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From Xaverian Mission Newsletter by Fr. Carl Chudy, s.x.Feb. 2010
The Xaverian Missionaries arrived in Japan in the Fall of 1949. Ever since, we
have worked in about 25 centers, giving witness, proclaiming the Good News of
Jesus Christ to non-Christians, providing dialogue and charity. Our area of
activity is quite extensive indeed. Some teach in Universities, while others are
involved in schools for children; some assist the sick and lepers, while others
direct parishes.
Some are engaged in dialogue with Buddhists, while others are respected for
their artistic contribution. The priorities in our missionary work are
collaboration with the local dioceses where we work, education, grounding faith
in the Japanese culture, and dialogue with Buddhism. At the present time, these
goals can be summed up as follows:
We are committed to the growth of the local Church: to its becoming a more
mission-oriented Church. We cooperate with all peoples in dealing with the most
urgent human and social problems, giving our own contribution to bringing faith
to the Japanese people.
We educate preschool children, high school and University students in the values
of the Gospel. Our educational criteria, methods and goals are inspired by
clearly defined spiritual values. We are particularly involved in a qualified
dialogue with Buddhism, in the form of mutual knowledge and cooperation in
activities.
Today we are 39 Xaverian Fathers and 16 Xaverian Sisters serving in Japan. In
the local Church we have been entrusted with the care of 25 faith communities,
some of which have nursery schools attached.
Fr. Franco Sottocornola, one of our missionaries in Japan recently has answered
this question:
“Japan is a leading economy in the world. It goes against the idea that
missionaries just go to poor countries to alleviate suffering, addressing the
problems of hunger, combating poverty, relieving situations of social injustice.
All this is true. The missionary, continuing the mission of Jesus, is called to
do this. He must start from the proclamation of Christ’s compassion through his
life in order to be a credible and authentic sign of God’s Kingdom.”
“Here in Japan, although most people are not poor economically, they have
another kind of poverty. This poverty is a life lived without God and his Son,
Jesus Christ. The Scripture reminds us: ‘man does not live by bread alone, but
by every word that comes from God’ (Mt 4:4).”
“There are two incidences in the gospels that help us understand this. The first
is the Samaritan woman who came to the well to draw water. However, through
further probing with Jesus, she discovers that she is “thirsty” for a water much
more significant than H2O. ... There she finds that Jesus speaks of more than
just water: ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a
drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’ (Jn
4:10).”
“The other incident is when crowds who followed Jesus became so taken with him
that they thought to acclaim him king. They thought this in part because they
saw him multiply bread and fish and feed a crowd of five thousand men. However,
he begins to talk to them about a new ‘food’, which is in fact himself, and
Jesus says: ‘I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw
miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work
for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son
of Man will give you.’ (Jn 6, 26-27).”
The real task of the Missionary in Japan is to its 128 million inhabitants where
fewer than one million are actually Christian. Few have known Christ and have
found in him ‘the water welling up to eternal life, the bread that gives life to
the world.’ Japan, there fore, needs missionaries, sharers of the ‘Good News’
that God so loved the world that He gave His Son.
“In Japan, the mission of the Church is restored to its original purpose and is
indeed indispensable: to be ‘salt of the earth’ and ‘light the world’ (Mt 5,
13-14) with preaching the gospel and the prophetic witness of its faithful.
That’s why we want missionaries in Japan, and in the whole world!
According to a February 2005 report of the Commission for Migrants, Refugees and
People on the Move, for the first time in history there are more than one
million Catholics living in Japan. More than half of them come from outside the
country.
In an interview with Archbishop Jun Ikenagaa, lamented that.. “As Catholics we
have to appeal more to the Japanese mind. The Catholic Church in Japan is
stagnating and growing old.”
The number of foreign Catholics is growing with the influx of foreign workers,
but the number of Japanese Catholics has remained largely unchanged over the
last few decades. At a conference, Archbishop Ikenaga called on fellow Asian
Churches to send missionaries to Japan and other places in Asia where the local
Church has few vocations.
Foreign missioners working in his archdiocese, some 400 kilometers southwest of
Tokyo, include members of the Columban Fathers, Paris Foreign Missions, Salesian
and Xaverian Foreign Mission Societies.
In the Archbishop’s analysis, the big challenge is changing the mind-set that
Christianity is a “foreign religion” in this insular country. His call for Asian
missioners reflects his desire for the Church to appeal to the Japanese mind in
its evangelization efforts, rather than just import Western cultural practices.
With the reduced number of missionaries coming from places like the USA and Europe,
the Church in Japan is calling for missionaries where they are becoming more
numerous, especially from Asia.
