Contemplation

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Contemplation – The Robbers’ Victim
Contemplation – The Robbers’ Victim 940 788 SVDP USA

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Christ tells of a man who stopped to care for a victim of a robbery who had been left naked and dying by the side of the road. Others had passed by, averting their eyes. Who, Christ asks us, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim? The one who showed mercy.

This parable is a Vincentian favorite as we seek to “go and do likewise”, to form mutual relationships “based on trust and friendship.” [Rule, Part I, 1.9] But if we are the Samaritans, the neighbors, who are the robbers’ victims?

The Samaritan had no helpline; he was, as far as we know, minding his own business on his journey. There was nobody else around but the man lying in the ditch, and he could have kept walking as others had. Unconscious, the victim did not cry out for help. Called only by his own conscience and his own mercy, he stopped and gave his time, his possessions, and himself. [Rule, Part I, 2.5.1]

As Vincentians, though, are we not called to do even more than the Samaritan? Our Rule, after all, says that we are “to seek out and find those in need and the forgotten…” [Rule, Part I, 1.5] Are “the forgotten” the robbers’ victims? How do we find them?

Bl. Frédéric believed that the victims of his time were the people who had been robbed of “the treasure of faith and love” and left so badly wounded that even the priests who stopped to help were turned away by the victims who could no longer recognize them. Frederic believed that we “weak Samaritans” might be able to soothe and comfort them, to welcome them into community, and to reassure them of “the hope of a better world”. [Letter 90, to Curnier, 1835]

Who are the robbers’ victims in our world? Who do we pass by, from whom do we shift our gaze, at whom do we look without touching? [Fratelli tutti, 76] It is easy to answer the phone, or to send a check – to solve a math problem. And while indeed we should never neglect to care for the necessities of the body, anybody can do those things.

It is only on our home visits, face to face, person to person, that we can truly discover those left on the side of the road, forgotten. It is by setting aside our own plans, and needs, and desires, that we reassure them that they are important. Through our loving presence we show them that God has not abandoned them.

Our visit is proof that even on the side of the road, beaten down, with the world passing by, God sees them. He cares for them, He loves them, and He awaits them.

Contemplate

Am I truly giving myself to the neighbor in need?

Recommended Reading

A Heart on Fire

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Contemplation – Proof of Friendship
Contemplation – Proof of Friendship 940 788 SVDP USA

All of us have had many friends in our lives: childhood friends, work friends, teammates, Army buddies, fishing buddies, maybe you even have a “BFF.” Still, when we hear the word “friend” one or maybe a few come to mind first.

Often, we become much closer to people when we have a shared experience. From the examples above, the friends you sweated with on the practice field become much closer friends. Talking, or writing, to each other draws us closer. We share little pieces of ourselves – we give to each other.

So why do some friends stand out? Is it the friend who really bailed you out of jam? The one who stood by you when nobody else did?

Christ, after all, tells us that there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for your friends – the very gift he gave to us! “Can we have a better friend than God!” said St. Vincent, and consequently, “Must we not love all that He loves and, for love of Him, consider our neighbor as our friend!” [CCD XI:39]

Friends help us, friends give to us, but (short of giving their lives) what are the greatest gifts they can give? We might remember that friend who got out of bed in the middle of a rainy night to come drive us home when we got stranded, but have you stopped to consider that the reason he did so was not that you were stranded. After all, how would he have known?

The reason your friend helped you is that you asked. The reason you asked, is that you knew only a friend would help. Bl. Rosalie once responded to a request for a favor by saying “I cannot tell you how you please me in giving me the opportunity to do something for your interests. Always act this way with me, without any hesitation. It is the proof of friendship that I hope for.” [Sullivan, 237]

The greatest favor we offer our friends is to ask for their help. In his will, written on his 40th birthday, Blessed Frédéric asked of the Society for the greatest of help: their prayers. “If I am assured of these prayers, I quit this earth with less fear. I hope firmly that we are not being separated, and that I may remain with you until you will come to me.” [Baunard, 386]

“The entire Society,” the Rule tells us, “is a true and unique worldwide Community of Vincentian friends.” [Rule, Part I, 3.3] And this community extends to the neighbors we serve; the ones who offer us proof of friendship: they ask for our help.

Contemplate

How can I be a better friend?

