To keep alive the charismatic spirituality of the FdM members through prayer, personal and professional formation and ministry.
To start thinking about topics like mystics, prayer, formation and apostolate ... we risk to fill up with endless words and repeat obvious things without even achieving a greater level of depth. I do not know whether I can get out of this trap, but I'll try ...
I believe that a narrative from the Gospel of Luke, where he tells us what Jesus did throughout a day, can be our starting point. The text is in Luke 6:12-23,
“Now it happened in those days he went onto the mountain to pray, and he spent the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he summoned his disciples and picked out twelve of them; he called them apostles: Simon whom he called Peter, and his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured, and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you when you are poor: the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are hungry now: you shall have your fill. Blessed are you who are weeping now: you shall laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, drive you out, abuse you, denounce your name as criminal, on account of the Son of man. Rejoice when that day comes and dance for joy, look! - your reward will be great in heaven. This was the way their ancestors treated the prophets”.
Here we have Jesus who retires to pray and there he spends the whole night, alone with his Father. In the morning he calls his disciples and chooses 12 to whom he gives the name of apostles. He calls each one personally, by name, to shape his community, to be his friends. The evangelist Mark, recounting this moment, will say that he called them to be with him and to send them to preach. These are the central dimensions of the apostolic community: sharing the friendship and the life of Jesus and being sent to preach, to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom. Mark will also say that in order to carry out this mission they will be given power to heal and to expel evil from mankind. Then, with his community, Jesus comes down from the mountain to the plain where he encounters the crowd. People coming from different places, Jews and Gentiles, already symbolizing the universality of the Gospel kerygma. A crowd that had gathered to hear him – to listen to his word, listen to the “Word” and be taught by it – and to be cured - because he was curing them of their diseases with the power coming from inside him, and because he was freeing them from the power of evil.
Why then this text? Because for the Christian a “mystic” life is a life “on Jesus’ style”... and because looking at a day of life of the Lord, in whom we see fully realized that desired harmony between action and contemplation, between service, preaching and prayer, we can make out how it should be a day in our life, if we really want to be “Christians”, i.e. Christ's presence today in our world. For as the Gospel of Luke constantly shows us Jesus being led by the Holy Spirit (Lk 3:22; 4:1. 14.18), as the Christian also is one who lets himself be led by the Spirit of Jesus... This is the “mysticism of the Christian”: to live in the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit, following the footsteps of Jesus.
There will be many other possible definitions of what is “mysticism” and certainly very valid in their context of interpretation. We will not stop there. We only will focus on this type of Christian mysticism which means this inner strength that penetrates and permeates all aspects of the person; that is gift of the Spirit and passionate love in the hearts of men. Living in the Spirit, we received the gift of “charisma”, which is a particular way of following Jesus with the power of the Spirit. It's “gift” that ignites the fire of our inner passion of love. Fire that burns and drives; as the fire of the Word of God the prophet Jeremiah felt burning inside: Jr 20:9. It's the same “gift-passion” that burned the heart of Leonard Murialdo and pushed him to options that naturally would have been far from his way of life: leaving the boarding-school, with the strong possibility of being named among the best students, to rediscover spiritual peace in reconciliation with God and with himself; abandoning the idea of becoming an engineer or get other degrees to follow God's call to the priesthood; avoiding being a famous theologian and on ecclesiastical career to dedicate himself to the poorest young people in the suburbs; leaving the freedom of movement that his social and ecclesial state gave him to retreat until the end of his days as rector of Turin Artigianelli boarding-school; leaving behind any pleasure and all fear to found a congregation and to become a religious, with the utmost commitment. “Mysticism” is a “gift” that embodies in our reality, our own life, and becomes passion that “never leaves us alone” and does not allow us “to become bourgeois”.
The charisma is the gift of God for the service of the Church; when we welcome it in our life, it is transformed in this passion of love that penetrates and moves our whole being. Like any charisma, this is a special way to configure the central elements of Christian spirituality forming a different and well identified “constellation”. In the celestial space constellations have their very different and peculiar shapes and characteristics, but all are composed of the same elements: the stars. The gift of charisma, although one gradually discovers it over his personal history, is something that comes with us since before the creation of the world, from God's eternal project. He eternally already thought and loved us so, the charisma was part of our name-identity. He could never exist in the mind of God a “man” who was not thought of in Christ (since Adam and Eve) and to whom it has not been given a charisma to follow Jesus in his own and personal way in history!!! In the Church, different charismas have forms, styles and characteristics that make them very different from each other, but all are composed of the same: to be disciples of Jesus. When the charisma-gift is received in our lives with all the passion of love, it becomes “mysticism” in us. A mysticism that is power of life... and life in the Holy Spirit. It is an inner force that drives us, requires us to grow and mature as individuals and pushes us to give ourselves in love. So, seen from this point of view, mysticism is this inner treasure that we must keep and enhance.
