Mongolia

By Bro. Andrew Le Phuong, SDB

Ulaanbbatar, Mongolia, 18 May 2017 -- One of the strategic themes for the EAO Salesian Brother Congress 2018 preparation seems be their visibility. How to foster the visibility of Salesian Brother in the Church and within the Salesian Congregation in its 2000+ various presences? Today we read the reflection from Mongolia Delegation.

How to make the Salesian brother vocation more visible?

Let us make a short reflection: why the Superiors and the Congregation and many Brothers keep talking about this particular topic? The Salesian Brother vocation started since the times of Don Bosco, and in fact, it was his first intention when he started the Congregation. The presence of Brother vocation in the Congregation is not something new to us.

Therefore, let us be honest to ourselves and ask the same question: Is the presence of the Salesian brother in the community important for me and my community? If yes, what make his presence become important? I don’t think it is because of tradition, it is not only nice to have both Brother and Cleric in a community theoretically but the complementarity of both in the service to the Church and Society. If we acknowledge the two forms of Salesian vocation that are supporting each other in the community, there must be no one surpasses over the other.

We may say that the challenges rise due to the cultural practice? It’s because that people value the Cleric more than Brother, therefore I have no choice? Personally, I do not think this is not the correct answer. Each one of us can make a difference if we want! Each one of us can choose what we want to do despite of our differences.

Asian people are religious people and have a deep respect toward consecrated person in all religions. That is Asian culture. Recently I had a “nice” experience about a cultural practice towards the Brother. There were three of us, one Salesian priest, one Salesian cleric (in Vietnamese we also call brother) and myself, a Brother travelling from South to the North of Vietnam to visit a “friend” of the Salesians. It was nice meeting. Before lunch, we were introduced in front of many people: there was one former superior and two Brothers came to visit us. Everybody were clapping their hands…nice to be recognized... then... to the priest: please come and sit here with us. And two Brothers: you come and sit outside with the boys… Wow! I was shocked! The entire hours of lunch, I could not eat or exactly, I refused to eat. I felt ashamed to myself. I felt ashamed not because I was not invited on the table but the way people looking at a Brother. I felt ashamed for my brother because they cannot overcome “culture practice” for accepting his brother. For many people maybe a simple fact, but for me, it is hurting experience. Is that culture? I don’t think so, to have a right answer, let the experts in sociology do it. In my simple reflection, I think: there are many beautiful values in cultural practice toward religious people. But also there are many things that we use culture as an excuse.

I was a Buddhist, I have seen many people bowed their head toward with great reverent a simple monks who is walking on the streets begging for food and money. That Buddhist monk has no sign of showing that he is a dignitary person! Just a simple men. I think the catholic people also pay the same respect to religious person (I mean cleric, sister and brother if we say in this way).

But what makes different between the Cleric and Brother in front of the faithful? The problem comes from within religious person or outside? I ask myself many questions but could not answer:

• Because of the function of the priest: in the church, in the school and in public appearances?
• Because of small number of the brothers compare with priest and clergy?
• Because of the brother who shows more “lay” figure than a “religious”?
• Because of the cassock?
• Or because of we are too much pay attention on the hierarchical structure of the community, provinces and congregation that the brother to gets lost in the crowd?

We may say, to make the Salesian Brother visible, this is the job of the rector or provincial. Lucky for him if the rector or the provincial tries to promote this particular vocation. If not, he has to wait for his chance. It’s really pitiful for the Salesian Brother’s vocation. The vocation of the brother is so much depending on somebody’s feeling. His identity is unstable. But it is not true. For me, the visibility of the Salesian brother in community depends on two factors: external and internal.

External: from the community and province: the candidate chooses to be Brother because he feels that it is his vocation. God calls him to serve in this particular way. He choose to be Brother not because lack of intellectual capacity or some physical defect that prevent him to become priest. He loves and determines that his vocation is a brother. As brother, he can do all the jobs that the priest can do except what is prohibited by constitution and canon law. He can be professor, formator, specialist in some other fields of service in the Salesian community, province and congregation. His destiny is not only to be economer or working in technical school. Let the community and invest on the brothers if he has capacity of doing such work…

Internal - the Salesian brother himself: “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country” (J.F Kennedy). Instead of staying idle and cry for to be recognized, the Salesian brother needs to ask: what should I do more for my community, province and congregation. We chose this vocation, we need to show how much we love this vocation. Before asking other to love us, we need to love ourselves first. We need to respect this vocation because this is who we are. We should not limit ourselves in our service: I am Brother, I can do this much. That is not my job, it is the work of priests…. We cannot imagine how big is the human capacity God gives so that we can serve more than what we can dream of. It is hidden somewhere and we have to find out; Explore and expand it.

THE FULL TEXT OF THE SHARING

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