The theme of the meeting: Our mission, a Spirituality Without Borders/Boundaries!
From July 17 to July 26, 75 lay and 25 professed from about 20 different countries came together in Sao Paulo to reflect on the question: “How can we push the boundaries/ move the borders within our Chevalier Family? Father Chevalier dreamed of a mission without borders. Jesus himself crossed the borders and felt borderless love.
For the very first time in our history, a new international coordinator and her first counselor were democratically elected: Alison Mc KENZIE (Australia) and Doris MACHADO dos SANTOS (Brazil). Our general guidelines and statutes were unanimously approved, and so was our new international logo.
Thanks to the Brazilian lay and professed for an impeccable and flawless organisation in the well-equipped Jesuit center. The International/European Laity Committee provided the contents and the interpreters with their tireless efforts did the rest!
We had presentations on the theme from: Sister Merle SALAZAR fdnsc (Rome), Sister Mercy MEJIA BENITEZ msc (Guatemala), Father Hans KWAKMAN msc (Issoudun), Fred STUBENRAUCH and Alison Mc KENZIE, Laity (Australia) and Sister Marisa AQUINO fdnsc (Rio de Janeiro).
During the so-called “Worldcafe” led by Sister Stephani ORLOWSKI msc and Hanni JANSEN, we discussed our future : how do we envisage it?
Father Franciscus WAHYUDI (MSC), Sister Bonaventura KIM (MSC sisters) and Sister Merle SALAZAR (FDNSC) were there to represent the Tri-Generalate.
Our free time was spent on interesting visits, warm meetings and explanations with lots of gestures, but from the heart! Brazilian warmth despite the unexpected cold wave in Sao Paulo during our stay.
AMETUR.
Thursday
20th July – Vision and Mission of the Chevalier family: loved everywhere
“Fr Chevalier’s Vision: A mission without
borders”
My task is to share with you something of the way we Australian MSC, both professed and lay, live Heart Spirituality as a spirituality without borders.
Australia is a country that offers many challenges and opportunities to those of us who believe that Jesus’ compassionate heart reveals God’s unconditional love for every human being, and all of creation, and offers the possibility of transformation of human hearts.
In Australia, we are moving very quickly from our Christian roots and becoming an increasingly secular country – less than 60% of people identify as Christian and of that percentage – less than 15 % attend a church service at least once a month. The most rapidly growing belief category is no religion currently 22% of the population and increasing every year. In general, institutional religion is not seen to be very relevant to peoples’ lives and religious perspectives in public debates are treated with skepticism and sometimes even derision.
Added to this is the shame and scandal of the issue of sexual abuse of children, sadly perpetrated significantly within Christian institutions and most significantly, within Catholic institutions. In some places in Australia priest and pedophile are regarded as synonymous terms and our hearts bleed for victims and innocent clergy who are affected by this issue.
Our secular lifestyles are not creating a healthy society. Domestic violence affects one in four families, and large numbers of our young people struggle with mental health issues. Suicide is far too common and the divide between rich and poor becomes wider each year as we seek to find real meaning and purpose for our lives.
Heart Spirituality is a way of crossing these borders and is a gift; a way of living and loving that enables us to be drawn deeper into love, that has as its source the heart of God. Heart Spirituality invites us to be in touch with our own hearts and the hearts of others and to seek God in every circumstance and event of our lives. Heart spirituality takes us to the core of our being and opens enormous possibilities for life and love that leads us to be wiser, kinder, more gentle and more compassionate people. It truly is the remedy for the ills of this day, and in Australia we are doing all we can to cross the borders of indifference amongst people and an institutional church that is often out of touch with the needs of the people, and offer this gift to others.
The Australian MSC recognized many years ago the truth of Chevalier’s vision, that some of this meaning making and border crossing is more able to be done by lay people as they can move more freely in the world in which most people live. The Australian MSC Chapter of 2004 affirmed: ‘the mutuality of the lay and professed expressions of this charism and declared their desire to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the shared nature of the charism they committed themselves to creating structures and forums to ensure we live in a way that is faithful to the original vision of the Founder.’
What a courageous border crossing that was – to invest significant money and key people into enabling lay people to share the vision with real power and responsibility.
Flowing from that Chapter resolution eventually came a body we named as the Lay and Professed Council. The purpose of the Council is: to work in collaboration with the Provincial Council to give expression to Jules Chevalier’s vision for lay people and to work on ways to develop new structures, programs and formation processes to assist lay people to live as MSC while retaining the freedom of activity in the world.
We believe that this body crosses many traditional boundaries. It’s membership is a mixture of lay and professed, its chair is a lay man, Fred, but it works alongside the Provincial Council as a governing body for the lay movement. The Provincial Council has generously supported us with money and personnel. We believe that this structure is unique in the world and crosses many traditional borders of church organization and governance.
Australian MSC have traditionally operated in three contexts – parishes, schools and overseas missions and I will concentrate on schools and parishes as examples of the way we live a spirituality without borders. The first thing you may notice is the easy way that Fred and I identify as MSC without needing to define which part of the family we belong to. This identification as MSC is still a topic for discussion in the Australian province, as we realise that the commitment and lifestyle of the lay expression of the charism is different to that of professed members, and we do not wish to diminish their particular commitment in any way. However, we also feel very free, without the need for formal adherence, to name ourselves as MSC, and most professed MSC are pleased for this to be the case and welcome us to the family with open arms. In Australia, we have free access to the Constitutions of the Australian Province and we have taken these documents as our own and use them as language to describe who we are and as benchmarks for what it means for us to live as an MSC.
MSC own and operate four secondary colleges that have retained a tight allegiance to their MSC roots. Those colleges transitioned from being led by priests and brothers to being fully led by lay people in the 1970’s and 80’s as the numbers of available religious began to decrease. Each college has a chaplain, often a semi- retired MSC and they are dearly loved and cherished by those college communities. The day when there are no professed MSC in the Colleges is approaching and the schools will be very sad when this happens. But the responsibility for ensuring that the charism is embedded into the culture and practices of the Colleges has already been passed to lay people. A key responsibility of Principals and Directors of Mission is to live the charism in their lives and to foster it in every aspect of the life and work of the College. The current focus is on enabling all faculty and pastoral leaders to see themselves as formators in the charism of the staff and students in their care. This is another great example of a spirituality without borders as those staff reflect the national profile for religious adherence. Only a tiny minority would be what we may call practicing Catholics by the older standards, many have little real understanding of the Christian story or the tradition of church, and yet, our spirituality has touched them deeply and offered meaning and purpose that the wider institutional church has sometimes failed to do, and they are happy to be called MSC people. The challenge in this is to deepen their commitment beyond just imbibing something that feels good and makes their lives better, into a more intentional commitment. Another border to cross!
The Australian Province has invested significant money into supporting this mission field within Australian society in ways such as establishing the Chevalier Institute – a body of which I am Director and whose mandate is to work with these people to draw them deeper into the heart of Christ. We have a display table with our brochure and examples of the formation programs we offer staff. You will notice that we use very little traditional language and rituals as these have little meaning for most of the people with whom we work. The intention of every program is to invite participants into their hearts and to recognize there the gentle call of God to come deeper. Our programs are full, the people value highly the opportunities they are offered and many speak of the transformation of their personal situations that flow form these deep encounters with the heart of God. This is a wonderful, privileged and transformative border to be a part of.
The MSC have eleven parishes in Australia and these parishes are vibrant Christian communities. However, the MSC presence in parishes is almost at an end due to the aging of MSC priests. The parishioners in those parishes are very sad about the loss of the MSC as they realise they will become a part of a mega parish or be given another priest, often from overseas, and in both cases the gap between priest and people will be wider, the priest will be less accessible and less able to respond to the reality and complexity of their lives. There is an emerging movement of people in these parishes who wish to retain Heart Spirituality in their lives and in their parishes. We held the first gathering of MSC people from parishes, schools and ministries in June to try to facilitate a structure to meet this need.
A characteristic of Australians is that we are not keen on formality and ceremony. This is particularly so for our young people and this national characteristic offers another border – how do we facilitate the emergence of a Heart Spirituality movement for people, perhaps very like the Devotion to the Sacred Heart that emerged in Chevalier’s time; that crosses the boundaries between institutional structures and the ordinary man and woman on the street who do not belong to church? In particular, how do we reach out to young people who have no particular interest in belonging to church but are spiritually hungry? How do we foster a movement that nurtures and deepens hearts, that offers hope and meaning while at the same time offers opportunities for explicit and more traditional formation strongly connected to our Catholic roots and tradition?
