One of my favourite Gospel scenes has always been Jesus’ return to Nazareth and his reading in the Synagogue. You remember the context in Luke’s account - Jesus was at prayer after being baptised and the Holy Spirit descended on him and a voice came from Heaven: “This is my beloved Sonâ€. Then he was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days - days of prayer, reflection, fasting and temptation. Then “with the power of the Spirit in him†he returned to Galilee, teaching in the synagogues. Then he came to Nazareth “where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read, and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring the Good News to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them: “This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.â€
This always moves me. Originally I think that it was because it was so dramatic, it had acertain ‘High Noon’ drama to it - Jesus taking his stand, declaring his mission and knowing that inevitably this would pit him against the powers in the land. And, as we know, it was only a short time after this scene in the synagogue that he was hustled out of town with a view to throwing him down a cliff !
A very powerful scene. Sometimes I would imagine the scene in the synagogue and observe it all - Jesus taking the scroll, the eyes of everyone on him and then his dramatic words announcing the beginning of his mission. But I was an observer and only later realised that Jesus was also looking at me and, with his eyes, he was asking the question: “Are you with me in my mission?â€
ne of the reasons why my response has not always been wholehearted is that I was missing something critically important which we talked about yesterday. “Are you with me in my mission?†The words “with me†are fundamentally important. It is Jesus’ mission and he is always there through the presence and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives. This is so fundamental for us all. We are not alone and we can do all things in Him who strengthens us.
Four of our Brothers were murdered in the Congo in 1996. I knew them all. They were generous, hardworking, friendly, good men and they would have smiled at the idea of being heroes. They volunteered to work in a refugee camp of about thirty thousand people who had fled from Rwanda after the genocide. There was a Red Cross presence in the camp also, but the real power in the camp rested with the thugs with the guns, remnants of those who had perpetrated the killings in Rwanda. Eventually, the Brothers were to die at the hands of these men and it is a very powerful, ugly, beautiful story but this is not the time for all the detail. One of these Brothers was Br Miguel Angel lisa, a Spaniard who had worked in the Ivory Coast for many years before responding to the appeal for volunteers to work in this refugee camp. Some years before he had written to another Brother after a retreat and I would like to read an extract for you.
'Christ has risen and is alive in you and in me, and has pledged to build up love in us and for us, and I am witness to what he is doing progressively and surely! I would like to shout out this joyful reality so that you could shout it out with me, in order to share with me in this living and active presence of Christ in us.
In speaking of the vocation of all Christians, Pope John Paul said a couple of years ago: 'the Holy Spirit of God writes in the heart and life of every baptised person, a project of love and grace, which is the only way to give full meaning to existence ... and enabling the offering of one ’s personal and irreplaceable contribution to the progress of humanity on the path of justice and truth ... all men and women have their own place in God’s heart and in the historyof humanity. â€
It seems to me that many people have always had a sense of this. How could a parent not have it? Likewise, I believe that there is a special sense of vocation in the hearts of most teachers and school administrators as they follow what is a noble profession. Obviously, you are not doing it just for the money! Surely all of us here believe that, despite all thedifficulties in our society today, you can make a difference in the lives of those young people to whom you commit yourself. But it is not an easy profession - it has probably never been more complex. All the more reason to be conscious of, and grateful for, the presence of the Holy Spirit in ourselves, our staff, and our students.
Our topic this morning is “Marist Spirituality in the Context of Leadership Todayâ€. There is a sense in which I am ill at ease with this talk which, by its very nature, has to be challenging. I am sure many of you feel that you have enough challenges already! But I hope that you will be encouraged also.
Let me now make some introductory remarks.
Spirituality
Our spirituality embraces all that we are, all the elements that go to make up our living – our joys and our sorrows, our dreams and our moods, our struggles and our failures - everything. It obviously includes our relationships with God, wifri others - including our students, with ourselves, and with creation.
The ultimate source of our spirituality is God, but its formative agents are our parents and family, our friends, our teachers, and a multitude of other influences.
In an earlier time it was often assumed that the “church†had the answers when it came to spirituality. Now, we all know better! I have found great depths of spirituality with some Brothers and, although they may not have used the same vocabulary, I have found great depths of spirituality with some lay people. The Church would be enriched enormously if, at all levels, from Rome to Canberra, there was significant sharing and reflection together on spirituality and on Gospel living among all members of the Church - bishops, parents, teachers, priests, farmers, religious ... everyone. There is progress but, as usual, slowprogress.
There are many reasons why I stress this but one is the fact that much that is spoken about spirituality today still ignores the messiness of life of many of us - the family responsibilities, the irregular hours, conflicting demands on time, and so on. You all know what I am talking about.
Leadership
Parker Palmer, author of “Leading From Within: Reflections on Leadership and Spiritualityâ€, stresses the need for leaders to be willing to make the journey into the inner life. He suggests that if leaders are not aware of their own weaknesses and fears, much of their attempts to lead will be a projection of these fears in order to maintain their own positions or to secure a way of operating with which they feel safe. Leadership then becomes authoritative and stifling rather than freeing and creative. Risk and innovation are avoided because of the fear of failure. (Taken from “Lost Soul?†by Daniel O’Leary)
Marist Tradition
I start with the assumption that most, if not all here, are Christians and are heirs, in some way, to a special Marist tradition coming from those young priests mounting the hill of Fourvière to make their pledge. The full richness of their vision, their dream, has only become clear to us in recent decades thanks, in particular, to the very important research of our historians - priests, sisters, brothers and lay people but, particularly, the work of the Marist Fathers.
Creative Fidelity
Although this is not the time for us to become immersed in a discussion of Marian theology over the centuries, nevertheless, I believe that it is necessary to say a few words on recent developments, because fidelity to the dream of these young men at Fourvière and the gradual unfolding of that dream require us to be creative in our fidelity to this vision, creative in the sense of being aware of new historical and cultural circumstances, and of new theological and scriptural understandings.
All of us are aware that the Second Vatican Council came with new insights and attitudes, some of which had been developing for many years. These were exposed more fully, debated, discerned, and confirmed or left aside for further study. The Council was quite an extraordinary period of continuing education and formation for those who attended it and for all of us in different ways. It posed an enormous challenge for the Catholic Church, a challenge that we are still struggling with in many respects. The Council was also seen as a significant step in the whole ecumenical journey.
Initially, Mary proved to be quite 'a problem for the Council Fathers! There were those who strongly urged a separate document on Mary but the majority vote was for integrating the doctrine on Mary as a chapter in the document on the Church (Lumen Gentium). Since the Council there has been continuing thoughtful reflection on Mary and her role by leaders and theologians, special letters by Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, and continuing study in the Catholic Church and also by theologians from other Christian traditions, some of whom recognised that there had been a tendency to neglect Mary and her role.
All this is by way of saying that there have been theological and scriptural advances in our understanding of Mary and her life which were not current in the time of Colin, Chavoin and Champagnat and the early Marists. In fact, most of these fruits of scholarship and discernment would not be readily available until almost a century later. So the spirituality we inherited from them and their successors has been enriched by the Church’s development in her understanding of Mary and her role. Fidelity to their vision demands that we build on the foundations they gave us, and that we be creative in our fidelity.
The founders all wished their followers to live Mary’s spirit and to be imbued with her attitudes in our following of Jesus. So, what does Mary have to say to us as leaders, what can we learn from her life, from her spirituality? I shall confine myself to six main reflections, very basic to Mary’s spirituality, all of which, I believe, have relevance in the context of leadership today.
(Audio Available)
