Called with our differences for a single purpose:
“For the love of Christ and his Mission”.
Already at the 2016 General Chapter (Cf. p. 20-22) and again, at the 2022 General Chapter, (Cf. p. 30-34) Interculturality kept coming up in reflection and was received as an important call for the ever-diminishing International Body. As a result, in welcoming each of these Chapter Acts, I believe that each part of the Body has tried to seek and discern how to embody it in its own context.
Personally, I feel that this call to live interculturality is gradually changing our mentality and our way of seeing the reality of the International Body.
In keeping with this perspective, the theme of the Provincial Assembly of Madagascar in 2024, from August 5 to 9, was Interculturality, expressed in the following terms: “INCARNATING INTERCULTURALITY IN THE THREE DIMENSIONS OF OUR MISSION THROUGH CREATIVITY”.
Having taken part in the General Chapters of 2016 and 2022, I was very surprised, sometimes even embarrassed, to think that interculturality is already part of our life, because we live in community, in the Congregation, with our differences: origin, culture, education, traditions and customs, language (different dialects…). So, on the face of it, interculturality seems to be something of a lived experience.
But I’m doubly amazed that this subject keeps coming up again and again… So, this reality began to challenge me.
This prompted me to re-examine my own experience of interculturality, both nationally and internationally. Along the way, I came to recognize that we really do have something to do with this repeated call… Indeed, if interculturality is defined as the interaction of two cultures, where both must be involved and live in a fair and respectful manner, I had the impression that there has always been a dominant culture, that of the majority, and another almost invisible one, that of the minority.
At times, I’ve even had the impression that a value judgment is emerging, as if the culture of the minority is less good and that of the majority is better.
Yet at the Provincial Assembly in August 2024, I was deeply moved by the call to embody interculturality in the three dimensions of our mission. At that moment, something really clicked for me. This click came from two points that deeply moved me during the few days of the Provincial Assembly.
- The first point is quite simply a deep understanding of the meaning of our human existence, which I can sum up as follows: “All human beings are born different”, and the Creator intended this difference. For me, it’s an immense grace to have deeply understood and been touched by this truth. I had always known in my head before that each person is unique, but I didn’t really understand in my “heart” that this difference, this uniqueness is inalienable, that the other who is different from me has the right to live and flourish with his or her own culture. I had the idea, but not the genuine conviction.
If interculturality is defined as “interaction and communication between two or more cultures, respecting the values of each culture in its differences and particularities”, then interculturality is the most wonderful thing in the world.
- The second point is the Mystery of the Incarnation. By contemplating this mystery in my personal prayer, I have learnt from Jesus the meaning of authentic detachment and openness to the culture of the other. In Jesus, I clearly recognize the interaction of two cultures. Indeed, the Son of God has his own “divine” culture, but he opened himself up to human culture and lived it to the full. He who is Almighty and infinite incarnated himself in a finite and vulnerable nature. He learnt everything in a human family in Nazareth, even though he knows everything. He agreed to learn from Mary and Joseph how to live in Jewish culture: to follow Jewish prescriptions and laws, customs and habits, while at the same time bringing about a transformation in that culture. Jesus lived out the perfect interculturality on which I must model myself.
For me, these two points are indications of an inner shift. This profound understanding of the reality of a human being; this light received from contemplation of the mystery of the Incarnation, have now changed my perception and conception of others. A path of conversion is opening up within me: accepting others as they are, and this brings me great inner joy.
As a result, these deep convictions led me to propose something to the Assembly. When we talked about the ways in which Interculturality can be embodied, I proposed that every culture should find its place and be able to live. That in our communities, sisters be given the time to speak their dialect, that they be able to cook food from their region, that they say prayers in their own language…and that each one make the effort to learn something from the other’s culture. I’m ready to experience everything, it’s a great opening for me, and a path of conversion that’s taking shape in a big way, and I felt happy to have received this grace.
In everyday life, I’ve become more tolerant, more understanding. When someone shares something of her culture that is sometimes uncomfortable or even embarrassing, I accept it without judgment, and the reflex arrives without delay: yes, this person is different from me, and her culture is not the same as mine. They’re also on the same path as I am towards greater openness and conversion. Indeed, for me, interculturality is a path of conversion to be lived out and concretized in faith day after day.
In this perspective, I also recognize that certain customs and habits of my culture need to be evangelized and purified by Christ, and also transformed by the encounter with other cultures without losing their specific values. But I felt that this transformation would have to happen on its own, without others imposing it on me. In fact, it’s really a journey of conversion that takes place over time, with a rhythm that shouldn’t be rushed but should be respected. In other words, you need patience and perseverance.
To conclude, I’d like to sincerely acknowledge that something in me has changed. I feel a human and spiritual growth that I didn’t have before: a greater respect for others and their cultures, knowing how to taste what is a source of fulfillment in other people’s cultures, without judging them but simply accepting that they are different from my own, believing that the Holy Spirit is constantly at work in every human culture, for it is He who is the actor in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Having understood and lived all this increases a liberating force within me. I thank the Lord unceasingly for having granted me this immense grace.
Finally, as I contemplate the growth of our international Body as an incarnation of Interculturality, I would like to present it to the Lord, confirming to Him that our raison d’être in this small Congregation is Christ and His Mission for the Glory of the Father. I am delighted by the great openness we have experienced as a Congregation since the last two General Chapters. May the Holy Spirit sustain us on this path of growth. This song refrain kept echoing in me as I was writing this sharing as a confirmation of what I live and continue to live, and I’d like to sing it:
“For the love of this man called Jesus,
A man for his God, a man for others.
Here we are before you, oh Father,
Gathered before you under his name
We stand before you, oh Father
Servants in every place of Your Greater Glory”.
Jacques BARTHIER
Blandine RASOANINDRIANA – Antananarivo, March 07, 2025