These are very big questions that we in Australia are pondering. We recognize the needs, we know personally that our coming to know and believe in God’s love is the answer to the ills of this time and the entire MSC family in Australia is committed to finding ways to cross borders and offer hope and meaning to all who are hungry.
Alison McKenzie, Lay MSC, Australia.
Thursday
20th July – Vision and Mission of the Chevalier family: loved
everywhere
A paper presented by Fred Stubenrauch and
Alison McKenzie to the third international meeting of the laity of the
Chevalier Family in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 2017
“Fr Chevalier’s Vision: A mission without
borders”
Now that’s settled perhaps I should explain a little further!
This presentation will be in two parts. I will present the first – a broad interpretation of the topic and Alison McKenzie will present an Australian context.
I have based this presentation is on two sources: "Jules Chevalier’s Charism and the Identity of the Chevalier Family” written by Hans Kwakman MSC and “Man with a Mission: Jules Chevalier” written by Eugene J. Cuskelly MSC
I am also indebted to many Lay MSC who have provided suggestions that have been incorporated in these notes. I will take a broad interpretation of the word ‘borders’ to include anything that obstructs progress. This can mean physical things, cultural matters and personal attitudes. I propose that there are two questions to be answered:
First: Just what did Jules Chevalier envisage? and Second: Has that vision become a reality in a wide sense?
The charism handed to us by Fr. Jules Chevalier. The Chevalier Family would not exist and we not would not be here if not for the charism revealed by God to Fr. Chevalier.
E.J Cuskelly explains a charism in this way: A gift of the Spirit to an individual for the good of others … like a spark which sets a flame going throughout one’s life. Hans Kwakman suggests that Fr. Chevalier’s charism has of three integrated parts: his great passion for life, his permanent vision and his sense of mission.
Cuskelly also suggests that Jules Chevalier discovered that this charism is transformed, giving it unity and purpose through devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Today we would talk of devotion to the Sacred Heart as Spirituality of the Heart. Here are two descriptions of Spirituality of the Heart.
Spirituality of the Heart is first and foremost something to be lived rather than understood. It demands that I first overcome divisions in my own thinking that create a sense of separation from self, from others, from God. This same separateness divides the body from the spirit, the human from the divine. It is no wonder we struggle to embody the mystery of God’s incarnation in Jesus, in our own lives and in actions.
Chris Chaplin MSC
A Spirituality of the Heart is a way of being in the world. It is a journey to be travelled with others. It is an energy that sustains and moves us, a dance in which we are participating. It is a way of being in the world, in relationship to self, others and God: a way of coming to rest within ourselves, at our deepest centre.
James Maher MSC
Fr. Chevalier’s Vision: Fr. Chevalier’s vision, his discernment or foresight, arising from this charism involved a realisation that the Holy Spirit, working through people, can change the world. Eugene Cuskelly describes Fr. Chevalier’s vision is the realization that: each human’s greatest need, if they are to find meaning and happiness in life, is to learn to believe in God’s love for them, and to let that love transform their lives.
Our #10 constitutions remind us: We want to be like Jesus who loved with a human heart; we want to love through him and with him and to proclaim his love to the world.
Fr. Chevalier’s vision is of religious men and women, diocesan priests and lay people involved in bringing God’s love to all and so resulting in a better world for all creation.
Fr. Chevalier’s Mission: Fr. Chevalier’s mission, his practical plan, initially was a desire to form a band of priests and brothers to be missionaries of Christ’s love, dissipating the religious indifference that lay heavy on parts of the earth, in France itself and in foreign lands. They were to be “Knights of the Sacred Heart.” But he also had a vision of something greater as outlined in our Constitutions #29 : Inspired by the Spirit, the Church continues Christ’s mission through a variety of ministries, both lay and ordained.
Hans Kwakman expands this idea of Jules Chevalier’s mission as including:
1. A mission of the heart’; while engaging ourselves in Jesus Christ’s mission in the world, we try to develop the qualities of our heart in conformity with the virtues of Jesus’ heart.
2. A social mission’: our participation in the mission of Jesus Christ should make an impact on healing the ills of society.
3. A shared mission’: in performing this mission, religious men and women, priests and laity, should work together.
4. A mission everywhere’: this mission should be carried out in all corners of the world and on all levels of society,
5. And accomplished. ‘in unity with Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’
Personal borders faced by Jules Chevalier: We all experience our own internal borders, attitudes and prejudices that limit our spirituality and Jules Chevalier was no different. Something happened during a retreat in preparation for his ordination! Hans Kwakman quotes the words of Fr. Piperon who describes the change in Jules Chevalier from being stiff and stern in his relationships’ to ‘always kind, compassionate and friendly towards all.
Those who are familiar with Jules Chevalier’s early life will recall that by the time he came to Issoudun in 1854 he had already traveled a long hard road, he had learned that determination and persevering effort, even in the face of obstacles and opposition, eventually pay off. He had come to realize that if the effort is made selflessly and in an attitude of seeking and accepting God’s will, then God will make things possible even if they are not easy. While being open to God’s will for us and with the realization that God can only intervene in the world through us we are faced with questions about planning what we might do to achieve our mission.
For Jules Chevalier this led to questions such as: “Where to begin?“ “How do I start?” “What do I need?”
At the age of thirty Jules was sent to Issoudun. The other curate in the parish was Fr. Emile Maugenest, one of a small group of his companions in the seminary who had shared his vision. Jules took this reunion as a sign that his vision was to begin at Issoudun. As Curate he did not, however, have much power or influence yet his enthusiasm convinced parish priest Fr Crozat to support him: Not only do I share your feelings but I will do all I can to establish a house of Missionaries of the Sacred Heart at Issoudun.
Border of approval/disapproval: There were times when his attempts to bring his vision to life were met with opposition and disapproval. Some doubted the idea as being too impractical, others questioned the lack of resources. The doubts expressed about his plans to establish a new unique society involving religious, diocesan and lay began early when, as Hans Kwakman describes, during the process of approbation the plan for a third order (lay people) was seen as too complicated’ and an ‘association of priests would evoke difficulties with bishops. For a less determined person the movement could have easily faltered!
A Way Forward: Cuskelly explains how establishing devotion to Mary led many to become eager to be part of the mission. A efficacious way of achieving what he wanted to do was through the establishment of a ‘Confraternity of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart’ – a ‘new’ devotion that linked Christ, Mary and people in bonds of love that was tender and compassionate. It soon became clear that a most effective way of carrying out the mission of bringing people to the Heart of Christ in faith and love had been found.
The spread of the devotion to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart was one of the factors that led to a number of young people from outside France asking later to be admitted to the MSC society:. Do not forget that it was through Mary that Jesus was given to us. God willed that he draw his life from the most pure heart of the Virgin Mary.
Do not forget that she is still, in a mysterious way, the channel through which graces come to us. It is thus through her, in union with her, that we must go to the Heart of Jesus. Certain of pleasing Jesus, call his mother,
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. --Jules Chevalier, 1863
A huge border: Just when things seemed to be going well! On November 5th 1880 a huge barrier arose: Fr. Chevalier saw all his religious thrown out of their houses in France and seals placed on the doors of the Basilica and other chapels. Even though there was a small foothold of MSC presence in Spain, Rome and in Watertown, USA. this could easily have been the end – indeed many religious orders that had provinces in France today have none. God works in ways we sometimes cannot understand, that totally surprise and sometimes turn our plans upside down!! Despite this huge setback, only two years later and a few hundred kilometres north the MSC were ‘in full production again’ in an old cloth factory in Tilberg, Holland,
Perhaps we can draw a comparison from horticulture: just as a plant when pruned, experiences new growth so the expulsion generated new enthusiasm and growth. (God the horticulturist?)!! We fid that just a short time later communities existed in Spain, Rome, Holland, Ireland, England, Belgium, Austria and other places.
