Apostolic Creativity

“One cannot be an apostle without being creative; and without being creative, one cannot be a missionary.”[1]

Hence, for us who confess to be “essentially missionaries,”[2] one of the non-negotiable elements adjoined to the charism of the Institute is precisely apostolic creativity. It is an element that follows from the very mandate of Christ: Go into all the world and preach the Gospel,[3] and As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.[4]

It is because of this that every member of the Institute of the Incarnate Word experiences being healthily “anxious to preach the Word in every way.”[5] And thus, following the evangelical mandate, Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,[6] into all the world,[7] he sets out “with the fervor and the enthusiasm of the saints, even in the moments of difficulty and persecution,”[8] to preach the Gospel “even at the cost of renunciations and sacrifices.”[9]

Each one of us, knowing that we are evangelizers and catechists, strive to act as such wherever we may go and whatever the task entrusted to us may be. I will spend and be spent[10] is our program. We do not settle down in the comfort attained after a few years in our place of mission; we do not conserve efforts for evangelizing; but rather we dedicate ourselves to doing more and better for the cause of Christ, knowing at the same time that the mission’s principal protagonist is the Holy Spirit: everything is grace, and we cannot do anything without Him, but He has constituted us as His coworkers.[11] Our job is to be always available. Therefore, we do not a priori reject any of the forms of preaching the Word,[12] and with great creativity and ingenuity we seek to adapt in order to reach all souls.

We are aware that “we have to take on the modern Areopagi that are open to the Church’s activity without abandoning the traditional methods of apostolate. Healthy creativity is an essential element of the living Church tradition.”[13] But at the same time, since we are “of the Incarnate Word,” we are not afraid of completely new pastoral works, as long as they are in accordance with God. This is such that we consecrate ourselves with enthusiasm not only to teaching catechism, but also to serving all people through whatever means counsel and prudence might inspire us to use, with the sole intention of spending and being spent in order to win souls for God. For it is ours to live the folly of the cross, that is, to live in the more and in the above.[14]

Thus it is that, in the diverse realities of our missions, whether it be in rural areas or in the great metropolises, whether in the most extreme climates, whether working in the corporal or spiritual works of mercy, whether in the silence of the cloister, our task is to die to ourselves so that others may have life and hope, founding all of our apostolic labor principally on an interior life that is rich in faith and in intimate union with God.[15]

These days, we have missionaries dedicated to intellectual work, to the publication of journals, of books, to the preaching of popular missions and spiritual exercises, to the care of parishes, many of them in needy areas; others dedicated to pastoral work with families, with youth, in the hospital, for vocations, etc.; missionaries engaged in the ever more extensive social media apostolate; missionaries dedicated to the education apostolate in all its levels and especially to formation in seminaries; among many others that we could mention. For we are convinced that “what is not assumed is not redeemed”[16] and that nothing that is human can remain foreign to us, nor can it remain foreign to the Gospel.

Ultimately, ours has been a call to “accomplish great works, extraordinary undertakings,”[17] to take the demands of the Gospel seriously: Go, sell what you possess …[18] Therefore, we ask God each day for “spiritual fervor, the joy of evangelizing, even when we might have to sow in tears.”[19]

We are religious in order to radiate the fervor of one who has received, first of all in ourselves, the joy of Christ, and we agree to consecrate our lives to the task of announcing the kingdom of God and of implanting the Church in the world.[20] And with that same spirit, we are disposed to “discover with joy and respect the seeds of the Word that are found present in the national and religious traditions of the various peoples in order to transform them with the divine strength of the Gospel.”[21] We are persuaded that our field of action as missionaries of the Incarnate Word does not have limits to its horizons, but rather that it is the whole wide world, because Jesus said, Go into all the world…[22] Thus, our missionary vision is universal, and we strive to succeed in reaching the greatest number of souls through various means.

Therefore, we are disposed to take the first steps for Christ, without being intimidated “by fear of the limits, real or fictitious, that seek to shorten our priestly action,”[23] but rather we seek to move with “docility and readiness in the execution of the Holy Spirit’s requests,”[24] and in that same fidelity to the Holy Spirit, we find the overcoming of all the difficulties that we could encounter in the mission. We do not settle for just having the doors of a parish or a mission open, but rather we go out to exhort souls to come, and with countless initiatives, we make it so that that parish or that mission will stay alive and Jesus will always have company. For ours is apostolic creativity.[25]

[1] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Ars Participandi, chap. 10, 2, c, 1; our translation.

[2] Constitutions, 31; our translation from the Spanish.

[3] Mk 16:15.

[4] Jn 20:21.

[5] Directory of Spirituality, 115.

[6] Mt 28:19.

[7] Mk 16:15.

[8] Directorio de Misiones Ad Gentes, 143; our translation.

[9] Directorio de Misiones Ad Gentes, 139; our translation.

[10] 2 Cor 12:15.

[11] See 2 Cor 6:1.

[12] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Sacerdotes para siempre, II Parte, chap. 3.11.

[13] Constitutions, 160.

[14] Directorio de Vida Consagrada, 398.

[15] Directorio de Vida Consagrada, 259-260.

[16] Saint Irenaeus, quoted in the Puebla Document, 400; see also the Second Vatican Council, Decree Ad Gentes, n. 3, note 15; Constitutions, 11; 40.

[17] Directory of Spirituality, 216.

[18] Ibid., quoting Mt 19:21.

[19] Directorio de Misiones Ad Gentes, 144.

[20] Ibid., 144, citing Evangelii Nuntiandi, 80.

[21] Directorio de Evangelización de la Cultura, 83; our translation; citing Ad Gentes, 11.

[22] Directory of Spirituality, 87, quoting Mk 16:15.

[23] Fr. Carlos Buela, IVE, Sacerdotes para siempre, I Parte, chap. 6.5.

[24] Directory of Spirituality, 16.

[25] “Notes from the V General Chapter,” 5.