideals. It has also provided me with a family of brothers (and sisters as well) whose help has been especially important at the beginning of each of these journeys to interior frontiers.
 • Perhaps this is most obvious in our international/intercultural style of living. How many times when seated    at table someone notices that of the six confreres gathered round there are five nationalities present! Often    it is in just such an environment that I have learned to accept, and then appreciate the cultural differences of    my own SVD brothers long before I was able to take larger risks outside of the community. I have also been    challenged to “pass over” in other experiences of SVD community life.
 • In learning to accept different SVD liturgical styles, including Roman hierarchical solemnity, Latin American    creative spontaneity, and well-planned US lay participation, together with the religious world-views that go    with them, I have grown somewhat in by ability to trust religious ways that are not fully my own.
 • In living with priests and brothers and in sharing community life with confreres who are asked to exercise    power and with those who dwell at the margins, I have gathered some wisdom regarding solidarity.
 • And in exploring those areas of my life blighted by unbelief, it has been SVD confreres whom I have trusted    to share my story.
   In my experience the 2000 General Chapter was right in declaring that our community life “has often served    as a genuine school of dialogue.” But in addition to the ideals and the “schooling” I have received, SVD    community has also “sent me to the frontiers” by encouraging me to make personal contact with    faith- seekers, with the poor, with people of many cultures and of many religious ways.

The past twenty five years have been marked by an ever stronger emphasis on programs of exposure during the years of initial formation. The Overseas Training Programme (OTP)/Cross Cultural Training Programme (CTP) and Regency programs have become much more widespread and have been strongly endorsed by the 1988, 1994 and 2000 General Chapters. These programs are more and more seen as integral parts of SVD formation, and not as optional additions. The reason, I think, is because they allow and encourage our young confreres to recognize the need to undergo radical conversion within themselves if they are to be witnesses to the Reign of God.

Of course, this question of passing over is not only for the youngest members. Instead, while the required conversions might be glimpsed in the early years of formation, it is a process of discovery and surrender which continues throughout life. But at all points along the way, the community can be a support. Its ideals, our brotherhood, and its encouragement to reach out to people beyond the community all help to further cultivate the experience of passing over.

Models for Passing Over: Early SVD history records indications of “passing over” in the experiences of Joseph Freinademetz, the first SVD missionary to China. Some of his letters and reports illustrate his move from narrow and harsh judgments about the Chinese people to a very strong identification with them. In the spring of 1883, after four years in China, Freinademetz wrote:

“...one finds the faults that are common to all Chinese. Many are dishonest, they lie and cheat, they are two-faced and hypocritical. Others though, are honest and sincere. But how often the Chinese have deceived me! Be good to them, and they take advantage of your goodness. Be businesslike, and they leave you and perhaps even become your enemies. Take the middle course? The difficulties remain...”

He commented elsewhere: “Honor and Gold, Gold and Honor – these are the two gods the whole of China venerates.” Compare those harsh judgments to the sentiments he expressed in a letter to his nephew, Peter Freinademetz, in October of 1901, “I can assure you that during my 23 years of living in China, my love and admiration for the Chinese people have never faltered…I love China and the Chinese; I want to die among them and with them I want to be buried.” In addition to his own passing over to a profound love for Chinese people, there is also ample evidence that as provincial he challenged his SVD confreres to take more radical steps in another passing over journey, this time to the poor and marginalized.

In July 1900 during the Boxer rebellion Freinademetz and Ulrich Heyen arranged the evacuation of the mission in Puoli, sending groups of older orphans to the shelter of the coastal city of Tsingtao where they would meet up with other missionaries. Freinademetz and Ulrich slipped away to another mission station. From his position there Freinademetz continued to be concerned for the orphans on the way to the coast and wrote to the missionaries in Tsingtao. "They (the orphans) are absolutely destitute. Please have the kindness to do something for them. With conditions as they are we must not hesitate to incur a few extra expenses in order to save what can still be saved."