A new mission: 1881 at the invitation of Pope Leo XIII a small group of missionaries set sail for Melanesia and Micronesia, particularly Papua and New Guinea and the Gilbert Islands (Kiribati) and later to Indonesia and Philippines. This mission was opposed by some of Jules Chevalier’s Council and that encouraged him to adopt some subterfuge!! He wrote to his trusted ally, Fr Jouet, in Rome: This is what you must do …. write a letter I can show to Archbishop of Bourges making it clear that the Holy Father wants us to accept the mission of New Guinea. Again we see what courage, unshakable belief that this was the work of the Holy Spirit (plus a bit of ‘arm twisting’) can do!
Some concluding remarks: In writing this conclusion I refer to the words of a Lay MSC of the Australian Province, Phil Fitzgerald: For Jules Chevalier devotion to the Sacred Heart was the solution to all the world’s problems. To him it was the answer to everything! For Jules Chevalier the vision was the mission. Since he had no particular apostolate in mind there could be no border unable to be crossed; no barrier unable to be overcome. It also made it easy for him to include lay people - men and women who would keep doing their work in the world but inspired now with Chevalier's charism.
Lay people have a great ministry in this vision/mission; they did not have to undertake any new work; they simply live the devotion in their family and daily life and hence spread the devotion in places clerics cannot go. So today we have a great diversity of MSC apostolates across many borders. Has that vision become a reality?
Places Chevalier Family exist today:
Missionaries of the Sacred Heart:
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, China, Chuuk, Colombia, Dem Rep Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Rep, Ecuador, El Salvador, England, Fiji, France, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Kiribati, Korea, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Samoa, Senegal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, USA, Venezuela, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna
Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart: Australia, Angola, Brazil, Belgium, Burkina-Faso, Cameroon, Dem Rep Congo, Fiji, France, Italy, Ireland, Kiribati, Netherlands, Senegal, Slovakia, South Sudan, USA, UK, Vietnam, Venezuela.
Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart: Angola, Australia, Dem Rep Congo, El Salvador, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Korea, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Namibia, PNG, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Romania, Spain, USA.
And of course: Lay MSC – everywhere!!
Fred Stubenrauch, Chair of the MSC Lay and Professed Council, Australian Province.
CHEVALIER AND THE ORGANIZATION
OF THE LAY BRANCH OF THE CHEVALIER FAMILY
Hans Kwakman MSC, Sao Paulo, July 2017
The Chevalier Family will only have a future if it remains faithful to its identity as shaped by the charism of Fr. Chevalier. By saying so, I just repeat what, more than a century ago, has been said in other words by Fr. Piperon MSC: If a religious family does not wish to perish, it must lovingly preserve the spirit it has received from the Founder[1]. What Fr. Piperon called “the spirit of the Founder,” today we would call “the charism of the Founder”. The charism or spirit of our Founder included the foundation of the Chevalier Family as a spiritual union of religious fathers and brothers, secular priests and groups of laity or individual lay persons as well.
In the first part of the following presentation, I’ll try to indicate Fr. Chevalier’s original intentions in erecting his Society of the Sacred Heart as being open for religious, secular priests and laity. Following generations misunderstood Chevalier’s intentions, but the renewed MSC Constitutions of 1985 restored Chevalier’s initial project. In a second part I’ll show that, just as in Chevalier’s time, today as well, the Chevalier Family needs a clear structure that will support the mutual responsibility of the three branches for each other, with special attention to the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.
Part I: Chevalier’s original intentions in erecting a Lay Branch of the Society of the Sacred Heart
Someone, who clearly understood the originality of Fr. Chevalier’s charism, was the Jesuit Fr. Ramière, a friend of Fr. Chevalier and a sincere supporter of his works. He was the director of the “Apostolate of Prayer” in France and Editor in Chief of the French edition of the “Messenger of the Sacred Heart”. In 1869, Fr. Chevalier needed the approval of the Archbishop of Bourges and the Vatican for his first draft of the MSC Constitutions. In these Constitutions, Chevalier did not only describe the spirituality and rules of the MSC Congregation, but also included a place for the Association of Secular Priests and the so-called Third Order of lay people.
In a letter to a lay-member of this Third Order, Fr. Ramière wrote: In case the Vatican is not prepared to include secular priests or laity in these Constitutions, then the MSC Congregation will in no way differ from 'one hundred and one' already existing Congregations. Fr. Ramière understood that Fr. Chevalier was searching for something that in those days was new. Chevalier wanted to establish a Society in which people of different ways of life would come together, being inspired by the same charism and mission, either as religious men and women or secular priests or lay people. Chevalier really wanted to cross the boundaries of what was normally practiced in the Church of his day.
While remaining in their parishes and dioceses, the Secular Priests of the Sacred Heart would carry out the same mission as the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The lay people, united in a Third Order, would perform that mission, while staying in secular society and continuing to perform their daily occupations. By officially approving Fr. Chevalier’s design of the Constitutions, both the Archbishop of Bourges and the Vatican accepted his wide-ranging plan for this new kind of Society.
From an earlier correspondence with some Jesuits in Paris, it became clear that Chevalier was searching for a structure which should function as an umbrella for people living either in or outside religious communities, with or without vows, while the religious Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, would form the core group of this big Society. The Jesuits offered a general plan for such a society, but recommended Fr. Chevalier, as the founder, to draft a more detailed plan himself.
So, in 1864, Fr. Chevalier came up with his own “Plan of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart,” in which he pointed out a basic principle of his vision: “In order to fulfill its mission the Society must spread as much as possible, but it will spread only so far as it answers the various aspirations of the people[2].” Chevalier wrote several documents in order to explain this vision in detail.
Each document opened with a description of the ills of the time. This fact clearly shows Chevalier’s conviction that each of these three “branches[3]” should participate in the same mission, in such a way that their presence and activities would be relevant to the renewal of society. In a comment on this, Fr. Murphy notes: Reading his early publications, about the nature and mission of his Society, I have the strong impression that (Fr. Chevalier) would have found it unthinkable, or perhaps even impractical, to speak of changing the world and its values without involving laity, for they were the ones more intimately immersed in that world. Religious priests, brothers, sisters, together with secular priests, had an essential role to play, and Father Chevalier stressed that. But if Christ’s mission was to be continued in the world on all levels of society, the role of the laity was at least equally as essential and at times even more essential[4].
Chevalier emphasizes that the members of the Third Order should remain in their families, while continuing to occupy their regular positions in secular society[5]. If those who were single would like to form communities, they should avoid anything that gives the appearance of a religious house …, as being against our aim and harmful to the sort of good that this work is called to do[6].
In March 1869, the Vatican granted the MSC Congregation a “Decree of Praise”, and by doing so, officially acknowledged the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart as a pontifical, religious congregation, with “the Association of Priests of the Sacred Heart” and “the Third Order of the Sacred Heart” as integral parts. In the first MSC Constitutions of 1877 the Association of the Laity is included in the chapter, entitled “The Aim of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart”[7]. That means, as Fr. Murphy notes that Fr. Chevalier, wanted to incorporate laity into the specific life and mission of the Society[8].
During the rest of his life, Fr. Chevalier attempted to carry out this broad vision with unflagging energy. In January 1878, he could write: Today, (the Third Order) numbers about three hundred members spread through ... France, and also in Italy, in Belgium, England, Austria and Canada: every day new people join up. However, Chevalier had to admit that his own confreres did not always understand the importance of the Third-Order. In a letter of 1900 to the Superior of the Province of the North, who complained about a certain confrere who did not support the Third Order in the Netherlands, Chevalier expressed his amazement by writing: I wish that in our provinces and in our houses, everyone supports the Third-Order of the Sacred Heart... It would be more than strange that Missionaries of the Sacred Heart refused their collaboration and dedication to our works of the Sacred Heart[9].
In spite of difficulties in finding confreres, who were willing to become “directors” of the groups of lay-associates, Fr. Lanctin MSC, the new General Superior, in a letter to the Vatican of 1904, could report that at the time the Third Order of the Sacred Heart numbered “nearly two thousand members spread throughout most of the Catholic countries of Europe”.
However, in 1907, a far-reaching change happened. An extraordinary General Chapter - not attended by Fr. Chevalier, due to reasons of health - introduced a comprehensive revision of Chevalier’s Constitutions, in use since 1877. In two ways this revised version of the MSC Constitutions deviated from Fr. Chevalier’s original Charism and intentions. First, no longer was the Devotion to the Sacred Heart presented as a remedy for the ills of the times; and second, no place was given to the accompaniment of secular priests and lay people, who wanted to share in the charism and mission of the religious members of the Chevalier Family. Due to these radical changes, the laity were no longer seen as fellow members participating in the same mission and practicing the same Spirituality. Fr. Ramière’s fears had come true: the MSC became a congregation that in no way differed from so many other existing congregations that carried the title “Sacred Heart” in their name.
