“We are the Church, and we are to build that kingdom in our society. I have been chosen by God, just like He did with De La Salle to bring the salvation of God to young people and all persons that cross my path, which is a great challenge.”
Joan Eoe, a Papua New Guinean Lasallian, wrote these words of transformation in Stories of Hope. She went on to describe her “way” as unique insofar as God leads her through the Holy Spirit who is present in her heart.
Joan captures brilliantly what is more and more common today in the Lasallian world. It is a new development of consciousness emphasizing the Baptismal equality of all Lasallians. It is the mystery of inclusion, co-responsibility, and leadership from the ground up. It is a big change in the way we think of ourselves, and it was predicted for our time in the prophecy of the eagle and the condor.
This legend, originated in the Andes Mountains of Peru, states that back in history, human societies divided and took different paths: that of the condor (representing the heart, intuitive and mystical) and that of the eagle (representing the brain, rational and material). In the 1490s the prophecy said the two paths would converge and the eagle would drive the condor to the verge of extinction. And so it did with the Spanish Conquistadors, the World Wars and the economic domination of the north.
Then, 500 years later in the 1990s, a new epoch would begin — one in which the condor and the eagle will have the opportunity to reunite and fly together in the same sky along the same path. If the condor and eagle accept this opportunity they will create a most remarkable offspring unlike any seen before.
The Prophecy of the Condor and Eagle can be taken at many levels — the standard interpretation is that it foretells the sharing of indigenous knowledge with the technologies of science; the balancing of yin and yang; the bridging of northern and southern cultures; and the rise of the feminine to bring mindfulness to people and organizations. It’s about balance, inclusion, oneness, and peace. It sounds to me like the Spirit of God hovering over the waters.
However, most powerful is the message it offers about consciousness — it says that we have entered a time when we can benefit from the many diverse ways of seeing ourselves and the world, and that we can use these as a springboard to higher levels of awareness. As human beings we can truly wake up and evolve into a more conscious species.
Joan Eoe is doing just this for herself and is part of an ever expanding transformation in our Lasallian world. Personally, I can recall my feeling of empowerment several years ago when Superior General Brother Álvaro called for the “refoundation” of the Lasallian project. Intuitively, I understood he was advocating radical renewal of our Lasallian enterprise to better serve the needs of youth and families today. I felt he was personally inviting every Lasallian to take part. He instinctively understood the family values of ownership, engagement, and appreciation. The word “passion” entered the Lasallian lexicon to describe association for mission.
Refoundation always reminds me of the incredible transformation of the church 50 years ago at Vatican II — mystery, community, dialogue, inclusion, diversity, trust, engagement, and refoundation. Many of the old pigeons ensconced in the church steeples for many years now had to negotiate with some powerful new wings called condors.
Since the 1990s, there have been a plethora of examples of this transformation in our Lasallian world; the growing use of the phrase “Lasallian family”; the emergence of associative groups of Lasallians; the hundreds of Lasallians who have learned to exert leadership in their mission; the new, innovative intentional communities that have emerged.
The condor is most certainly rising.
General chapters and mission assemblies such as the recent International Mission Assembly (called One Family, One Mission) have given new meaning to the concept of oneness, inclusion, co-responsibility and communion.
In reminding the Lasallian world that more than 50% of Lasallians are now women, Brother Álvaro invited the whole family to reflect on the “feminine face that the Lasallian enterprise has today.” This invite reaches far deeper than simply how many men and women there are. This feminine (the condor) resides like the masculine (the eagle) in the soul of each member of the family be they male or female and in the family as a whole. And I suspect Brother Álvaro is intimating that the balance between them in our Lasallian family has been seriously tipped toward the masculine for hundreds of years.
If Carl Jung were alive he might say this dramatic change in demographics should signal every member to generate more feeling to balance their thinking. Thinking organizes material from an objective standpoint as an engineer might (eagle). Feeling organizes material from the standpoint of what is important to one’s well being as a mother protecting her children might (condor). Since these represent different rational ways of organizing the same material, it is difficult to gain balance especially in the Lasallian world dominated by eagle thinking for much of its history.
Similarly Jung would encourage the practice of intuition to balance sensation. Sensation looks for patterns in what is present here and now (eagle). Intuition looks for the patterns that explain what lead to the current state of affairs and how the situation may evolve over time (condor). It’s all about balance.
Joan Eoe remembers the days when the eagles ruled the skies:
“I grew up in an era that held the attitude that anything to do with faith development for young people, and especially anything to do with mission work, was strictly for those who consecrated their lives to being a Priest, Brother or Sister.”
And Miguel Campos describes it as:
“When lived reality begins to unravel, a new one doesn’t necessarily emerge immediately. Rather, what makes itself manifest is a difficult period between two spaces of time. It is here, in this critical space, that we find ourselves obliged to discern.”
Joan, like so many other Lasallians, has lived through a period of discernment. She now lives in the first “mixed” Lasallian community in Papua New Guinea and enjoys watching the condors share the morning and evening skies with the eagles.
Brother Ed Phelan has been a Lasallian educator for over 50 years. For the past ten years he — along with other Brothers and Lasallian Volunteers — have shared in the mission of the Bedford Park Community in Bronx, NY. Recently, Brother Dennis Malloy and Brother Álvaro have invited him to be an Auxiliary Visitor for the District of Eastern North America of the De La Salle Brothers. In July, he will be a guest at the First U.S. Lasallian Women’s Symposium in California.
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