Congregation of the Passion

Passionist Asian/Pacific (PASPAC) Conference

  

Opening Address of Fr. Ottaviano D’Egidio, C.P.

Superior General

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

 

            It is a great joy for me to be here in the monastery of Glen Osmond to participate in this meeting of the PASPAC Assembly, as well as the Consulta of the General Council, the meeting of the Restructuring Commission and the meeting of the Economes. We are truly enjoying the setting and the sincere, fraternal hospitality of this community, including the natural beauty surrounding us, the friends of the community and the faithful of the parish. Thank you. I also wish to greet the Passionist Sisters here present and the Economes of the Provinces, Vice-Provinces and Vicariates who, for the first time, came to meet with the General Econome, Father Battista Ramponi. I also wish to greet Father Kevin Dance, representative of the Congregation to the United Nations. On behalf of the General Council, I sincerely hope that we can all spend these next few days in a spirit of deep reflection and prayer.

 

            May the Holy Spirit, the title of this Province that is welcoming us, open our hearts and minds so that we can follow Him across the Red Sea of Restructuring. May God make us instruments of his Spirit so that we may not nullify the Cross of Christ (1 Corinthians 1:17) or our vocation of contemplation and preaching of the Word of the Cross.

 

            I am pleased to know that the first three days of the PASPAC meeting are structured as a retreat with moments of silence and contemplation on our Passionist values. Only on Calvary, after contemplating and meditating together in community, will we be able to reposition the Cross in order to make it a bridge for moving beyond human misunderstanding, individualism and injustice, to fraternity, solidarity and compassion. The Cross is the only bridge to love and charity.

 

            What charism and what spiritual gifts would God have given to St. Paul of the Cross for today’s world? To what vocation would God have called him... and what Congregation would St. Paul of the Cross have founded today? Would not St. Paul of the Cross still be convinced that the cause of the evils of our time is the forgetfulness of the Passion of Jesus? And that only the Passion of Jesus is the most efficacious remedy for the evils of our time? We realize that the forgetfulness that Paul of the Cross spoke of is the same as that of Paul the Apostle when he referred to “the risk of making vain the Cross of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 1:17) The mystery of the Cross is the source of salvation and through it we share in the tribulation of humanity, especially of the most poor and abandoned (Constitutions 3). Here the Crucified One assumes his true identity and also invites us to participate in His passion. (Constitutions, No. 65).

 

            The Disciples asked: “Master, where do you live?” (John 1:38). And we can clearly hear his answer: “I live among the crucified ones of today”. He himself redirects us into the violent reality of the different situations of our world. What does the “Memoria Passionis” mean today? Jesus, the Crucified One, is the space offered by the Father in which the marvellous possibility of salvation takes place. It is on the Cross that we understand who God is and who we are. And we can also understand the solidarity that exists between the Crucified One and those who are crucified and how the death of Jesus is a project of life for us. It is the supreme evidence of God’s love. And from the Cross is born a new understanding of our world. The Cross reveals the God of our future, of the new creation in which the peace predicted by the Prophets of the Messianic times will take place: peace within us; peace with our brothers and sisters; peace with nature. This can happen only by embracing the spirit of the Passion. Only the full recovery of our identity in the Congregation within the “Memoria Passionis” will offer this vitality and the possibility of life with greater credibility and thus, the possibility of new vocations with greater perseverance and more authentic witness.

 

            It is not primarily the amount of work that makes a religious community grow, but the quality: you can organize a community, but you generate it by the fruitfulness of its charisms. And among these charisms, sanctity is the most fruitful. And this brings us back to the necessity of making God and his Word the centre of our lives. We must live our lives on the level of faith and it is on this level that we have to see and judge our lives. The greatest expression of the life of Jesus was his death on the Cross, his gift of love, in total obedience to the will of the Father. While he accepted the extreme futility of his death, emptying himself of every power on earth and in heaven, he attained the greatest degree of fruitfulness that re-establishes a new covenant through the Supreme act of love for his Father and for us. It is on this level of love and obedience that the Passionist must live his own difficulties: physical concerns, weaknesses, aging, and illness -- all situations that are beyond our control. It is the participation in the Paschal mystery of Jesus.

