Invited by the Preparatory Commission to speak to you on this morning, my first reaction
was to refuse. A pessimistic humorist once stated: "Beware of the first impulse, it's
the best." While I was trying to prepare this talk, I had a feeling of dizziness and
panic. I was tempted to agree with the humorist and give up. Lasallian spirituality? How
would it be possible, in a few quarters of an hour even to simply define what the term
means, let alone attempt to outline its content? Our heritage: how could I even pretend to
take stock of it by myself during such a short period of preparation, in view of the
General Chapter, which is itself the Institute in its most exalted expression? If there is
a Lasallian heritage, it only exists in the living body that we form as a community, and
this community utters no more authentic Declaration concerning its identity and its
mission than that which flows forth from the exchange, the confrontations and the prayer
of the membersof the Chapter (Declaration 7, 1-3). Finally, how could I add anything this
Saturday morning, after such an intense week enriched by the contribution of exceptional
men?
In order to prepare for this morning, I reread the Lasallian texts: the "Method of
Mental Prayer," the "Collection," the "Meditations" and even the
"Letters." As I advanced along these paths which I'd so often followed, I had
the feeling of walking in an unknown land, of discovering a familiar and yet strange
universe, where a different language is spoken, not that to which we are accustomed. The
question that arose was not so much "How to speak of John Baptist de La Salle
today?," but "Why?" We have come here, bringing with us all the questions
and the uncertainty of the worlds we left behind. In different ways, these worlds are all
marked by the economic crisis and the surge of technical changes which produce
unrestrained competition and present tremendous ethical problems in the field of genetics,
of respect for life, of nuclear arms. Socio-economic mechanisms make it possible for the
"rich to become richer at the expense of the poor who get poorer." To be aware
of this fact takes nothing away from the dramatic reality it denounces. Violence,
terrorism, fanaticism and intolerance continue to create havoc. Almost everywhere, the
Church finds itself in a situation of Diaspora. Indifference and secularism progress,
while at the same time erratic, and more or less irrational, forms of religiosity make
their appearance. (See J. Rigal: "Le Courage de la Mission," p.28.) The hopes,
the searching, the aspirations, the anguish of the youth of the close of this century,
live with us; they worry and stimulate us. At the same time we are preoccupied by the
disillusioned relativism of some young people, by
their fatalism caused by a feeling of helplessness and by their allergy to long-term
commitments.
John Baptist de la Salle gives us no answers to these questions, nor to many others that
one could enumerate. Why then should we make a detour by way of a spiritual author who is
three hundred years old? Isn't that wasting our time, or worse still hiding behind an
alibi?
As a matter of fact, there is a lot of talk nowadays, more and more explicit, about
"refounding" religious orders. It would be easy to demonstrate how the last two
General Chapters engaged the Institute in such a process of refoundation. They did so in
conformity with the orientations of the Council on the renovation of religious
congregations. The paradox is that the Institute, like the council, only considered a
"refoundation" in the light of a greater fidelity to the charism of the
Founder.
A paradox? Only in appearance. What would become of the tree which is the Institute if it
uprooted itself from the soil of its first planting? What would happen to the river if it
cut itself off from its primary source? What could be the viability of a composite
organism whose members are more and more diversified, decentralized, and autonomous, if
there were no common point of reference to the original inspirational force to keep it
united?
That is why, confronted with a deeper and deeper mutation, and a greater and greater
diversification, this Chapter will often unite in a common effort to scrutinize the spirit
and the specific intentions of the Founder, according to the terms by which Perfectae
Caritatis characterized fidelity to our origins. Thus, my intervention at the end of this
week of beginning the Chapter is worthwhile and has a symbolical significance. It
constitutes the sign of your common desire to make Lasallian inspiration one of the
essential principles of the dynamics of renewal which will inhabit the 41st General
Chapter and which will animate its work. For my part, I can measure the frailty and the
precariousness of this fleeting, momentary sign: the principal object of this intervention
should be to permit a sharing among
yourselves, the Capitulants.
Foundation - Refoundation: Like the Church, the Institute must be constantly reborn in the
world, and even of the world. However, it is by being faithful to its own deep identity
that it must be reborn. The simple idea that I would like to leave with you this morning
is that the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools arose in history like a
spiritual uprising which became a living body. In this sense, indeed, it is first of all
to the force of spirituality that we can attribute our existence today, and it is
certainly, and primarily, from spiritual dynamics that we must hope for renewal and
refoundation.
Among these spiritual dynamics, I think it is possible to retain four:
1.Setting out, as a Founder, to start a movement which is both powerful and fragile, De La
Salle roots his Institute in the experience of the Spirit. He wants to build it on
interior men, that is, men of the Spirit.
2.Led on an unforeseen path, to depart from his familiar universe in order to embrace
another world, he perceives this step as an invitation to continue a journey of
incarnation in the footsteps of Christ, and an ever growing conformity to His mystery as
Savior.
