SOCIAL AND INDIVIDUAL FUNCTIONS THAT ARE NOT YET MET TODAY
Congolese believers don’t think about material agent causal which can be defeat by scientific means (medicine, army etc…). Determinism, Baconian method, Cartesian evidence do not speak to them or do not have an immediate impact in their way of thinking. . . They are surrounded by all walls of darkness. They intend to keep open eyes at night. The modern society with urbanization, industrialization and a new religion have change lifestyle but did not transform as well the way of giving meaning to the events and of reconstructing reality. The symbols have changed the color but it has kept its meaning. They did not rationalize their beliefs[1]. Congolese went back to the traditional practices.
1. The rationality of paranormal phenomena
The phenomenon of sorcery, bewitchment, bilocation, telepathy etc… were real but put in a dark corner of the church. In African tradition, the priest could talk with the ancestors, chase away bad spirits and tell God’s will. The spirit could bewitch someone and makes him speak (Mbikudi) to the community. He may prophesy, heal or be that the bridge needed between the world of God and the world of humans.
The rational-dogmatic churches considered the paranormal reality as external to the Christian doctrine. When the inculturation process took place, some aspects of African religion were left behind. In some aspects, the process was a reception of a Christian inculturated in Europe. Belgians Missionaries brought in Yombe region the Latin mass, the use of rosary, the cult of saints, the statues and images of saints, the novena, the liturgical calendar made from some pagan feast etc… “Rural Europeans populations succeeded in incorporating into their Christianity a considerable part of their pre-christian religious heritage which was immemorial antiquity... Becoming Christians, the Europeans cultivators incorporated into their new faith the cosmic religion that they ad preserved from prehistoric times (Eliade, p. 164).In Africa, the inculturation has to be an interculturation as a symbolic exchange. African has to stop going to church in the morning by social habit and yet seeing the ‘Nganga’ at night by personal conviction.
African theology must not be an offshoot of western theology considered as universal. It must take into account the African anthropology (with its threefold conception of human being), an African pastoral sacrament (which consider the therapeutic system of African religion), etc…Salvation is more a question of meaning and authenticity than a mere conformity to a set of ecclesiastic propositions. To move on from the ground, we must consider the real need of healing in DRC. How can the BS help to reconcile divided communities in DRC.
2. The healing process at the national level
Human beings usually consider the divinity as the source of everything on earth. The places visited by gods are holy and things representing gods are sacred. A world without epiphany is a world chaotic. Alone the action of gods brings form, harmony and order because gods creates and recreates the world. In front of them, human beings develop an attitude of reverence, fear, devotion, trust. This conception of religion has changed with time. Today Christianity distinguishs religion from other aspects of life. The separation between State and Church is one of the characteristic of secularization. In African religion, priest and leader of the clan work together for the good of the community. One of the main functions of the religious system is to reconcile people with the ancestors and people among themselves in the community.
Today, one of the challenges in DRC is the urgent need of national reconciliation and a moralization of public life. People are so divided that there is no nation but only a patchwork of tribes in the same territory. The discrepancy is so big between the devotion of people in the church and the political chaos in public sphere that can continue to pretend to pray.
How priest can tackle the political evil of mismanagement, quarrel, division etc…
It is a reconciliation process of the all society: reconciliation between the population and the politicians, reconciliation between religion and politics. For that we may consider how we can take some religious symbol and put them in public sphere as did the Fathers of the Church in western Christianity: “The fathers of the Church did not fail to exploit certain pre-christian and universal value of aquatic symbolism, although enriching them with new meanings connected with the historical existence of Christ” ( Eliade, op. cit., p. 132). We may think how the adoration may help to heal social wound, trust in people, how we may organize the reconciliation of people. Like a flag which raise a state of emotions from patriotism to pride, the tabernacle from its owns side raise a range of feelings and beliefs related to the nature of God.
Conclusion
In its various processes of inculturation, the current adoration of the Blessed Sacrament took its elements from African tradition, from Catholic Christianity, and even from Pentecostal Churches to bring healing and meaning in a deceptive world. At the margins, between a tradition falling apart and a modernity suffered rather than assumed by yombe Christians, it is a work of creation and fidelity. Our analysis of the transition has focus on the trajectory from the traditional adoration to the current form. It has allowed us to see the difference between the two types of adoration and the similarities with the Yombe cult. Only in these two types of adoration we may find a transition with some elements of continuity and discontinuity.
What makes successful the practice of adoration is its ability to respond to the need of worshipers. It has transformed a religious practice into a therapeutic system like in any African religion. It does not emphasize primarily on the orthodoxy of the doctrine –which is necessary to avoid error, deviance, heresy- but it induce people to pray and to relay on God acting in their life. Their faith increases with the testimony given during the prayer and not with the theological explanation of the preacher. In the case of adoration, people want a salvation more effective in daily life. Thus their religion is a therapeutic system in which people, threatened by any kind of danger, find secure in God adored in the Blessed Sacrament.
[1] Clifford GEERT, The interpretation of cultures, New York: Basic Books, page 181-189.
Karma-Yoga
