WALKING THE LINE BETWEEN PROPHETIC VISION AND SPIRITUAL SUSTENANCE (CONSTITUTION 9)
We are members of the prophetic Church. While recognizing our own need for conversion, we bear witness to God’s holiness and justice. We announce the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection. We will hear and make heard the clamour of the voiceless, which is a cry to God who brings down the mighty from their thrones and exalts the lowly (cf. Lk 1: 52). This prophetic mission is carried out in communion with the Church, in conformity with the directives of the hierarchy and in dependence on our Superiors. (Constitution 9)
The religious historian, Timothy B. Tyson’s words help us to live Constitution 9:
“Every minister worthy of the name has to walk the line between prophetic vision and spiritual sustenance, between telling people the comforting things they want to hear and challenging them with the difficult things they need to hear. In Oxford, my father began to feel as though all the members wanted him to do was to marry them and bury them and stay away from their souls.”
Eugene looked at the Cross and saw himself as he really was: confused and lost and lacking direction. Conversion meant that he had finally found his focus. It was seeing himself through the eyes of the Crucified Savior that gave him a focus. They led him to begin to look at the world through those same eyes and understand the purpose of his life as being a “co-operator of Christ the Savior.”
Through the eyes of the crucified Christ he became aware of a crowd of poor lost people milling at the foot of the Cross, focused on themselves and their misery . Just like Eugene, once we enter into this personal process as missionary disciples, then we find ourselves becoming even more aware of those around us who are most in need of the same change of vision.
Here is the Oblate message and mission: journey with the poor and abandoned, in their humanity, to discover the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection in their human struggles and joys, and then to accompany them in their growth as Christians and saints in the process.
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This morning’s reflection strengthens me and fills me as a pilgrim of hope in communion…
“… the Oblate message and mission: journey with the poor and abandoned, in their humanity, to discover the liberating presence of Jesus Christ and the new world born in his resurrection in their human struggles and joys, and then to accompany them in their growth as Christians and saints in the process.”
We dare to say that we are all called and sent out as “co-operators of Christ the Savior”. We are called and sent to accompany each other and all those we meet along the way of our lives. I think of John the Baptist who announced the coming of Jesus as we prepare our Advent journey. In world gone awry we hear the shouts and demands of those who consider themselves to be above us and have the right to take from the poor so as to make themselves richer. They seem unwilling to recognize that to kill our spirits is to try to kill the spirit of God.
We dare to join with each other and moving forward to all peoples who we meet “in sharing our faith…” Not a nice cozy gathering in front of a fireplace, but rather in the cold of the winter to accompany those without shelter, nourishment, health care or even a place to worship. We accompany them with their worldly physical journey as well as their spiritual journey. We let God figure out what the process will look like and say yes: yes to being like Mary, our Mother, Eugene de Mazenod, Blessed Joseph Gerard OMI, Mario Borzaga OMI, Kay Cronin HOMI and all of God’s children…