The Vow and Spirit of Association Realizing the Potential
Donald Mouton, FSC
Proceedings of Regional Convocation II
Moraga, California
August 9-15, 1990
Saturday, August 11, 1990
General Session - 8:30 a.m
Part Two
MEANING OF GRATUITY
De La Salle wanted his schools to be a "means of salvation" for the poor and
abandoned youth who were "far from salvation." The salvation De La Salle had in
mind concerned their entire existence. It meant teaching them to be truly Christian,
freeing them from ignorance, and making them useful in society. It meant making possible a
decent life for them. The "miracle" achieved in the Christian school is
"touching the hearts" of the children so that they can live in the light of the
Gospel and be industrious in school and at home (CL 12:M 180.3). These poor and abandoned
youth will be changed from liabilities to the Church and society to contributors to the
good of the Church and State (CL 12:M 160.3).
De La Salle makes it clear in his writings that gratuity expresses God's saving will for
poor and abandoned youth. The gratuitous schools reveals the mystery of a saving God at
work. God comes through the establishment of gratuitous Christian schools to save
unfortunate children whose temporal and eternal happiness is endangered by ignorance and
idleness. In his goodness God calls upon the Brothers to procure such an important
advantage for these needy children. For De La Salle teaching gratuitously is both a gift
to the Brothers of the goodness of God and a sign of God's gratuitous salvation for the
student. By their ministry of teaching gratuitously the gratuitous love of God can reach
the poor children confided to the Brothers' care:
God has had the goodness to remedy so great a misfortune
[neglect of the children of the working class and the poor, resulting in idleness and sin]
by the establishment of the Christian schools, where the teaching is offered free of
charge and entirely for the glory of God ... Thank God that he has had the goodness to
call upon you to procure such an important advantage for the children. (CL 13:M 194.1)
This theological dimension of gratuity, a sign of God's
saving love, leads De La Salle to call upon the Brothers to say with Paul, "The
source of my consolation is to announce the Gospel free of charge without having it cost
anything to those who hear me" (CL 13:M 194.1). In another use of a Pauline text De
La Salle compares the consolation of the Brothers in this life to the consolation of the
"Apostle Paul because he announced the Gospel free of charge for the spread of God's
glory (CL 12:M 207.2). The salvation of the students and the glory of God are closely
correlated in De La Salle's mind. The Brothers should teach with entire disinterestedness
in order to procure God's glory and the salvation of souls (CL 12:M 108.2). The vow
formulas of 1691 and 1694 express this same view: "to procure your glory" and
for this purpose "to keep gratuitous schools" for the salvation of youth. Thus,
both preaching the Gospel free of charge for the salvation of youth and having gratuitous
schools for the poor and abandoned youth were seen by De La Salle as revealing the mystery
of the saving God.
De La Salle's Christian school, then, by bringing salvation to poor and abandoned youth
procured God's glory, for it signified God's gratuitous love of the teacher and, through
the teacher, of the poor children. It was also the sign of the love of the teacher for the
students and for God, for the teacher taught gratuitously with no expectation of personal
remuneration. In contrast to the many journeymen teachers of the time who taught in one
place just long enough to make sufficient money to move on, the teachers of the Christian
Schools were there for the students, not for their own personal gain or satisfaction. They
sought the good of the students, not their own benefit. Even correction was intended for
the growth of the student and not to vent the teacher's frustration. Correction was not to
be administered through uncontrolled emotion and without having God in view:
If you want your corrections to have the results they ought,
administer them in a way that can please God and those who receive them. Take care, above
all, that it is love and zeal for the salvation of your pupils that lead you to correct
them. (CL 13:M 204.3)
Furthermore, if gratuity is to express God's
saving will for poor and abandoned youth, and if this is done in a special way through the
school, then the school needs to be transformed so that it reaches the needy students. De
La Salle accomplished this transformation. He established gratuitous schools and fought to
maintain gratuity, but he also adapted the schools to meet the students' needs. He saw to
it that the schools were well run, so that the students could live in the "spirit of
Christianity," which is nothing less than the experience of the gratuity of God's
saving love. The spiritual inspiration behind gratuity stimulated pedagogical
transformation.
CONCLUSION
The vow of association formally expresses the spirit of association, a corporate
commitment to make education accessible to the poor through gratuity of instruction. The
vow aims to eliminate discrimination against students based on poverty and, paradoxically,
even on the ability to pay for schooling.
Association was not an end in itself. Its primary purpose, as has already been indicated,
was not to form community, or to run schools together, in the sense that
"together" means a particular community at a particular school. The Society was
not born and defined by the need for a community of Brothers to teach in the same school,
although at the beginning there was total identity between the religious fraternity and
the school personnel. Rather, association was born in the call to answer the need of poor
and abandoned youth for a suitable education. This response could be effective only in a
system of gratuitous schools.
Gratuity was the primary concern (CL 11:191-192). It is interesting to notice that the vow
of association disappeared in the Bull of Approbation (1725), which mentions poverty,
chastity, obedience, and teaching gratuitously. As a vow, association cam back
relatively recently (Circular 4106, December 21, 1977, 126-127). The General Chapter of
1966-1967 speaks of the "vow of association to keep gratuitous schools," and in
the 1987 Rule it becomes "association for the service of the poor through
education" (Art 25).
