Integrating Our Community Life and Apostolate.

There are three fundamental areas that define Religious Life. They are what FIC brothers call Community Life, Apostolate and Prayer. Sometimes, they are simply referred to as living together, working together and praying together respectively. Our life as FIC is built on these three elements, and are given support by the three vows of poverty, obedience and Chastity. This reflection however in based on the relationship between our community life and apostolate, which has been a challenge for religious congregations involved in active apostolate. 

The FIC community  is made up of men who are drawn together by the love of Christ and the desire to live the Gospel values. Like the Apostles, we too have left everything behind in order to be with Christ and to put ourselves at the service of God and our brothers and sisters. Living in community is one of the basic requirements of a brother's life. Opting for life as a an FIC brother also means opting for a life in community – together with other brothers. We build our community life by praying together and for one another, spending time together regularly and on special occasions, and by sacrificing for one another. By living in self-sacrificial love for one another, we seek to imitate Christ, who enjoined his disciples to “Love one another as I have loved you ...” (Jn. 15:12-13). The FIC community life is therefore based on Jesus’ communal life with his Disciples. 

Jesus also expressed his love for people through his ministry. Throughout the Gospels we read about Jesus preaching to people, healing the sick, and helping people in need. Therefore after the example of Jesus’ life, and ministry the FIC brothers are involved in a specific work (called apostolate) which is indeed a fundamental occupation of religious life. We express our love for people by serving - in other words, by doing apostolate. (Ministry, as used here is not synonymous with apostolate; Ministry is wider than apostolate). Religious are involved in all kinds of apostolate, wherever there is a need. They are involved in teaching, nursing, health services and so on. For us FIC, we are involved mainly in education, teaching and formation of the youth. Most of our brothers work in schools which are often outside the community, but listening to the signs of our times, we are open to other areas like health and agriculture. 

From the explanation given above, it is clear that  our community life and apostolate are very basic to our life and call as religious. How do we balance the two without regarding the other as less important? Experience has shown that our brothers sometimes spend so much time on their apostolate that they have very little time for their fellow brothers in the community. This is the danger. One of the secrets of religious life is maintaining a careful balance between what we refer to as action and contemplation;  in other words having time for work and apostolate and time for reflection and other spiritual exercises. If it is important to balance action and contemplation, it is equally vital to balance apostolate with community life. We understand that our common life together is the ground and support for all our apostolic works, and that is why we want to take this seriously. Our Constitutions have expressed the tremendous support that we can get in community for our apostolate. "We all feel borne along by the apostolic spirit that animated our Founders. This is the bond that unites us and strengthens our community. Conversely, the community supports and inspires the individual brothers in their ministry; not only by means of faithful communal discernment, by empathy and understanding, and by giving special attention to brothers who experience problems in their work" (Constitutions. art. 32). 

We do not want to see our apostolate as opposed to our community life; rather, the two complement each other. Community life and apostolate are thus correlatives and mutually interdependent.  Our life in community forms our most immediate task since we are called there to assist one another in charity and unity, by our prayers and apostolate.  So our life and work start in the community where we live. It is there that we give shape to the ideals of "love of God and neighbour" and the ideals of our founders . It is from the community that we go out to fulfill our apostolic mission in the world around us. As FIC brothers, we are proud of the gift of each other and the precious tradition of our community life. It is amazing what we can do when we are able to combine these two elements with our obligatory prayer spirit. 

However, The relationship between community life and apostolic activity has not always been clear and has often led to tension, both for the individual brother and the community. This tension was even evident in the lives of our founders: Mgr. Rutten who was bent on apostolate and the pious Bernardus who felt that community life was the ultimate in religious life. This brought differences between them, but it is through all this FIC survived. 

At the end of the General Chapter 1994, the General Superior issued a message to help brothers foster an integration of community life, prayer and apostolate: This is what he said, "The apostolate is meaningful because in the action, the contemplation dimension can get shape too. That is to say, in the encounter with fellow human beings you can also encounter God". The brothers understand this as a fruitful tension in religious life, which is designed to cultivate simultaneously both the attitude of the "listening Mary and the busy Martha" (Luke 10: 38-42). This tension is similar to the balance between community life and apostolate. 

From past experiences, building religious community life is not that simple; True brotherhood in community does not  just happen; every member of the community has to work at it. Each of us tries to make his local community a place where everyone can be himself and feel accepted, and this is not so easy. Living a vibrant community life as men of different ages, cultures, sensitivities, and apostolic commitments takes cooperation and mutual sacrifice, and we accept this challenge in faith.

As FIC brothers, we feel that our vocation compels us to prove to the world what the ideal of Christian community life can mean in a society that cherishes quite some other values, and that our efforts may be a believable sign of hope for young people to modify their perception about what they value in life. 

Bro. Raphael Besigrinee