Suchergebnisse

This is a follow up to last month's post on the attack on education, but rather than use images of people protesting CRT I decided to post the video of the talk referred to below. As I think I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog in the spring I taught a seminar on Race, Class, and Gender. This involved an engagement with both some familiar material, Balibar's writing on race and class, and some material that I have not taught before, Stuart Hall, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Sylvia Wynter, etc. (I should say that in light of the title of this piece that I did not teach CRT specifically, but rather critical writing on race). At the same time that I was expanding my teaching and research the country, or at least parts of it were moving in the other direction, passing laws that outlawed discussions of critical race theory, intersectionality, and gender theory. This was in some sense a teachable moment, or at least should be: I kept coming back to the question of the politics of knowledge and ignorance around race.In Stuart Hall's famous lecture, "Race, The Floating Signifier" he outlines the basic point against the concept of race as a biological concept, "As we know human genetically variability between different populations, normally assigned a racial category, is not significantly greater than it is within those populations." However, as he goes onto to detail in the next section this scientific fact has never been accepted. As Hall writes, "First, [this general position] represents the by now common and conventional wisdom among leading scientists in the field. Second, that fact has never prevented intense scholarly activity being devoted by a minority of committed academics to attempting to prove a correlation between racially defined genetic characteristics and cultural performance. In other words, we are not dealing with a field in which, as it were, the scientifically and rationally established fact prevents scientists from continuing to prove the opposite."Here are my two points about Hall's two points. First, as a matter of historicization, a lot has changed since nineteen ninety seven. Race is no longer the outlier as it once was. The science of global warming, vaccines, even such basic astronomical matters as the size and shape of the Earth, all now have their doubters and alternative facts. A survey of the world of conspiracy theories and people with various crank beliefs demanding to be debated on social media only serves to illustrate Spinoza's fundamental axiom that "Nothing positive which a false idea has is removed by the presence of the true insofar as it is true." Ideas, even adequate or true ideas, have no intrinsic force or power, but must be actualized, materialized by other forces. Which brings me to my second point, if an idea or the criticism of an idea, in this case the criticism of race as a biological reality, does not take hold then the problem may have less to do with the idea itself, its own intrinsic value, than with the forces, social, political, economic, psychic, etc., that are allied against it. Sylvia WynterWhich brings me to my second point of reference, and that is Sylvia Wynter's essay (that reads like a book)"Unsettling the Coloniality of Being/Power/Truth/Freedom: Towards the Human, After Man Its Overrepresentation—An Argument/." In that essay which develops its own meta-intellectual history, Wynter engages with a question that seems as far as possible from the question of race, and that is why, given their mathematical sophistication were the ancient greeks incapable of developing a corresponding sophistication of physics. As Wynter writes, "In a 1987 interview, the theoretical physicist David Böhm explained why the rise of the physical sciences would have been impossible in ancient Greece, given the role that the physical cosmos had been made to play in stabilizing and legitimating the structures/hierarchies and role allocations of its social order. If each society, Böhm pointed out, bases itself on a general notion of the world that always contains within it "a specific idea of order," for the ancient Greeks, this idea of order had been projected as that of an "increasing perfection from the earth to the heavens." In consequence, in order for modern physics (which is based on the "idea of successive positions of bodies of matter and the constraints of forces that act on these bodies") to be developed, the "order of perfection investigated by the ancient Greeks" had to become irrelevant. In other words, for such an astronomy and physics to be developed, the society that made it possible would have to be one that no longer had the need to map its ordering principle onto the physical cosmos, as the Greeks and all other human societies had done. The same goes for the need to retain the Greek premise of an ontological difference of substance between the celestial realm of perfection (the realm of and the imperfect realm of the terrestrial (the realm of doxa, of mere opinion). This was not a mutation that could be easily effected. In his recent book The Enigma of the Gift (1999), Maurice Godelier reveals an added and even more powerful dimension as to why the mutation by which humans would cease to map the "idea of order" onto the lawlike regularities of physical nature would not be easily come by."In other words, progress in the physical sciences became possible only once the world, or the cosmos, ceased to play a role in the order and organizing of human social and political life, is no longer part of our sociogenesis, to cite the term that Wynter borrows from Fanon. The social order determines and limits what can be thought or asked. On this point Wynter's argument is similar to the point Marx makes regarding value in Capital. As Marx writes,"There was, however, an important fact which prevented Aristotle from seeing that, to attribute value to commodities, is merely a mode of expressing all labour as equal human labour, and consequently as labour of equal quality. Greek society was founded upon slavery, and had, therefore, for its natural basis, the inequality of men and of their labour powers. The secret of the expression of value, namely, that all kinds of labour are equal and equivalent, because, and so far as they are human