Freinademetz further counseled that one way to raise money for the orphans was to forego one of the great loves of the missionaries at that time. He wrote: "I think it would be better to sell the horses." I wonder what the reaction would be in the face of a similar disaster were a provincial to suggest to the members that they might sell their cars and trucks to help care for orphans!

The experiences of inner conversion that are required for our missionary witness, even dramatic ones, are not only the stuff of long ago history. One of our confreres from Argentina, Horacio Caballero, was recently asked to write a bit about the experiences which led him to commit himself to caring for street children in Luanda, Angola.

One afternoon in a street in Luanda, I met Pedrito…(and) asked him where he lived. "With my friends" he replied, "there among the trees." He told me that he and his friends in the streets were going through a difficult time. He said that during the night the police and other people beat them and took from them the things they had gathered during the day. I promised that I would visit them in the place where they gathered at night.

That same night I met him together with seven other children around a fire. Pedrito had already informed them about our meeting, so I was well received. They offered me a tin can to sit on. On top of the live coals was another tin that served as a saucepan from which each one helped himself to the food that had been gathered during the day. The harmonious way they shared the little which they had reminded me of the experience of the disciples at Emmaus (Lk. 24, 30-31). At a certain moment I looked inside the tin from which they were serving the food and with horror I saw an extraordinary amount of worms in the food which I later learned had been collected from the garbage.

Still amazed I ventured to ask them if they knew any songs and each one tried to remember a verse and we all sang together. Some, closing their eyes, allowed tears to fall while they sang…It was a painful return of memories… They stoked up the fire and spoke of the villages from which they had come, of the death of their parents, brothers and sisters. (Later) I saw marks on the body of Matthew, another child in the group. I got the smell of the decomposing ulcerous wounds on the legs of "Ruso" which he covered with cardboard to protect himself from the flies. The majority of (the children) showed profound signs of malnutrition and of tuberculosis. Others were suffering from malaria. They all wore clothes which were old and filty. From the level at which we shared I got to know that there existed many other similar groups in the city. I was left profoundly moved by the sub-human life of these little ones. I listened helplessly to all their complaints. I remembered that in the constitutions of the SVD it says "our faith compels us to recognize the presence of Christ in the poor and the oppressed, to commit ourselves to fostering unity and justice among all peoples" (Con. 112).

I returned to the house that night but was unable to sleep. Lying awake, many questions went around and around in my head. Why do situations such as these exist? How can we support those in such situations? How can such suffering be alleviated? What can one do? Whom do we rely on? The following day as I began to share my concerns a new journey began for me, a journey of hope and trust in God. I felt myself profoundly identifying with the mission of Christ. In the journey that I was making I felt that I was prepared to do everything for them. I felt that God, Father of all, had entrusted these little ones to me.

What particularly captures my attention in Horacio's story is that his encounter with the street children robbed him of sleep. It’s evident that he was too busy “passing over” to settle back into the more familiar routines of his life.

I would like to conclude and summarize this theme of “passing over” with a comment I treasure from Mary Agnes Fahrland, SSpS, who attended a renewal program some years ago. She wrote to tell me that one speaker offered reflections on contemplation. It turned out that though his ideas weren’t all that memorable, the title of his presentations gave plenty of food for thought. The title was: “Contemplation means, I am not the center of the universe.” As we enter into the paschal mystery, passing over in the self-emptying attitude of Jesus, we learn that we are not the center of the universe. As we become ever more familiar with that truth, we become better prepared to engage in prophetic dialogue.

As we now shift our attention to an explicit consideration of prophetic dialogue I would like to turn for guidance to sections of the text from the Prologue to John’s Gospel:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being… The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world… And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth... From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (Jn 1:1,3,9,14,16)

A fruitful spirituality: The Prologue introduces Jesus Christ using three principal images: creative Word, revealing Light, and Flesh living-with-us. Though my interpretation of the text is probably somewhat idiosyncratic, it does help me to comprehend that a life of Prophetic Dialogue can be a fruitful spirituality. Consider for a moment each of the three images.

