This Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity 2022, our 4th BEC Sunday, let us reflect on our communion, participation, and mission in the Basic Ecclesial Communities as we also journey with the whole Church on the road of Synodality and continue to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters facing various concerns in life.
We have been exposed to various social, economic, health, political, and environmental concerns these past years. While the COVID-19 pandemic persists, calamities and tragedies continue to ravage our communities. The social and economic gap between the rich and poor continue to widen. We can still feel the political divide caused by the recent national election. While we look at ourselves as Basic Ecclesial Communities, we cannot but focus only on "ecclesial" concerns. We must go back and re-root ourselves to our Basic "Human" Communities, for here is where we began and where we also belong. BEC is the integration of faith and daily life; hence, we cannot simply dismiss the concerns of our everyday life, the concerns of our Basic Human Communities – the ground through which our Basic Ecclesial Communities have grown and continue to stand.
BEC Day 2022 reminds us that our work for ecclesial, societal, and political reconciliation and renewal; fight for social justice, equality and inclusivity; eradication of oppressive structures; improving quality of health and living; promoting ecological conversion, and finding solutions to climate emergencies; dialogue with other Churches and faith-traditions, etc., are all essential to our mission in the BECs. Our effort to promote, form, animate, and innovate BECs may not give us immediate results. We may not be able to see the fruit of our labors yet, but it should not hinder us to all the more do the work for the realization of this noble mission. BECs can be signs of hope in a society faced with various socio-economic-political-health-environmental concerns such as ours.
Moreover, the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity is a celebration of God’s life and love – the source of our being and doing. It is also the celebration of sharing and giving, openness to listen and dialogue, communion, participation, and mission. Let us allow our people to experience in our BECs the unifying presence of God and the consoling love of God. Let us transform our BECs into signs of hope and truly seeds of the Kingdom of God. And we invoke the blessing of the Triune God, in the words of this 13th Century Dominican prayer:
May God the Father bless us. May God the Son heal us. May God the Holy Spirit enlighten us, and give us eyes to see with, ears to hear with, hands to do the work of God with, feet to walk with, a mouth to preach the word of salvation with, and the angel of peace to watch over us and lead us at last, by our Lord's gift, to the Kingdom. Amen.
This catechesis on Basic Ecclesial Communities is taken from the CPCP's letter titled " “Re-rooting BECs to Basic Human Communities through Synodality” on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity and the 4th BEC Sunday.