3. Associated first, and quite by chance, with a group of teachers, he is led to making
them his Brothers, and to become their Brother himself. He views the society that he
wishes to establish, not only as a functioning body, but as a communion of persons in the
image of the primitive community of Jerusalem, and he refers to it as to the unity of love
in the Trinity.
4.Living this foundation, searching and feeling his way long, being constantly aware of
its frailty, facing repeated crises which threatened to ruin everything,being led twenty
times to the brink of ruin, living the precarious situation of each day, and the
uncertainty of the day that would follow, De La Salle becomes
one of the most peaceful and perhaps also one of the most pacifying witnesses of
abandonment to God and to hope.
The limited time I have at my disposal and some personal fatigue will oblige me to shorten
this program which was too ambitious. I will only develop the first two points, and in
conclusion I'll try if possible to speak of De La Salle's abandonment to God. At any rate,
the idea of communion, which I will not speak about, will be taken up I hope in the
question period which is to follow later this morning.
While speaking about what I call founding spiritual dynamics, you have understood that, if
I read Lasallian texts correctly, I was even more attentive to what history can tell us
with regard to progression in the Spirit, about which De La Salle remains very discreet,
and which is largely a matter of interpretation. This already rejects and understanding of
the word "spirituality" as defining a conceptual system ore or less elaborated
from the writings alone. We can't ensure fidelity to the Founder by drawing from a
collection of texts, or by clinging to certain expressions which are powerful and
essential, no doubt, but which, separated from the living context which gave them birth,
risk becoming ridiculous or turning in to slogans.
I can assure you that I took time and expanded the necessary effort to prepare this
intervention, according to my present capability. But you don't expect me to five you
something really new this morning. It's the same field that I've been ploughing for more
than thirty years. Let's hope that new ploughmen come forth, because with the Lasallian
heritage, as with the treasure in the fables, each generation must reinvent it, rediscover
it, appropriate it as its own, not be discovering it intact, like a cassette, after
digging in the ground, but by the same action of the ploughman, untiringly renewed, in
communion.
1. The foundation of the Institute, a creation in the experience of the Spirit, by
interior men, men of the Spirit.
The first biographers of De La Salle lingered to study the group of schoolmasters at the
time when they seemed to be emerging from their initial chaos, and were taking on a
certain consistency, before acceding to an identity, or claiming the denomination of
"community." A word from the Apocalypse, quite unexpectedly, came out of Blain's
pen: "Behold, I shall make all things new. I renew all things through my
servant." A formula that sums up the essential in Lasallian history and
which the biographers will continue telling. At the end of his life, De La Salle appears
to them as a man in whom a creative power was at work. Creative forces, dynamics of
renewal, which erupted but not without struggle, in a closed society, a dull, sleeping
world, an installed Church.
It is true, and let us repeat it once and for all this morning, because we are more and
more aware of it, that there is no question, in any phase of Lasallian activity, or a
creation "ex-nihilo." Thanks to numerous and serious works, we now see clearer
than ever that the pedagogical, educational, ecclesial and spiritual work of John Baptist
de La Salle benefited from existing sources. It is inscribed in a living context. It
develops in a propitious milieu. This play of influences, or reciprocity, or multiple
interactions did not prevent the Founder from playing his own role, from pursuing original
realizations, from often finding himself alone in his options,from arousing considerable
opposition, from instigating change, sometimes in a decisive manner, and after accepting
bitter struggles.
At the end of De La Salle's journey, his biographers could take stock of the
"novelties" he introduce, thanks to the creative force he knew how to use
wisely, with courage and stubbornness.
Creative forces: These can be seen concretely in the history of the youth of the times who
were, until then, abandoned. The multiplication of schools and their diversification, the
intransigent fight for effective gratuity, the reform of teaching methods, the
transformation of the educative relationship - all of these changed the situation of the
youth in De La Salle's schools. It became possible for these young people to accede to a
minimum level of culture, to hope for a professional career, to have a decent human
existence, to the beginning of a consciousness of solidarity, to an opening toward the
Gospel. Thanks to these creative forces, the means of salvation were put within their
reach.
Creative forces: They can be seen concretely in the history of the schoolmasters, until
that time poorly prepared, poorly motivated and poorly appreciated. The creation of a
community, and then of the Society of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, made it
possible to strengthen the vocation of the masters, to consolidate their professional
formation to implant their aims and their educational attitudes in the Gospel. The
personal attention paid to them by him whom they called their father, his prophetic vision
of a renewed Church, similar to that which St. Paul describes, introduced them, little by
little, to the living realization of the importance of their work. Still humble
schoolmasters, they are not surprised to hear their founder call them ministers of God, of
Jesus Christ and of the Church. These new words rejoin, enlighten and announce the
profound change the masters have experienced in the exercise of their profession and the
discovery of their identity.
