{"id":3110,"date":"2018-05-11T09:55:18","date_gmt":"2018-05-11T08:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/combonimission.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3110"},"modified":"2018-05-10T10:03:37","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T09:03:37","slug":"africa-and-gaudete-et-exsultate-in-search-for-holiness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/2018\/05\/11\/africa-and-gaudete-et-exsultate-in-search-for-holiness\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa And \u2018Gaudete et Exsultate\u2019: In Search For Holiness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has written a new Apostolic Exhortation on \u201cthe call to holiness in Today\u2019s World\u201d. <\/em>The Latin title \u201cGaudete et Exsultate\u201d which translated into English means \u201cRejoice and Be Glad.\u201d The words are taken from the Gospel of Matthew (5:12) at the end of the discourse on the Beatitudes. <\/em><\/p>\n

According to Pope Francis, humanity in its entirety is called to holiness and holiness can be found all around us. These include homes, industries, offices, boardrooms, places of entertainment, and so on. Holiness is found wherever there is love, because \u201choliness is nothing other than charity lived to the full\u201d<\/em> (21). And it is gifted to all kinds of men and women, despite each one\u2019s human foibles – \u201cNot everything a saint says is completely faithful to the Gospel; not everything he or she does is authentic or perfect\u201d,<\/em> the Pope specifies in this respect. Rather, \u201cWhat we need to contemplate is the totality of their life, their entire journey of growth in holiness, the reflection of Jesus Christ that emerges when we grasp their overall meaning as a person\u201d <\/em>(22). This effort represents the sign and example of godliness.<\/p>\n

Sanctity, according to Pope Francis, is really not a matter of what you know or own at any one time \u201cbut the kind of life we lead\u201d <\/em>(47). Sincere dedication to service of the human community in humble obedience to God is what counts; it is what has counted in the vocation to holiness since the beginning of salvation history. The \u201cprogressive\u201d group of Catholics in Africa will be pleasantly affirmed by statements of this kind scattered throughout the Exhortation. They essentially replicate the spirit of the Beatitudes. Progressive Catholics will be enlightened and reinvigorated by the Pope\u2019s reflections. They will celebrate the Exhortation as God\u2019s gift through Pope Francis. They will resonate with the document\u2019s spirituality of creative engagement with the world so as to transform it, especially in terms of political, economic and social justice and human rights, so that it might gradually conform to the reign that God intends. For, what God gives us are not rules or commands but \u201cthe face of God reflected in so many other faces\u201d of our sisters and brothers.<\/p>\n

Pope Francis advances social justice as \u201cThe Great Criterion\u201d of holiness. \u201cI was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me\u201d<\/em> (95). And he wonders in a rhetorical question, \u201cCan holiness somehow be understood apart from this lively recognition of the dignity of each human being?\u201d <\/em>(98). And, for him, \u201ceach human being\u201d means exactly that: the unborn, the poor, the defenceless, the migrant, the asylum seeker, the helpless elderly, the victim of human trafficking, and so on. This is where both the challenge and the opportunity for holiness are to be found.<\/p>\n

As supreme shepherd of the universal Catholic Church, the intention of Pope Francis in this Exhortation is to invite all of the faithful to walk together towards godliness, which is holiness, recognising, appreciating and sympathising with one another\u2019s struggles in community, and holding one another\u2019s hand lest or when they fall. It is only as and in relationships that we can strive to succeed on this earthly pilgrimage. Despite their different initial reactions to the Exhortation, in the long run the hope of Pope Francis applies equally to both groups of people in the African Catholic Church: \u201cIt is my hope\u201d, <\/em>he declares, \u201cthat these pages will prove helpful by enabling the whole Church to devote herself anew to promoting the desire for holiness\u201d <\/em>(177). <\/p>\n

However, there will be several \u2013 at least five \u2013 essential dispositions required of everyone for the journey. They are faith in God, joy, a sense of courage and confidence born of truth, fidelity to the life of one\u2019s community, and perseverance in prayer, that is, a sense of trust in and dependence on God. It is necessary to be aware that these values are constantly threatened in the cultures we live in today by a certain \u201csense of anxiety, sometimes violent, that distracts and debilitates; negativity and sullenness; the self-content bred by consumerism; individualism; and all those forms of ersatz spirituality \u2013 having nothing to do with God \u2013 that dominate the current religious marketplace\u201d <\/em>(111). Pope Francis concludes the Exhortation by affirming that, assisted by the light of the Gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, it is against these ungodly forces that the entire Church \u2013 not least, in our case, the African Catholic Church in all its strands \u2013 must wage constant battle.<\/p>\n

– Father Laurenti Magesa<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pope Francis has written a new Apostolic Exhortation on \u201cthe call to holiness in Today\u2019s World\u201d. The Latin title \u201cGaudete et Exsultate\u201d which translated into English means \u201cRejoice and Be Glad.\u201d The words are taken from the Gospel of Matthew (5:12) at the end of the discourse on the Beatitudes. According to Pope Francis, humanity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/combonimissionaries.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}