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Jesuit Journeys
Spring/Summer 2001
Speak Softly and Carry an Open Mind
By Fr. Ray Bucko, SJ
Assoc. Prof. of Anthropology
Creighton University
When I was conducting anthropological field
work in 1985 on the islands of Chuuk in
Micronesia, my translator's father invited me to dinner. Arriving one night at the father's house with his son, I was seated alone at the table and invited to eat while others sat on the floor around the room.
After I finished eating, the men left the floor, joined me, and ate. Then they returned to the floor, and the older women came to the table. When all the adults had eaten, we talked and visited while food was brought outside for the younger people. After everyone was fed, the father made a speech.
The son explained that his father was thanking me profusely for letting him properly honor me. Some months ago another American visitor insisted the entire family eat together with him. The father accommodated the request but was hurt. "After all," the son said, "who can truly honor a guest unless you let him eat first!"
I retell this story to introduce discussion of the Decree on Mission and Culture contained in the Documents of the 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus (GC-34), the guiding documents of our life as Jesuits. The decree speaks about the very heart of any people: their culture. In this heart is God, understood, imaged, and worshipped in so many ways through so many cultural expressions and understandings.
Historically the Society of Jesus has been acutely aware of the world's many cultures and a major instrument in encountering cultures unknown to Europeans around the world. St. Ignatius and his original followers represented many parts of Europe. He insisted Jesuit houses reflect this diversity. So too, Ignatius traveled to the Holy Land with its radically different cultures. He also had cordial relationships with non-Christians in Rome, and wanted Jesuits to be dedicated to the "help of souls" and be willing to go anywhere in service to God.
The Decree on Mission and Culture considers our history as Jesuits and as a Church and focuses on the importance of culture for Jesuits and for the world. We are reminded that God is at the heart of all cultures (even those that explicitly deny the existence of God and might dismiss or belittle religious worship) and that Christ's Gospel enters into and transforms all cultures.
Moreover, the Gospel calls us to adopt values that some cultures, particularly modern secular industrial cultures, lack and desperately need.
The decree also reminds us that the Church and we Jesuits have not always acted nobly or honored other cultures and at times were party to a destructive process of trying to replace one culture with what we thought to be a superior one. Like that well-intentioned diner before me, we viewed our way as the best and only proper way.
The Gospel and dialogue are two important tools for working within other cultures. Dialogue is an open exchange of ideas by equal partners. Dialogue allows us to listen to and be spiritually enriched by other cultures. In dialogue, too, we can present our faith as given in the Gospel and the traditions of the Church.
Then we must let the Spirit work both in what we say and what we have heard, for true dialogue is a two-way process. Faith cannot be imposed or forced upon others.
This process of gently allowing the Gospel to take root in another culture is called inculturation. It is a Divine process that enlivens and enriches a people as they discover and make the Spirit part of their own culture. It is a process in which we must trust and let go. Ultimately it is God's process. Thus the Church continues to be blessed locally as well as universally - and universal does not mean same.
The dinner I had in Chuuk was quite wonderful, but more wonderful were the interactions I enjoyed and the important lesson I learned about being receptive and sensitive to the customs of other cultures. Similarly the Decree on Mission and Culture contained in GC-34 instructs us as sharers in the Ignatian tradition to be open to sitting as equals at the table of the Lord and at each other's cultural tables.
We should do so in proper ways, with proper modes of respect, thus recognizing and honoring the dignity of all.
Return to Spring/Summer 2001 issue
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