It is first of all in his own personal history that De La Salle experiences these forces
of creation, or re-creation, of founding dynamics. "Behold, I shall make all things
new." Blain has recourse to this quotation from one of the last passages of the New
Testament to characterize the upheaval brought about by De La Salle's final, decisive
option. He had just given up his canonry in order to share his existence with the
schoolmasters, irrevocably and unconditionally. It is with them and through them that he
will go ahead with this work which he now sees as the work of God for him.
Through this decisive option of separation and of commitment, a creative power can be seen
in the person of John Baptist de La Salle, leading him to fulfill a prophetic passage:
"Behold, I shall make all things new." De La Salle leaves an old, immobile
Church to accede to a new one; or at least, having freely consented to the creative force
acting in and beyond him, he allows himself to be reborn to a new way of living the
Church.
As a Canon, he spent long hours, sitting in his stall, reciting the Divine Office. Once
committed to live with the schoolmasters, he literally dis-installs himself; he leaves a
"closed" Church and sets out on an adventure, the adventure of a ministry quite
unheard of. From then on he will use all his talents on behalf of children and youth whom
he often describes as abandoned and far from salvation. It can be said that in urging him
to prefer this venture with the schoolmasters to the reassuring tranquility of his
canonry, a creative power made De La Salle emerge from an established Church to a
missionary Church.
As a Canon, he lived familiarly with classic theology. His assiduous study of it led him
to a doctorate. He chooses to risk his future with the schoolmasters; day after day he
accompanies them in their field of action; he gets involved in creating a form of priestly
ministry which he had not counted on in his plan of life. The Gospel he announces is going
to become through him a force that will transform the lives of these men, a power of
promotion for the abandoned youth they are serving, a leaven of justice and liberation, a
source of upheaval in a closed society.
These "novelties" or innovations will not be introduced, thanks to the creative
forces which are pushing De La Salle, except by also bringing about a renewal of his own
centers of interest. The doctor of theology will use his talent in favor of catechesis for
the children of the poor and the spiritual formation of his brothers. It seems only just
to observe that without fuss and as if it were only natural, De La Salle uses his
competence in theology to work out a plan for the Brothers' consecration, their ministry,
their commitments, their educational responsibilities, their community life, and all this
based upon their manner of life. In this living experience, he furnished them food for
thought, be it Christological, ecclesiological, pneumatological, eschatological or moral.
In short, he took ready-made
theology out of the books, to experiment with it in a new ecclesial situation.
Besides all this, we see this priest discovering and putting to good use his talent in the
field of pedagogy. From the assiduous sharing in the experience of his companions, he will
produce the Conduct of Schools, the Duties of a Christian, the Rules of Politeness. The
creative forces to which he has actively submitted himself have extracted him from a
Church occupied with its internal problems only. The new Church, into which they have
introduced him, is to be concretely committed to the evangelical transformation of the
world.
As a Canon, his usual companions belonged to the world of ecclesiastics. He shared their
culture, their language, their preoccupations. A good number of them, like himself, were
related to influential families of the city. After the death of Roland, and in order to
help the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, De La Salle used his powerful influence in that
particular milieu. This same milieu was surprised and scandalized when he renounced his
position as Canon of the Cathedral Chapter. Henceforth what he will share is the humble
condition of the schoolmasters, whom the milieu he has left prefer to ignore or to
belittle. He will learn to make their daily worries his own as well as their pedagogical
activities, their strivings to announce the Gospel to youngsters who are often difficult
to handle. With these masters he will build a new school, little by little, and a new
style community will appear in the Church. He will not try to found this new work on the
support of the milieu he has left behind. He will write later on in his Memoir Concerning
the Brothers' Habit, "the Community is presently established and founded on
Providence alone." In leaving the Cathedral he tore himself away from a powerful
Church to accede to the evangelical and creative force of a frail and servant Church.
Finally, he gave up being a Canon because he felt the incompatibility of that state with
the requirements involved in the assiduous sharing of the daily life of the schoolmasters.
Henceforth his usual companions for lodging, for meals and for conversation, will be
laymen. He will help them to measure up to the dignity of their condition in the Church.
He will show them that, through them, the Church will see a new form of evangelical
ministry come alive. With them, he will maintain and defend the formation of a new kind of
community whose members are consecrated to God and commit themselves to remain as laymen
and to admit none but laymen in their midst. Should we not recognize that in this small
group animated by De La Salle a creative power has made them pass from the clerical Church
to the Church of the People of God?
"Behold, I shall make all things new." John Baptist de La Salle was aware that a
creative power was acting in him. He was aware of the changes it was bringing about in his
own being as in society and in the Church. It seems to me that the quite exceptional
importance he gives to the Holy Spirit in his spiritual teachings is closely linked to
this creative experience of which he is both the beneficiary and the instrument. I will
limit myself to four different leads to guide your reflection on this subject, and in a
very simplified form, because to develop these perspective would take very much time. In
the margin I will indicate some references from
Lasallian texts.
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