labour in general, cannot be deciphered, until the notion of human equality has already acquired the fixity of a popular prejudice. This, however, is possible only in a society in which the great mass of the produce of labour takes the form of commodities, in which, consequently, the dominant relation between man and man, is that of owners of commodities. The brilliancy of Aristotle's genius is shown by this alone, that he discovered, in the expression of the value of commodities, a relation of equality. The peculiar conditions of the society in which he lived, alone prevented him from discovering what, "in truth," was at the bottom of this equality."While the focus is different Marx, Wynter, (and I would argue) Spinoza, are all in some sense focusing on the social and political conditions of knowledge, in order for the natural sciences to become possible or in order for Value to be discovered something had to happen in society first. In the case of the former it is the general secularization of the cosmos. We could add that this process of secularization is always fragmentary and incomplete, the continued existence of flat Earthers, who, when pressed to explain why NASA and the globe industry would lie to them about the earth, they often phrase it in terms that hark back to that old theocratic order, that a round earth spinning about in a solar system of other similar planets makes them feel small and insignificant, and not, the center of God's creation. More to the point, to Wynter's point, the end of an order predicated on the cosmos is the beginning of a new order, one predicate on humanity. To quote Wynter again,"A new notion of the world and "idea of order" was being mapped now, no longer upon the physical cosmos - which beginning with the fifteenth- century voyages of the Portuguese and Columbus, as well as with the new astronomy of Copernicus, was eventually to be freed from having to serve as a projected "space of Otherness," and as such having to be known in the adaptive terms needed by human orders to represent their social structures as extrahumanly determined ones. Instead, the projected "space of Otherness" was now to be mapped on phenotypical and religio-cultural differences between human variations and/or population groups, while the new idea of order was now to be defined in terms of degrees of rational perfection/imperfection, as degrees ostensibly ordained by the Greco-Christian cultural construct deployed by Sepúlveda as that of the "law of nature, " natural law": as a "law" that allegedly functioned to order human societies in the same way as the newly discovered laws of nature served to regulate the processes of functioning of physical and organic levels of reality."Wynter's argument is that in the modern age it is humanity, the anthropos, rather than the universe, the cosmos, that is the basis of our social order. Hierarchies are no longer between the Earth and the other celestial beings, but between different aspects of humanity, or more to the point between humanity and its own internal division, between "Man" understood as the embodiment of rationality and its others. As Wynter writes,"It is this new master code, one that would now come to function at all levels of the social order - including that of class, gender, sexual orientation, superior/inferior ethnicities, and that of the Investor/Breadwinners versus the criminalized jobless Poor (Nas's "black and latino faces") and Welfare Moms antithesis, and most totally between the represented-to-be superior and inferior races and cultures - that would come to function as the dually status-organizing and integrating principle of U.S. society. So that if, before the sixties, the enforced segregation of the Black population in the South as the liminally deviant category of Otherness through whose systemic negation the former Civil War enemies of North and South, together with the vast wave of incoming immigrants from Europe, would be enabled to experience themselves as a We (that is, by means of the shared similarity of their now- canonized "whiteness"), in addition, their segregated status had served another central function. This had been that of enabling a U.S. bourgeoisie, rapidly growing more affluent, to dampen class conflict by inducing their own working class to see themselves, even where not selected by Evolution in class terms, as being compensatorily, altruistically bonded with their dominant middle classes by the fact of their having all been selected by Evolution in terms of race." I will say as something of a parenthetical aside, one that I hope to include in my actual writing this summer, and not just my blogging, that on this point Wynter is close to André Tosel's understanding of neoliberalism. As Tosel argues the more capital justifies itself in terms of an anthropology, as an expression of mankind's rationality, productivity, and individuality, the more its hierarchies are anthropologized as well, which is to say racialized. Poor countries, and the racialized poor within the country's border, are understood to be produced not by history, including the history of discrimination, but human nature. All of which may be a long, a very long way of answering the question posed by Hall, a question which has come to light in the opposition to teaching on race from the 1619 project to Critical Race Theory. The short version of this response is that a society that still needs racism in order to justify and explain itself cannot dispense with the concept of race, with the idea of racial hierarchy, no matter how many scientific studies are published disproving it. Race, and racism, are necessary parts of our social common sense, and thus any attempt to discredit and disprove them threatens that, and, as in the way CRT is represented, can only be understood as a political assault on the existing order and not additions or transformations of knowledge. Moreover, and this is something that I discuss in the podcast below, outlawing any theoretical and historical understanding of race and racism, is tantamount to legislating racism, or, at the very least to making sure that there are no official accounts that contest the dominant common sense around race. It is the modern version of putting Galileo under house arrest, to connect the dots of Wynter's essay.

