In the year of the Synod for the Amazon, we remember one of the most significant moments in the history that has united the Augustinian Recollects to the Brazilian Amazon peoples for almost a hundred years: the creation, consolidation and development of the Base Ecclesial Communities after the celebration of the Second Vatican Council.
What are the Ecclesial Base Communities?
The Ecclesial Base Communities (CEBs) are small groups whose members know each other, share daily life, celebrate their faith and help each other to fulfill their commitment to building the Reign of Christ. It would be an update of the first Christian communities that was born from the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council, enriched with the Evangelii Nuntiandi of Pope Paul VI and the great documents of Medellín and Puebla (CELAM).
Three events came together to achieve this almost exponential development of CEBs in the American continent during the 1970s and 1980s, with greater force in the most isolated and poorest areas:
- The abandonment of the State, which does not consider and does not include in its agenda and its program the dispersed rural populations or the peripheries of the big cities.
- The lack of men and women missionaries, especially priests and religious, who must attend in small numbers to large territorial and/or population extensions, in many cases not native to the region in which they serve.
- The growing feeling of unity, the thirst for culture and the vindication of these abandoned populations, who are beginning to understand that the solution to their problems must come from within themselves, without expecting anything from politicians or leaders.
The capillarity of the Church did the rest. The CEBs became the seed of a fairer society, of local development, a demonstration of the intrinsic union between faith and life, solidarity and the Gospel.
Throughout history, CEBs have gone through different phases. At the beginning they generated expectation, it was like a great discovery. In the 1980s, some CEBs lost their ecclesial sense, in other cases they allowed themselves to be manipulated by politics; voices of distrust and pressure groups arose; the CEBs entered the arguments of the tensions due to the different ways of understanding the Church: old or young Churches, conservative or progressive, movements or structures…
A CEB is the Church at its humblest, smallest and most vital level. As a community, it continually seeks group communion; as an ecclesial, it has its referent beyond itself; Being grassroots, it always starts from the concrete reality, in its social, ethnic, political, religious particularities (level of training, popular religiosity) …
The members of the CEB feel united because they suffer from similar problems, they use the same language, they have the same ideals. There is very little structure and a lot of interrelation, there is little vertical space and a lot of equality among the plurality (men, women, children, the elderly, adults) …
The CEBs have been in the history of the Church an expression of moderation of clericalism, denunciation of verticalism, elitism and stark institutionalization; and in the history of the countries where they have been implanted, they are the common voice of the people against power and the prophetic denunciation against economic exploitation and environmental crises. In short, they constitute a CEB:
- Relations of friendship, mutual support, solidarity, fraternity, forgiveness and coexistence.
- Have faith in Jesus the Savior and want to deepen it, sharing the Word and prayer.
- Commit to a conscious and effective solidarity so that the community lives in justice, equality, dignity and with fulfillment of their rights.
• Incarnate faith in life, joining spiritual salvation to social redemption. The Gospel must reach the totality of existence.
How is a Base Ecclesial Community born?
The first CEBs appeared spontaneously, as the natural fruit of a previous initiative by agents of the apostolate, such as the missionaries; or as a natural development of biblical groups that wanted to apply what they learned in the Word to the present; and not a few were born at the impulse of lay people who combined social concerns and faith.
The most important thing is that from the beginning the objective and main motive of the CEB is clear: to share life and faith, listen to the Word together and transform it into a commitment with the brothers. This was well supported, as we will see in the account of the birth of the Amazonian CEBs in the Prelature of Lábrea: there was no spiritual encounter (common prayer, songs, rosary, celebration of the Word) without a human encounter (identifying problems, seeking solutions, raising complaints to the rulers).
For the nascent community to have roots and remain, certain conditions are necessary: a sense of belonging, co-responsibility and co-participation, solidarity, joy, ideals and mutual and similar commitments… For example, many CEBs in the Amazon began as the only moment of fun and relaxation for people. During the week, work, travel through the jungle or rivers, planting or hunting are characterized by inducing great loneliness. The weekly Sunday meeting was the only time to sing, rejoice, talk, socialize, ultimately rest and kill a bit of loneliness.
A CEB does not need any external, legal, or institutional recognition. It is enough with the will of its members, who must not do any type of ritual of entry or exit. Many were born from previous natural communities, as in the case of the Amazon: the hamlets where the families lived, small towns of 10 to 100 inhabitants that do not have civil or political recognition or a differentiated legal structure.
How does a CEB evangelize?
The CEBs are not a “school” of faith where a doctrine is taught. Rather, life and everyday situations become “theological places”: observing everyday reality, one discovers the transforming power of the Gospel. The now classic inductive method of See, Judge, Act was born precisely in the CEBs, who wanted to better understand their reality to change it, know their rights and defend them, feel part of a much broader society.
No great training is necessary to apply this method, even in the beginning it was used in almost illiterate communities. It is enough to encourage people to be observant, to talk about what is happening; it is judged from the Word of God and the Christian values assumed by oral tradition, common sense itself. Finally, it is decided together what to do with a common commitment.
This method is dynamic and dialectical, it can be carried out with the community’s own resources. Being a community decision, it is easier to carry out and does not require the conviction, one by one, of each person affected.
This articulation between faith and life is the most specific and distinctive feature of the CEBs. Prayer and action, faith in God and demand for human justice, pastoral work and social action, Eucharist and charity. The spiritual is never used to escape from reality but to modify and build it.
The leadership in the Christian Community
One of the fundamental roles in the creation and development of the CEBs was that of the animators, also called leaders or directors. Great efforts and resources have been devoted to their training. The “animator” creates the environment conducive to the growth of each person and to achieve the objectives; promotes and safeguards fraternal relations; guarantees reception and coordinates mutual aid; resolve conflicts; stimulates participation, stimulates dialogue. His leadership is more one of service than direction.
Regarding the life of faith, the animator ensures that prayer and listening to the Word meetings are carried out with creativity and spontaneity, invites everyone to attend, distributes responsibilities: reader, music, attention to the little ones, decoration of the place of meeting…
The CEB builds society and builds the Church
The Christian is called to build the Kingdom of God fighting against what is against the values of the Kingdom: injustices, inequalities, oppression, culture of death or discard, voracious materialism and excessive consumerism… The Church asks to flee both from a stark spiritualism that seeks individual salvation as well as political discourse that suppresses the transcendental dimension. Between the two, there is the Gospel: it announces the loving God who wants the best for his people and denounces what does not correspond to the promises of God and the dignity of his children.
On the other hand, the CEB builds the Church beyond itself, by being part of a community of communities; offers ministries and services, helps the Church not to shut itself away in clericalism and to be present in all spheres of social life with the ministries of unity (koinonia), liturgy (worship), prophecy (Word) and of service (diakonia).
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