We, FdM, who received and welcomed into our lives the gift of Murialdo’s charisma, living it as a passion that involves all dimensions of our lives, we have the right–duty to cultivate this gift, multiply it and make it produce much fruit in the Church to serve the world. Only thus, giving us passionately in the style of Saint Leonard, we will find happiness. But... How do we keep and enhance this gift?... How do we mature it in us?... The spiritual tradition of the Church and especially this third guideline of the FdM tells us about three dimensions or fundamental tools to consider: prayer, personal and professional training and apostolate. Let us dwell a little on each:
Prayer:
This “talking about friendship with the one whom we know loves us” comes out for us from the seductive and transformative experience of God's love. John says in his first letter (1 Jn 4:16): “... we have recognized for ourselves, and put our faith in, the love God has for us. God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him”. Both personal and community prayer stem from the falling in love, from the passion of love. Therefore, an absurd question is whether “to go to Mass every Sunday...” or “to pray every day...” If there is a passionate love, the encounter with the beloved one is an absolute necessity. If, instead, there is not this relationship of love, there is no prayer. You may even recite many beautiful prayers... but they are only empty shells... For anyone who experienced the love of God, let himself be loved by Him and loves Him, to pray is to live... and the lack of prayer is suicidal!... Because prayer is the breath of the soul.
Each one must find his personal way of praying, by his own spiritual sensitivity and his practical possibilities of doing so. You should pray alone and in community, because faith, as all deeply human dimensions of the person, embraces the wholeness of our being, in his individual and communal reality. When you lit a fire, each one of its logs catches fire, and you can even set apart a burning log and use it as a torch away from the fire... but it is likely that the isolated log will die down much faster than those which are together on the fire, because there they share the same fire and increase the heat each other. So too is prayer, it keeps alive the fire of our faith and accompanies us with its light and heat wherever we go, yet it sometimes needs the community because there it feeds, multiplies and begins to serve sharing its fire with others.
So you read, meditate, contemplate and share the Word, at personal or community level, alone with thy Father who sees in secret or sharing moments of adoration, letting you be astonished by the Father’s love revealed in Jesus, in his incarnation and birth in Bethlehem, in his compassionate and tender heart, transfixed by love for us on the cross and, especially - as Murialdo said talking about the three miracles of God's love: the manger, the cross and the Eucharist - in the Blessed Sacrament where Jesus becomes our slave out of love and waits for us every day... And experience the Eucharist as the celebration of life, ecstatic in the celebration of Easter joy and the consciousness that each time you are enjoying the greatest imaginable miracle: the God of life and Lord of the universe who out of love even abases himself to the point of becoming bread so that, feeding on Him, we are transformed into Him. Participate in every Mass as if it were the first, the only, the last... with the same passion of love with which Murialdo lived it.
Our charisma combines prayer with service. Fr. Reffo, the first biographer of Saint Leonard, told us that Murialdo, who worked hard every day, was a man of prayer and action, but more of prayer than of action... So when the thousand occupations of the day did not give him time to stay in prayer, he was spending many hours of the night in dialogue with God. Following his example, we too should harmonize prayer with service and be “contemplatives in action”. That is so live our contact with God that all we do is transformed into prayer. But, in order that this ideal be a reality, we must be aware that it is not possible to be “contemplatives in action” unless we are first “contemplative in contemplation”, i.e., unless we devote much time each day to be alone with the Lord... How much? As much as we love Him!...
The ministry-service:
Our ministry, i.e. the service that God entrusted us in the Church for the construction of the Kingdom of God, is the Christian education of the poorest and neediest young people. This is our “name” (= mission) in the Church, this is our identity. In the mystical body of the Church, each charisma makes the contribution of a particular function for the good of the whole body. We, according to the charisma which God gave us in Saint Leonard, educate evangelizing and evangelize educating.
It is our passion of love for Jesus Christ that becomes passion for humanity and, particularly for us, for that portion of humanity who are the last, “the more ours”. Our eyes discover and love the poor youth while contemplating the very eyes of Jesus and we, being looked at and loved by Him, are penetrated and welcomed by them, who are the most needy ones yet the richest of his presence. As members of the FdM we should always opt for them, constantly choosing the “more”... Among the poor youth... the priority, i.e. those whom we cannot fail to care for directly or indirectly, are the “poorest” , the “most needy” ones. All our institutions and communities should be on their way to this effect, rethinking the current priorities or, if we are already walking down these paths, intensifying the pace and improving the quality of our service to the last. Strengthening training in social justice, mission and solidarity.
A passion of love that seeks to “be with the young people” (this was lived in the Josephan tradition being: “courtyard priests!...”), sharing with them as friends, brothers and fathers, Murialdo style. Trying not to get entangled in just bureaucratic and administrative roles, but, driven by this passionate love to them, accompanying them with our animation and educating them with our presence and wisdom of life. The true lay person, Murialdine Sister or Josephite, never “retire”
in this passion of animation and education of the poorest youth. Unfortunately, sometimes we see attitudes or situations where this being always with them in animation and education roles seems to be “a disease of young religious or lay people which is cured over the years!”
