The
Heart of Being Brother (HOBB)
Some
Reflections and Exercises
"Heart, when used to symbolize a spirituality,
indicates that following Jesus is not something primarily
heady, action-orientated, or moralistic. Rather, it is a
matter of being caught up in a dynamic loving relationship
with the Lord and others. Thus, Christian habits of the
heart are those ways of knowing, valuing, and acting that
are appropriate to followers of
Jesus."
Wilkie Au, By
Way of the Heart
INTRODUCTION
The Congregational Chapter placed before us this challenge
of living a heart centered spirituality. In seeking to come
to understand, and more importantly to live this
spirituality, we seek to find within it some links to the
central place that Edmund Rice’s spirituality holds
for us. Unlike other religious congregations, we do not
have a large body of writings from Edmund Rice that would
clarify what sort of interior life he led that was unique
for him. Let us be clear from the start that by
spirituality is not meant the various devotions that Edmund
might have practiced that were reflections of his time and
culture in the life of the Church. What we seek to uncover
is something deeper - that of himself that gave direction
and meaning to his life. We have only glimpses of this
through his own life that helps us to understand the
dynamic relationship he had with his God.
I assume any follower of Edmund Rice could come up with
his/her own suggestions that begin from a reflection and
search to make clearer how a heart centered spirituality
could be lived by Christian Brothers and others inspired by
the Edmund’s charism. What I offer for reflection are
three aspects or values of a heart centered spirituality
that I feel can be drawn from the life of Edmund. There are
also some exercises included within this article to assist
anyone in his/her own reflections.
FIGURE 1: Three Aspects of Heart Centred
Spirituality
THREE
ASPECTS: PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS
In the diagram above, the burning heart, full of energy and
passion of Edmund’s life was in truth the quest for
God. "His
faith in God, coupled with the deep intuition that life
could be different, lit the fire that transformed his
life." (Constitutions,
p. vii, 1996)
The three aspects, while listed separately, are only done
so for the sake of clarity and further development. In
reality, they indeed blend into one reality, that reality
as lived by Edmund during his life. It is a developmental
spirituality that flows back and forth linking the three
aspects as if the various sides of a box. But it is however
the one and same box. They can also be considered as
stepping stones to something more encompassing - the
passion for God.
The three aspects are around a circle emphasizing the
equality that exists in brotherhood and sisterhood. This
spirituality derives from Paul’s admonition of
inclusiveness: "By
faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God.
Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a
fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult
faith wardrobe - Christ's life, the fulfilment of God's
original promise. In Christ's family there can be no
division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and
female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in
a common relationship with Jesus Christ."
(Galatians 3: 26 -
28, The
Message)
There is no place for hierarchy or paternalism in a lived
heart-centred spirituality.
FIRST
ASPECT: POWERLESSNESS LEADING TO
INCLUSIVENESS
Those people who have power need to be reminded of the
cross. As one writer has expressed it, those that have
wealth and power have the need to give up, as the rich man
in the gospel was called to do (Luke 18: 18-23). They are
the ones that need to give up power and the control over
their own lives and that of others. They need to die to the
old self in order to open themselves to allow God’s
presence to be felt.
Edmund Rice was a wealthy man, a man of honour and
prestige, even in the days before Catholic emancipation. He
was privileged among his class. God called him to something
more - to the acceptance of the cross that would turn his
life around, that would open him up to begin to include a
wider range of God’s poor and marginalised into his
life. He would come to understand what it meant to be
powerless, to be dependent only on God. The death of his
wife and the situation of his daughter, we are told, were
turning points in Edmund’s spiritual journey. They
were Edmund’s entrance point into powerlessness, and
the beginning of his understanding of the powerlessness of
the poor and marginalised around him and their need to be
liberated.
FIGURE 2 - Paschal Cycle of Living in Edmund Rice’s
Life
Once powerless, Edmund could begin to understand that
Jesus’ message of liberation (Luke 4: 18 -21) was a
message of inclusiveness for the marginalised and the poor,
and that by his embracing that understanding in his own
powerlessness before his God, he could begin to empower the
poor to become liberated as Jesus hoped for in the Kingdom
of God. The diagram above highlights that cycle from
Edmund’s life. It is one that through our actions in
ministry we need also to be constantly reminded.
This cycle from power to powerlessness is the paschal
cycle, the dying to self in order to be born to new life.
As with Jesus, we all sink to the depths of a sense of
abandonment by God, the dark night, in order to come to the
singular acceptance of our God in our lives.
Think back in your own life of a time when there was a shift from power to powerlessness.
What was the source of this shift?
What was the result for your personally?
What was the result in the your relationship to God? How did it effect your ministry, your relating to others?
| EXERCISE |
SECOND ASPECT: INCARNATIONAL LEADING TO REFLECTIVE LIVING
A second aspect of heart centred spirituality is that it is incarnational, which should naturally lead us to daily theological reflection. In our lifetime we have seen leaders such as Nelson Mandela undergo radical transformation through his experiences of 30 years in prison and a lifetime of resistance against apartheid in South Africa. From a voice of resistance, even at the physical level, he was able to rise above the hatred and recrimination that was so embedded in the social and political system in his country. How did he arrive at this transformation? The answer may lie in the words of another contemporary leader.
