I Important Criteria or Principles on the Essence, Mentality and Purpose Presented by Ceferino Aguillón, Jr. 16th Cursillo® National Encounter Villanova University July 22, 2006 Introduction I do not plan to provide you with a litany of the “dangers and deviations” that exist or can exist during a Cursillo Weekend. Each one of you present at this encounter knows the “dangers and deviations” that exist in each of your dioceses. What I do plan to share you with is what the founder, Eduardo Bonnín, has shared with many other Cursillistas: the Essence, Mentality, and Purpose of the Cursillo Movement – its Charism. This will help us understand what we are all about and what the Movement calls us to be. Cursillos in Christianity is a gift from the Holy Spirit to the person of Eduardo Bonnín. This gift, Charism, was passed on to Eduardo in its entirety. Eduardo being a faithful and trustworthy steward of this gift passed it on to the Church as it was given to him – complete and without adaptations. We are called to do likewise. However, the only way we can be faithful stewards of this gift, the Cursillo Movement, is to be connected to the source – Jesus Christ, through a Master/Disciple relationship in order to be enlightened to make the right decisions with conviction and constancy. Karl Rahner said there must be a simple formula “for what is fundamental” but this is difficult to arrive at. How do you define what is fundamental for being a Christian? It is what gives meaning and substance to what we live as Christians. It is what we all have in common through Baptism no matter what position we occupy in the Church. It is perennially constant because it is essentially evangelical. If I do something in line with the gospel, if it is evangelical, it is because I live what is fundamental for being a Christian.(1) The need for having a clear statement of principles, motives, facts and systems is without a doubt more than a sufficient reason to move us to attain it. At the same time, the lack of it, regretfully, might be the cause of wrong orientations and a waste of efforts, perhaps not reprehensible but certainly always unacceptable.(2) Whenever something uncommon or shocking is observed in the Cursillos in Christianity – whether in the Precursillo, in the Cursillos proper or in the Postcursillo – we can be confident that some adaptation has been introduced. Someone has said that the Cursillos in Christianity are “codified common sense.” There is much truth in this phrase. We may judge everything that appears with abnormal characteristics to be an adaptation or an impulsive addition by someone who feels a need for originality. The desire to be original is the least original to which we can yield, since vanity easily seeks originality. If we were to deepen our humility, we should have fewer desires to be original, especially when such originality contributes to the prejudice of the current of Grace which the Holy Spirit pours forth, or to the prejudice of the fruitful unity of a movement which already bears within it the guarantee of a proven efficacy and of admirable fruits. The Cursillos in Christianity are a magnificent instrument of Christian renewal, with surprising results. And it is not strange that the evil spirit does his best to avail himself even of persons of good will to spoil and corrupt their substance so that this promising rebirth may remain a mere flash which will later be extinguished little by little. The Cursillos in Christianity constitute a complete method which there is no reason to vary, now that its results, in conformity with the lesson of experience, continue to be extraordinary.(3) Following is a summary by Eduardo Bonnín of “some” of the most important criteria or principles on the Essence, Mentality and Purpose of the Movement “Cursillos in Christianity”. ESSENCE – The total sum of those essential elements that are indispensable to the Movement. “Cursillos in Christianity” is a movement that, through a method of its own tries to, (and through God’s grace manages to); enable the essential realities of Christian life to come to life in the uniqueness, originality and creativity of each person. In becoming aware of their potential and while accepting their limitations they increasingly develop an interest in using their freedom of choice to turn their potential into firm conviction, by using their willpower to make decisions, and their perseverance and determination to make their potential apparent in both their personal and community life. MENTALITY – The reason why it is being done. 1. KNOWING THAT WE BELIEVE is far superior to believing that we know. 2. To be Christian is more important than doing Christian things. 3. The wonderful bewilderment caused by my realization of the truth that God loves me, puts me in a position from which the first commandment appears to be unquestionable, and it becomes clear to us that, besides it being very pleasant to be grateful, it is also undoubtedly “just and necessary”. When the fact that GOD LOVES THEM dawns on someone, when it dawns on me that GOD LOVES ME, then the fact that one day I shall be held accountable for what I did with my life becomes of little account, because I am able to see it from a different perspective. At this point one becomes aware of the fact that God is not observing them as a policeman; He is instead, looking at them with compassionate interest and love, the same way that a father looks at his son or a grandfather looks at his grandchild. 