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by Christopher O’Donnell, O.Carm.
Wonder
There is a special revelation of God’s majesty in the helplessness of a child. It is a revelation of love, the same love that would leave Jesus no less helpless on the Cross. It is in part the depth of God’s love, shown in his costly involvement with humanity that is a new and radiant vision of his glory. The verb used in the preface ‘caught up’, is not precise, nor should it be. Christmas is not a matter of cold reassuring but most profoundly a matter of wonder, amazement and awe.
Mystery
It is of course the crib that will help us to appreciate the mystery. But there are several ways of approaching a crib. In Rome there is the custom of visiting the cribs in the various churches; there we find exuberance of imagination, a variety of ways of presenting the scene, often with dozens of figures and buildings which allow us to recapture the miracle that is taking place in the very ordinariness of daily life in Palestine, even if it is a Bethlehem often with strong Italian colouring. But any crib, even the simplest, can speak to us. ‘Speak’ is somehow the right word. A crib is silent, nothing moves. But even as we allow ourselves to be drawn into its silence, it speaks to our hearts. It takes time for a crib to address us. We need to stay before it, not saying prayers, but allowing the sense of wonder and astonishment to take us over. To be ‘caught up in the love of the God we cannot see’ is to allow the crib to speak to our hearts rather than to our heads, its very stillness having a resonant eloquence.
Message
Clearly the crib speaks to us of that peace which the world cannot give, and which is at the heart of the Christmas message. The very stillness of the crib breaths a peace that can still the anxieties and cares of our hearts, and draw us upwards towards a vision of ourselves enveloped by the love of the God who came to us as a baby. Human wisdom, personal ambitions, the selfish grasping of people and things, are humbled and healed in the silence of the crib. In the presence of this new revelation of God’s glory we can only remain in silence to allow his peace some greater entry into our lives, that peace which in the end is the only thing that will ever satisfy our restless hearts.
En un precioso librito sobre San José, el cardenal Suenens escribió:
"Se ha dicho que lo peor que podemos hacer a los santos es ponerlos en pedestales. En el caso de José, podríamos criticar no sólo el pedestal, sino también la imagen que de él se nos presenta con demasiada frecuencia."
"... that the soul must empty itself of self in order to be filled with God, that it must be purified of the last traces of earthly dross before it is fit to become united with God. ... for Christ's sake, it must desire to enter into complete nakedness, emptiness, and poverty in everything in the world." St. John of the Cross
All-powerful and ever-living God, your only Son went down among the dead and rose again in glory. In your goodness raise up your faithful people, buried with him in baptism, to be one with him in the everlasting life of heaven, where he lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. – Amen.
Death cannot be bitter to the soul that loves, for in it she finds all the sweetness and delight of love. The thought of death cannot sadden her, for what she finds is that gladness accompanies this thought. ... She thinks of death as her friend and bridegroom, and at the thought of it she rejoices as she would over the thought of her betrothal and marriage, and she longs for the day and the hour of her death more than earthly kings long for kingdoms and principalities. St. John of the Cross.
"O God, You know my weaknesses, that I am poor and destitute, that I cannot do, nor even think any good without You. Arise up then; strengthen me with grace, that I may fervently execute what I have firmly resolved, and not only avoid all evil You forbid, but also perform all the good You command, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Carmelite Ratio
1. Called to communion with God
God "loved us first"1, and he called us to participate in the communion of the Trinity. We recognise his call in the experience of his love. Moved by the Spirit, we listen to the Word of Christ, who is the Way that leads to Life. In his footsteps, entrusting ourselves to God's merciful love, we set out on the journey to the summit of Mount Carmel, the place where we encounter God and are transformed in him.
As we journey towards Mount Carmel, God leads us to the desert, as he led the prophet Elijah. There, the living flame of God's love transforms us, stripping away all that is not of him and all that obscures his gift, allowing the new self in the image of Christ, to emerge and shine forth in us.
Thus our minds and our hearts are gradually transformed, so that, in the light of Christ and in dialogue with the signs of the times, we may become more capable of cooperating with God in the work of transforming the world so that his Kingdom may come.
2. A call to community and mission
We are not alone on this arduous ascent of Mount Carmel: Mary, our sister and pilgrim in the faith, walks with us and encourages us, as mother and teacher.
We journey with others who have received the same gift and the same call. Together we strive to build a community modelled on that of Jerusalem; a community centred entirely on the Word, the breaking of bread, prayer, the holding of all things in common, and service.
We journey within the Church, and with the Church we journey throughout the world. Like Elijah, we journey side by side with the men and women of our time, trying to help them discover God's presence in themselves; for the image of God is present in every human being, and must be allowed to emerge in complete freedom, even when it is darkened by inner contradictions or by injustices perpetrated by others.