A. The Word is creative: God spoke, “let there be,” and through this authoritative Word, all things came into being. Thus we are assured that the world is ultimately headed in the right direction. Our hope is well-founded.

B. The Light is revealing: In faith we can perceive this revealing light and thereby glimpse some part of the overall plan of God. Our faith, too, is well-founded.

C. Word became flesh: But for Divine Word Missionaries, the stress has always been on the third image – the Word became Flesh living-with-us. God-in-the-Flesh can be felt and touched, not just heard and seen, but fully encountered. This gesture of personal presence is rooted not in authority (creative Word) and not in understanding (revealing Light). Rather, it is rooted in love, (Flesh living-with-us). More important than hope and more important than faith, is love. And our love is very well-founded.

Pope John Paul II’s message for Mission Sunday last October had some stirring words regarding the fruits of dialogue.

“The main road of mission is sincere dialogue (cf. Ad gentes, n.7; Nostra aetate, n.2), ‘dialogue does not originate from tactical concerns of self-interest’ (Redemptoris Missio, n.56) nor is it an end in itself. Dialogue, instead, speaks to others with respect and understanding, stating the principles in which we believe and proclaiming with love the most profound truths of the faith which are joy, hope and meaning of life. In fact dialogue is the realization of a spiritual impulse leading ‘to inner purification and conversion which, if pursued with docility to the Holy Spirit, will be spiritually fruitful’” (ibid., n.56).

In a very similar vein, John’s prologue holds out a promise that from the fullness of the Word we can all receive, “grace following upon grace.” The Word that continues to dwell among us, the Word encountered in prophetic dialogue through the Spirit, still bestows abundant grace, abundant fruits. As I explore the theme of prophetic dialogue, taking the Word become Flesh as a guide, I want to make two points. First, we need to seek out partners in dialogue because they are for us missionary sacraments. Second, the first fruit of prophetic dialogue is unusual friendship.

(i) Missionary sacraments: In the last section I noted some fundamental conversions that form a foundation for prophetic dialogue. Some experiences of conversion are rather intense moments, but generally, the passing of time cools things off. Perhaps one does not lose the overall sense of direction, but one might nevertheless become less enthusiastic and less energetic.

The example is often given of a newly laid fire that blazes up giving heat and light, but after some time the logs are consumed, and the flames die down. By pushing the logs back together and fanning the coals, the flames leap back to life. The sacraments that the Church proposes for Jesus’ disciples can be compared to that moment of rekindling. They are privileged moments of encounter with God in which we can be strengthened and encouraged.

Perhaps by way of analogy we could also consider some special “missionary sacraments” that we would do well to frequent as much as possible. These sacraments of God’s presence are our encounters with partners in dialogue. By meeting with faith seekers, the poor and marginalized, people of other cultures and religious traditions we can sense the Spirit moving within. And of course, we hope that our partners feel the same presence of the Spirit. Like with any sacramental celebration, prayer and reflection is required if we are to take any benefit. A sterile activism can blind us to the presence of the Spirit in moments of encounter with our dialogue partners. Those same moments become sacramental when we approach with reverence, with reflection and with respect.

In Jesus, the Word became Flesh and lived among us. Still today, in moments of genuine dialogue and through the power of the Spirit, the Word continues to be Flesh living-with-us. In dialogue God’s grace-filled presence is there to be encountered by all the participants. This is what we mean when we speak of prophetic dialogue. The 2000 General Chapter document put it this way: “It is clear that we do not dialogue from a neutral position, but out of our own faith. Together with our dialogue partners we hope to hear the voice of the Spirit of God calling us forward, and in this way our dialogue can be called prophetic”(No.54). The fire in us is rekindled as we pay attention to the Spirit.

Let me shift the metaphor from fire to food. I am convinced that the soul of a missionary needs sustained contact with our dialogue partners just as much as the lungs of a missionary need air or the belly of a missionary needs food. In a moment I will speak about the fruits of prophetic dialogue – but we have to go to the table if we want to eat. Jesus instructed us to “take and eat,” to feast on his flesh. He said: “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (Jn 6:53). As scandalous as those words sound, if we are to live out a fully missionary spirituality, we need to frequent the missionary sacraments and feed ourselves on missionary food. We can best do that by maintaining contact with our partners in dialogue.

