Every cultural group embraced
When a pilgrim, tourist or scholar approaches the cultural and spiritual domain of indigenous people, the experience invariably evokes a sense of interest, respect and wonder. In New Zealand the encounter with Maori culture and spirituality opens me to a remarkable sacred world often neglected or avoided in the modern urban world. I am encouraged to live with a deep sense of the sacred, shaped by a sensitive awareness of a spirit-filled world.
For decades, my Columban vocation took me from China to Chile, from Brazil to Burma, now Myanmar. I journeyed overseas as if mission was elsewhere. But I often missed the indigenous perspectives unfolding in my homeland. These days, however, I am more at home in the familiar domain of Wellington hills and harbor. My Maori friends are helping me acknowledge the creating and sustaining Creator-Spirit.
At the 1998 Synod for Oceania, Bishop Takuira Mariu spoke on behalf of the Maori people: “If the Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand, is to be truly Catholic, we need to be given the freedom to express our Catholicity in the language and the idiom that is ours. Christ must be given the freedom to come alive in us, with us and among us, using our language, painting our images, using idioms that are ours and which speak profoundly to our hearts.”
The challenge has been to discover fresh ways of being Catholic and to make the Gospel message come alive. We know that faith which is not part of the culture of the land remains alien. In missionary circles the code word is “inculturation.” For the Maori, Pope John Paul II summed it up during his 1986 visit to the South Pacifi c: “It is as Maori that the Lord calls you. It is as Maori that you belong to the Church.” The challenge amid a multicultural Church reality is to encourage indigenous and ethnic minorities to retain and express their unique identities.
In New Zealand we search for fresh ways to express insights from scripture and Church tradition. It involves a lot of pondering, listening and discussion focused on Gospel, Church, culture and daily life. We speak of encountering the cultural soul of the indigenous people. Traditional wisdom, rituals and protocols help us interpret the way things are, and how they make sense. Active and busy folk are called to an expanded imagination about how we live in a Spirit-filled space on the planet, and how we are to transform the world.
For me, narratives of origin have become a special point of interest. Creation is never taken for granted in Maoridom. Unfolding stories of creation remind us of the ancestors, who we are, how we belong on the planet, and where we are heading. A sense of the sacred embraces every narrative handed down from generation to generation. Credit is given to every source of life on planet Earth. The scope extends from the plains, mountains, rivers and oceans, to the trees of the forest, the animals, birds, bugs and fish, down to every tribe and family. Even the weather, both sunshine and storms, gives assurance about how we belong and are linked with dependency.
Maori colleagues teach me how a deliberate sense of the sacred can influence my decisions about what is to be done, or not done, how life issues are to be processed in a community, who merits respect and honor, and who carries dignity and leadership. Human connections are made to every element of nature. I am learning about the delicate balance emerging between generations and across ethnic diversity. Everyone, and everything, that has gone before us is acknowledged and addressed with appreciation.
My strongest growing conviction is that we affirm ethnic and cultural identity and respect every diverse response. My God embraces every cultural group in their stories. My mission task is to be comfortable in a spirit-filled sacred world and allow stories and images to shape my future. The hope is a credible and attractive Church where people are at home in celebrating every Godgiven cultural experience.
Fr Michael Gormly is presently at St Columban’s, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
Read Fr Michael Gormly's - Columban Mission Perspective – Aotearoa New Zealand
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Read more of Fr Michael Gormly's Reflections
