II. WHAT is refounding an institute or religious community?

The word refounding leads us to think of founding and refers us back to the creation and the foundation of something. This "something" that once arose through the action of the Spirit of the Lord and if that is true, it must not disappear. Furthermore, it must reappear if it is hidden. The prefix "re" tells us that. The founding experience must continue in concrete times and places since it has a dynamic power that converts fidelity into creativity and creativity into fidelity. It is fitting to achieve it in new circumstances and to do so in such a way that in these new situations and conditions the charism has the same vitality to arise and be born again, the same power and strength to create and the same selflessness and fruitfulness to multiply what it had at the beginning.

The history and geography of the consecrated life are the acts of a whole series of refoundings. Each new candidate for an institute requires in some way that it be recreated since in each of the members the power of the Spirit is incarnated in an original and different way. The theology of the consecrated life shows clearly that in it creativity is more important than the institution.

New wine

In order to delve into the meaning of revitalisation, I want to use the Gospel parable of the wine and the wineskins. A sufficient number of institutes have seen that the dynamic and objectives of renewal are not enough. It is not enough to win the battles; one must "win the war". It is not enough to refresh the spirit if recreating structures is necessary. I am convinced that the spirit of the majority of religious is good; they have good will and good desires; frequently they are trying and searching for what is best; there is no lack of generosity. These are not days of reform.

However, something is lacking and we keep on hearing that something is not right. There is need for greater intensity to live the spirit and the grace received in such a way that we can recreate the wineskins and the consecrated life will have a heart and mind that deje with a new face and with the hands more inserted in the dough, with better presence and with feet making good time. In a word, what is required is intensity in life, action and involvement. This requires entering into the Gospel dynamic of "losing in order to gain". Only from this intensity can one draw the power to make the so greatly desired and urgent decisions that will change for the good the course of the history of a good number of institutes.

This is the spontaneous reaction that one experiences upon seeing the progress of some of those at this time in France, Africa, India or Chile. I believe that the good spirit the various renewal programmes has succeeded in awakening in the persons was good wine; they want to put Christ at the centre of their life. It has taken the form of a great desire, which includes a healthy nostalgia for the better, the ideal. However, individuals who are so filled with good will, in about 48 hours come up against structures of community or ministry that do not breathe the same and with a cultural context that is quite challenge and thus what they have begun so well comes to an end.

At times, when the community has succeeded in having the whole, or at least the majority of its members have a renewed spirit and effect the necessary changes of structures of prayer and dialogue that are already required by the Rule, it was at the level of the province or the whole institute that the fire died out because the vigour of new structures was missing, which was needed to maintain, give new life to and renew the fire. The wine was good; however, there were not the proper wineskins.

New wineskins

In many places, as we noted earlier, important steps are being taken in the process of renewal. Now the urgency of renewal requires a change of method and perspectives. It is impossible to live a charism and a mission without adequate structures; these must be at the service of the charism and the mission and must therefore be charismatic structures, themselves essentially evangelising, fraternal, simple, communicative, clear and transparent. Spirit and structure must meet. With the passage of time some structures, which in a certain period of time were helpful, will become obsolete and cease responding and evoking the true spirit; it is better to hide them or make them disappear. This is one of the reasons why refounding must become a reality.

An institute is refounded when the spirit is revivified and when it is given structures that are going to promote the living of the charism in a lucid manner. Religious groups have a great and urgent need for internal and external restructuring. They need adequate structures to incarnate, sustain and protect the spirit. New wineskins for the new wine and new wine for the new wineskins (Mk 2:22). Thus one can express "evangelically" the challenge and urgency of revitalisation. Thus one can arrive, without trauma and sometimes in successive stages, at a new paradigm of the religious life for a concrete group.

A paradigm that they can try to describe in great detail and propose with precision but which is already arising like the new dawn and is arising with the fruit of the night, which is good counsel, and of the suffering of the waiting that is at the origin of true fruitfulness and is always a renewing force. Every true refounding begins with the tension between charism and structures, a tension that is lived at the level of the forms of life as well as the mission. Charism and structures cannot annul one another nor can they exclude one another. There must be interaction between them.

New wine and new wineskins for a new man and a new woman

All of us have been learning the language of computers. I am going to use an image that comes from this world in order to continue discovering more about revitalisation. Refounding an institute is like changing the program; it is like putting a new process that processes the data of the charism, our style of life and our mission and does so in a distinct manner; in a more evangelical way. It is like changing from DOS to Windows.

It is not enough to change the information and the data to reach the goal that we are aiming for; it is necessary to go farther and deeper. It is not like changing a tire when it is flat; it is thinking of a new means of transportation that does not have that risk, and not only changing the tire. It is seeing the advent of a new form of mass transit, the aeroplane. Renewal programmes have offered us a new vision and new purpose. However, when they fell into the hands of people who did not change their programmes, and who even "treated" their data as they did before, in the end the result that was desired, which could only come from a new program, did not come.

The motivation pour making those changes comes to us from the Gospel and the founding charism. The form under which these changes must be made also comes to us from those for whom they are destined. The recipients of our new life project or mission is a man and woman who thinks and acts in conformity with the pace of today’s culture. The inculturation of the message and of the life requires refounding.

We cannot deny the reality of the dynamic interaction between the Gospel and the world that we experience so that the consecrated life may be meaningful for the inhabitants of this world and may transform it with the values of Christ. In order for this transformation to take place it is necessary to learn how to bless and criticise. When a religious is faithful to the demands of refounding, he or she can be found wherever humanity’s real problems are found.

For a long time the consecrated life had its own universal culture. Now it is time to inculturate its charism in the surrounding culture and receive from it and give it meaning, form, message, presence and action. In face the consecrated life is growing distant from the spiritual and cultural experience of the man of today. Therefore, once again it is not enough just to renew it; we must be sure to get down to its charismatic roots and, with a heart filled with mercy, draw near to the man and woman of this day and see what they seek from us. This is refounding.