As late back as 1993, Ahmed noted that many Muslims voiced concern of the negative representation of Islam and Muslims by the Western media. However, following on from such incidents as the Rushdie affair, the first Gulf War and 9/11, interest in media representations of Islam have grown. An ever‐increasing body of research has argued that the images, representations and discourses relating to Islam and Muslims in mainstream Western media tend to be negative and hostile (Poole and Richardson 2006). Various studies have examined the specific relationship between media and Islam (Ahmed 1993; Runnymede Trust 1997); the representations of Muslim minorities in the West (Allen 2005; Poole 2002) and others on Muslims and Islam in the global media (Poole and Richardson 2006; Zelizer and Allan 2002). Ideologically, these constructions can be traced back the expansion of Western imperialism where a dichotomy of 'West' versus 'East' was constructed (Said 1978).The following suggested reading list provides a starting point for researchers that are interested in exploring issues of representation and minority groups. This is not an exhaustive list but provides some of the fundamental texts that help us to understand the relationship between one minority group in the West (i.e. Muslims) and their representations in the media.The reading list is constructed in the following way. First, it presents key cultural theory (i.e. Orientalism) and relates this to issues of 'race'. Second, it examines the link between media research on minority groups and representations of Muslims/Islam. Finally, it provides some background knowledge on Muslims/Islam within the West.Suggested textsCultural theorySaid, Edward 1978. Orientalism. London, UK: Penguin (republished, 2003 and 2005).Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) is a theory that has transformed the ways in which power relations between West and East can be understood. This explores the ideas that have become embedded in Western culture through history that justify imperialism/colonialism on the basis that the West is viewed as superior to the East. Within the book, Said offers three major claims. First, he describes Orientalism as an objective, disinterested and esoteric set of ideas, the overall function of which is to serve political ends. These, for example, provided an ideological justification for Orientalist scholars to allow Europeans to take over Oriental lands. Second, Said looks at how these tools are important in helping Europe to define its image and to establish and maintain opposites and others. On this basis, Europe was given its own cultural and intellectual superiority over Islamic cultures, and this led the West to see the Islamic culture as static both in place and time. Third, Said points out that Orientalism has produced a false description of Islamic cultures, including a belief that that it is possible to unconditionally define the essential qualities of a whole Islamic culture and the people within it. The qualities of this culture are usually defined in negative terms.The following link provides a summary by Said on the new edition of Orientalism: http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1010417,00.html (last accessed 24 June 2008)Ferguson, Robert 1998. Representing 'Race': Ideology, Identity, and the Media. London, UK: Arnold.The operations of ideology in the media are also discussed in Representing 'Race'. Ferguson argues that the study of 'race' and the media cannot be seriously undertaken without engaging with theories of ideology and without an awareness of contemporary theoretical work, such as approaches to Orientalism, hegemony and critical discourse analysis. Ferguson also highlights the danger of accepting at face value socially constructed and ideologically charged notions such as 'race'. The book also provides a useful summary and critique of Orientalism and applies various concepts to case studies within the media.For a good analysis of how hegemony, representation and notions of 'race' are intertwined that draws upon Ferguson's work, see the following: Can Gramsci's theory of hegemony help us to understand the representation of ethnic minorities in western television and cinema? By Reena Mistry at http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr‐rol6.htm (last accessed 24 June 2008).Media and 'race'Cottle, Simon 2000. Ethnic Minorities and the Media: Changing Cultural Boundaries. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.This key text brings together international researchers who have investigated some of the latest issues, debates and examples informing the field of ethnic minorities and the media. It provides a useful opening chapter that reviews the developments within this field. It also explores changes in media representations as well as different approaches that examine discourse, production and identity and debates within broader media theory such those about the media' role as the public sphere.Van Dijk, Teun 1991. Racism and the Press. London, UK: Sage.Van Dijk notes that most white people have very little contact with ethnic minorities and that their attitudes towards ethnic groups are therefore influenced on this basis by the media. He states that the media play a central role in the reproduction of racism in Western countries. Using discourse analysis, his book investigates the nature of the existence of racism through an analysis of statements on racial/ethnic relations found within the Dutch and British press. Van Dijk links the idea of 'primary definers' to the notion that the media constitute an 'elite' in society. Whilst accepting that the media represent conflicts over these ideas that include the voices of other social actors, he argues that in terms of race and ethnicity, an ethnic consensus is prevalent here. Van Dijk notes that the media constitute a cultural elite, and as the experts in matters of 'formulation' (and re‐formulation), the media produce the dominant discourse environment of a racist society.A collection Van Dijk's work on racism, discourse analysis and media can be found on the