“Until
Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19)
Claret Nivas, Kandy
01 October 2018
My dear brothers,
On the outset let me wish you all peace
and blessings of the Lord. I thank the
Lord for the grace of our common faith in Jesus and the missionary vocation
that we have received in and through this Congregation of the Missionaries Sons
of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and it is because of this we are here
today.
On this time of our year when we begin
our annual planning, I wish that we pose three questions: 1) Who are we? Why
are we here? What are going to do? Who
are we? Answer to this question gives the fundamental identity of each one
of us individually as well as collectively as a community. I don’t delve in
this question with the psychological analysis or response. We can be tempted to answer based on “we are
what we do, what others say about us, and what we have, or in other words: we
are our success, we are our popularity, we are our power”. All these are passing realities and false
identity and illusion. As believing
people, the identity of Jesus is our identity that is to say: “We are God’s
beloved children” chosen to follow his son Jesus in a special way in religious,
missionary and priestly life”
Why
are we here? St. Bernard a 12th
century monk who hailed from nobility with high quality education used to ask himself
ever y day: “Bernard, Bernard ad quid venisti?” which means “Bernard, Bernard
why have you come or Bernard, Bernard why are you here”? This self questioning
helped Bernard to live his vocation meaningfully and faithfully leaving behind
all his worldly wealth and possessions and to possess the greatest wealth and
possession that raised him to sainthood.
Yes brothers, the question “why am I here: leaving behind our families, acquainted food
habits, countries, having decided to sacrifice the bodily pleasures etc. We are here brothers because of our faith and
special vocation in the Church through this missionary Congregation of the
Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This personal and communitarian question clarifies and purifies the
purpose of our vocation and functioning of the community.
What
are we going to do? Our special vocation“is
the manifestation of the immeasurable riches of Christ, for this reason it is
to be held in the highest esteem and cultivated with all diligence and concern,
so that they can blossom and mature” (cf.RF 11). The present Pope has spoken in
length and depth the formation of priests and consecrated people. Here I quote the reflection given by our Pope
on Priestly formation. He says: “The theme of priestly formation
is decisive to the mission of the Church: The renewal of faith and the future
of vocations are possible only if we have well-formed priests.” He adds, “It is a work that requires the courage of letting
ourselves be formed by the Lord, to transform our heart and our life.” God is an
artisan, moulding men in formation for the priesthood like potter’s clay, if
the seminarian will allow the Lord to shape him. The one who allows the Lord to
form him will prefer more than the noise of human ambitions, he will prefer
silence and prayer; more than trust in his own works, he will know how to
surrender himself to the hand of the potter and to His provident creativity;
more than by pre-established mindsets, he will let himself be guided by a
healthy restlessness of the heart, so as to direct his own incompleteness
towards the joy of the encounter with God and with his brothers.” “If one does
not allow oneself to be formed by the Lord every day, he becomes a spent
priest, who drags himself through his ministry out of inertia, with neither
enthusiasm for the Gospel nor passion for the people of God.”
Our Congregation has from the time of our Founder given
very rich and practical directions and guidelines regarding the formation of
its missionaries. Our Constitutions spell out practical guidelines for the
missionaries in formation:
“The period of studies is a time of
formation for the pursuit of our mission... During this period of studies, our
missionaries should cultivate their hearts as sell as their minds, keeping them
open to the action of the Spirit and observing our own characteristic method of
instruction. Our scholastics should be
especially diligent in the pursuit of sacred studies” (CC 72)
“In order to achieve an ever deeper and
more mature appreciation of their vocation, let them earnestly learn, in the
mist of changing world, to stand firmly and constantly by Christ according to
our charism as set forth in the Constitutions.
They should confidently avail themselves
of the help of their prefect and their spiritual director.
They should pray God unceasingly to make
them fitting ministers of the divine Word, so that they may be able to spread
his name and the kingdom of heaven throughout the world. As trusting sons, they
should love and honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose special concern is the
formation of Apostles” (CC 73)
“Our missionaries in formation should
acquire an adequate knowledge of contemporary human, social and political
conditions, so that in dealing with the circumstances of the modern world ...”
(CC74)
“...During the period of formation,
skills for the apostolate should be both learned and practiced” (CC 75)
Writing
to me the General Prefect of formation says:“I believe that more than ever we
have to invest more in the quality
formation. As we demand quality academic performance from our students, we
should also demand qualitative growth in other areas of their formation like in
the spiritual, Claretian, charismatic, Christian, and human dimensions among
others” (Leo, 27 September 2018).
Let us not give room to temptations:
In following Jesus, Peter wanted to stay
with Jesus where it was everything beautiful and thus even gave directions what
Jesus should do. According to Jesus,
Peter’s thinking was worldly or mundane, and not in line with the thinking and
plan of God. Jesus, very strongly and
with very hard words corrected Peter saying go behind Satan. Because I think that the Satan who tempted
Jesus at the desert is working in Peter who would be heading the Church later,
to take the easy and narrow way avoiding suffering and cross. The same attitude of Peter can also creep in
our personal as well as community level may be listing to the voice of the
world and go behind its values that are often convincingly and attractively
presented by the commercial world.
On one
occasion addressing the Seminarians the Pope said: Dear Seminarians, what you
are preparing for is not a profession, you are not training to work in a
business or bureaucratic organization...You are becoming pastors in the image
of Jesus, the good pastor. Your aim is
to resemble him and act on behalf of him... “if you are not willing to follow
this path, with these attitudes and these experiences, and I say from the
heart, without meaning to offend anyone – it is better to have the courage to
seek another. Following Christ in
ministry allows no mediocrity.
We have
begun our academic year with a time of Recollection, Eucharistic adoration,
Holy Mass and orientation focusing on our intercultural living and Claretian
formation. Our community this year consists of members from Uganda, Kenya,
Tanzania, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India. We are from different countries
but share the same faith and vocation. We begin this new academic year with new
hope, new insights, new vision, new enthusiasm.
Let us journey together joyfully under the formative shadow of the Holy
Spirit and formative guidance of our
mother Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. May our Father Founder St. Claret and the
Claretian Martyrs intercede for us.
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