:: Bloom where you are planted :: Recollections with St. Francis de Sales

RECOLLECTIONS WITH St. FRANCIS DE SALES





JULY 2005 - APRIL 2006

November 2005:

5. Humble Obedience

1. Personal Study and Reflection

1.1. Scripture References

Gen. 18:1-8: Hospitality
Gen. 45:16-20: The best of all Egypt will be yours.
Dt.23: 15-16: If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master.
Philomen: I am sending him - who is my very heart - back to you.
Prov. 25:21-22: You will heap burning coals on his head.
Mk. 10:35-45: You don't know what you are asking.
Jn. 13: Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet...
Phil. 2: 1-8: Look not only to your own interest, but also to the interest of others.
James 1:26-27: Look after orphans and widows in their distress.

1.2. Teaching of the Church

There is one other point which I would like to emphasize, since it significantly affects the authenticity of our communal sharing in the Eucharist. It is the impulse which the Eucharist gives to the community for a practical commitment to building a more just and fraternal society. In the Eucharist our God has shown love in the extreme, overturning all those criteria of power which too often govern human relations and radically affirming the criterion of service- "If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all" (Mk. 9:35). It is not by chance that the Gospel of John contains no account of the institution of the Eucharist, but instead relates the washing of feet" (cf. Jn. 13:1-20): by bending down to wash the feet of his disciples, Jesus explains the meaning of the Eucharist unequivocally. Saint Paul vigorously reaffirms the impropriety of a Eucharistic celebration lacking charity expressed by practical sharing with the poor (cf. 1 Cor. 11:17-22; 27-34) (Mane Nobiscum Domine, 28).

Everyone should be able to draw from work the means of providing for his life that of his family, and of serving the human community (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2428). A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice. In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. "Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good." (GS. 67; Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2434)

The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbour in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting, are spiritual works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy consists especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity: it is also a work of justice pleasing to God. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2447; Cf. Also Redemptor Hominis, 21, Evangelium Nuntiandi, 30)

1.3. Teaching of St. Francis de Sales

Love the poor and poverty because by this love you will become truly poor; as Scripture says we become like the things we love (Hos. 9:10). Love makes the lovers equal: Who is weak with whom I am not weak? (2 Cor. 11:29) says St. Paul. He could say: Who is poor with whom I am not poor? Indeed, love made him to be such as those whom he loved. If therefore you love the poor, you will certainly share their poverty and be poor like them. Now if you love the poor be often among them. Be happy to see them at your home and visit them at their homes. Talk with them willingly. Be quite at ease when they come near you in the church, in the streets and elsewhere. Be poor in the language you make use of. Speak to them like their companions but have generous hands giving them your gifts more in abundance.

Do not be satisfied with being poor like the poor, but be poorer than the poor. How is this possible? The servant is less than his master (Jn. 13:16). Make yourself then the servant of the poor. Go to serve them in their beds when they are sick, and this with your own hands: Be their cook and at your own expense. Be their tailor and washerwoman. Dear Philothea, this service is more glorious than that of royalty. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part III. Ch. 15). For true devotion is nothing else than a spiritual agility and liveliness by means of which charity realizes its actions in us, or we do so by charity, promptly and lovingly. (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part I, Ch. 1).

1.4. Biographical Notes

In all the nineteen years that I had the happiness of knowing him well, both before and after I became a nun, I never knew him to fail to do for his neighbour all the good that lay within his power. He never spared himself in this service; I am quite sure of this, and have seen and experienced more of it than I can ever tell you. He loved God in man and man in God, and said that he did not want to mean anything to people, or people to mean anything to him except in God. He was full of charity, loving souls truly and each in a different way, for this is how God chose to make my heart, he said. I want to love my neighbour so much, so very much. Yet I feel that I love God only, and every soul for his sake; and everything that is not God, or for God is as nothing to me (Testimony, pp 65-67).

In order to help his neighbour, he chose, as far as he could, the convenience of others preferably to his own. He very rarely sent anyone away; as a rule, he would not keep anybody waiting or refuse to see him. He had devoted much time to visiting the sick, prisoners, the poor, to reconciling enemies and inveterate litigants, and to arbitrating. (E.J. Lajeunie, Vol. 1, pp. 160-163)

2. Apostolic Community Meeting

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Shared Prayer before the Blessed Sacrament (One Hour)

Points for Reflection and Sharing:

Suggest a few practical steps we can take to bridge the gap between our numerous discussions on serving and liberating the poor and our actual day-to-day life?

Does your service extend only to those whom you like, or does it include those who displease you?

In the light of the incident in Genesis 45:16-20, examine and share your own sensitivity to confreres and strangers.

In your pastoral ministry, do you give sufficient importance to practical social concerns, such as a just wage to servants, the education and employment of poor youth, and the welfare of the poor in the parish?

Are you aware of the need to grow in your fulfilment of the divine will, especially in the context of your service of others?

Does your growth in the spiritual life lead to a corresponding growth in the service of the poor?

3. Evaluation and Decisions

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Share the concrete follow up of the decisions taken.

What practical steps do we need to take to assimilate at the individual and community level the insights we have gained from this Recollection?