|
|
Family room, Barat house, Joigny
(Lolín Menéndez rscj)
|
Charism
I dislike the current understanding of the word 'devotion' as applied to the Sacred Heart. When we refer to Jesus Christ under the term Sacred Heart we are referring to the very essence of his being, the manifestation of the love of a God we cannot see. 'In the Gospel through his words, his attitudes, his relationships with people, his way of relating to all created things, we discover his heart wholly given to the Father and to all people.' (19)
It is this love and our call to 'discover and reveal it' that is at the heart of the spirituality that inspired the founding of the Society of the Sacred Heart. It is thus that we read the gospels.
A religious congregation can come into being in different ways but people are drawn to it because, as John Futrell SJ. said, 'they read the Gospels in the same way.' And the way they read the Gospels has expression in what is called the charism of the Congregation. An interesting example of this came from a residential conference for leaders of religious congregations in the U.S.A. with several members representing each congregation. When each congregation prepared the liturgy it was noted how the choice of scripture reflected the spirit of the congregation and how they differed from each other.
The true test of a charism is if it belongs to the whole church. A particular congregation does not have exclusive rights but it does have a call to live out a particular aspect of the gospel message. One of our French sisters put it this way. 'Every charism leads directly to the Christ of the Gospels and, in the commitment which it arouses, puts us in living contact with his person. Thus it is with the creative charism of a religious family.'
So what is our charism, this particular reading of the Gospel, which inspired a French priest, Leonor de Tournely, and through him, Madeleine Sophie Barat? In the abridged Plan of the Institute drawn up in 1815 it states in the language of the time" The aim of this Society is to glorify the Sacred Heart of Jesus by labouring for the salvation and perfection of its members through the imitation of the virtues of which this Divine Heart is the centre and model, and by consecrating them, as far as it is possible for women, to the sanctification of others, as the work dearest to the Heart of Jesus.( 4) Hence it follows that the spirit of this Society is essentially based upon prayer and the interior life since we cannot glorify the adorable Heart of Jesus worthily, save inasmuch as we apply ourselves to study its interior dispositions in order to unite and conform ourselves to them.'(5)
In 1982, the Constitutions, revised at the request of the Church to all congregations, states' By our charism, we are consecrated to Glorifying the Heart of Jesus: we answer His call to discover and reveal His love letting ourselves be transformed by His Spirit.(4) We are sent by the Church to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus.'(10) The texts of the 1815 and 1982 Constitutions pulsate with this theme of love and service, of a service arising out of love and a service built on prayer and contemplation. I love the image of that same French scholar (i) which, for me, captures the essence of our vocation. She talks of our life as an RSCJ being of a single movement - from the Heart of Christ to the world and from the world back to the Heart of Christ. The love is focused on the other. As the Constitutions state, 'In prayer we come to Him with everything that touches our life, with the sufferings and hopes of humanity.'(20) Our hearts, like that of Jesus, are to be open to the world and its needs; to peoples near and far 'The urgency of the world's needs, the call of our local church, impel us to respond creatively, in conformity with the spirit of the Society.' (12) Madeleine Sophie loved to speak of the" little Society" because I believe she wanted to remind us that 'of ourselves we can do nothing' and that 'when we are weak, then we are strong.' But I also believe she wanted us to recognise that Jesus went about doing good through often seemingly insignificant actions, through the ordinary events of everyday life. The difference lay in the giving without expectation of return; in entering into the often unexpressed need of the other; in the readiness to be vulnerable in the offering of his love. As the Constitutions remind us ' in faith and simplicity we meet the other as a unique person, having respect and affection for each, and a humility which enables us to be receptive. Always we are filled with hope in our encounters, sure of God's power at work in us all.'(15) 'In the Gospel through his words, his attitudes, his relationships with people, his way of relating to all created things, we discover his heart wholly given to the Father and to all people.'(19)
(i) Jeanne de Charry RSC]
Mary Shanahan rscj
Province of Australia – New Zealand
|
