Superior General
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary
Via Giusti, 12
1 - 00185 ROMA
Grottaferrata, 4thJanuary 2011
Dear Sisters,
Greetings of peace to each one!
We have just finished our celebrations for Christmas and the New Year and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your wishes and greetings for this season. You have all been in my thought and prayer these last weeks, as we welcomed into our midst the humility of our God made manifest in the fragility and vulnerability of a new-born baby. Franciscan spirituality tells us thatin God’s covenant of love for all creation, this concrete expression to share in our humanitymanifests God’s respect for the dignity for the human condition.[1] It is this extravagant love of God for each one that is the reason for the Incarnation, that even if there had never been the Fall[2],in the Franciscan tradition the Incarnation would still have happened. This is the great act of humble Love that we celebrate, the Love that leads us into Life, and that Christmas happens every time that we open our hearts to give that Love more place.
As you know this coming year, in the Institute we will focus together on our chosen theme of Reconciliation and soon reflection materials will be sent to the provinces, as guides or aids for this process, to be used in whichever way the provincial councils or formation teams consider to be helpful for the sisters of the province.
Reconciliation is such an important theme for us, not only as a call from the last General Chapter that commits us to entering into a process of being reconciled with oneself and then with one’s sisters[3]. But also as a path of mission[4], that is at the heart of the Gospel[5] and of mission according to Francis.We are very familiar with the reconciliation stories attributed to St Francis, for example, his visit with the Sultan; his intervention that brought reconciliation between the Mayor and the Bishop of Assisi; and the episode of the wolf of Gubbio.[6]
In additionThomas Merton, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, makes this mission very clear, “To serve the God of Love one must be free, one must face the terrible responsibility of the decision to love in spite of all unworthinesswhether in oneself or in one’s neighbour.” [7]
This is our call, this is our responsibility, this is the choice we have to make, for we have been chosen by our God of great Love and entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation, as Franciscan instruments of peace in a world filled with conflict and division. This implies that we need to be willing to sacrifice and restrain our own instinct for violence and aggressiveness in our relations with others.
In a few days we will celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, the feast of the birth of the Institute, where the Church celebrates through the story of the Magi, the manifestation of our God Emmanuel to the whole universe.
In this letter I would like to take some time to reflect on this story of these wise men[8] of Matthew’s Gospel. We hear of them coming from afar to Jerusalem following a star, searching for the infant king,seeking and listening to advice in order to know the way forward, continuing to follow the star until they reach their destination, paying homage and offering their gifts before returning to their country by a different way.
So what can they tell us on the feast of our Institute, in this year that we have chosen to reflect together on the theme of reconciliation? First of all they were three, as tradition tells us, travelling together on a journey, sharing a dream to find and follow the One who is to come. Doesn’t this remind us of our own vocation to set out as a community-in-mission[9] to follow the call of the One who has chosen us in the circumstances that are ours? Following a star is not an easy matter amongst all the other bright things that hold their attraction as we journey along, the stars of our own desiring, the ones in our life that seem so much more attractive than the call to stay on the journey with the companions that have been given to us, through all the searching and the doubt of the daily struggle. How many times would those wise ones would have wanted to give up, turn back and even question the very idea of starting such a journey. How many times would they have needed to support, encourage, excuse and bear with one another’s limitation and difference, discouragement and fear, hope and courage as they faced each new day. Isn’t this true of our own daily call, facing each new day, hoping that God is with us, like that star, in our personal and community limitations stumbling into the future with faith and perseverance.
Our three wise ones had their hope and their expectations, they were prepared for what they would encounter, it is obvious in the gifts that they brought to offer this king; searching, waiting, hoping, expecting, dreaming and desiring all along this journey into a foreign land, they came from royal kingdoms travelling to another royal kingdom. How often we too journey through life with our hopes and expectations, with what we think will be and what we think must be, in our expectations of family, friends, relationships with ourselves, with our sisters and others, in our community life together, in our various responsibilities and service; the normal human response to life and the experiences that come our way.