Finally, after the Second Vatican Council, the MSC Constitutions returned to the original inspiration of our Founder: Our Founder wanted the fullness of mission to be realized in a global project with religious men and women, diocesan priests and lay people. He especially wished to have an association of lay people closely united with the professed members in their spirituality and mission (Constitutions of 1877). For this reason the Provincial Superior will promote this Association of Lay MSC. He will also encourage the members of the Province to collaborate in this work. He will appoint a coordinator to help in the development of this Association in relation to us, while respecting its lay character[10].
In 2009, the three General Administrations of MSC men and women and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart together with the Coordinator of the Laity of the Chevalier Family, issued a “Joint Communiqué” in which formation is indicated as a top priority of the whole Chevalier Family. In this document “the religious are encouraged to continue to devote time and energy to the formation of the laity.” In the same Communiqué the hope is expressed “that more and more laity themselves will become formators for lay members of the Chevalier Family.” Totally in line with Fr. Chevalier’s intentions, the “Joint Communiqué” emphasizes that what is especially needed is “formation in our common spirituality[11],” a Spirituality of the Heart.
Part II: The Organization of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.
In a document of 1865 concerning the Lay Branch, Fr. Chevalier stated that everyone, married or not, who, in accordance with her or his social status within the world, wants to grow in love, is welcome as member of the Association, also called the ‘Third Order’. Members of the Third Order will attend an initial program of formation in a Spirituality of the Heart, and observe some basic rules. However, they should remain in secular society, with or without vows or promises, either as a single person, family member or in community.
Regarding the organization of the Third Order, Fr. Chevalier speaks of Directors and Superiors. The General Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart or his delegate is the General Director. There might be also a need for diocesan and local Directors. The directors have only an advisory function and are chosen from among the religious or secular Priests of the Sacred Heart. The administration of the Third Order consists of a General Superior as well as diocesan and local Superiors, each with their own councils, all chosen from among the lay-members.
In relation to Fr. Chevalier’s view of the organization of the Third Order, we should take into consideration that he wrote this document regarding the Third Order in 1865, at a time when the Congregations of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the MSC Sisters did not yet exist, and the MSC Congregation had not yet been divided in provinces. For us it is important to notice that, in spite of many difficulties, Fr. Chevalier made continuous efforts to get the Third Order off the ground. MSC would be responsible for the well-being of the Lay Branch by accompanying it on all levels; and the Lay Branch itself would be structured with a strong organization, supported by the laity itself.
Taking into consideration the developments of the Lay Branch in our day, it is appropriate that the role envisioned by Chevalier in the past and entrusted to the MSC, will now be played by the three Chevalier Congregations. That means that they will assign Spiritual Directors or Advisors, while the three General Administrations together will function as General Director. The laity itself will provide for the administration of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.
Today the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family is spread all over the world where MSC men and women as well as Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are present. Groups of lay people of all cultures, orientations and compositions feel themselves a part of the Chevalier Family. Some are more closely connected to MSC fathers and brothers, others to the Daughters, others again to the MSC Sisters. Some groups are more devotional in their orientation, others are more socially oriented, others again put emphasis on reflection, meditation or deepening of faith, while for all the groups socializing is an important element of their gatherings as well. In any case, they all want to follow the way of the heart as shown by Jesus Christ who loves with a human heart.
Fr. Chevalier’s basic principle is clearly in the process of being carried out. After all, he wrote: In order to fulfill its mission the Society must spread as much as possible, but it will spread only so far as it answers the various aspirations of the people.[12] We are pleased to see that at present the Chevalier Family is able to offer an answer to the various aspirations of the people. Or, to paraphrase a saying of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel: not only in the Father’s house, but also in the house of the Chevalier Family, there are “many rooms” (John 14: 2) available.
So, by proposing a well-constructed organization for the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family, it is not our intention to create boundaries or to restrict the variety of activities of the groups. The only intention is to give the “many rooms” of the Chevalier Family a solid roof, supported not only by our lay brothers and sisters themselves, but also by the religious members of the Chevalier Family: the MSC men and women and the Daughters.
Therefore, a central element in the proposed organization of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family is the National Board (which may go by any other name). This Board consists of a representative of each Local Group in the country, along with the Provincial Superiors (or representatives) of the Congregations of the Chevalier Family, present in a certain country. Until now such a body only exists in a few countries. Some lay-groups are still dependent on the commitment of some religious and run the risk of disappearing, when the involvement of these persons comes to an end. In other countries, there does not yet exist a well-organized collaboration between the Chevalier Congregations in relation to the accompaniment of the local lay-groups.
The main responsibility of a National Board would be to support a continuous presence of lay-groups in the country and guarantee the on-going formation regarding a Spirituality of the Heart of its members as well, “while respecting its lay character.” A National Board will also be the body qualified to send official representatives of the lay groups of a certain country to the General Assembly, with the right to vote and to take part in elections. The establishment of a National Board needs the support and collaboration of the Provincial Administrations in each country.
Already the General Assembly came together twice before, namely in Issoudun and the Dominican Republic. This year (2017) it meets again in Sao Paulo. The intention is that the General Assembly will become a body which officially represents the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family, with the right to take binding decisions. Therefore, at least a part of the participants should be formally appointed, either by election or nomination, as official representatives of the laity of a certain country.
At present the International Board or Executive Board only consists of representatives of European lay groups and meets twice a year. It is normally accompanied by representatives of the Tri-Generalate and a Spiritual Advisor. The proposal is to make it into an intercontinental, executive body of the General Assembly. To that end, at least some of its members should be elected by the General Assembly, e.g. the General Secretary and the first assistant. They should be given the right to invite some other people to become members of this Executive Board, preferably from different continents, in order to guarantee the intercontinental character of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family. We imagine that, due to the distances, communication among the members of the International Board will mainly be carried out by communication media, such as email, Skype and WhatsApp.
Finally, regarding our Spirituality and Mission, we purposely propose Guidelines, which are very basic. Every family of national lay-groups or even a local group might feel free, if they want to do so, to formulate their own Guidelines in agreement with their own cultural customs, as long as they remain faithful to the basic orientation of these general Guidelines. In fact, our common Spirituality and Mission, inspired by Fr. Chevalier’s charism, is what brings us together, all over the world[13].
Hans Kwakman MSC, 2017
[1] Piperon, Writings on the Founder, Jules Chevalier, Fontes MSC 2, 1A, p. 249.
[2] Plan de la Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Cœur, Bourges 1864, Ch. IV, Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 462-503. (French and Spanish edition)
[3] Here, Chevalier does not yet use the term “branches”. In a Document of 1872 titled “La Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Coeur”, he calls the Diocesan Priests of the Sacred Heart, living in secular society, “a second branch”, while the Third Order is mentioned under the paragraph titled “the works that each member should propagate.” Later, in “Le Sacré Coeur de Jésus” (1900) p. 398, Chevalier speaks about the Third Order as “the third branch” of Religious Orders. He is aware of the fact that for his society the term “Third Order” is used in an analogue sense, because a Religious Congregation is not an “Order” in the strict sense.
[4] Murphy, The Missionary Charism of Jules Chevalier in relation to the Laity, Encounter, n. 74, 2004, p. 21.
[5] Concerning the leadership of the Third Order, Chevalier stipulated that the Superiors should carry out their tasks not as “commanders” but as “animators”. Their main responsibility would be to guarantee the unity of direction of all the communities and members of the Third Order.
[6] Idée Générale du Tiers Ordre de Sacré Cœur de Jésus, Chapitre I, Article II. Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 575-616 (French and Spanish edition)
[7] MSC Constitutions of 1877, ch. II, n. 8 and 9, Art. 3, n.2. Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 394 and 400.
[8] Murphy, idem, p.26.
[9] Note of Fr. Chevalier attached to a letter to Fr. Offermans MSC, Superior of the Province of the Nord, February 21, 1900.
[10] MSC Constitutions and Statutes 1985, edition 2000, n. 61. See also FDNSC Constitutions and Statutes 2013, n. 9.