We are invited to this journey by the Rule, which for us echoes and mirrors the Gospel, and which is the expression of the founding experience of the first Carmelites. From this founding experience we receive our passionate love for the world, for its challenges, its provocations and its contradictions.
The first Carmelites came from a Europe in transition, a Europe evolving through the tensions between war and peace, unity and fragmentation, expansion and crisis. In the Holy Land, they met people of other cultures and religions; on returning to Europe, they chose to be witnesses to attentiveness to God, living a fraternal life among the people.
3.The world in which we live
For the first Carmelites, the world in which they were born and raised represented a challenge; in the same way, the world in which we live and work must be a challenge for us. It is a world rich in possibility and in opportunity, in a state of constant growth and evolution - but it is also a world full of contradictions.
Communication, facilitated by ever more sophisticated means, is both a promise and a challenge. The rapid development of science and technology makes life easier for many but oppresses others; rather than being respectful of the environment, it often exploits it mindlessly. Human rights have been solemnly affirmed many times, only to be violated again. It has been acknowledged that women's rights and functions are equal to those of men; yet many women are still victims of abuses. Some children are overindulged and spoiled, while others are abused and exploited to satisfy the greed of a few individuals lacking in any moral sense. Awareness of one's own rights increases sensitivity to the fundamental equality between individuals and between peoples; yet nationalistic and individualistic tensions continue to create reasons for new conflicts. Interaction among cultures, when it is not a source of conflict, becomes an incentive to dialogue, to mutual respect, to the search for new approaches to shared space. Economic and cultural globalisation can offer all of us opportunities for harmonious development; but it also raises serious questions concerning the destiny of the poorer nations. The growing thirst for spirituality contradicts the presumptions of secularism, but does not always succeed in expressing itself in an authentic life of faith: it can become an escape from the heavy burden of daily life into esoteric cults, pseudomystical movements, and sects. Faced with lack of meaning, lack of moral values and various theoretical and practical forms of atheism, contemporary men and women of faith are challenged to seek shared and coherent responses, beyond religious barriers. Alongside a sincere desire for interreligious dialogue, and concrete experiences of such dialogue, there are painful and even homicidal episodes of fundamentalism.
We are children of this world; we share in "the joy and hope, the grief and anguish" of our times.3 We belong to this world, we participate in its contradictions and we rejoice in its accomplishments.4 In this world we walk humbly, side by side with our brothers and sisters, attentively seeking to recognise, as Elijah did, the hidden signs of God's presence and of his work.
4. Unity in diversity
Carmelites receive and share a common charism to live a life of allegiance to Jesus Christ, in a contemplative attitude which fashions and supports our life of prayer, fraternity and service.
It is by virtue of this charism that Carmelites in every place and time belong to the Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel.
In its essential elements, the charism is one. Its universal application requires us to go beyond a limited, regional vision of the Order, in a constant effort to express and incarnate the charism concretely in various cultures, times and places.
There must be at all times an intimate link between the unity derived from identification with the essential aspects of the Carmelite charism and the pluralism derived from the different cultures, which enriches the charism's many expressions.
Christian Körner, O. Carm, Editor
The General Congregation, reflecting on the theme: “Qualiter respondendum quaerentibus sit?” - “What do you respond to those who ask?” was held from 5th to 15th September 2011 at the Mount Carmel Spiritual Centre in Niagara Falls, Canada. For the participants it was a very enriching meeting that offered a space for reflection on the identity and mission of Carmel in the Church today. The final message conveys profound considerations useful for further reflection in the Order. So we decided that the focus of this edition of CITOC would be a reminder of this important assembly.
The other submissions also offer a wealth of information on the present life of the Order. I would like to highlight a few. First of all, there are people who are expressing our charism, therefore it is a pleasure to share the news that Brazil has been able to celebrate the 100th birthday of Fr. Celestino Lui, O. Carm. In addition are other anniversaries, such as the 50th anniversary of the letter of the deceased Bishop Donal Lamont, O. Carm. against apartheid, remember the prophetic commitment of Carmelites. The Order, however, also mourns the death of some dear brothers. Thus we report the obituaries of P. Joachim Smet, O. Carm., the great historian of the Order, and P. Robert MacCabe, O. Carm., who have worked for many years as a doctor among the nomads in the desert of Kenya.
A constant theme at the General Congregation was that of hope. And surely it is the youth who are the hope of the Church and of the Order. Among the many participants of World Youth Day in Madrid there were more than 500 young people from Carmelite communities around the world. With the presence of a dozen nations, Carmelite Day on 17th August was a really wonderful event.
We hope you enjoy reading this issue of CITOC.