Yet there comes a moment in our lives when we too become more like those wise ones,whenever we accept that after all our expecting and hoping and imagining, that we have come not to a great king’s palace of our own imagining, but to the reality of an impoverished and humble dwelling. Whenever we accept that our hopes and dreams are not reflected in the unexpected reality in front of us, and when events, experiences, relationships show themselves to us in a way that we would prefer to reject and deny.
How do we reconcile our expectations with reality? How do we accept the limitations and weakness of ourselves faced with our own failure and sinfulness? How do we accept the blindness of those who have hurt us?How do we accept the powerlessness and ordinariness of a reality that we wish was otherwise? How do we let go our expectations about life, about others, and not allow them to become a source of discouragement?
What a courageous personal inner journey those wise ones needed to make, in order to process all their disbelief and astonishment, refusal and rejection, anger and disappointment at that reality that confronted them. At that moment, only their openness to receive the grace that God knew they were so much in need of, could have enabledthem to take that great leap in faith, to recognize the Presence in their midst and to pay homage. Receiving the grace did not mean that their situation became what they had originally hoped it would be, but that they were able to recognize God Incarnate in their experience.
How often do we find ourselves getting angry because things are not the way we want them, other people are not the way we want them to be, community life is not the way we want it to be? At what point are we prepared to let go of our anger and disappointment, be open to the grace of the moment and use our energies to collaborate with the Spirit. No one is perfect, no family is perfect, no parents are perfect, no community is perfect and no situation is perfect, it is only in accepting this fact and welcoming the difference in the other that will bring peace to our hearts. Until we doso, wefail to recognize the Presence of the humble God of Lovein the very reality that we wish to reject.
The three wise ones recognized, gave homage, offered their gifts and returned home by a different route, the experience of the encounter had changed them as persons, life was different now, and they could hear and trust their inner voice,returning by a different, safer way. To be changed by the encounter with the Other, with another, is our challenge.To be open to ask for and to receive the grace to let go of our expectations and accept a different reality which re-connects with the inner Presence of the Indwelling Spirit; the grace that sets us free to follow a different path, a path away from harm, hurt and destruction, and to take a path that leads us to peace, love and forgiveness.
The energy of the Spirit is a forward movement reconciling all things[10]and it is in this Spirit that we live and move and have our being. So we need to be aware of how our expectations may prevent us from being caught into the flow of this Life energy. We can notice it every time we sense a resistance or block within ourselves with regard to situations, events, relationships with others, or even towards our own past. These moments of awareness are moments given by the Spirit for us to ask ourselves: what is happening here, what is this resistance saying to me, what is the Spirit wishing to heal me of, what am I being asked to let go of, be freed from, with what experience or with whom do I need to be reconciled ? How prepared are we to be reconciled with our own reality, to allowforgiveness and peaceto come to our own inner conflicts and to our rejection of self and of others?
This Feast of the Epiphany, when the Church celebrates the manifestation of God to all peoples, and when we celebratethe birth of our Institute, may we remember that it was born from the ashes of Mary of the Passion’s broken dreams and shattered hopes for her own future in India. May she,who was able to accept the reality of life’s unfortunate circumstances and find in it the faithfulness of God working to give life to a new Institute, intercede for each one of us.
During the year as we reflect together on our theme of Reconciliation, may we follow Mary of the Passion’s example and be open to the grace that is being given, to fully participate in this reconciling action of the Spirit, bringing usthe healing, forgiveness and inner freedomsonecessary for our own selves, for our livestogetherandfor the mission of the Institutein the world.
Blessings of peace and love,
Your sister,
Suzanne Phillips fmm
Superior General
1
[1]Admon.5:1
[2]Gn.3
[3]GC08 B3, Mt.5:24
[4]GC08 C5
[5]2Cor5:18ff
[6] 1C57, LP84, Fior21
[7]New Seeds of Contemplation p.74
[8]Mt. 2:
[9]GC08:B1
[10]Col 1:20ff