Recommended Reading

Book of Prayers by Frédéric Ozanam

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Contemplation – From the Fullness of Our Hearts
Contemplation – From the Fullness of Our Hearts 940 788 SVDP USA

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was a rash of people across the country who swore they’d seen the late Elvis Presley filling his gas tank or eating in diners. Some perhaps really imagined they’d seen him, while others just wanted to sell their story to the tabloids.

By contrast, Vincentians are called not to imagine Christ, but to see Him, and to serve Him exactly as He asked us to do. “There’s no need,” St. Vincent taught, “to represent Him to yourselves by certain mental images: it suffices for you to believe, since faith teaches you this.” [CCD X:473]

Or, as St. Augustine taught, “faith means believing what you don’t yet see, and the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.” [Sermon 43] The reward of our faith can be seen on every home visit. If we go to the poor ten times a day, ten times a day we will find God there! [CCD IX:199]

If we believe what we profess, if we truly “see Christ in the poor and the poor in Christ” [Rule, Part I, 2.5], we will describe our neighbor with words honor our encounter with the true embodiment of Christ.

One way to check whether our words truly express this belief, is to replace the “Christ” in “Jesus Christ” with our word. For example, “Jesus Brother”, “Jesus Neighbor”, or “Jesus Friend” not only make sense, but are comforting to say. All of these are words Christ Himself used.

By contrast, “Jesus Client”, “Jesus NIN”, or “Jesus FIN” are quite unsettling to hear! After all, the Greatest Commandment is not to “love our client as ourselves.” Jesus did not tell the disciples He no longer called them servants, but FINs. He did not ask the young lawyer, “Who was the NIN?”

Indeed, that question would have made no sense, given that the answer was not “the one in need”, but “the one who showed mercy.” To have a neighbor, you have to be a neighbor. To have a friend, you have to be a friend. To have a brother or sister, you have to be a brother or sister. Our relationship with the neighbor is mutual, respecting and promoting their dignity, and serving Christ in their persons.

Elvis has left the building, but Christ is with us always, to the end of the age. We are “serving Jesus Christ in the person of the poor,” St. Vincent said, “And that is as true as that we are here.” [CCD IX:199]

This is what we believe in our hearts, and from the fullness of our hearts, our mouths speak.

Contemplate

Could the words I use to describe the neighbor also be used to describe Christ?

Recommended Reading

The Spirituality of the Home Visit

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Contemplation – Save Space for the Neighbor
Contemplation – Save Space for the Neighbor 940 788 SVDP USA

The spiritual dimension of our Vincentian formation is based on the understanding that we are created to live in community, to grow in faith together. This is why we always visit the neighbor in pairs, and this is why we share reflections on our service and our faith at our Conference meetings. We are a community of faith, growing closer to one another as we grow closer to Christ.

Just as the example of the Holy Trinity shows us that the divine life is a shared life, we see that our pathway to that life also is shared. “Following the example of the Blessed Trinity,” St Louise said, “we must have but one heart and act with one mind as do the three divine Persons.” [Sp. Writings, 771]

In our Conferences, we fill our meeting rooms, however few or many we may be. We build true Christian friendships, where “the strongest tie, the principle of a true friendship, is charity” as Blessed Frédéric wrote. [Letter 82, to Curnier, 1834]

Charity, the Catechism reminds us, is not merely to give things, but to “love God above all things for his own sake, and our neighbor as ourselves for the love of God.” [Catechism, 1822] Charity is not our practice, but our gift; a love “which multiplies itself, which is present in many places at once, and whose intensity is increased in the measure that it gains in extension.” [Letter 107, to Curnier, 1835]

Our community of faith, then, is not meant to be a gated community! Just as we welcome new members to share in our works, our prayer, and our friendship, so our Rule reminds us to “establish relationships based on trust and friendship” with the neighbor. [Rule, Part I, 1.9]  It is vital to offer our material assistance, our works, but ultimately we seek to serve for love alone. [Rule, Part I, 2.2]

We Catholics have a habit, when Mass is sparsely attended, of spreading out to all four corners, from entrance to altar, from aisle to aisle, with ten feet and two pews between us. You could call it “Catholic distancing”, or you could see it another way: we fill the church as best we can, but always save space for more to join us, not in the back, but in our midst.

Contemplate

How can I better “save space” and welcome the neighbor into a community of faith?

Recommended Reading

Face of Holiness

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Contemplation – The State of Angels
Contemplation – The State of Angels 940 788 SVDP USA

There is an old saying, perhaps originating with the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, that we should “expect the unexpected.” Practicing what St. Vincent termed holy indifference, we instead are reminded to accept the unexpected.