(ii) Unusual friendship: Now I would like to speak directly about the fruits of prophetic dialogue. According to the 2000 General Chapter, they are many and varied, depending on the different contexts and partners. Some emerge from intra-Church dialogue while others appear during dialogue with those who are not members of our Church:
 • In dialogue with faith seekers there is the fruit of welcome, witness and discipleship (Nos. 58-59);
 • with the poor and marginalized there are the fruits of solidarity and empowerment (Nos. 62-63);
 • with people of different cultures there are the fruits of inculturation and the promotion of live-giving values,    i.e., evangelization of cultures (Nos. 66-67);
 • and with people of different religious traditions there are the fruits of religious tolerance, respect and    interreligious collaboration (Nos 70-71).

This is a remarkable and rich harvest, and I suspect that we will be hearing more about some of these “fruits” during the presentations of the coming days. But it seems to me that the most basic fruit of prophetic dialogue, the first-fruit from which all the others follow, is friendship.

Not every attempt to reach out to others in dialogue will be successful. But sometimes our efforts at prophetic dialogue do result in relationships that we might call "unusual friendships." They are unusual given that friendship most often grows among people who have similar backgrounds. As a result, not so many people in the world can count as a friend someone from another cultural group. Not so many people in the world can count both poor and rich, both powerful and marginalized persons among their friends. Not so many people in the world can count followers of different religious traditions among their friends. And perhaps the most unusual friendship is that between a believer and one who does not believe.

Religious, social and cultural divisions also make these friendships seem unusual. While it is true that in our globalizing world, people of different backgrounds are coming into greater contact with one another, they do not necessarily grow into deeper friendship. Please reflect for a moment. In your world, how common are friendships between people of different cultures, between people of different religious traditions, between the powerful and the marginalized, between believers and faith-seekers? Surely there is contact. Is there friendship? It is a good sign if, like Jesus, people are impressed and perhaps a bit scandalized by the friendships that we cultivate. The hoped for outcome of our missionary outreach in dialogue is NOT a new church building, a highly respected school, a more cost effective formation program or a successful fund-raising project. All of these can be steps to a more important objective. The hoped for outcome of prophetic dialogue IS ALWAYS the unusual friendships that can emerge.

I would like to add five additional remarks that flow from this idea of mission ad gentes as the cultivation of unusual friendships.

(a) A Bridge of Friendship: First, some have said that a missionary is a bridge between cultures, between religions, between social classes. There is a good deal of wisdom in that image. But I think it would be truer to say that a missionary is “half a bridge.” We need to find a friend on the other side with whom we can together span the divisions in our world.

(b) The Visitation: Second, prophetic dialogue requires us to be ready to take the initiative toward the other. We must reach out in friendship even though we are sometimes tempted to simply stay at home, wrapping ourselves up in our own world. An outstanding biblical example of missionary outreach in dialogue is Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. There, Mary truly is a tabernacle, not a golden box fixed in place, but rather, a tent of meeting able to travel with the people. She went out, bearing the Word enfleshed, to meet her kinswoman who in turn was carrying the Baptist. We recall their joyful and Spirit inspired greetings in our daily prayer. The SSpS very rightly took this scriptural image as a guide for their 1996 General Chapter. I think the Visitation could rightly be celebrated as a solemn feast for all missionaries.

(c) Forgiveness and reconciliation: Third, unusual friendships call for an unusual capacity for forgiveness and reconciliation. In our world there is abundant evidence of human capacity to dig deep channels of hurt and to build up high walls of resentment. Jesus said: “Father forgive them.” In moments of transgression, and even in the extreme situations of oppression, violence and death, we must be prepared to both seek and offer reconciliation.