following web site: http://www.discourses.org Representations of Islam/muslims in the mediaPoole, Elizabeth 2002. Reporting Islam: Media Representations of British Muslims. London, UK: I.B. Tauris.Poole examines the claim that Muslims are negatively represented in the British press. She argues that media images of Muslims are informed by official definitions of Islam that serve elite interests and that these change over time to suit political purposes. Orientalist discourses, it is argued here for example, maintain the view of Islam as a coherent, trans‐national monolithic force that has been engaged in a confrontational relationship with the West throughout history. The book makes clear and concise connections between theory and representation and provides excellent examples to illustrate this.Poole, Elizabeth and John Richardson (Eds) 2006. Muslims and the News Media. London, UK: I.B. Tauris.This book examines the role and representations of Muslims in the news media in context of the current discussions of the 'War on Terror'. It includes chapters by both academic authorities and media practitioners and demonstrates how theory can be exemplified in practice. Furthermore, it is set in both a British and international context and recognizes similarities and differences present within coverage from around the globe. From a media perspective, the book clearly explores the connections between national/global context, content, production and different audiences (Muslim and non‐Muslim) and looks also at how Muslim media is organized and structured.Muslim minorities in the WestModood, Tariq 2006. Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.In Multicultural Politics, Tariq Modood explores how much of the 'blame' for the failure of multiculturalism has been attached to Islamic culture's incompatibility with the 'democratic' principles of the West. Arguing that the old 'racial' division of black–white has been complicated by factors such as cultural racism and the rise of Islamophobia, the book moves to chart these developments within the British context whilst also paying attention to global political developments. The book has an impressive range of topics covered such as 'race', racism, Islamophobia, the multicultural debate and even summarizes broader relevant cultural theory.Films, videos and on‐line sourcesVisual sources are an excellent teaching method that can be employed to explain theories of 'race' and media representation. Rather than concentrate on 'actual' films, videos online material that may considered Islamophobic the following provides academic and more critical sources that may be useful for teaching issues of Islam, Muslims, minority representation and even 'race'.Edward Said: On Orientalism (1998)In this documentary, Said talks about the context within which his book was conceived, its main themes and how its original thesis and ideas still relate to a contemporary understanding of 'the Orient' that is represented in the mass media and wider public politics.A brief version of the documentary can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwCOSkXR_Cw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjlRR‐qRkcc (last accessed 26 June 2008)Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People (2008)Race, the Floating Signifier: Featuring Stuart Hall (2006)Stuart Hall discusses the concept of 'race' and how race is represented and naturalized in the media. This interview gives relevant examples to help to understand the concept of mediated representations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cxBOdBoxpg&feature=related (last accessed June 26 2008)A documentary supported by the Media Education Forum based on academic research on how Muslims/Islam/Arabs are represented (and treated as a homogenous group) by Hollywood. It builds upon media representations of various minority groups and then looks specifically at similarities and differences in Arab portrayalsThe trailer and a brief version of the documentary can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_N4BcaIPY http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/19/reel_bad_arabs_how_hollywood_vilifies (both last accessed 26 June 2008)Online sourcesRace, racism and ethnic minority affairs http://www.cre.gov.uk/ The home page for the Commission for Racial Equality provides up to date information on news and current affairs. It also provides links to a variety of other relevant sources form the media to black history groups. http://www.irr.org.uk The Institute of Race Relations (IRR) was established as an independent educational charity in 1958 to carry out research, publish and collect resources on race relations throughout the world. This website contains links to academic research, policy research and also media stories that are relevant to anyone interested in the area of 'race' and ethnicity. It also published the highly respected journal 'Race and Class'. http://www.islamophobia‐watch.com/islamophobia‐watch/ The above link also provides useful information on examples of racist and Islamaphobic sources that maybe useful for teaching or illuminating theories. I have purposefully not included the original links to many of these because they are, in my opinion, racist. http://www.guardian.co.uk/race The Guardian has a link to a database of back issues of relevant race articles. These include information on media representations and provide links to a variety of other sources as well as events/topics such as 9/11 and Asylum Issues. http://www.johnpilger.com/ This site contains articles on a variety of opinions from the respected author John Pilger. Much of this is relevant to issues of 'race' and ethnicity. http://www.insted.co.uk/islam.html The above links to a full text of the commission's 2004 report, plus also some extracts from it, including Islamophobia and Race Relations and Debate and Disagreement. http://www.fairuk.org/ Useful range of recent newspaper articles and several valuable fact sheets.Sample SyllabusModule justificationIt is clear that as issues of race, ethnicity and religion are as crucial to the 21st century