[11] “Joint Communiqué” of the Tri-Generalate and the Coordinator of the Laity of the Chevalier Family, Rome, December 15, 2009.
[12] Plan de la Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Cœur, Bourges 1864, Ch. V.
[13] See Hans Kwakman MSC, Jules Chevalier’s Charism and the Identity of the Chevalier Family, ch. 6, A Shared Mission, Percikan Hati, Pineleng, Indonesia 2011.
Finally, regarding our Spirituality and Mission, we purposely propose Guidelines, which are very basic. Every family of national lay-groups or even a local group might feel free, if they want to do so, to formulate their own Guidelines in agreement with their own cultural customs, as long as they remain faithful to the basic orientation of these general Guidelines. In fact, our common Spirituality and Mission, inspired by Fr. Chevalier’s charism, is what brings us together, all over the world[13].
Hans Kwakman MSC, 2017
[1] Piperon, Writings on the Founder, Jules Chevalier, Fontes MSC 2, 1A, p. 249.
[2] Plan de la Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Cœur, Bourges 1864, Ch. IV, Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 462-503. (French and Spanish edition)
[3] Here, Chevalier does not yet use the term “branches”. In a Document of 1872 titled “La Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Coeur”, he calls the Diocesan Priests of the Sacred Heart, living in secular society, “a second branch”, while the Third Order is mentioned under the paragraph titled “the works that each member should propagate.” Later, in “Le Sacré Coeur de Jésus” (1900) p. 398, Chevalier speaks about the Third Order as “the third branch” of Religious Orders. He is aware of the fact that for his society the term “Third Order” is used in an analogue sense, because a Religious Congregation is not an “Order” in the strict sense.
[4] Murphy, The Missionary Charism of Jules Chevalier in relation to the Laity, Encounter, n. 74, 2004, p. 21.
[5] Concerning the leadership of the Third Order, Chevalier stipulated that the Superiors should carry out their tasks not as “commanders” but as “animators”. Their main responsibility would be to guarantee the unity of direction of all the communities and members of the Third Order.
[6] Idée Générale du Tiers Ordre de Sacré Cœur de Jésus, Chapitre I, Article II. Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 575-616 (French and Spanish edition)
[7] MSC Constitutions of 1877, ch. II, n. 8 and 9, Art. 3, n.2. Oeuvre Normative, Fontes MSC 1, III-2, p. 394 and 400.
[8] Murphy, idem, p.26.
[9] Note of Fr. Chevalier attached to a letter to Fr. Offermans MSC, Superior of the Province of the Nord, February 21, 1900.
[10] MSC Constitutions and Statutes 1985, edition 2000, n. 61. See also FDNSC Constitutions and Statutes 2013, n. 9.
[11] “Joint Communiqué” of the Tri-Generalate and the Coordinator of the Laity of the Chevalier Family, Rome, December 15, 2009.
[12] Plan de la Société des Missionnaires du Sacré Cœur, Bourges 1864, Ch. V.
[13] See Hans Kwakman MSC, Jules Chevalier’s Charism and the Identity of the Chevalier Family, ch. 6, A Shared Mission, Percikan Hati, Pineleng, Indonesia 2011.
Thursday 20th July – Vision and Mission of the Chevalier family: loved everywhere
“Fr Chevalier’s Vision: A mission without borders”
My task is to share with you something of the way we Australian MSC, both professed and lay, live Heart Spirituality as a spirituality without borders.
Australia is a country that offers many challenges and opportunities to those of us who believe that Jesus’ compassionate heart reveals God’s unconditional love for every human being, and all of creation, and offers the possibility of transformation of human hearts.
In Australia, we are moving very quickly from our Christian roots and becoming an increasingly secular country – less than 60% of people identify as Christian and of that percentage – less than 15 % attend a church service at least once a month. The most rapidly growing belief category is no religion currently 22% of the population and increasing every year. In general, institutional religion is not seen to be very relevant to peoples’ lives and religious perspectives in public debates are treated with skepticism and sometimes even derision.
Added to this is the shame and scandal of the issue of sexual abuse of children, sadly perpetrated significantly within Christian institutions and most significantly, within Catholic institutions. In some places in Australia priest and pedophile are regarded as synonymous terms and our hearts bleed for victims and innocent clergy who are affected by this issue.
Our secular lifestyles are not creating a healthy society. Domestic violence affects one in four families, and large numbers of our young people struggle with mental health issues. Suicide is far too common and the divide between rich and poor becomes wider each year as we seek to find real meaning and purpose for our lives.
Heart Spirituality is a way of crossing these borders and is a gift; a way of living and loving that enables us to be drawn deeper into love, that has as its source the heart of God. Heart Spirituality invites us to be in touch with our own hearts and the hearts of others and to seek God in every circumstance and event of our lives. Heart spirituality takes us to the core of our being and opens enormous possibilities for life and love that leads us to be wiser, kinder, more gentle and more compassionate people. It truly is the remedy for the ills of this day, and in Australia we are doing all we can to cross the borders of indifference amongst people and an institutional church that is often out of touch with the needs of the people, and offer this gift to others.
The Australian MSC recognized many years ago the truth of Chevalier’s vision, that some of this meaning making and border crossing is more able to be done by lay people as they can move more freely in the world in which most people live. The Australian MSC Chapter of 2004 affirmed:
the mutuality of the lay and professed expressions of this charism and declared their desire to deepen their understanding and appreciation of the shared nature of the charism they committed themselves to creating structures and forums to ensure we live in a way that is faithful to the original vision of the Founder.
What a courageous border crossing that was – to invest significant money and key people into enabling lay people to share the vision with real power and responsibility. Flowing from that Chapter resolution eventually came a body we named as the Lay and Professed Council. The purpose of the Council is: to work in collaboration with the Provincial Council to give expression to Jules Chevalier’s vision for lay people and to work on ways to develop new structures, programs and formation processes to assist lay people to live as MSC while retaining the freedom of activity in the world.
We believe that this body crosses many traditional boundaries. It’s membership is a mixture of lay and professed, its chair is a lay man, Fred, but it works alongside the Provincial Council as a governing body for the lay movement. The Provincial Council has generously supported us with money and personnel. We believe that this structure is unique in the world and crosses many traditional borders of church organization and governance.
Australian MSC have traditionally operated in three contexts – parishes, schools and overseas missions and I will concentrate on schools and parishes as examples of the way we live a spirituality without borders. The first thing you may notice is the easy way that Fred and I identify as MSC without needing to define which part of the family we belong to. This identification as MSC is still a topic for discussion in the Australian province, as we realise that the commitment and lifestyle of the lay expression of the charism is different to that of professed members, and we do not wish to diminish their particular commitment in any way. However, we also feel very free, without the need for formal adherence, to name ourselves as MSC, and most professed MSC are pleased for this to be the case and welcome us to the family with open arms. In Australia, we have free access to the Constitutions of the Australian Province and we have taken these documents as our own and use them as language to describe who we are and as benchmarks for what it means for us to live as an MSC.
MSC own and operate four secondary colleges that have retained a tight allegiance to their MSC roots. Those colleges transitioned from being led by priests and brothers to being fully led by lay people in the 1970’s and 80’s as the numbers of available religious began to decrease. Each college has a chaplain, often a semi- retired MSC and they are dearly loved and cherished by those college communities. The day when there are no professed MSC in the Colleges is approaching and the schools will be very sad when this happens. But the responsibility for ensuring that the charism is embedded into the culture and practices of the Colleges has already been passed to lay people. A key responsibility of Principals and Directors of Mission is to live the charism in their lives and to foster it in every aspect of the life and work of the College. The current focus is on enabling all faculty and pastoral leaders to see themselves as formators in the charism of the staff and students in their care. This is another great example of a spirituality without borders as those staff reflect the national profile for religious adherence. Only a tiny minority would be what we may call practicing Catholics by the older standards, many have little real understanding of the Christian story or the tradition of church, and yet, our spirituality has touched them deeply and offered meaning and purpose that the wider institutional church has sometimes failed to do, and they are happy to be called MSC people. The challenge in this is to deepen their commitment beyond just imbibing something that feels good and makes their lives better, into a more intentional commitment. Another border to cross!