This word Vincent used, indifference, carries with it a connotation of apathy, or lack of interest. Certainly, our patron was not calling us to apathy! Rather, he taught that we must be willing, at all times, to accept what God gives to us, without anticipating, or running ahead of His providence.

It is difficult for our human nature to concede a lack of control. It is perhaps especially difficult for Vincentians, who seek to love God “with the strength of our arms.” We want to plan things out, to set measurable outcomes that we can use to gauge our success. These are wonderful instincts, and perfectly fitting in the context of things like business or fitness goals, whose nature is thoroughly worldly.

But God’s work is not a business plan. It is through holy indifference that we let go of the goals that are driven by our own desires so that we may accept and serve only what God wills. As always, Christ gives us the model to follow, praying to be spared His crucifixion, saying “not my will but yours be done.”

This is not to say that we should make no plans! Indeed, it was Vincent who pointed out that the people of Châtillon were “practicing great charity, but it is not well organized.” [CCD XII:383] We organize and plan to do good as God wills, but the outcome is simply not up to us. If it were, then the cloth Veronica offered to Christ would surely have spared Him the cross.

“Planning is good,” St. Vincent said, “when it is submissive to God, but it goes to excess when we are eager to avoid whatever we fear; when we trust more in our precautions than in God’s Providence.”

Our planning goes to excess, he went on, “when we hope to accomplish much while anticipating His orders with our disorder which causes us to adhere to human prudence rather than the Word of God.” [Gettemeier, L, DC, VHJ, Vol. 19]

How many times have we seen in retrospect that what we thought was bad led to a greater good? We are indifferent when God’s will becomes our own, when we accept both good and bad, when we serve for love alone. Although “nature grumbles against it”,[CCD I:212] indifference is “the state of the angels” who are “always ready to do the Will of God, either in heaven or on earth”. [CCD X:564]

Contemplate

Do I seek my own goals, or God’s?

Recommended Reading

Vincentian Meditations (especially Putting Out into the Deep)

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Contemplation – Those Irritating Questions
Contemplation – Those Irritating Questions 940 788 SVDP USA

The introduction to the original Rule in 1835 reminded members, following the model of St. Vincent, to “banish political discussions forever from our meetings” avoiding “those irritating questions which divide mankind” so that we can remain united in the ministry of charity. The Society, it declared, “is all charity; politics are wholly foreign to it.” [Rule, Intro, 20-22]

It is a reassuring reminder that however we may feel politics divides people today, it has always been so, but the example of our forebears in the Vincentian family shows us the way to be uniters, not only within our Conferences, but in our society at large.

In Frédéric and Rosalie’s time, “divisiveness” in politics meant a great deal more than memes, podcasts, and insults. Often, politics meant taking up arms, manning the barricades, and overthrowing the government. In the midst of revolution, it was perhaps easier for them to see how picking a side could only shut them off from caring for people in great need.

Bl. Rosalie made this clear, declaring, on threat of arrest for aiding the wrong side of the revolution, “I am a Daughter of Charity. I do not have a flag. I go to the aid of the unfortunate wherever I encounter them … I promise you, if ever you, yourself, are being pursued and you ask me for help, it would not be refused you.” [Sr. Rosalie, Sullivan, 168]

To be sure, both our church and our Rule encourage us as individuals to be involved in politics, and to “bring Christian values to political matters.” Indeed, Frédéric himself served in the National Guard and once ran for a seat in the legislature. But the Society itself does not identify with any political party, nor discriminate among those in need based on political opinions. [Rule, Part I, 7.8 & 2.4]

As a “voice for the voiceless,” we advocate not for a party, but for justice; as Vincentians, we seek “to make charity accomplish what justice alone cannot do.” [Letter 136, to Lallier, 1836]

Our commitment to an apolitical approach to works of charity requires both courage and humility; the acceptance that no matter how strong our personal feelings may be, we are called first to render unto God what belongs to God.

Contemplate

Are there “irritating questions” I need to let go in my Vincentian relationships and works?

Recommended Reading

The Frédéric Ozanam Story

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Contemplation – Better Things To Do
Contemplation – Better Things To Do 940 788 SVDP USA

“I’m too busy” is a thing we sometimes say when we really mean that this activity or that person is just not important enough to us. As Vincentians, we have come to learn that this can never be the answer when we are interrupted by a call from the neighbor.