as at any time in human history. We need to build clear understanding of these topics as well as an awareness of how they have evolved into present debates. Many of these debates and issues have invoked the use of racial, ethnic or national terminology but the discussion is not always fashioned around theories of 'old' racism but around concepts of 'new' racism.Whilst traditional notions of racism may have been challenged, these have been replaced in the West by fears of minority cultures, especially fear of Muslims. Following the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the subsequent War on Terrorism has in some quarters been debated in terms of a clash of civilisations invoking representations of the 'Others' and based on historical conceptions of the 'Orient'.Furthermore, the European community as a whole is now debating issues of asylum seekers and refugees in what could be argued to be ethnic and racial terms. Thus, there is a need for a module that examines issues of race and ethnicity by linking media representations with theoretical and historical considerations.Section 1 Theories of 'race', racism and the 'other'This reading looks at how the concept of 'race' has been ideologically constructed. This will be done by examining race theory and applying this to historical and contemporary examples.Donald, James 1992. Cultural Identity. London, UK: Sage/Open University.Dyer, Richard 1997. White. London, UK: Routledge.Fryer, Peter 1984. Staying Power: History of Black People in Britain. London, UK: Pluto Press.Gilroy, Paul 1993. Small Acts: thoughts on the politics of black cultures. London, UK: Serpent's Tail.Gilroy, Paul 1987. There Ain't No Black In The Union Jack. London, UK: Hutchinson.Hiro, Dilip 1991. Black British, White British, 2nd edn. London, UK: Grafton Books.Mason, David 1995 Race and Ethnicty in Modern Britain. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Modood, Tariq 1997 Ethnic Minorities in Britain: Diversity and Disadvantage. London, UK: PSI.Solomos, John 1993. Race and Racism in Contemporary Britain. Basingstoke, UK: MacMillan.Solomos John and Les Back 1996. Racism and Society. Basingstoke, UK: MacMillan. Possible Seminar discussion Is racism about class or colour? Would you consider yourself racist? Section 2 'Race' history and imperialismThis reading examines how representations of race and culture are mediated through ideological power and explain this through historical and contemporary examples.Bhabba, Hommi 1990. Nation and Narration. London, UK: Routledge.Fanon, Frantz 1986. Black Skin: White Masks. London, UK: Pluto.Gandhi, Leela 1998. Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press.Said, Edward 1978. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London, UK: Penguin Books.Said, Edward 1997. Covering Islam. London, UK: Vintage.Section 3 Islam, Islamophobia and cultural racismThese readings look at how constructions of religion in popular media are increasingly racialised and consider at the case study of Western media representations of Islam and Muslim communities.Ahmed, Akbar 1992. Postmodernism and Islam. London, UK: Routledge.Anthias, Floya and Yuval‐Davis, Nira 1992. Racialized Boundaries. London, UK: Routledge.Ballard, Roger (Ed.) 1994. Desh Pradesh, The South Asian Presence in Britain. London, UK: Hurst and Co.Conway, Gerald 1997. Islamophobia: A Challenge for Us All. London, UK: Runnymede Trust.Modood, Tariq 2006. Multicultural Politics: Racism, Ethnicity and Muslims in Britain. London, UK: I.B. Tauris.Said, Edward 1978. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. London, UK: Penguin Books.Said, Edward 1997. Covering Islam. London, UK: Vintage.Note
* Correspondence address: Department of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland, St Peters Campus, SR6 ODD. Email: amir.saeed@sunderland.ac.uk

Ivan's Self-deception and Hypocrisy in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych Ayu Widyaningrum English Literature Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Surabaya Ayu_widya75@yahoo.com Drs. Much. Khoiri, M.Si. English Department Faculty of Languages and Arts State University of Surabaya Much_choiri@yahoo.com Abstrak Penelitian ini focus pada penggambaran penipuan diri yang dilakukan oleh tokoh utama dalam novel The Death of Ivan Ilych oleh Leo Tolstoy dan bagaimana penipuan diri tersebut memunculkan kemunafikan. Penipuan diri terjadi sebagai hasil dari ketidaksiapannya dalam menerima kenyataan bahwa dia sedang menghadapi kematian. Untuk menjawab permasalahan pertama, penelitian ini menggunakan teori penipuan diri oleh Annette Barnes yang didukung oleh beberapa filsuf dan dengan tanda-tanda orang yang menipu dirinya sendiri oleh James Peterman. Permasalahan kedua dijawab dengan menggunakan konsep kemunafikan. Data dalam penelitian ini menyajikan tentang penipuan diri yang dilakukan oleh Ivan dan bagaimana penipuan diri tersebut memunculkan kemunafikan dalam dirinya. Analisis dalam penelitian ini mengungkapkan penipuan diri yang dilakukan oleh Ivan dan tanda-tanda bagaimana dia menjadi seseorang yang menipu dirinya sendiri. Penipuan diri ini digunakan untuk mengurangi kecemasannya terhadap ketidaksiapannya dalam menghadapi kematian. Selain itu, penipuan diri ini muncul sebagai hasil dari kecemasannya tentang keinginan hidup yang tidak terpenuhi karena sakit yang dialami. Selanjutnya, penipuan diri yang dialami memunculkan kemunafikan dalam dirinya. Ivan mengalami tiga macam kemunafikan, kemunafikan kepura-puraan , kemunafikan menyalahkan , kemunafikan inkonsistensi. Perilaku kemunafikan tersebut bersumber dari sikap penipuan diri. Kata Kunci : Penipuan Diri, kemunafikan, kecemasan, kematian Abstract This study focuses on depicting self-deception performed by the main character and how his self-deception gives raise to his hypocrisy. The self-deception is used as the result of his unreadiness in accepting the truth that he faces death. To answer the first problem, this study uses the theory of self-deception by Annette Barnes and supported by several philosophers and the symptoms of Self-Deception offered by James Peterman. The