May 13, 1988
C,)mmentary
The Message -- for Catholics of Southwestern Indiana
5
Mass Readings
By FATHER
DONALD DILGER
Consecrate them in the truth:
I have sent them into the world
Gospel Commentary for Sunday, May 15, 1988
Seventh Sunday of Easter- John 17:11.19
The context of today's gospel reading is the
discourse of Jesus at the Last Supper stretching
from John 13 through 17. The discourse began
after the washing of the disciples' feet by which
they were symbolically cleansed at the beginning
of the discourse for the consecration which Jesus
will ask for at the end of the discourse. In between
these two highlights there has been discussion of
.he departure of Jesus and the promise of the Holy
nirit. The necessity of union with Jesus was em-
phasized by the parable of the Vine and the
Branches. Persecution was promised but also the
strength to withstand persecution. After all this
comes the prayer of Jesus for the disciples in
chapter seventeen of which today's gospel is a
part. The purpose of the prayer is to ask the Father
to take over guardianship ot me disciples since
Jesus will be leaving them shortly. The whole
discourse therefore takes on the aspect of a
• farewell address. Jesus is the valedictorian.
Jesus addresses his Father as "Holy Father,"
the only time he does so in the gospels. Usually it
is a simple "Father." As noted in earlier columns,
: John likes to set up opposites in his gospels and so
he might be thinking of another father here, the
one he calls "the father of lies" in 8:44, who "has
nothing to do with the truth because he has no
truth in him." The "Holy Father" on the contrary
will be asked to consecrate the disciples in the
truth, sharing his holiness with them. Jesus asks
the Father to keep them "in the NAME which you
have given me." They are to be marked with the
divine name as a seal or stamp indicating to whom
they have been consecrated. In the Old Testament,
Aaron the high priest wore a plate of pure gold on
his turban above the forehead with the inscription:
"Holy to the Lord," Exodus 28:36. Aaron was con-
secrated to the Lord as Jesus asks the disciples
to be, Leviticus 8:10-12. In our Book of revelation
the servants of God are sealed or consecrated with
the seal of God on their forehead, Rev. 7:3. The
idea of being guarded by the divine name is com-
mon in the Old Testament. Psalm 20 opens with
the words: "May the name of the God of Jacob pro-
tect you." Proverbs 18:10 reads: "The name of the
Lord is a strong tower. The just man runs into it
and is safe."
What is the NAME which the Father has given
Jesus? For the author of this gospel it seems to be
the divine name revealed to Moses in Exodus 3:14,
the name I AM. John has Jesus using this name of
himself repeatedly in the gospel. In 8:28: "When
you have lifted up the Son of man then you will
know that I AM." In 9:58: "Before Abraham came
to be I AM." The protective power of this name is
shown in John 18:5-8: Jesus asks the soldiers who
come to arrest him whom they seek. They answer:
Jesus of Nazareth. When Jesus responds: I AM, the
soldiers fall to the ground, struck down by the
power of the divine name. It is then that Jesus
orders the soldiers to leave his disciples alone. In
this gospel Jesus is in total charge during the pas-
sion. He is the I AM and the disciples are pro-
tected by that name. They are so protected that on-
ly in this gospel is there a disciple at the foot of
the cross. In the other gospels there are none but
the women who stand at a distance. The men
disappeared in fright. Later they will not flee but
will have joy in persecution and even in martyr-
dom. This is the hatred of the world toward them
which Jesus here predicts. The theme of joy while
being hated by the world is stressed in Luke:
"Happy are you when they hate you and when
they exclude you and insult you and throw out
your name as evil .... Rejoice on that day! Leap
for joy! Your reward is great in heaven," Luke
6:22-23. Paul writes in I Thess. 1:6: "... you
received the word in much affliction, with joy in-
spired by the Holy Spirit."
Jesus asks that they be consecrated in the
TRUTH? What is that truth? There may be dif-
ferent interpretations but since today's liturgy is a
preparation for the pouring out of the Holy Spirit
upon the Church next Sunday, i.e. Pentecost, let
us interpret it as meaning the Holy Spirit. In 14:26
Jesus says that he will ask the Father, who will
give them a Consoler in his own absence, the
SPIRIT OF TRUTH, who will be in them. "He will
teach you all things and bring to your mind all
that I have said to you," 14:26. In 15:26 "the
Spirit of Truth will bear witness to me." In 16:13
"the Spirit of Truth will guide you in all the
truth." I John 5:7 goes beyond this and says: "The
Spirit is the truth." To be consecrated in the truth
is for the Christian the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
That consecration is never for one self alone. It
is a setting apart for some kind of mission. In Acts
13:2: "While they were worshipping the Lord and
fasting, the Holy Spirit said: 'Set apart for me Bar-
nabas and Saul for the work to which I have called
them .... ' So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit.
. ." The disciples receive their consecration in the
Holy Spirit and their mission at the same time in
John 20:21-22: "As the Father has sent me so do I
send you .... Receive the Holy Spirit." That is
why Jesus adds in his prayer for the disciples in
this gospel: "As you sent me into the world, so I
have sent them into the world." This follows the
prayer that the Father consecrate them in the truth,
i.e., in the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself was con-
secrated by the Holy Spirit for his work. In the
synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus
is sent into his mission after receiving the Holy
Spirit at his baptism. Even in the Gospel of John,
where the baptism of Jesus is omitted, John sees
the Spirit descending from heaven in the form of a
dove and remaining on Jesus before he begins his
mission by choosing disciples.
