The circus is in town
03.09.2009
If I was thinking of running away this would be a good week to do it as the circus has set up in our local park at Avalon and “running away to join the circus” is one of the associations that its arrival evokes. The traditional circus also evokes very different reactions in people. Some people love them but others have a great aversion to them; for some this is because they have a dislike of clowns; others take issue with the way the circus animals are trained and treated.
Since the circus arrived I have been seeing some parallels between the circus and mission. When I was growing up there were a couple of options available if one wanted to get away from home and see the world. If joining the circus was one, becoming a missionary was another. In the 50s and 60s the missionary was presented as an intrepid, heroic individual, often on horse-back, taking the gospel to the remotest areas of the world.
It was an exotic and exciting vision to set before young men and women of faith, a splendid cause which caught the imagination of many at that time. The travel element does not tell the whole story of a vocation but I have come to believe that God uses all sorts of means to draw people into the divine plan for them.
Things have changed greatly since the 60s. I did not meet my first Filipino person until I went to the Philippines in 1975. Today it is rare enough to be part of a Catholic community anywhere in the world that does not have an active and energetic Filipino contingent as well as a good mix of other nations and cultures. That is certainly true of many parishes around New Zealand. These days it is common to meet young people who have been to many of the remotest areas of the world. The missionary life does not appear as exciting and exotic as it once was. Like the old style circus it has lost something of its appeal.
We have seen the emergence of a new form of circus in the Cirque du Soleil. I have yet to experience this version but the impression I get is that it builds on the acrobatic element of the older style circuses and largely drops the animals and clowns. This again is a pointer to how sensibilities and perceptions have changed. Fewer people now want to see wild animals tamed and doing tricks. This form appeals also to people who are put off by clowns.
Changed perceptions and sensibilities have also been instrumental in bringing about significant shifts in the understanding and practice of mission. Sadly there were examples in the past where there was a lamentable lack of respect for the cultures and religious traditions of mission-receiving countries. They were wild elements needing to be tamed (Christianised) or forms of foolishness that could be discredited or ignored. Since Vatican II there is a renewed respect for other cultures and religious traditions and so mission as dialogue with these is one of the new forms that mission has taken in our time.
The Cirque du Soleil continues the tradition of the circus but with a changed format that takes account of new sensibilities. It has managed to generate a new and powerful appeal. The old style circus is still doing the rounds of towns and cities but for how long? As missionaries we are still in that period between the passing of some old forms and the emergence of new ones. Like the circus we are looking for forms that will take the missionary tradition forward and present it in a way that will appeal to a new generation with different sensibilities and experiences.
Fr Patrick O’Shea lives at St Columban’s, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