second problem is answered by using the concept of hypocrisy. The data presents Ivan Ilych's self-deception and how his self-deception gives raise to his hypocrisy. The analysis reveals Ivan's self-deception and the symptoms how he becomes a self-deceiver. The self-deception is used to reduce his anxiety toward his unreadiness in facing his death. Besides, his self-deception emerges as the result of his anxiety about the desire of life which is unfulfilled because of the illness. Furthermore, his self-deception gives raise to his hypocrisy. Ivan experiences three kinds of hypocrisy, they are hypocrisy of pretense, hypocrisy of blame, hypocrisy of inconsistency. Those hypocritical behaviors are rooted by his self-deception. Keywords: self-deception, hypocrisy, anxiety, death INTRODUCTION Novel is literary work which presents more detail and complicated problems. The readers will get more experience, fantasy and imagination by reading it. A great novel is born from a great writer. With a lot of great novels in the world, automatically there are also many great writers whether they are from west or east part of the world. There are many problems and phenomenon that is existed by the writers in their literary works, such as culture and tradition, sociological and psychological problem, and so on. There are many writers exist the psychological problems which is related to the personality of the characters in their literary works. It can be seen in Russian writers. There are so many literary works from Russia and their several novels state about psychological problem that is related with the personality of the characters. One of the great famous Russian writer is Leo Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy, the author who was born in Yasnaya Polyana, Russian Empire in 1916. There were many literary works which were made by this Russian writer, such as short stories, poems, plays, essays. Some of his works are war and peace and Anna Karenina are acknowledge as two of the greatest novels of all time and pinnacle of realist fiction. His novels are so well planned, written, and executed that Tolstoy's finished story is a perfectly formed narrative. And, critics agree that his work alone defines the true nature of an epic novel that eerily depicts the joys and sorrows of real life. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer. During the 1860s, and encouraged by his publisher, Tolstoy wrote War and Peace. During this time, he also endeavored to write a novel about Peter I the Great and about educational pedagogy, but thereafter finished what would become the greatest book of his time. Following, Tolstoy released Ana Karenina, which was considered as important as War and Peace, but with a slightly different focus – ethics and virtues can evolve and change over time. Unhappy with the Russian Orthodox Church and its teachings, which he found blasphemous, Tolstoy started his own church based on five tenets. For this, he was excommunicated, but gained his own followers, who were more like cult members than clergymen. These five tenets inspired Gandhi in his passive approach to violence – evil cannot be combated with evil. His novella, entitled The Death of Ivan Ilyich is often regarded as one of the best short novels ever written. The Death of Ivan Ilych, first published in 1886, is considered as one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversation of late 1870s. The Death of Ivan Ilych is deeply religious work, but religious of its own terms. The protagonist is a somewhat clueless, spiritually empty hero whose long illness forces him to confront the meanings of both death and life. Ivan Ilych represents a small but important class of urban bureaucrats, prominent in the day-to-day running of Russian affairs in Tolstoy's days, whose live became increasingly detached from nature, the land, and spiritual values. By exposing the horrible vacuity of Ivan Ilych's life, Tolstoy explores the self-deception, immorality and alienation of a whole class of individuals. Although Ivan is nowhere near as intelligent as his creator, like Tolstoy he comes to accept death and gain deep, if painful understanding of what his life has meant. The novel embodies the kinds of values and purpose Tolstoy thought literature should have. The Death of Ivan Ilych conveys the existential horror of sickness and morality while describing civilization as a web of lies designed to distract people from an awareness of death and also it is perfectly demonstrates this introspection as it magnifies a man's struggle with how to live his life. There are considerations of taking the novella as the main source of analysis. The first is novella performs the characteristics of self-deception and hypocrisy which experiences by the main character of the novel. The second reason is that in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, he set out merely to describe a single segment of society or to present a single example of humanity and also his writing is very honest. Besides, the story uses words which are easier to understand. The last consideration can be the best reason why this novella is analyzed by using theory of self-deception. In The Death of Ivan Ilych also has conflict and problem, both external conflict and internal conflict. Ivan is everyman an average nineteenth century bureaucratic functionary, a bourgeois, a middle class citizen (Sklare, 1965 : 3). The Death of Ivan Ilych is about an ordinary man, has a bright childhood and good life. His pleasure of life changed, since his marriage brings him unpleasantness and incurable illness that tortures him biological and psychologically until he dies. The illness makes him to stay in bed day and night with a great pain, worse than biological pain, psychologically it tortures him by the horror of death. Not believing that he will die, he struggle to avoid death by deceives his own self that he is not dying and hides his real condition by being hypocrite to his environment, but his efforts are useless. Having fought against death, ultimately he realizes that he is mortal. At the end, he accepts