And our being with young people has a hallmark that distinguishes us, “The Pedagogy of Love”, a style of educational service marked by openness, presence, listening and love (see the Final Document of the FdM II International Pedagogic Seminar: “Being loved to evangelize”). The Pedagogy of Love key is “education of the heart”, taking “the heart” in its biblical sense, as the profound seat of conscience and man’s freedom and place of the meet with God, not only as the space where our emotions and feelings emerge and resonate.
The ministry service is not “an option” for us. Together with St. Paul we could say: “Alas, if I do not preach the gospel!” Whoever does not put at service all he has, and does not share it generously, ends up losing even what little he has (cf. Mt 25:14-30: Parable of the Talents). In addition, our greatest fortune... and also our greatest responsibility is that we already know which question will be asked us in the final examination of our lives: did you love?...!!!! (Mt 25:31-46). It is the only subject of the examination... we will not even have the excuse to say: “The fact is that I misunderstood, I prepared a different subject, a different chapter... I did not have time for this! ...”
There is in the land of Israel a geographical reality that is itself an entire parable. The Jordan River lies flowing southwards and running through the desert Palestinian lands. The river widens at two points, forming two totally different realities. To the north, a first lake, the one of Galilee or Capernaum, is a sheet of water around which life seethes, thrives and multiplies. Nearly 100 km south, the same river widens forming the Dead Sea, and as its name implies, nothing lives there, everything goes out under its salt... One wonders why the same river, the same water that in a place generates so much life, in another becomes death... There will be many scientific answers, but I think one of the keys is that in the Sea of Galilee the water inflow and outflow are the same, whereas in the Dead Sea there is only inflowing water... nothing outflows. It remains there until it evaporates, further increasing its salinity and its inability to generate life... God fills us with his gifts and every day makes us overflow with the water of grace. When we donate and give ourselves in the same way, this source of life is renewed and multiplied in us and gives us also the possibility of generating life around us. When instead we do not share the received water, our lake full of stagnant water becomes insalubrious... and eventually ends up causing death... If to love is to give life... selfishness is murderous and suicidal!
The formation:
We cannot love God and neighbour true and healthy, if we do not also have a healthy love for ourselves. The Old Testament already said us it when in the law asked us: “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18), reminding us that those who are not able to love themselves are also unable to love their neighbour. Love, when properly lived, brings us to enter into a relationship with God the Father as children, with our neighbour as brothers and with ourselves and the creation as masters. Love that is passion for life, pushes us to grow and mature. To move from children’s egocentrism to the generous donation of maturity. It gives us that wisdom which makes us understand that true happiness is not in the anxious search for self-realization, but in the joy of giving and self-giving. Nobody finds happiness when he searches it in itself, but all manage to be happy when they love and give generously.
Sharing our inner treasure, giving from what nests in our minds and our hearts... It is a reality possible to the extent of the abundance that is within us. Nobody can give what he has not. Hence the need, the right and also the duty-responsibility for our formation. Formation, in practice, means having a clear and determined option, a capacity for effort and sacrifice. Our modern culture has discredited much the value of sacrifice as a means of growth, formation and path of maturity. It seems that today the only sacrifices that society accepts, without judging them as backward and inhuman, are the diets to put in form ( “to form”) our body and, at most, the various efforts and renunciations for getting a better job... Unfortunately, lack of education to sacrifice in our teens and youth today is causing so much pain and frustration from the first difficulties of life... Formation involves determination and will. Just as climbing a high mountain requires sacrifice and struggle, but the ultimate joy of reaching the summit and see from there the vast horizons that open compensates thousand times the effort made, as it is the path of formation. A path that can not be exhausted in our initial formation studies, but should extend throughout life; and not only in professional and cultural fields, but also in its spiritual and charismatic-Christian dimension.
The responsibility to care for and educate every child-young as if he is Jesus, in the style of Saint Joseph, requires from us the effort to cultivate us well in order to give many and good fruits. Nobody can collaborate to educate the hearts of young people unless it has an “educated” heart. Only free men free, only those who love passionately educate to love. And this is what Murialdo constantly exhorts us with his “Do good and do it well!” A motto Saint Leonard not only repeated many times, but mostly lived intensely, keeping in constant formation, reading, participating in meetings and courses, travelling to know the best educational experiences of his time...
Let me end this reflection by reading from this perspective the text of Matthew 6:3-6.16-18:
“…When you give alms, your left hand must not know what your right is doing; your almsgiving must be secret: and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you...
... When you pray, go to your private room, shut yourself in, and so pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you...
... When you fast, put scent on your head and wash your face, so that no one will know you are fasting except your Father who sees all that is done in secret; and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you”.
Jesus encourages us to live our whole life with a style of love-donation lived in humility: our relationship with others, represented in almsgiving (our self-giving in service and ministry), with God in prayer and with ourselves in fast (our effort to form us)... In this style of living these three dimensions, which synthesize and cover our entire existence, we feel deeply identified as FdM, since we have been marked by the motto Murialdo assumed and spread: “Fare e tacere”.
May Saint Leonard Murialdo, this mystic passionately fond of God and the poorest youth, infect us and kindle further in us this fire of love to follow Jesus and serve Him in “the more ours”.
Alejandro Bazán C.S.J.
