Excerpts from Amado Picardal’s “BECs: Agents of Communion, Participation and Mission”
The CBCP pastoral exhortation “On the Era of New Evangelization’ described the focus this year: “our focus will be the building of a parish that is truly a faith community immersed in the lives of its people.” Key to this end is the forming and-or revitalizing of Basic Ecclesial Communities in every parish as agents of communion, participation and mission, with the active participation of other faith communities, lay organizations, movements, and associations, or LOMAs.
Fr. Picardal defines BECs thus: as local communities of Catholic Christians in the neighborhoods and villages within the geographic parish. The members are close to one another, know each other by name, and relate to each other as friends, brothers and sisters in the Lord – kapuso, kapamilya, kaibigan, kapitbahay. They gather regularly to share the Word of God and live it in their daily life, to pray and celebrate their faith. They are united to their pastors but are ministered to regularly by lay leaders. They share their resources, share their material and spiritual concerns, and find ways to help and serve one another and those who are poor and address their problems. They have a strong sense of belongingness and responsibility for one another.
BECs do not have a standard shape or form. They come in various shapes and sizes – chapel-centered; family groups within a chapel-centered community; or family groups without chapel. Whatever their form, BECs are characterized by a genuine expression of communion. The members are united by shared faith and genuine humanity, celebrated in the breaking of bread, concretely expressed in the sharing of material goods. Which is why humble celebrations and table fellowships at BECs with simple common meals are more meaningful than fiesta celebrations – because they truly express the life of communion, unity, friendship, sharing and participation among the members.
The vision of the Church as communion, participation and mission, the Church as Excerpts from Amado Picardal’s “BECs: Agents of Communion, Participation and Mission” Church of the poor, a Church that is renewed, finds expression in Basic Ecclesial Communities.
St. John Paul II described BECs as part of the overall effort to decentralize the parish community. They take root in less privileged and rural areas and become a catalyst of Christian life, of care for the poor and neglected , and of commitment to the transformation of society. Within them, the individual Christian experiences community and therefore senses that he or she is playing an active role and is therefore encouraged to share in the common task.
The ideal BECs first carry out their mission within the parish, starting in their own neighborhood, in the barangay or village, before going to the peripheries in the parish and reach out to those who are baptized but not evangelized, those who are nominal or seasonal Catholics, those who are alienated from the Church.
Many BECs have not yet realized the vision of a renewed Church; hence the task of the clergy and lay faithful to revitalize the BECs so that they truly become ‘agents of communion, participation and mission’, or, as Pope Francis referred to them, ‘communities of missionary disciples’.