it and dies in piece. Death is such a taboo subject to discuss in our society, but actually it is human nature. What Woody Allen writes may be able to explain how allergic people are to death. "I am not afraid of dying, but I just don't want to be there when it happens" (Coon, 1992 : 436-437). Psychology finds that people do not like to talk about death because they are afraid of it. The pool to 1500 adults shows that there are no fears of death ; yet. They find another possibility. It may be more exact to say that the people hide and intense denial to death (Coon, 1992 : 436). The fact that all men must die is hardly news, and as an abstract statement it dulls our fears at least as much as it aroused them. The Death of Ivan Ilych is one of interest novella by Leo Tolstoy that can be analyzed because it tells about psychological sides of human's life that lead to the main point self-deception and hypocrisy of the main character named Ivan Ilych. Having the feeling of anxious in facing death makes people tend to do something which can reduce his anxiety. People tend to deceive himself by believing that he is not facing death and forces to think that his condition is better while he knows well that he suffers illness which leads him to the death. The topic in this thesis is about self-deception and hypocrisy, because it is the most important one and it is suffered by the main character, Ivan. Self-deception is a mental defense mechanism by which some people cope with intensely painful emotions. They avoid becoming aware of, or accepting the truth about, a current life circumstance or person simply because it is too painful or scary to do so (from http://nirmukta.com/2010/06/21/self-deception-as-a-coping-mechanism-among-victims-of-the-sai-baba-cult/). Meanwhile, there is also another term that almost has the same meaning as self-deception which is hypocrisy. Based on the online dictionary, hypocrisy is "the condition of a person pretending to be something he is not, especially in the area of morals or religion; a false presentation of belief or feeling. The study of self-deception and hypocrisy are related to the main character in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. In this novella Ivan as the main character of the story experiences self-deception. He forces himself to believe something which he knows that it is false. It happens when he faces illness that leads him to the death. He knows well that the illness will leads him to the death, but he keeps forcing himself to think that everything will fine even his life will not be disturbed by the illness. Ivan is someone who has ambitious in life. He desires that his life should be easy, pleasant and decorous. When he gets the illness, he feels fear that it will give big impact in his life. He feels anxiety that his desires about life will not fulfill because of that illness. That is why he uses self-deception to reduce his anxiety. Meanwhile there is also another term that almost has the same meaning as self-deception is hypocrisy. Self-deception is so related to hypocrisy. It is because self-deception is the root of hypocrisy. If someone experiences hypocrisy in his life, it can be analyzed that he also experiences self-deception as the root of his hypocritical behavior. Furthermore, if someone experiences self-deception in his life, it might also lead him to have hypocritical behavior. The main character Ivan experiences self-deception in his life, and his self-deception give raise to his hypocritical behavior. He pretends that he is fine, hides his real condition even though in the depth of his heart he knows that his illness is getting worse and will lead him to the death. In addition, this novel ever discussed about the anxiety by Anita Christina HR from English Literature 2004 entitled Ivan's Enxiety in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. It tells about the anxiety experienced by the main character Ivan in this novel. This study will not same with that previous study, because this study will discuss about self-deception in the main character Ivan, and how Ivan's self-deception give raise to his hypocrisy. The idea to unearth the self-deception and hypocrisy of the main character probably is not the main message of the novel, but the freedom of reader's interpretation lets unguessed ideas be out of the author's purpose, even exceed the consciousness of the author. These all ground the creating this thesis with potential title "Ivan's Self-deception and Hypocrisy in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych". RESEARCH METHOD The used method is descriptive quality; it means the quality of the data becomes the reference to work rather than the quantity of the data. Besides, a technique is needed to understand the data. Technique of interpretation must be used to interpret and analyze the data. Through interpretation the analysis can be worked. Interpretation is a crucial step that has to do before analyzing the data. Then, extrinsic approach is used as an approach toward the analysis in which environment belongs to it. According to method above, the first thing that has to do is collecting data. In collecting data this research focuses on reading and documentation. Reading novel. In this step, novel becomes the object of the research. The novel is entitled The Death of Ivan Ilych, written by Leo Tolstoy. To collect the correctly data, it needs reading more than once, because to get interpretation, it needs understanding all contents completely with all possibilities both intrinsically and extrinsically. Inventorying data. This step is collecting data through noting the quotations related to the statement of the problems and objectives of the study, it is including in words, sentences, and discourse that can represent self-deception and hypocrisy in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. Thus, all data that will be analyzed are started and sourced through the novel's contents. Classification data. It is appropriate to the statements of the problems about self-deception and hypocrisy in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. Tabling