In preparation for Pentecost, let us ask that we
also may share in the prayer of Jesus to be con-
secrated in the truth, the Spirit of Truth, that we,
like the disciples, may be sent into the world as
Jesus was after his consecration in the Spirit. We
have been set apart because, in the words of to-
day's second reading, "he has given us of his own
Spirit." In today's first reading the assembly sets
apart Matthias as an apostle, "one who is sent," to
replace Judas. Together with the other disciples he
receives consecration by the Spirit of Truth. "Send
forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you
shall renew the face of the earth."
Other readings for May 15: Acts 1:15-26; I John
4:11-16.
L "2
Vatican Letter
Jesuit helped revolutionize missionary work
By AGOSTINO BONe
NC News Service
VATICAN CITY (NC) -- In
1612 Father Roque Gonzalez
walked into an experimental In-
dian village in Paraguay to
begin a 16-year career that
helped revolutionize mis-
.... sionary activity in South
America.
Trained as a Jesuit, an ar-
chitect, a bricklayer and a
carpenter, Father Gonzalez
designed a central plaza,
directed the construction of
houses, founded a school and
built a church with his own
hands.
It was a career that would
also turn him into an explorer,
riding uncharted rivers in
search of undiscovered Indian
• tribes and new locations to
build more experimental
villages.
It was a career that ended in
' martyrdom in 1628 and that
will be crowned with sainthood
May 16 at a papal Mass in the
Paraguayan capital of Asun-
cion.
The experimental village that
started Father Gonzalez on his
career was called San Ignacio
Guazu, founded in 1609. It was
the first of what would grow in-
to a controversial network of 54
villages with an Indian popula-
tion of 150,000 in what are now
parts of Paraguay, Uruguay,
Argentina and Brazil. The net-
work straddled what was then
the dividing line between
Spanish and Portuguese col-
onial territory.
The villages, called "reduc-
tions," were a Jesuit effort to
evangelize Indians by an in-
tegrated missionary approach
that combined spiritual training
with a farm-oriented economic
life that also improved their
material well-being.
The idea was not just to teach
religion, but to develop model
communities of Christian liv-
ing.
The reductions combined
private and communal proper.
ty. Each Indian family had its
own house and a plot of land to
grow food for personal use.
There was also communal farm
land, worked by the men,
which provided cash crops.
The profits from the communal
land went to benefit the entire
village.
Decision-making was also
communal, with an elected
village council. The average
population of a reduction was
3,000 to 4,000 people.
BELONGING TO A reduction
had another important advan-
tage. It put Indians under Jesuit
protection and out of reach of
slave traders or European col-
onists looking for cheap labor
for farms and mines. Part of In-
dian education was that they
had legal and human rights.
"The conquerors had an in-
ternal struggle between their
Christian culture, which moved
them to respect the Indians and
their rights, and a greed for
possession and power, which
pushed them to violent forms of
oppression and exploitation,"
according to a 1985 historical
study of the reductions
prepared by the Jesuit-run
Gregorian University in Rome.
The reductions quickly came
under attack by many colonists
looking for cheap labor and
who feared the economic com-
petition from the generally
well-managed Indian villages.
They were looked upon skep-
tically by church people favor-
ing more traditional missionary
methods. The controversy con-
tinued for the 160-year lifespan
of the reductions.
Many Indian leaders also op-
posed the reductions, seeing
them as corroding their in-
fluence and hold over their
tribes. Other Indians saw them
as efforts to destroy Indian
culture and as the velvet glove
covering the iron fist of Spanish
and Portuguese colonization.
The reductions symbolize the
bittersweet history of the
church's evangelization of
Latin American Indians.
Part of that history is Father
Gonzalez, born in 1576 in
Asuncion of Spanish parents.
He was one of the first Jesuits to
be born in South America, and
his identification with his
native land drew him toward
the Guarani Indians, who
populated most of the region.
He learned their language even
before becoming involved with
the reductions.
After gaining experience for
two years in the San Ignacio
Guazu reduction, Father Gon-
zalez was sent by his Jesuit
superiors on expeditions along
the Parana and Uruguay rivers
to establish other reductions.
He founded nine over a 14-year
iJeriod and was in the process of
building a 10th when he was
killed Nov. 15, 1628, in what is
now southern Brazil.
The network of reductions
had raised the ire of Niezu, a
local Indian leader, who saw a
growing number of his
followers attracted to
Catholicism. He decided to
destroy them and their Jesuit
organizers.
A group of Niezu's men at-
tacked Father Gonzalez, killing
him with club blows to the
head, on the site the priest had
chosen for a new reduction.
The reductions, however,
continued to spread until the
Jesuits were expelled from
Spanish-ruled South America
in 1768 by orders of Spain's
King Carlos III. They began
declining soon after.
At the May 16 Mass, Pope
John Paul II also plans to
canonize two companions of
Father Gonzalez: Fathers Alfon-
so Rodriguez and Juan del
Castillo, both Spanish Jesuits
who also were killed by Niezu's
men.
Vatican officials warn,
See VA TIC.AN pe 12