At the heart of the vow and spirit of association is concern for the poor and for the
promotion of justice. The latter is the broader view of service to the poor that operated
at the time of De La Salle and the early Brothers. They did not want to duplicate the Ecoles
de Charité, which could admit only the registered poor; they wanted the Christian
Schools to give preference to the poor without closing the doors to others. There was to
be no discrimination based on inability or ability to pay.
Service to the poor is an integral part of the promotion of justice, but this latter goes
further. It is not content to help the poor; it seeks to fight against the forces which
cause poverty and injustice. This far-reaching view directs our educational work in
keeping with the tradition coming from De La Salle and the early Brothers.
"PREFERENTIAL OPTION FOR THE POOR"
This expression in the 1987 Rule has caused considerable anxiety in certain
quarters of the Institute. Some see this insistence on preference for the poor as
historically inaccurate, since De La Salle opened the doors of his schools to rich and
poor alike; some see it as inconsistent with the usual training of the Brothers for the
apostolate and with their vow of obedience to teach wherever they may be sent; still
others see it as a call that cannot be ignored.
It is important to understand the expression. "Preferential option for the poor"
is, first of all, a reality of faith, a theological truth. To opt for the poor is derived
from an earlier option for the Father revealed by Jesus Christ, the saving God who led
Israel out of Egypt and who raised Jesus from the dead. Indeed, "preferential option
for the poor" belongs to the very definition of God. The God of scripture is the God
of the poor. To opt for the Father of Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ himself is to opt
for the poor.
A special concern for the poor characterized Israel's social patterns, which conformed
with the privileged position the poor held in the eyes of the God of Israel. The laws of
Israel accord special privileges to the poor. In the Psalms the supplicants, as poor, know
they are the object of God's special attention. The Psalms proclaim Yahweh's
representatives on earth, the kings, as defenders of the poor. The Rulers will be
judged according to the justice they show the oppressed. The prophets kept alive the
tradition of Yahweh as the God who takes the part of the poor in a society dominated by a
wealthy ruling class. One of the functions of the God of the wisdom literature is to
protect the interests of the poor.
Poverty was the setting for the revelation of who God is in Jesus Christ and continues to
be the social condition of the Word of God. The Gospel does not hesitate to identify Jesus
with the poor: "Whatever you do to one of these, the least of my brethren, you do to
me." The reign of God proclaimed by Jesus and realized in him was preferentially for
the poor and the marginalized; indeed, the poor's hearing the Good News would be a sign of
the presence of God's reign.
The early Church cared for the poor in a special way, and this concern for the poor
continues to be the "inborn vocation" of the Church.
To lose sight of the poor and the justice due them is to lose sight of the God of the
Exodus and the Father revealed by Jesus. Or conversely, to take on the cause of the poor
is to honor the Gospel; it is the way to the Father. Faith gives the option for the poor
its ultimate justification, for that option is rooted in the mystery of God. In final
analysis, the option for the poor is based on theological reasons before anthropological
and sociological ones. In emphasizing the "preferential option for the poor" the
Institute's heart is evangelical. The danger, however, is that vision may lack focus.
The model of the poor in the present historical context is no longer Lazarus in the
parable of Lazarus and the rich man. The poor, those deprived of the material goods
necessary to live with dignity, are not primarily individuals in need of aid or
communities needing economic development. Today the poor are collective victims of systems
of oppression and discrimination in need of justice and liberation. In social terms
poverty is oppression and dependence; in ethical terms it is injustice. The promotion of
justice is the mediating term between the contemplation of God as a saving God and the
option for the poor.
The institute, then, in emphasizing a "preferential option for the poor" is
calling us to contemplate, as De La Salle did, the saving God of the Exodus and the Father
revealed by Jesus Christ. The promotion of justice must be the guiding principle of all
our apostolic activity, whether it be with the poor or in institutions or situations where
the poor are not the dominant culture. In some instances not just the causes of poverty
and injustice but also the cases of poverty and injustice will call for out involvement.
But whether the service is for the poor in institutions or works that are with the more
fortunate, or actually with the poor, the effort is the same -- liberation from oppression
and injustice. The promotion of justice is the objective that must characterize the entire
Institute in all its educational endeavors and commitments, so as better to achieve
service of the poor. This aim should lead us to enter more fully into the pastoral work of
the Church and into all efforts for the promotion of justice and liberation. To free
humanity from every situation of oppression is the mission of the Church, for it is a
constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel.
The Institute's option for preferential service to the poor -- the ultimate meaning of the
vow and spirit of association -- is not some faddish or idiosyncratic apostolic thrust,
but rather is embedded in the very understanding of God, of the Gospel, of the Church, and
of the charism of De La Salle. The danger, however, is to spiritualize the option, but
authentic faith inevitably leads to works. Thus, the question of the concrete embodiments
of this option is one of great importance. However, the purpose of this presentation is
not to discuss the forms association has taken or may take in the Institute. The intention
is to suggest that an association that takes on the epithet "Lasallian" must
commit itself to the service of the poor through the promotion of justice, if it wishes to
claim fidelity to the "spirit of association" that inspired Saint John Baptist
de La Salle to found the Institute.
Could it be more than coincidental that the renewed Institute orientation toward social
justice and the poor coincides with the emergence and promotion of various forms of
Lasallian associations?
 
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