4. Everything that is suggested by God is clear and concrete. When the devil realizes that he is not going to succeed in misleading somebody into doing something that is evil, he will then endeavor to tempt them into doing very many good things, so that they feel overwhelmed, weary and tired, and will do them all badly. 5. More important than the action itself is the reaction that takes place in the interior of the person. A Christian is known not only by his actions, but by his reactions. (Presenter’s note: My interior motives dictate my exterior behavior) 6. The deeper and greater knowledge that we have of what is true and everlasting in life, the easier it will be for us to diminish the pressure of, and guard ourselves against the lures and assaults of what is transitory and readily available. 7. We will experience that the person, what we really are, is worth more than the role or “character” we are forced to enact in our life. The world’s motto is “everything for a price”. What is important to a Cursillista, or to a Christian however, is not the principle of price, but rather the principle of dignity. That is, we should not endeavor or try to find out what the price of something is, but rather realize how priceless people are. God’s creation is indeed spectacular, but the very epitome of that creation is the human person. 8. Being Christian helps us to see everyday things in a new light and thus, instead of feeling that our daily lives are dull and repetitious, we progressively discover the charms and beauty of everyday things. 9. The human race does not change. Since God’s creation it has remained substantially the same. The human person flees from their fears and strives towards their dreams. The challenge and threats of this world to the men and women of today have the same old cause. That is, the active absence of God in the minds and hearts of people. Therefore, the solution is always the same. The solution is Christ and His Grace, which is the only thing that can give meaning to life. 10.Apparently, many people have not been able to resist the temptation of changing and substituting the “new and up to date methods and ways” for the “former and outdated ones”, but they have forgotten fidelity to the Cursillo Movement. Precisely because of its great simplicity, some ideas and views have been identified and removed because, from today’s perspective, they could be defined as belonging to a particular time-frame in the past. But these very things are the structural and everlasting necessities and features which should remain unaltered, in force and distinct. We have to approach people irrespective of their circumstances. If we aim at and address a person’s worldly circumstances or the role that they play in life, we ignore the reality that they are children of God and all our efforts become incomprehensible and for naught. The way that people react to problems that occur in life, (their attitude) is the area in which Cursillo can, and does, have an influence. People always react in the same way, in any place or culture. Attitudes and reactions have not changed they are the same today as they have always been. We understand attitude as people’s stance when faced with their daily life. PURPOSE - For what reason it is being done. 1. The Cursillo’s purpose, target and vision is a “Church of People” rather than “people of the Church”. There have always been “people of the Church” or churchgoers. What we need is people who, with their firm conviction, generous decision and proven constancy, will testify to the joy and cheerfulness they experience from their Christian life. 2. Cursillos in Christianity were not conceived, thought over, structured and prayed for to evangelize the world but to evangelize people. 3. “The Cursillos in Christianity” Movement was not born as an answer for the Church to the world, but as a means of communicating to people the Good News that God loves them. 4. The Cursillo Movement is a tool designed to help people to get to know themselves, to realize that they do exist, that they are, and that other people exist too and to make them feel anxious to get to know each other. 5. We have to endeavor to make it known to everyone that God loves them. Nobody should live unaware of the fact that God loves them. The only thing we can pass on to other people is the conviction and faith we have that Christ loves us. If we do not have it, we cannot pass it on, nor bring about change, leavening or fermentation in anything; attitudes, environments or structures. Instead we shall appease, smooth over, as we always do…. and we shall go on criticizing and gossiping endlessly about those we call the “bad ones”, and keeping an account of their alleged wickedness and evils, and we shall keep on lamenting how bad the world is. 6. The Cursillo has a preference for the “Faraway” or distant ones, because they are our Lord’s preferential target and those who need Him the most. We should not think that the “Faraway” are only the Prodigal Son or the Woman at the Well but also those who are far away from knowing about or having Christian principles. Probably those people who have to face and deal with ideas from a purely human perspective are closer to understanding all this. That is why the “Faraway” are a preferential though not exclusive option. 1 The Cursillo, Yesterday and Today by Fr. Juan Capo 2 Structure of Ideas, Preliminary Notes 3 Questions and Problems by Bishop Juan Hervás