 

            During the General Synod celebrated in Rome last December, we began the process of the Restructuring of our Congregation. The task of the Synod was to discern the design and will of God in reference to our Congregation and its structures. As a Congregation we reflected on the reality of being a part of a globalized world, and on the efficacy of our global mission. We certainly do not want to hide the difficulties of restructuring. We will surely have to struggle and overcome the obstacles that present themselves. We also need clarity even though at the beginning it will not always appear clear. Sometimes it may appear very dark. What is hidden and what we tend to ignore are often the opportunities that God is preparing for the Congregation. Many times we feel like blind men searching for the light. But as in the case of Israel, the Lord says to us: “I will make the blind travel on paths that they do not know. And I will guide them as they pass through unknown paths.” (Isaiah 42:16) God is our certainty and our guide in the journey of Restructuring. We will be able to go forward only if our choices result in projects that engender life. The answers and the directions are not pre-conceived. They will be the fruit of the discernment process that is done by the entire Congregation.

 

            In fact, among the decisions of the General Synod was the publication of a letter of commencement of the process of restructuring that was sent to the Congregation. With the help of the Restructuring Commission, Fr. Nicholas Postlethwaite, Father Denis Travers, Father Adolfo Lippi, we have sent letters to each religious, to the communities and to the major superiors and their councils. On-going involvement will continue and will surely be an essential part of the next General Chapter in October, 2006.

 

            Restructuring is an opportunity offered to us by the Spirit. It is an opening of doors and must be lived as an occasion for enrichment and not of disparagement. It must be lived in a climate of mutual charity and solidarity. I believe we must go forward with trust and hope, because despite the difficulties, we have the potential to do well.

 

            May the Lord help us on the journey toward the Emmaus of our Restructuring, illuminating those of us who take part in the process, which includes the wider Passionist Family.

 

            The charism is strong and present. We have a great sense of identity, but we must have the courage to free ourselves from the things that weaken us and entrench us. The Lord of Life is with us and we cannot miss this historical opportunity. It is the last call before the spouse arrives and closes the door, as in the parable of the wise virgins.

 

            Certainly the initial Restructuring must take place in our own hearts by recovering a strong interior life based on the Passion of Jesus; but at the same time we must not fear changes in our structures, even at the juridical level. Let us recall how many times St. Paul of the Cross revised the Rule, even up to a few months before his death. We have the possibility of giving a new impulse to the Congregation today. So I say to myself and to you: Let us move on, even though we do not see everything clearly, because the Lord wants us to go in this direction -- the Lord wants it! He wants the Passionists to be on the journey toward renewal. Let us put all of our fears at the foot of the Cross, like our Founder used to do. With the Lord in our boat, we can easily reach the opposite shore.

 

            I am convinced that Paul of the Cross would want this journey firmly based on strong communion with the Lord himself, focused on the Paschal mystery of his death and resurrection. We can see this in his letters where he reminds us that, if our mission is to be successful, we must be base our lives on the life of Christ. As a good Father, he knows our fragility, and so he knows what it takes for us to re-establish our spiritual lives. I would like to recall a few elements of his and our Passionist spirituality.

 

            Paul of the Cross had a particular devotion to the Child Jesus sleeping on the Cross. We have an image of this subject that he himself used. He was moved to tears on Christmas Eve when he would carry the image of the Christ Child in procession into the Church in the presence of the community for the celebration of the feast. The mystery of the Incarnation is already a mystery of love and passion. For Paul of the Cross the Child adored by the three Wise Men was none other than the King of the Jews, the man who died under the sentence of Pontius Pilate: Jesus, the Nazorean, the King of Jews. The grottoes of Bethlehem and of Calvary are part of the same reality of love.

 

            Silence is the setting for listening through recollection. Silence quiets the noise around us and gives us the possibility to listen to the silent Word and the Spirit of Love that comes from the Father. Detaching ourselves from the business and chaos that surround us and setting them aside will help us to be the “nothing that receives all”. God will speak and communicate to us in silence. Silent meditation on the Passion of Jesus, with the entire Passionist community gathered together in a chapel, will be the secret and mysterious communion of love that will lead us to understand the sufferings of Jesus.

