General Chapter, 1998
Internet site by Scott Steinkerchner OP
email: steinkerchner@op.org
| G e n e r a l C h a p t e r | B o l o g n a '9 8 |
| Order of Preachers |
Jesus says "It is completed" . And the fulfilment of his life is to hand over his mother and the beloved disciple to each other. "Woman, behold your son" "Behold your mother". He entrusts them to each other. So the climax of Jesusí life is an act of trust, that gives birth to a community, the Church. The beloved disciple takes Mary into his house. Together they build a new home, and the foundation of that new home is trust.
The culmination of Dominicís life was also an act of trust. At the first General Chapter of the Order, in Bologna in 1220, he handed the Order into our hands. He entrusted the preaching to our care. He wished to resign as Master, but the brethren refused. But he handed over all decision making to the brethren, because he trusted us. At the basis of our common life, our fraternity is that trust. In every General Chapter we take up that trust that Dominic had in us. The life and the mission of the Order is in our hands. We are entrusted with building the our common home, with caring for each other and for the mission. With our brother Dominicís help, may we be worthy of that trust.
How are we to care the life and mission of the Order? As he is dying, Mary and the beloved disciple stand at the foot of the cross and they look at Jesus. But he turns their attention from him. They must look at each other. "Woman, behold your son" "Behold your mother". And perhaps that is what Dominic did too. We are here in the presence of his body, but he turns our attention away from himself. He wishes to disappear, to be buried under the feet of the brethren. He wants just to be brother Dominic, one of the founding brethren. He turns us to look at each other. "Behold your brother". "Behold your sister" The beginning of accepting that trust, is to turn and see each other.
I went to my first General Chapter in Oakland, nine years ago. It was also a Chapter of Provincials. I remember very clearly the ambiguity of my feelings in the plane. On the one hand I was delighted to escape from the Province for a while, to forget all its problems. On the other hand I kept asking myself how the decisions of the Chapter would affect us. Would it make a difference to my little Province? Would it touch how we lived?
But what Dominic says is "Behold your brother". Turn and look at the brother beside you. Listen to what he lives, what he hopes for, what he suffers. We begin to accept Dominicís trust in us, when we open our ears and our eyes to each other. In our church in Kigali, Rwanda, there is a mosaic of Jesus on the cross, with Mary and Dominic at the foot. Dominic has a bullet mark in his cheek, acquired during the recent conflicts. Do we dare to hear what our brothers and sisters live through, in the Congo, in Burundi and Rwanda, in Algeria, in Chiapas, in Russia, in Venezuela and Colombia? Do we dare to let ourselves be touched and disturbed by their lives, and their needs?
Seven hundred and seventy seven years ago we celebrated the second General Chapter here in Bologna. That must be a significant number. And it was the great missionary Chapter. Brethren were sent to Hungary, Germany, Poland, and Greece. They even sent a man called Gilbert Ash to found the Order in that distant foggy country, England. Will we dare to let ourselves be touched by the needs of the new missions of the Order, in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia? Each General Chapter summons us out of the small and space of our Province, into that larger mission that is the Order. "Behold your brother".
But perhaps Dominic invites us to an even greater vulnerability. The beloved disciple accepts Mary into his house. He opens his doors to her. Will we let the brethren into our homes, and our concerns, and our mission? Will we let ourselves be questioned by the Order?
There are petitions about the mission of the Order in Eastern Europe, that will touch our brethren who work there. There is the Commission on the Angelicum, which could change the lives of our brothers who teach there; there are proposals about Fund Raising, which may affect our own fund raising plans. There will be a call for the mission to Asia, especially China. Will we listen? There will certainly be comments about the role of the Master, and about the General Council, and about how we could do better. Will I dare to listen? Or will I wish to shut the words of my brethren? Will we, like the beloved disciple, open our house to the nuns, the sisters and the laity? Will we build that larger home for the Dominican Family?
So in this Chapter, we accept that trust which Dominic had in us, to care for the mission of preaching. We are here to build our common life. And that asks of us a double openness. First of all that I dare be brought out of the narrow concerns of my Province, and see the needs of my brethren and sisters. "Behold your brother". But secondly, it requires that I open my home and house to others to come, and see what I do and who I am. Thus we build that larger home which is the Order.
Isaiah offers us a vision, of a time of universal trust, when the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the child shall play over the hole of the snake, and all of the world will be covered with the sea of the knowledge of God. It is a time of peace, when all mistrust is over. In this chapter, we can try to grow in that trust of each other, wolves and lambs, babies and snakes (though I will not say who are the babies and the snakes), and even French and Brazilians. Congrulations France!
I will share two concluding observations. This care of the life and mission of the Order takes time. We will spend many hours together, debating, voting, amending, arguing. Sometimes we will be hot and bored and we may wonder whether it is all worthwhile. I remember an old brother saying to Damian, my predecessor, when he passed through London, " I think that General Chapters are a waste of time. They never made a difference to me." And another brother, a previous provincial, replied immediately, "But brother, if you did not have them, it would made a difference. If there were no General Chapters, the Order would fall apart in twenty years".
It is like any home. You have to spend hours talking to each other, discussing minor things, listening to each otherís news, just to remain a family. And you have to repair the drains, do the shopping, cook the food, wash up. So much time is apparently wasted. But if one did not spend that time there would be no home, and no family. Chapters are part of the business of keeping our common home going. Like breathing or sleeping, nothing much may appear to happen, but if we stopped we would soon notice the difference.
Finally, remember Dominicís knife. It is one of the symbols of this Chapter, the knife that Dominic always carried with him. That knife is a symbol of Dominicís freedom. He said that if ever he heard of brethren who believed that the constitutions of the Order bound under sin, then he "would go around the convents of the Order and cut out the rules with his knife." This is the knife of a free man. Dominic entrusts us with his freedom It is the freedom to do new things, to speak openly, the respond to new missions. It is the freedom of those who, as Paul said, "have not received the spirit of slavery to live in fear, but the spirit of sonship." So let us pray that God will pour upon us the spirit of freedom, Dominicís own liberty.
And especially today let ask for the prayers of Blessed Giacomo of Varazze. He died exactly seven hundred years ago today. He was fr.Virgilio Ambrosiniís predecessor as Provincial of Lombardy. He presided over a General Chapter and he was famous for bringing peace to the cities of Italy. May he bless us with his peace in this Chapter.
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© 1998 Order of Preachers General Chapter, 1998 Internet site by Scott Steinkerchner OP email: steinkerchner@op.org |