The Australian Province has invested significant money into supporting this mission field within Australian society in ways such as establishing the Chevalier Institute – a body of which I am Director and whose mandate is to work with these people to draw them deeper into the heart of Christ. We have a display table with our brochure and examples of the formation programs we offer staff. You will notice that we use very little traditional language and rituals as these have little meaning for most of the people with whom we work. The intention of every program is to invite participants into their hearts and to recognize there the gentle call of God to come deeper. Our programs are full, the people value highly the opportunities they are offered and many speak of the transformation of their personal situations that flow form these deep encounters with the heart of God. This is a wonderful, privileged and transformative border to be a part of.
The MSC have eleven parishes in Australia and these parishes are vibrant Christian communities. However, the MSC presence in parishes is almost at an end due to the aging of MSC priests. The parishioners in those parishes are very sad about the loss of the MSC as they realise they will become a part of a mega parish or be given another priest, often from overseas, and in both cases the gap between priest and people will be wider, the priest will be less accessible and less able to respond to the reality and complexity of their lives. There is an emerging movement of people in these parishes who wish to retain Heart Spirituality in their lives and in their parishes. We held the first gathering of MSC people from parishes, schools and ministries in June to try to facilitate a structure to meet this need.
A characteristic of Australians is that we are not keen on formality and ceremony. This is particularly so for our young people and this national characteristic offers another border – how do we facilitate the emergence of a Heart Spirituality movement for people, perhaps very like the Devotion to the Sacred Heart that emerged in Chevalier’s time; that crosses the boundaries between institutional structures and the ordinary man and woman on the street who do not belong to church? In particular, how do we reach out to young people who have no particular interest in belonging to church but are spiritually hungry? How do we foster a movement that nurtures and deepens hearts, that offers hope and meaning while at the same time offers opportunities for explicit and more traditional formation strongly connected to our Catholic roots and tradition?
These are very big questions that we in Australia are pondering. We recognize the needs, we know personally that our coming to know and believe in God’s love is the answer to the ills of this time and the entire MSC family in Australia is committed to finding ways to cross borders and offer hope and meaning to all who are hungry.
Alison McKenzie, Lay MSC, Australia.
JESUS and BORDERS
How did Jesus deal with borders?
(Sr Merle I. Salazar, FDNSC)
INTRODUCTION Good morning. Welcome to our third day of being together as members of our world-wide Chevalier Family.If you look at your program, you will see that for this conference we were given two questions. One question is: How did Jesus deal with borders? The organizers of this meeting already gave us an answer to this question with today’s theme: Jesus: A border Crosser. It seems that the answer to the question ‘how did Jesus deal with borders’ is quite simple, he crossed them! Jesus was a border crosser. The other question (the suggested main title of this conference), is in what ways was Jesus a border crosser? Again, the organizers offer an answer in the second part of today’s theme which is “Lover without borders.” How was Jesus a border crosser? Well, he was a lover without borders. In what ways was he a border crosser? In the various ways by which he loved.
Although the temptation is strong for us to relax and say, well, no need for this conference then. We have both the questions and the answers already before us. I would like to propose that we ask the questions again and together find answers. Maybe we will find new answers. Maybe we will end up with the very same answers given to us. That is ok. I believe what matters is that together we ask and together we search. My hope is that in the process, we will, together, find Jesus himself here among us.
How did Jesus deal with borders? Did he cross them, avoid them, go around them, or did he accept them, embrace them, use them or … is it all of the above? Did he deal with all kinds of borders in the same way? If he crossed borders, did he then leave them intact or did he change them, stretch them or destroy them? Did he build new borders? Etc., etc…Well, it is not as simple as it first seemed after all!
What do we mean by borders anyway? And who is the Jesus we are talking about in the first place? Let us first look at the two key words in our conference – JESUS and BORDERS.
WHO IS THE JESUS WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE?
First, let us be clear, who is the Jesus we are talking about here? For us, members of the Chevalier Family, who is Jesus? This question reminds me of a story shared by Fr Nick Harnan, MSC in the International Lay Meeting in Santo Domingo 9 years ago. He was asked to explain in simple words the charism given to Jules Chevalier. He told a story as an answer. I would like to share it here with you (with some embellishments from me) because I believe it also answers in a very simple way who is Jesus for us, sons and daughters of Jules Chevalier. For those who were in Santo Domingo, excuse me for repeating the story.
After Jesus died and before he ascended into heaven, he wanted to find a way to keep his memory alive and effective in the world. So he went up the mountain and called his followers to him. They came from all times and places. He began saying - when I was living here on earth, I was a great teacher. I gave sermons and taught like no Rabbi did. It is essential that this part of me be continued after I go. A man from Spain whose name was Dominic raised his hand and said, Lord I will continue that part of you. I will begin an order of preachers and together we will go to the ends of the earth teaching and preaching like you did. The Dominicans were born. Jesus continued -here on earth, I was a poor man. I had no home of my own. I lived simply like the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. In my poverty, I had a personal and intimate relationship with creation. A young man from central Italy stood up, took off his clothes, dropped his mantle and said eccomi, mi chiamo Francesco! I will continue that part of you and will gather men and women in a life of poverty and love and respect for creation. The Franciscans were born. And Jesus went on and on and for every part of him, someone stood up and volunteered to keep that part of his memory alive. Finally Jesus said, in becoming a human being, I was the incarnation of God who is Love. Any form of pain or suffering moved my heart with compassion. I treated everyone especially the poor and the marginalised with kindness and mercy. My love was the answer to the ills of society. Who would like to keep this part of my memory alive? A parish priest from a small French town called Issoudun raised his hands and said I will. Lord, I have seen and believed in the greatness of your love and I wish to share this with all. I will gather men and women, lay, religious and priests, who will join me in keeping this part of your memory alive, everywhere and forever! And so we were born!
This is the Jesus we are talking about. The one Fr Chevalier encountered intimately when he “discovered” devotion to the Sacred Heart. The one, who in the words of the fathers of Vatican II “worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart” (GS 22). For us, this is who Jesus is.
BORDERS
Now, let us look at our second key word, BORDERS. What is a border? The best way to find out is…to ask Mr Google! Here are the images the internet showed me for the word “borders” (show slides 2 to 5). The different definitions I found talk of some kind of line that separates one area from another. In its primary meaning, a border is something geographical showing us where one area ends and where another begins. In general then, borders separate, they set limits. We who are living today are familiar with borders. In recent years in fact, we have seen fences built on many borders, in Europe for example. In Southeast Asia where I come from, there is usually little need to build fences, we have oceans and seas as borders. And yet from experience, we also know that the word “border” has meanings beyond the geographical such that anything that defines the boundaries of something is a border – this may be visible or invisible, material or non-material. We encounter in our lives not only geographical borders but also other kinds of borders like religious borders, cultural borders or even psychological borders. The conversations we have had with each other since we arrived three days ago made this clear. When we were asked what borders we crossed in coming here, we shared about different kinds of borders, some of them not geographical. So when we ask, how Jesus dealt with borders, we do not only mean geographical borders, we also mean other kinds of non-physical borders.
Let us now together focus our eyes on Jesus again, to look at the different scenes of his life which are all very familiar to many of us. I invite you to look with fresh eyes and this time with a specific question informing our observation – how did Jesus deal with the borders he encountered in his life?
First Stop… (slide 6)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
In the beginning, before anything came to be, there was God. Although none of us were there, I think we can safely assume that in that beginning there were no borders, of any kind. God was all in all, without limits, without borders. And then what happened?...We all know how the story continues…. (slide 7)
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14)
God decided to become a bordered, limited being living in a bordered limited place…that is our world, in a tent. With the creation of the world also came the creation of borders. Look at the creation story in Genesis 1. God separated light from darkness. God created the sky as a border separating bodies of water. A created being is one who is bordered or limited, a being with boundaries. With the Son of God becoming man, God embraced these borders he created and made himself subject to them. St Paul expresses it very clearly in his letter to the Philippians (2:6-8) when he said Christ Jesus
Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found human in form, he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.