 

            Solitude is the place where silence is possible.  It is the space where God and nature speak. On the mountain, alone with ourselves and with God, we can immerse ourselves in the loving presence of God. The noise of the world is far away and we re-establish the critical distance from those things that distract us. The reason for founding our “retreats” on mountain tops, in solitude, is to be closer to God and to rest after preaching missions. There it is possible to enter into prayer and to contemplate the mystery of God. There you can feel the presence of God. G.Orlandini used to say about the Founder when they were living in the hermitage of St Anthony on Monte Argentario: “Frequently during the evening he used to hide himself between two rocks to remain in prayer in the silence of the night ‘til the dawn.”

 

            And Rosa Calabressi said: “his prayer was profound; his life was a continuous prayer”. One day with great fervour Paul said to Brother Francesco: “I cannot understand how someone who never thinks of God can even exist.” He used to observe and guard the environment that allowed him to pray. In a letter in which he speaks about contemplation done in silence, or in spirit and truth, he concludes: “This divine fishing done in the sea of Divine Love which flows from the sea of the holy Passion of Jesus is done in the same waters. This occurs in the interior kingdom of the spirit in pure faith and burning love.”

 

            Poverty will be another value that will allow us to be immersed in the mystery of God because of the freedom that it gives from attachment to things. Our Founder gave great importance to this standard “under which the Congregation must grow in freedom of spirit”.

 

            We cannot conclude without remembering Mary. St. Paul of the Cross, having understood that the only remedy to the evils of this world is Passion of Jesus, the miracle of miracles of love, also had a great Marian devotion. The Passion of Jesus and that of his Sorrowful Mother are really one and the same thing. He compared the sufferings of Mary to an ocean and says: “In the passion of Jesus, there are two oceans of sorrow. One is of the Son the other is of the Mother.”

 

            The two sorrows are at the same time so different, but at the same time so close that you cannot see the distance between the two. The mother, who dies in her heart, stands next to her son, whose heart was poured out.

 

She stood beneath the cross – weakness and strength

She had only a glimmer of life on her face

While Jerusalem was piercing her heart.

She remembered the time of Nazareth - an invisible balm upon her wounds,

The time spent with her son and Joseph, the Just, her husband.

 

Nazareth is Mary’s Tabor. With the tent built on the mountain:

The workshop of the carpenter – the odour of the shaved wood,

The smell of the glue coming from the copper pot on the fire.

 

As the Canticle of Canticles says your perfumes surpass all scents.

The perfumes of family, of home, of the table we share with God Incarnate and

Transfigured in the Son.

And now, exiled to Jerusalem; refused and taken away

They remain. They give themselves into human hands that give in return sorrow and suffering.

 

A sign unconditional, with no compromise, with no raised voice

As lambs led to the slaughter.

 

He is Crucified, Mother! You will lose your only son.

But only for a moment, you will be made sterile.

In order to generate life again, at the sound of his voice.

“Woman, here is your son.”

 

Those who cast their insults at him and hung him on a tree

Did not realize that you had become their mother.

And so, brothers of the One on the Cross.

 

            The maternity of Mary will give birth to a great number of foreign children; finally the orphans, the derelicts, the sinners, will have a mother in communion with God. Even Adam and Eve will have a mother. And also Judas, if only he had wanted, would have had the sweetest of all mothers. A new world is born under the Cross.

 

            And now, in the monastery of St. Paul of the Cross, in Glen Osmond, on the occasion of the PASPAC Assembly and of the meeting with the General Council, we place the Restructuring of our Congregation, the process of revitalization of our life and our mission to the world under the protection of Mary, the Mother of God.

 

            These are only some reflections on some aspects of the spiritual treasury of Paul of the Cross, who considered these elements as the means for becoming immersed in the Passion of Jesus. Though the circumstances of our lives are different, we still consider them to be valid for our times. May St. Paul of the Cross, our Father, guide us and bless us!