Yesterday I offered a reflection on “The Magi School For Seekers”. It was based on a recent homily of Pope Francis. He presented the Magi as showing the path for modern-day “seekers.”
I began to think of Vincent as such a seeker.
The Magi looked beyond their horizons
The Magi were “men with a restless heart seekers after God. They were not content to plod through life but yearned for new and greater horizons.” He describes them as “setting out at the rising of the star. “In Jerusalem the Magi ask questions: they inquire where the Child is to be found.” “The Magi then defy Herod who wanted to keep the status quo and his place in it. They return “by another way” (Mt 2:12). “They challenge us to take new paths. Here we see the creativity of the Spirit who always brings out new things.” Finally, “they worshiped. They recognized their God in helpless form of an infact who had no place to lay his head.”
Vincent looked beyond his horizons
St. Vincent saw a world that most of his contemporaries never saw. Faced with misery they would say “That’s just the way it is”. But he sensed that there was something wrong with what he saw. Especially when viewed against the vision and mission of Jesus bringing Good News to the Poor.
He asked himself if there was a better way of bringing good news to those who were suffering. He dared to imagine. He imagined a different world, a world where people would look out for one another. In effect they would wash one another’s feet as Jesus said would be the sign of being true disciples.
I doubt Vincent had any other plan than simply following the lead of Providence. But I also believe that it was his attentiveness to providence that allowed him to accurately read the signs of his times and to “think outside the box” of 17th-century views of ministry.
This providence led him to inspire and tap into previously unrecognized resources – laity and especially women.
Developing unrecognized resources
Vincent imagined ministry to include laypeople, especially women. In Vincent’s time, this was as radical as many things we consider radical today. Surprising as it may seem, before his time there had been no way for women to engage in any kind of ministry or service other than prayer behind the walls and doors of convents.
He entrusted St. Louise with the inspiration and formation of these women. In effect, Louise developed a feminine and a lay form of the Tuesday Conference program.
His major innovation was the “confraternities of charity”. These Confraternities were basically parish organizations dedicated to bringing good news to the poor in practical ways. In many ways, the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Ladies of Charity embody these traditions today.
Today there is a new and rapidly growing manifestation of Vincentian imagination. Somewhat spontaneously, laypeople, professionals in their fields, learning of the story of Vincent, are evangelizing other professionals. They are banding together in modern-day “confraternities” or Vincentian professional associations whether teachers, translators, counselors, media specialists, writers, musicians, etc.
Currently, there are more than 30 such groups. More about this significant development in another Vincentian Mindwalk in Vincent de Paul Staffing a Field Hospital Church
What must be done today? Use our imagination!
- Do we look beyond the horizons of what we have always done?
- Do we think to inspire generous and gifted laity?
- How can we help them recognize how they share in the mission of Christ the Evangelizer of the Poor?
Thanks, John, for highlighting the importance of being “seekers” and illustrating it with the Magi and St. Vincent being examples of it. I’d say that “seekers” are open to what lies outside and ahead, and keep asking humbly, “Lord, if you were in my place, what would you do? (See SV.EN XII:81; SV.EN:XI:314) I find striking Pope Francis’ use of “forward” in his Epiphany homily:
* A great painter, Vincent Van Gogh, once said that his need for God drove him to go outside at night to paint the stars. For that is the way God made us: brimming with desire, directed, like the Magi, towards the stars. With no exaggeration, we can say that we are what we desire. For it is our desires that enlarge our gaze and drive our lives forward, beyond the barriers of habit, beyond banal consumerism, beyond a drab and dreary faith, beyond the fear of becoming involved and serving others and the common good.
* Have we been stuck all too long, nestled inside a conventional, external and formal religiosity that no longer warms our hearts and changes our lives? Do our words and our liturgies ignite in people’s hearts a desire to move towards God, or are they a “dead language” that speaks only of itself and to itself? It is sad when a community of believers loses its desire and is content with “maintenance” rather than allowing itself to be startled by Jesus and by the explosive and unsettling joy of the Gospel. It is sad when a priest has closed the door of desire, sad to fall into clerical functionalism, very sad.
* The Magi teach us that we need to set out anew each day, in life as in faith, for faith is not a suit of armour that encases us; instead, it is a fascinating journey, a constant and restless movement, ever in search of God, always discerning our way forward.
* Finally, the Magi return “by another way” (Mt 2:12). We must always move forward.
Sorry for a rather lenghty comment; I hope it’s worth it.
Ross,
Thank you for adding the section of Pope Francis talk that I cut out to keep within my usual limit of words.