It’s a lesson many learn as parents. We might enjoy nothing more than to watch our favorite team play on TV, but if it conflicts with the ballet recital or the Little League game, well…we can check the score later.

It’s never really a matter of time; it’s a matter of priorities.

Like parenthood, our calling as Vincentians is “a vocation for every moment of our lives.” [Rule, Part I, 2.7] Our moments, and how we spend them, are driven by love, not by the schedules we’d planned. That’s easy to remember when it is your child tugging at your sleeve, but it sometimes slips our minds when it is a neighbor in need interrupting dinner.

This was the exact point St. Vincent made when replying to one of the missioners who had apologized for sharing his troubles. “Brother,” Vincent replied, “have no fear that you’re bothering me. You should realize that someone appointed by God to serve others is no more put out by the demands made on him than a father would be in regard to his children.” [CCD XII:392]

It is not that we view the neighbor as a child, but rather that we always remember we were called first by God, and that He calls us from time to time in the person of the neighbor in need. We don’t have to make time for our neighbors, because being Christ to us, the time is already theirs.

None of this is to say that we are not allowed to get tired! St. Vincent constantly reminded his followers not to allow their zeal to make them do more than they were able. [CCD II:375] More importantly, as he once told St. Louise, we must rest to regain our strength, because even if we don’t need it, the neighbor in need does. [CCD I:392]

In our memories, the joy of the ballet recital or the Little League game entirely wash away whatever else we thought was important at the time. We can clearly see that there were no better things to do; that we received a greater gift than we ever could have given.

In a similar way, we thank God for the blessings we receive from those whom we visit. In the fullness of time, in union with Christ and with each other, we will rejoice in the memory of every interruption.

Contemplate

Where is the neighbor in my list of daily priorities?

Recommended Reading

Faces of Holiness (especially Vincent, Father of the Poor)

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Contemplation – Forever a Beautiful Tree
Contemplation – Forever a Beautiful Tree 940 788 SVDP USA

We can sometimes feel frustrated, even guilty, when our works don’t seem to achieve the results we’d anticipated, forgetting for a moment that we are called to serve our neighbors for love alone. We can take solace and learn from the example of St. Louise de Marillac, who also was often burdened by feelings of shame and anguish at coming up short in her works.

Louise had many great gifts – artistic and intellectual, she was a natural leader and great organizer whose imagination in works of charity seemed unbounded. Louise once served as president of the Confraternity of Charity at her own parish, Saint Nicolas-du-Chardonnet. She had a deep religious devotion, formed in her earliest years. Yet still, she sometimes fell into despair when she did not achieve all she had set out to do.

In was in one such instance that Vincent reminded her not to “think that all is lost because of the little rebellions you experience interiorly. It has just rained very hard and is thundering dreadfully. Is the weather less beautiful for that?” [CCD I:62] In other words, we serve God first, before and above our goals. And if we seek to make His will our own, we should never despair. After all, God causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

It was her “lumière” of 1623 that led Louise to Vincent, and that reassured her of her calling to religious life. She wrote down that divine vision and kept it in her pocket throughout her life. No doubt it reminded her from time to time of the peace that had washed over her that Pentecost Sunday and reassured her that God “had a plan…from all eternity, for [her] soul.” [Sp. Wri. 691]

When we are open to it, each of us has such moments of conversion in our lives; a time when God speaks, or winks, or gives us a glimpse of His plan for us. Going back to re-read them can ease the frustrations we sometimes feel along our path, giving us peace, and reassuring us of the great hope in which we serve.

Our formation is a lifelong process, and along the path we will sometimes falter. Through wealth and poverty; as wife, mother, widow, and servant, Louise devoted her entire self to the will of God, growing in peace at every step. In turn, she became a wise teacher, and model of holiness, to many others.

“Oh! what a tree you have appeared to be today in God’s sight,” declared Vincent, “since you have borne such a fruit! May you be forever a beautiful tree of life bringing forth fruits of love, and I, in that same love, your servant.” [CCD I:46]

Contemplate

What is my lumière? Am I a gentle voice, reassuring others to trust in providence?

