Sr Isabelle Retailleau, DW
“New Wine and a Call to Holiness”
This was the title of the session offered to 47 JPIC Animators from 20 Congregations (male and female), held December 2-6 2019 in Rome.
The planning team for this session was inspired by the conviction that a new outpouring of holiness is unthinkable without renewed passion for the Gospel at the service of the Kingdom 1. This momentum accompanied us throughout this session with a question: how can the Mission of “Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation” be that space where passion for the Gospel at the service of the Kingdom is renewed?
We discovered how our Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation action can be broken down according to the “4 principles for acting” indicated by Pope Francis (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium):
– Time is greater than space
– Unity prevails over conflict
– Reality is more important that the idea
– The whole is greater than the part.
Supported by the experience of many religious committed at different levels, we were invited to rediscover how much “action in favor of justice and transformation of the world, fully appears as a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.” (Synod of Bishops 1971).
In order to ensure this, the Social Doctrine of the Church, including the last Encyclicals of the Popes is a precious tool to assist us in seeking coherent and meaningful JPIC action. It is a tool of moral and pastoral discernment. It is a tool of evangelization so that through our action, God’s desire for a new world for all, is manifested.
We also perceived how this action in favor of justice and the transformation of the world resonates with the establishment by the UN of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. As promoters of “Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation”, how can our action be educated and inspired by these great objectives which are very ambitious but so in step with the construction of the Kingdom?
Everyone left the session with a profoundly motivated for the “Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation” Mission, and convinced that such a mission can only be carried out in collaboration with each other.
1 Orientation Document from the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, January 2017 “For New Wine in New Wineskins”, No. 10