How did God deal with borders? This first part of our search seems to show that God is the author of borders. He created borders. And at the end, we know that God looked at everything he has made and said “it is good.” In Jesus, God became a human being like us, in Jesus, he embraced these borders! He lived within the borders of time, space, gender, culture, religion. What are we learning from our first stop? Could it be that borders, per se, are not bad; that borders are from God; that they are part of being created; that borders are basically good? No wonder then that God in Jesus took on these borders. Could it also be teaching us that borders ought to be recognized and respected? How much suffering of our time is due to the disregard and violation of borders, communal and/or personal? How many crimes are actually due to the blatant disrespect of legitimate boundaries and borders? We have asked ourselves what borders have we crossed in coming here. Let us also ask, were there borders I disregarded, disrespected or even violated? How about borders I recognized, respected and supported? Let us pause for a while and reflect….
Second Stop… (slide 8)
Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child and destroy him. (Matthew 2:13)
We read about the birth and childhood of Jesus in the infancy narratives found in two of our four Gospels, the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Most biblical scholars today tell us that these are not, strictly speaking, “historical accounts” and the inconsistencies we find in the details of the two stories prove them right. But all agree that these infancy narratives are stories that carry “truth” about Jesus of Nazareth. We are here not to debate about the historical facts surrounding Jesus’ birth and childhood but to read the stories in search of truth. We are reading them again with our particular question in mind - in the first years of his life on earth, how did Jesus deal with borders?
In terms of geographical borders, we see the infant Jesus crossing borders from the beginning of his life. The evangelist Luke says that his parents were from Nazareth, a little town in the province of Galilee, in the north of Israel. In the womb of his mother, he crossed the borders of Galilee and travelled to “a hill country in Judah” in the south for his mother to visit her cousin. After three months, mother and baby in the womb crossed the same borders again to return home. At the time of his birth, Joseph, his father had to go to Bethlehem to register because he was from the line and family of David. Still in the womb of his mother, Jesus crosses borders again, this time from Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem, a town of Judea. And he is born there. They then cross borders again and return home to Nazareth. Appropriately enough, we call him Jesus, the border crosser. The evangelist, Matthew, gives us more “border crossings.” The birth happens in Bethlehem and the family had to flee to Egypt. This time, they did not just cross provincial borders, they crossed national borders. They had to leave Israel and go to Egypt and stay there. For a while (until they were told to return), they were refugees, migrants in Egypt where we presume, they had to cross cultural borders in their day to day life. Then, when it was safe to return home, they could not return to Bethlehem and so they went north, instead of south, and settled in Nazareth. Again, they crossed many geographical borders. The details may not match but we are left with a picture of a family constantly crossing geographical borders.
How did Jesus, in this case, through his parents, deal with borders? Here we see that they did not allow themselves to be limited by or stopped by the borders that they encountered. They crossed borders, and no matter how difficult they may have been, they crossed them successfully. Why? What motivated them? What gave them the energy and the strength? “The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt.’ The angel said to Mary, ‘and behold, Elizabeth your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age.” Why? What motivated them? What gave them the strength and the energy? God! God commanded them to go from one place to another. The God Jesus would later call his Father. What moved them was nothing else but the will of God. Borders, as we saw from our previous reflection, were created by God himself and are therefore intrinsically good. We can therefore assume that they are not meant to hinder the fulfilment of the will of the Creator. This is demonstrated to us by the young family of Joseph. The borders had to be crossed in order to fulfil the will of the Father. The national borders separating Egypt from Israel protected the son of God from being destroyed by Herod. Those borders were necessary and they had to be crossed so as to fulfil God’s plan.
(Slide 9) When Jesus was 12 years old, Luke tells us that his family made a pilgrimage from Nazareth to Jerusalem with many of their neighbours. Those of us who have done pilgrimages know that a pilgrimage involves going on a journey where borders are crossed, both material/physical and spiritual/psychological. We’ve already seen Jesus (with his family) crossing geographical borders. We again see them doing this in this scene. But we see Jesus doing something we have not yet seen (but something we will see over and over again in his public ministry), we see him crossing cultural borders.
We all know how their pilgrimage ends…I bet it is playing in your mind now. On their way home after their pilgrimage to Jerusalem, the parents of Jesus noticed that he was missing. They looked for him among their relatives and friends but could not find him. After three days, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them, and asking them questions. When his parents confronted him about this, he said Why were you looking for me, did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? First, let us check how we imagine this scene. Google give us images of this kind. (Slide 10) The boy Jesus acting like a teacher, standing in the middle of a crowd of old men, with one arm raised, finger pointing. We combine this with the answer he gave his mother and we get the impression of an arrogant boy! An author I recently read, Michael Casey (Fully Human, Fully Divine, An Interactive Christology) challenged the way I read this gospel text. He said, wait a minute, let us read the gospel carefully. It says, Jesus was sitting in the midst of the teachers, (he was not standing in front of them), listening to them (he was not teaching them), asking them questions (he was not a teacher testing them). The boy Jesus went into that temple, not as a teacher, but as a learner. He was in his Father’s house to learn. He was listening to the teachers. And like any good learner, he did not fully understand everything they were saying so he was asking questions. He was there to learn from His Father, through the teachers! This, to me, was one of the ways by which Jesus searched for the Father’s will. Although culturally, he could not yet join the elders (since he himself was not yet an elder), he did not allow this cultural border to stop him in his search for the Father’s will. Although unexpected, although unconventional, he crossed this border, he went into his Father’s house, to listen, to ask questions, to learn from the Father himself.
What are we learning from the Jesus of the infancy narratives in his way of dealing with borders? He and his family recognised borders, geographical and otherwise. They did not destroy them but they also did not allow borders to limit them. Jesus and his family crossed borders for one purpose, that is, to find and fulfil the Father’s will. How about us? Why have we crossed borders? What motivates us to cross borders? What motivated us to cross so many borders to be here – financial, geographical, maybe even familial borders? Again, let us pause for a while and reflect….
What is the Father’s will? For us members of the Chevalier Family, does the Father’s will have a particular shape or color? Let us allow Jesus to show it to us. Jesus, love of God incarnate, show us the Father and his will.
Third Stop… (Slide 11)
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:35)
As we continue our asking and searching, we now meet an adult Jesus in the thick of his public ministry. We see the same image of him, Jesus the border crosser. We see him crossing physical/geographical borders – crossing the Jordan, going into the desert, leaving his family in Nazareth, making a home in Capernaum, going around all the cities and villages, inside and outside Galilee, even going to pagan territories. If we look closely, in his public ministry, we see that Jesus was not just crossing borders, he was in fact breaking and destroying some borders, particularly man-made ones, borders that cause harm. We see him disregarding cultural borders - talking to a Samaritan woman, listening to and learning from a Syrophoenician woman, praising the faith of a Roman centurion, touching a leper. We see him breaking religious borders – curing on a Sabbath, eating with prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners, not washing hands before eating. We see him overpowering even natural borders – feeding five thousand with five loaves and two fish, walking on water, calming a storm, raising the dead back to life. Jesus the border crosser was also, in some cases, a border breaker! Why? What motivates him? What gives him the courage and the power?
We already saw why? It is to fulfil the Father’s will. But what is the Father’s will? How does Jesus know that it is the will of the Father? The Father’s will is LOVE and Jesus knows because this WILL is written in his Heart. His heart moves him beyond any border towards those who need his compassion most. For this is the will of the Father, that he love that we may have life and have it to the full.
(Slide 12) When a leper came to him - Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him. (Mk 1:41). (Slide 13) When a great crowd gathered to listen to him – he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd (Mk 6:34) and so he taught them many things and fed them. Later, in front of another crowd he says I have compassion for the crowd because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. (Mk 8:2). Again, he feeds this multitude. (Slide 14) When the father of a boy with a spirit begged him saying If you are able to do anything, have compassion on us and save us! (Mk 9:22), Jesus had compassion and healed the boy, Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he was able to stand (Mk 9:27).
Let us look at one specific story together and here let us be guided by the reading of Fr Shigeyuki Nakanose, a Japanese SVD working here in Brazil. The story is found in the gospel of Mark, chapter 7:24-30. (Slide 15) In this scene, Jesus crosses Jewish borders and goes into pagan territory. The gospel says he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. Why was Jesus there? According to Mark’s narrative, it is possible to presume that Jesus left Galilee to escape from Herod who recently beheaded John the Baptist. Before this, he was actually rejected in his hometown Nazareth. He was probably there to hide and have some rest, to recharge his batteries. The text says he “did not want anyone to know he was there.” Presumably, there are some Jews living in Tyre and he stayed in the house of one of them. At this point, it seems that Jesus was still of the thinking that his mission is only to the children of Israel. He was still operating within accepted cultural-religious borders.
