Ceremony of Profession
Rome, Villa Lante, 25 June 2006
Probation of Love poured out
"The Pierced Heart of Jesus opens our being to the depths of God and to the anguish of humankind”
Penina Wambale Uganda-Kenya
In, Myoung-Hee Korea
Celina Pereira India
Elizabeth Nakubulwa Uganda-Kenya
Lee, Hyun Ok Korea
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Click on the name above or any image below for a larger picture
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Homily for Profession
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Top: With Clare Pratt rscj, Superior General
Above: Sending to mission
(Click on the image for a larger version)
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Today, I want to congratulate each one of you, because you have heard and responded to the invitation of Jesus Christ to enter into the dispositions of His Heart (Constitutions 41), and in doing so, you have found that your real treasure is in Him.
Throughout your life, but especially during these months of your probation, you have been discovering at a deeper level the foundation of your own true identity and your own real dignity in God’s unconditional love. You have come more and more to know personally the God who dwells within you. This has come about, in part, because you have experienced the love of God through your parents, your sisters and brothers, and so many people who have shared your life and whose love you have known. However, it was especially during your long retreat that the eyes of your heart were more fully opened to recognize the extraordinary gifts that you have received throughout the ordinary course of your life.
I am sure that you might want to say with St. Paul, “If God is on our side, who is against us? He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all; and with this gift how can he fail to lavish upon us all he has to give? Who will be the accuser of God’s chosen ones? What can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship? Can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or the sword…?” (Rom. 9: 31-39). Jesus gave his life for us; he embraced suffering for love of us and because of this we, too, are enabled to recognize in faith that suffering in our life is not a sign of abandonment or of failure, but rather a moment of crisis and challenge that offers another opportunity for sharing in the redemptive love of Christ.
I want to share a story with you about a woman whom I came to know about through her daughter-in-law. When she was preparing to marry the woman’s son, the daughter-in-law’s own father was not happy because his future son-in-law’s family was very poor. He told this to his son-in-law’s mother. The future mother-in-law was deeply hurt by this statement. She felt humiliated, de-valued as a person, and this feeling became a compulsive driving force that motivated her to make money in order to become a rich person. She worked very hard to earn money. There was nothing that she would not do in order to get more money. However, she was not able to make use of the money because she only wanted to hold on to it. So now, she had indeed become very rich, but she was not happy because her sense of self and her own dignity depended on her money. She did not feel free to spend it because she believed that only by possessing money could she keep people from looking down on her. She had poured out all her life’s energy only for the sake of having the money. She did not have friends, and even her children did not enjoy being with her because she only cared about her money and she had no desire to share it with others. She was unable to let it go because she was so aware of how much she had suffered to get it and her very identity was tied up with it.
I am sharing this story with you today because for me, it illustrates how strongly a person values their own sense of identity and the depth of a person’s desire and need not to be de-valued as a person with one’s own innate human dignity. But it is very sad that this particular woman felt her value and dignity could only be measured by her money rather than by the richness of her own being in her relationships with others. How important and profound is the need that each person has to really know at a deep level that they are understood, valued and respected as individual human beings just as they are.
This is why I want to congratulate each one of you because you have discovered that your true identity and dignity is rooted in your relationship with God and your experience of God’s unconditional love. You are in God and God is in you. As we hear in today’s Gospel: “I am the vine, you are the branches… You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants. You did not choose me, no, I chose you”… (John 15). Therefore there is nothing I need to be envious of, nor do I need to have fear of my weaknesses, insufficiencies, poverty, or even of my giftedness. My happiness and joy are in God because God is the foundation of my true self. “I have told you everything I have heard from my Father and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.” John 15:15-16.
Today, with happiness and joy, you are publicly proclaiming that you have found your everlasting treasure in God, and that you carry this treasure within your own being because God is in you. You will strive to love others as Jesus loves you. It is out of this desire to share your happiness and joy with all those whom you will meet in your lifetime that you are pronouncing your perpetual vows.
You are being sent to different countries in the world where you will find so many suffering people. They will be suffering from poverty, hunger, from all kinds of physical diseases, and sometimes from the violence of war. There will be people who are suffering psychologically, or emotionally, possibly from the experience of being crushed, destroyed, mistrusted, or de-valued as human persons for many different reasons.
How can you share with all of them your own experience of this unconditional love of the Heart of Jesus that is within you? Like St. Paul you want to proclaim to everyone: “…I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths - nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8: 39). What is extremely important to remember and to share is your recognition of and respect for each person’s intrinsic dignity because they are temples of God. This is especially true when you work with suffering people who need your material help. You must be sensitive not to offend their dignity or de-value their self-worth. They are not objects only to be helped by you from a superior position; you are not reaching down to help them rise up to your level; but you are working together recognizing, calling forth and strengthening one another’s true identity in Christ. This is an exchange of gifts in our mutual poverty– heart speaking to heart.
You are filled with great energy and a strong desire to give your life for others and to change situations of injustice as far as this is possible. It will be through helping one another “to transcend suffering, to transcend discrimination, transcend violence, hatred, to liberate ourselves, our situation and society” (Thich Nhat Hanh) that each person will contribute to the transformation of the world.
I want to end with a little word of gratitude to each person who has come here today to join in our celebration with us, because each one of you strengthens our experience of being one body with all of humanity, our faith that we are all branches of the one true vine that is Jesus. I wish for us the courage to see, to understand, to be ready to offer our hand to one another in assistance, to love with limitless courage, deeply aware that our value and common identity is our call to union with God and with one another in Christ – in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Son In Sook rscj
June 25, 2006
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