(d) “Ruinous” Friendships: Fourth, the cultivation of unusual friendships will change us. It might even be said that such experiences will eventually “ruin” us for any other way of life. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote: a “mind stretched to a new idea never goes back to its original dimensions.” The experience of missionary outreach in prophetic dialogue certainly expands our minds with new ideas – but it does more than that. We should add the corollary: a heart that is expanded by an unusual friendship can never return to its original dimensions.

(e) Witness in Friendship: Fifth, unusual friendships are sacramental not only for us missionaries, they are also a "sacrament" for others of the coming Reign of God. Our unusual friendships are a most convincing witness that God's love knows no boundaries. As Paul VI wrote in Evangelii Nuntiandi:

“For the Church, the first means of evangelization is the witness of an authentically Christian life, given over to God in a communion that nothing should destroy and at the same time given to one’s neighbour with limitless zeal. Modern people listen more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if they do listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

In the end if we want to ask ourselves concretely about the effectiveness of our missionary witness we can ask about who we count as friends.

Models of Unusual Friendship: Our recent use of the language of "prophetic dialogue" is rather novel, but the thing that is named, the encounters behind the label, are far from new. Consider some of the members of our founding generation, they obviously knew the reality that I speak of as unusual friendship.

Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk was in many ways the loving heart of the first SSpS community. She was well loved by her Sisters because she so genuinely loved them. In almost every letter that Maria Helena wrote to the Sisters in Argentina, she encouraged them to live in unity and grow in sisterly love for one another. For instance, in 1896 she wrote in a very practical manner to Sister Andrea in Argentina:

“I am sure you will do all you can to ensure that sincere sisterly love is carefully cultivated. Wherever it may have suffered, try to restore it. Whenever you learn that something has disturbed the love and peace among the Sisters, inquire about it in a motherly way. Usually there is a mistake on both sides. Make as much effort as you can to preserve love and unity among the Sisters and, if anything has disturbed it, do whatever you can to restore that love and unity.”

In another letter she wrote wisely and very directly: In a convent where sisterly love is a reality, religious life is like a foretaste of heaven. In the opposite case it is like a hell; the Spirit of God would flee.”

Likewise, Joseph Freinademetz was the heart of the first SVD missionary community in China. He is now celebrated in many parts of the world as a man who knew how to love both his brothers from many nations and the Chinese people. I remember seeing a famous saying of his painted on a wall in Medellin, Colombia. It proclaimed: “The one language that every person understands is the language of love!”

This same understanding of what is required for missionary witness is also evident in the succeeding generations of our missionary family. Thomas Cardinal Tien, our celebrated confrere from China, once gave a conference in which he indicates the three things that are most important for missionary outreach in China. The first is, "be good to the people." The second is, "be good to the people." The third is, "be good to the people." This advice continues to be good advice today, and not only for those missionaries working in China. Our 2000 Chapter document concluded with the following words:

...we need to continue to listen to the Spirit so as to know and do the will of the Triune God. We are convinced that when we enter into dialogue with others, we surrender ourselves to God. Whether for a minute, an hour, a day or a lifetime, whenever we give ourselves to others, we become a gift to them and to God. And God, who dwells in them as he dwells in us, becomes in turn a gift for us all. So, joyfully, we unite ourselves with the founding generation and all disciples of Jesus in renewing our commitment to be hope-filled witnesses to the Good News of God's Reign.

In the foregoing reflections I have discussed three principal themes: All are called… to Pass Over…in Prophetic Dialogue. These themes could be compared to the different stages of a building project. The first theme, “All are Called,” evokes the planning stage in which the builders try to envision the projected construction. In accepting our call to mission ad gentes we can begin to glimpse “the breadth and length and height and depth” of the love which calls all peoples to the Kingdom where God is Father of every family. The second theme, “…to Pass Over,” suggests a clearing away of obstructions and the laying down of a strong foundation. To give effective witness as ad gentes missionaries we need the same mind as Christ, we must “empty ourselves,” dying to many self-centered attitudes, so that what is later built up can give glory to God. The third theme, “…in Prophetic Dialogue,” is akin to the long and arduous work of erecting and finishing an attractive and welcoming structure of many rooms. Our reaching out to others in dialogue allows for the Word to continue to “become flesh and live among us.” The unusual friendships we fashion become an ever more splendid temple – the Spirit of God descends, filling us with a glory like that which filled the temple of Solomon. Prophetic Dialogue blesses us and our world with truth and “grace upon grace.”