Recommended Reading

Praying with Louise de Marillac

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Contemplation – For Love Alone
Contemplation – For Love Alone 940 788 SVDP USA

In describing the Vincentian Vocation, our Rule says that our “ideal is to help relieve suffering for love alone.” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] Many, if not most Vincentians are first drawn to the Society by the desire to do something; to love God, as St Vincent put it, “with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brows.”[CCD XI:32]

Relieving suffering, we think, is an end in itself; to serve those in need without discrimination or judgment; to give of our time, our possessions, our talents, and ourselves. So, what does it mean to do all this for love alone?

St. Paul teaches that of the three theological virtues – faith, hope, and love – the greatest of these is love. So that, even as the Letter of James asks us not to “forget the necessities of the body” because “faith without works is dead,” Paul declares that even “if I have faith enough to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own … but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

The apostle here strips away nearly everything but love.

It’s important to understand that in the Greek, the scriptures use several different words for love. The one Paul uses here is agape – the love of God. This love is not an emotion; it’s an act of will. Of putting the needs of another before our own. Agape sometimes also translated as “charity.”

Bl. Frederic once contrasted philanthropy (simply giving away our possessions) with charity saying: “Philanthropy is a vain woman for whom good actions are a piece of jewelry and who loves to look at herself in the mirror. Charity is a tender mother who keeps her eyes fixed on the infant she carries at her breast, who no longer thinks of herself, and who forgets her beauty for her love.“ [90, to Curnier, 1835] What purer image of charity could there be than the self-giving love of a mother?

Our catechism defines charity as “the theological virtue by which we love God above all things for his sake alone, and our neighbor as ourselves, for the love of God.”

As it happens, Jesus once said something quite similar. We call it the greatest commandment, so it should be no surprise that Vincentians are called to live that commandment.

If we seek to relieve physical suffering alone, or, as Frederic put it, we “appeal to men from below, taking heed of their material wants only,” we will often be disappointed; we will often come up short. But the love of God is in endless supply, and as St. Paul assures us: love never fails.

Contemplate

How can I grow closer to the ideal of serving for love alone?

Recommended Reading

Turn Everything to Love

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Contemplation – Small Things Compose Great Things
Contemplation – Small Things Compose Great Things 940 788 SVDP USA

Today’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul, with nearly a million members worldwide, may fairly be said to have fulfilled Blessed Frédéric’s vision of a “network of charity and social justice encircling the world.” [Rule, Part I, 2.2] Let’s pause to consider, though, that it is neither our combined strength, nor less our loud voices that impact the world, but our small and humble acts, performed by two or three in His name, which quietly bear witness to the power of God’s love.

From the earliest days, Frédéric recognized the importance of small Conferences, observing that rapid growth had caused the first Conference “lose in intensity what [it gained] in expansion.” He said the meetings were “nearly always concerned with business” and seemed long. [90, to Curnier, 1835] Of course, he did not propose to reduce the number of members, but to increase the number of Conferences; Conferences small enough to serve personally, and to grow together in holiness, as friends.

Perhaps he was unconsciously aware of the now well-observed psychological phenomenon of “diffused responsibility,” in which the more people are present, the less responsibility each one feels to offer help, even when help is desperately needed. Vincentians are called to form relationships based on trust and friendship; to see in our neighbors the face of Christ; to serve them, person to person, for love alone.

Our Conferences are first and foremost communities of faith, not administrative subdivisions of a Council that commands them. On the contrary, it is the Council that exists to support the Conference, so that each Conference can do its work, as Frédéric put it, “by your own strength, under the inspirations of your heart, under the influence of local circumstances…” [90, to Curnier, 1835]

For its part, the Conference supports its members, who “meet as brothers and sisters with Christ in the midst of them, in Conferences that are genuine communities of faith and love, of prayer and action.” [Rule, Part I, 3.3] Members, in turn, see and serve the poor, each of them individually. It is the home visitors, not the Society writ large, who are assumed to have special insight into the best way to help.

There is, as the saying goes, strength in numbers, and we can rightly be proud of the great and providential presence of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul around the world. But as Thomas Paine once said, “‘Tis not in numbers, but in unity, that our great strength lies.” [Common Sense]

Indeed, our unity is expressed not in numbers, but in faith, in friendship, and in service. As our Rule says, “In every Conference throughout the world and in their personal lives, Vincentians raise their prayers to God, united with the prayer of Christ, on behalf of one another and their masters the poor, whose suffering they wish to share.” [Rule, Part I, 2.3]

Contemplate

Do I always accept my personal responsibility to serve, no matter how many other people are around?

Recommended Reading

Ozanam’s Letter 90

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