Unfortunately for Jesus, a woman from the area, a Greek, a Gentile, found out he was there. The woman’s little girl was not well. And so she came to the house where Jesus was and begged Jesus to heal her daughter. Here we see this woman disregarding barriers just to be confronted with a big one, Jesus himself, who says to her, Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs. This answer of Jesus never fails to hit me. Did Jesus really say that? Is that the language of the Compassionate One? Some biblical commentators try to lighten the impact by saying that Jesus did not really say “dogs”, he said “little house dogs” and that Jesus was teasing the woman. But even so, this was not a time of teasing, the poor woman was begging. Little house dogs are still dogs! Fr Nakanose explains that the answer of Jesus to the woman’s request reflects the Jewish mentality of his time. He believes the children of Israel have priority over the Gentiles. The term “children” was applied to the people of Israel and the term “dogs” was applied to the Gentiles as an insult to them. This shows us that Jesus was indeed fully human, subject to the limits of people of his time and culture.
Fortunately for herself, for her daughter and for Jesus, the woman did not give up. She said Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs. What was the woman saying to Jesus? In a wise and simple way, she was saying to Jesus that for her, the mercy of God goes beyond Israel; that the love of God is without boundaries. With determination and courage, the woman testified to her hope and defended the rights of the Gentiles. Jesus heard her and realized that she was correct. Here we see Jesus listening again, searching for the will of the Father. He listens to the argument of the woman and his horizons broaden. He is able to go beyond ethnic, geographical and political barriers and his eyes are opened to the suffering of the person before him. And at this point, I imagine, Jesus is moved with compassion and so he says, For saying that, you may go – the demon has left your daughter.
In this, our third stop, we watch the adult Jesus not only crossing borders but breaking some of them, particularly those borders that we, human beings, have built, borders that we have imposed on one another, borders that do not support life but rather bring suffering to many. We see Jesus learning, moving, from one limited by ethnic borders to one seeing that his mission, the love and mercy of the Father, is in fact a mission without limits, a love without borders. Here we have seen Jesus the border crosser become the lover without borders.
How about you and me? Let us remember our own experiences and remember people who, like the Syrophoenician woman, have challenged our beliefs and broadened our horizons. Let us remember these people and thank God for the gift that they have been to us. Let us also remember the fruits of our encounters with such people and ask ourselves how near we are to being ‘lovers without borders’? Let us pause and reflect….
Fourth Stop … (Slide 16)
Jesus…got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. …
After he had washed their feet…he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also have to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do, what I have done to you.” (John 13:4-5; 12-15)
We are on our fourth stop in this journey of asking and searching - “How did Jesus deal with borders?” This time we meet him in his passion and death. The scene we have just read is one we celebrate every year in the evening of Maundy Thursday at the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In the different churches we go to, the washing of the feet is re-enacted in many different ways. In Rome, we see Pope Francis going to unexpected places (e.g. the prison in Rome) and washing the feet of unexpected people (e.g. a Muslim woman). What does Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet teach us in terms of how Jesus dealt with borders?
As human beings, we are relational. We are parts of organizations or human groups like our families, communities, parishes, movements. In these groups, we have specific roles to play. These roles are in fact important, even necessary, because they make the organization work. They help make our relationships orderly. Just imagine if we had no roles and anybody could do anything… here is the result – (sorry if this is not translatable).
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Jesus also had roles to play. In relation to his disciples, he was their Teacher and Lord. He knows this, they know it, all of them accept and respect these roles. He said You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. In a sense, roles are borders. They define limits as to what we must or must not do. They tell us what we are expected to do for our organizations to run smoothly and not end up like the group of Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. When he washed his disciples’ feet, Jesus not only broke the borders of his role as Teacher and Lord, he redefined them. As it were, he built new borders so that starting from now, these will be the new borders to be recognized, respected and followed. Do you know what I have done to you? – Every year, he asks us this question. Open your minds and your hearts, do you understand what I am doing? Then he says “I have set you an example.” I have set new borders. I have redefined the role of Teacher and Lord. I have shown you a new way of being a Master. The example he has shown in John’s gospel, he gave as an instruction in the synoptics. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mt 20:26-28) And what is the extreme border of this servant-leadership that Jesus has defined? It is the giving of his life as a ransom for many, the giving of his life that others may live. This is the example he has set, the example he commands us to follow. This is the new border he built, the border he wants us to recognize, respect and take upon ourselves.
(Slide 17)
When Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said ‘I am thirsty.’…When Jesus had received the wine, he said 'It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit… One of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear
and at once blood and water came out. (John 20:28,30,34)
On the cross and in his death, Jesus continued to break existing borders and set new borders for us to follow. This Teacher and Lord, who washed his disciples feet has in fact given his life that others may live. St John Chrysostom, one of the early fathers of the Church, in his instructions to catechumens (see Office of Readings for Good Friday) explains There came out from his side water and blood. Dearly beloved, do not pass the secret of this great mystery by without reflection…It was from his side, then, that Christ formed the Church…Christ gave us blood and water from his side and formed the Church…. Have you seen with what kind of food he feeds us all? By the same food we are formed and are fed. As a woman feeds her child with her own blood and milk, so too Christ himself continually feeds those who he has begotten with his own blood.
Though a man, Jesus took the role of a mother (breaking another border), giving birth to the Church and feeding it with his own body and blood. This is a continuation of the example he has set for us to follow when he washed his disciples’ feet. Washing each other’s feet also means giving our own selves that others may have life. We go back to the question, why? Why? Because this is what LOVE is according to Jesus’ new definition. This is what he commanded us to do. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another. (Jn 13: 34-35) Remember our story from Fr Nick, we exist as a Chevalier family, because we have joined Fr Jules in his promise to keep this part of Jesus’ memory alive, that he is the love of God incarnate, that he is the face of God’s mercy.
So Jesus, the border crosser, the lover without borders, also built new ones and gives them to us for us to embrace. He redefined for us what it means to be a Master, a Leader, a Teacher, a Lord. He built for us the new border of leadership which is servanthood. He demonstrated to us the farthest limit of love which is the giving of one’s life that others may live. And he wants us… he commanded us, to follow his example.
In your association as members of the Chevalier family, what role do you play? In the exercise of your role, are you following the example of Jesus who washed his disciples’ feet? Let us ask ourselves - How do I love? Who do I love? Where do I love? When do I love? What are the borders of my loving? How do they compare with the new borders that Jesus has set? Let us pause and reflect…
Final Stop… (Slide 18)
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said ‘Peace be with you… As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. (Jn 20:19, 21-22)
This is now our final stop in today’s reflection. We see the Risen Lord not anymore subject to borders of any kind. He goes through locked doors, appears and disappears in several places. He now exists, as in the beginning, beyond borders. And yet, it is not like the beginning, because we have been created. And God, in Jesus, is a God who walks with us and among us. Even after the resurrection, Jesus walked with them and ate with them. He is Immanuel, God with us. In this our last moment of reflection, Jesus sends us out, to continue his mission of Love. And he gives us two gifts to take with us, PEACE and the HOLY SPIRIT. In our loving, PEACE is what we are asked to share. St Bernard of Clairvoux describes three kinds of people in relation to peace. He said: First, there is a peaceful person who merely renders good for good as far as possible and wishes to harm nobody. Then, there is another who is patient, who does not render evil for evil and is able to endure being harmed. Finally, there is the peacemaker who renders good for evil and is willing to be of service to the one who harms. The first, as far as possible, has peace. The second holds fast to peace. The third makes peace.
Which one of the three is Jesus? Which one of the three are you? Which one of the three are you called to be at this point in your life?
Conclusion (Slide 19)
We have journeyed with Jesus in this conference asking the question - How did Jesus deal with borders? It is my hope that each of us have found answers to the question. We realize there is no one simple answer. Some borders Jesus embraced, many he crossed, others he broke, some he built. As we end this conference, we are invited to open the borders of our own minds and hearts to receive the gift of the His Spirit. We have encountered many borders ourselves and we will encounter many more. We pray for the wisdom to know how to deal with each one as they come. We pray for the courage to do what Wisdom tells us. Brothers and Sisters in the Chevalier Family let us receive the gift of the Holy Spirit!
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