As a Divine Word Missionary formed in the spirituality of our founding generation, it is probably no surprise that there are broad hints of a Trinitarian structure here. The Father has planned a home for all peoples, one built up on the foundations of Jesus’ passing over, and painstakingly constructed by the Spirit through prophetic dialogue.

These ideas are certainly not unknown to you. On the contrary, as a community we have been pondering them for the past thirty years and more. Hopefully I have been able to offer a turn of phrase, an anecdote or a fresh perspective that allow you a renewed insight into our shared missionary journey. A poem composed by the late Archbishop Helder Camara of Recife, Brazil, has served me well as a summary and as a stimulus to further reflection and prayer. He wrote:

This message begins with two anecdotes about Francis Xavier – a missionary who had a great talent for nurturing friendships. As I draw to a close now, I would like to mention a good friend of mine who would likely be mortified to hear her name mentioned in the same breath as Francis Xavier. Cora Bartemes is a wise laywoman from the mountains of West Virginia in the United States. She lives out her part in mission as a wife, mother, grandmother, teacher, counselor and especially, as Friend. At the end of each of her email messages she signs off with a motto, “The Work of Christ is Friendship.” I asked her where she came across that saying and she responded: “Guess you'll have to credit the Holy Spirit because that quote came to me in a dream. I dreamed of receiving a Christmas card on dark blue card stock with those words written in silver. I can see it still in my mind's eye.” As I think about our call to ad gentes mission I would add only one word: “The Work of Christ is Unusual Friendship.”

My approach to spirituality is heavily indebted to the thought of Bernard Lonergan. Insight, New York: Philosophical Library, 1970, and Method in Theology, Minneapolis: Seabury, 1972, these are two of his most influential works.
The overall methodology I follow, and some of the insights I present here, have been developed in a much more thorough manner in my earlier work, The Conversion of the Missionary: An Interpretation of the Guadalupan Narrative, Ann Arbor, USA: University Microfilms International, 1991.
Listening to the Spirit, Statement of the 15th SVD General Chapter, 14 July 2000, Nos.48-51.
Anton Hilger SVD, Remembering Arnold Janssen, Rome: Analecta SVD, 1978, p. 49. Hilger worked as secretary to the founder from 1905-1907.
Josef Marianski SVD, Remembering Arnold Janssen, Rome: Analecta SVD, 1978, p. 136-137. Marianski worked in Argentina from 1903 to 1932 and then returned to his native Poland. The recollection was written down apparently in Poland in 1933 or 1934.
Listening to the Spirit, 2000, Nos.57, 61, 65, 69.
Listening to the Spirit, 2000, No.102.
Cited by Fritz Bornemann SVD, As Wine Poured Out: Blessed Joseph Freinademetz SVD, Rome: Divine Word Missionaries, 1984, pp. 76-77.
Cited in the Compendium Vitae, Virtutum ac Miraculorum necnon Actorum in Causa Canonizationis Beati Josephi Freinademetz, Romae: Congregationis de Causis Sanctorum, 2002.
Bornemann, As Wine Poured Out, p. 317.
Horacio Caballero SVD, cited in Prophetic Dialogue. In Dialogue with the Word No. 2, Rome: SVD Publications, September 2001, pp. 50-52.
John Paul II, Message for World Mission Sunday 2002, 19 May 2002, No.5.
Paul VI, Evangelii Nuntiandi, 1975, No.41.
Maria Helen Stollenwerk, Letter to Sister Andrea in Argentina, 6 February 1896.
Maria Helen Stollenwerk, Letter to the Sisters in Argentina, September 1897. See Letters, German edition, p. 121.
Listening to the Spirit, 2000, No.109.