In 1999, Vaclac Havel spoke before the US Congress. In that speech he declared that the salvation of the world - of this human world - lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and in human responsibility. Authentic spirituality was experienced by these two men in their personal lives because they were in touch with the deepest realities and the truth about themselves, even when those realities were painful and unjust. We all have a wealth of human experiences, incarnational experiences, that can lead us to listen for God, but oftentimes, we fail to do so because we fail to give the time to reflect on what is happening within us and around us. We fail to truly accept that God is in the whisperings of the here and now of our lives.
A spiritual writer of the Vatican Council era once wrote this idea in the following way: "God’s visits go so deep that often we are not aware of them until they have taken place." Edmund Rice had a wealth of experience throughout his long life. These were experiences that through the time he spent in reflection being brought before his God, led him to come to understand and accept how God entered his life and that of his neophyte congregation. His story is a constant telling of how life experiences led him to authentic reflective living.
Use the poemThe Problem with God as a basis for quiet reflection. Let arise words, images that are triggered by your prayerful recitation of the poem and spend time deepening your understanding of this aspect of heart-centred spirituality.
The Problem with God
Christ
came into my room the other day
and stood there,
and
I was bored to death,
I wouldn't have minded
if he'd been crippled or something
... I do well with cripples!
but he just stood there...
all face and with that damned guitar.
I didn't ask him to sit down...
He'd have stayed all day.
Let's be honest...
you can be crucified just so often...
then you've had it.
I mean you're useless, no good to God,
let alone to anybody else.
So I said to him after a while,
"Well, what's up? What is it you want?"
and he laughed... stupid!
Said he was just passing by and
thought he'd say "Hello".
Great!... I said "Hello"... So he left.
And I was damned mad!
I couldn't even listen to the radio.
I went and got some coffee...
The trouble with God is
He always comes at the wrong time
and in the wrong garb...
| EXERCISE |
A final aspect of heart-centred spirituality that we can examine is that it is relational and that it leads us to a quest for a wider God and for understanding our relationship to a wider world and creation.
THIRD ASPECT: RELATIONAL - QUEST FOR A BIGGER GOD, OTHERS AND THE COSMOS
In the Vatican II documents Gaudiam et Spes we are reminded that the quest - the search for God - is a quest to find life in its deepest and fullest expression. When we open our lives to God’s presence within us and around us we are in touch with a LOVE that is at the very centre of the universe. Such a life - connected with this divine encounter - becomes intimately connected with the world’s sufferings and cries and pains because these are carried in the heart of our Creator God.
It is this divine Love that is at the heart of the universe. Teilhard de Chardin has a beautiful mystical expression of this love in one of his writings from Hymn of the Universe entitled "The Mass on the World" in which he reflects on the the growth of Christ’s mystical body through the cosmos. He later developed his thoughts further: ‘To interpret adequately the fundamental position of the Eucharist in the economy of the world . . . it is, I think, necessary that Christian thought and Christian prayer should give great importance to the real and physical extensions of the eucharistic Presence. . . As we properly use the term "our bodies" to signify the localized centre of our spiritual radiations . . ., so it must be said that in its initial and primary meaning the term "Body of Christ" is limited, in this context, to the consecrated species of Bread and Wine. But. . .the host is comparable to a blazing fire whose flames spread out like rays all round it.’ (Mon Univers)
This divine Love or blazing fire propels and drives all life. It is like molten lava that pushes its way in forces than can crack the surface of life’s hatreds and sufferings. The force - the lava - is God. God can break through and make all relationships new. 'Be alert, be present. I'm about to do something brand-new. It's bursting out! Don't you see it? There it is!' (Isaiah 43: 19)
Edmund was in touch with that love in his heart, his passion, his fire for mission. In the face of those around him he saw Christ's face reaching out to him. Thus it became Christ himself appealing in the young children on the streets, the prisoners in the jail or at the gallows, the widows and destitute around him in Waterford. Authentic heart-centred spirituality allowed that love-relationship to break out of narrow confines so that was able to carry God's love to others and to the universe itself.
Below is a series of quotes about the heart from different and mostly secular writers. Focus on one or tow of them to spend time in reflection. What insights result from your reflection? Pray over them.
You could use a series of biblical texts in stead of secular writers if you so wish for this exercise. Here are references that might be helpful:
| EXERCISE: |
There are chords in the human heart-- strange, varying strings-- which are only struck by accident; which will remain mute and senseless to appeals the most passionate and earnest, and respond at last to the slightest casual touch.Charles Dickens
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.Helen Keller
Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakens.Carl Jung
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eyes, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts.Paramahansa Yogananda
If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing.Marc Chagall
Our hearts are the wrapping, which preserve God’s word, we need no more.The Koran
Often care of the soul means not taking sides where there is a conflict at a deep level. It may be necessary to stretch the heart wide enough to embrace contradiction and paradox.Thomas Moore
There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.Charles Dickens
Their is a road from the eye to heart that does not go through the intellect.Gilbert K. Chesterton
Everyone sees the unseen in proportion to the clarity of his heart, and that depends upon how much he has polished it. Whoever has polished it more sees more -- more unseen forms become manifest to him.Jalal-Uddin Rumi
If you want to know me, look inside your heart.Lao Tzu
Justclick on the Archive link above to take you to the previous articles under this topic (HOBB Vol 1 - 8). Click on the other buttons to get newer articles or resources. As always, we hope that this publication will play a part in ensuring that the Congregation is animated by, and remains faithful to, the Chapter Insights.
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These pages also contain past articles from the reflective journal, |
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