the data. It is to simplify reading the data and classify data that is used in the analysis for the readers. Continuously, the selected data or the collected data, which are related to the statements of the problems and the objectives, are analyzed through self-deception and hypocrisy to the main characters in Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych. SELF-DECEPTION Barnes argues that in self-deception, self-deceivers must intentionally get themselves to believe something they know or truly believe is false (Barnes, 1997 : 4). It means that self-deception only involves one person, she/he is not only as deceiver but also deceived. It is the difference between interpersonal deception and self-deception, that in interpersonal deception, one intentionally gets the other one to believe something, but in self-deception, deceivers intentionally get themselves to believe something. The same thing is also confirmed by Mele in his book Irrationality. The conception of self-deception as lying to oneself is fueled by the idea that interpersonal deception necessarily involves lying to another. If deceiving someone else is getting him to believe something that one knows (or correctly believes) is false, it is natural to understand self-deception as getting oneself to believe something that one knows (or correctly believes) is false. (Mele, 1987 : 122). Deceiving someone else is to make the other person believe something that the deceiver knows it is false. While in self-deception, deceivers make themselves to believe something which they know it is false. Self-deception involves just one person, where she or he is not only become deceiver but also deceived. In self-deception, deceivers must intentionally get themselves to believe something which they know or truly believe is false. I deceived myself, then (Barnes, 1997 : 18) : (a) As deceiver, I must believe of some proposition that it is false, and at the same time, as deceived, believe that it is true, and (b) As deceived, I must be taken in by a deceitful strategy that, as deceiver, I know to be deceitful As quoted by Mele, according to Demos self-deception exists when a person lies to himself, that is to say, persuades himself to believe what he knows is not so. In short, self-deception entails that B believes both p and not-p at the same time. (Mele, 1987 : 122). It means that in self-deception, deceivers know what they believe is actually false, but they keep believing something false in themselves. . That is called as self-deceivers believes both p and not-p. they know the truth, but still keep believing the false. Self-deceptive belief functions to reduce anxiety. The self-deceptive belief that p may function to reduce anxiety that not-p, it can sometimes function instead to reduce anxiety about some other proposition (Barnes, 1997 : 36). This suggests that when self-deceivers deceive themselves into believing that some future event will occurs, their self-deceptive beliefs function to reduce their anxiety about the non-occurrence of that event. Self-deceptive belief always functions to reduce a self-deceiver's anxiety, whether the self-deceptive belief is about what will occur, what has occurred, or what is occurring. A belief that p functions to reduce anxiety that not-q when (Barnes, 1997 : 59) : (1) the belief that p is caused by the anxious desire that q and (2) the purpose of the occurrence of the belief that p is to reduce anxiety that not-q According to requirement 1, the anxious desire plays a casual role in the person's coming to have that belief. According requirement 2, the having of the belief that p is purposive. Its purpose is to reduce anxiety that not-q. Barnes argues that self-deceiver's anxious desires cause them to be biased in favor of beliefs that reduce their anxiety (Barnes, 1997: 59). People have self-deceptive beliefs because having self-deceptive beliefs reduces their anxiety. Something (having a self-deceptive belief) which has a certain effect (reducing anxiety) is explained by the fact that it has that effect (Barnes, 1997 : 60). HYPOCRISY People do something because they have a motive. Everything which is done by them is a sign of their motive or the aim they have. When they want to get attention from others, they tend to do something which can make the other people give them attention. It can be done by the people who did not intend to deceive. They do something which is consistent with their motive. Deceit is done by the signs of outward deeds. Such as when a person pretends to have a good purpose or intent through their actions, but in reality it was a bad goal. The purpose is actually bad and not in accordance with the action they did. It can be said as a lie. The lie can be regarded as hypocrisy. A deed is a sign of the person's intention. But it is not so for the hypocrite, who by outward signs of deeds or things signifies that which he is not (Spiegel, 1999 : 20) As quoted by Spiegel, philosopher Gilbert Ryle suggests that to be hypocritical is to try to appear actuated by a motive other than one's real motive (Spiegel, 1999 : 23). A hypocrite takes an action to deliver a purpose that is not the real goal. They tend to hide the real goal with actions which they are doing. So it conveys through his actions, others will accept that the goal is not their real goal. They made their actions as a mask to hide the true purpose. Hypocrisy is an act to make a 'belief', in which he pretended to believe what he actually knows that's not the real problem/case. These actions will continue to do so leads to a different motive other than the actual motive. The hypocrite engages in action which, as it were, contradict or "negate" one another morally. One is morally good, while the other is bad. Thus, the hypocrite is irrational, because inconsistent, in the moral sense (Spiegel, 1999 : 30). Hypocrisy hates the truth. Because a hypocrite's self-worth is based on maintaining an illusion of righteousness and godliness to himself and the others, he must continually deceive himself and others that his righteousness is genuine. However, since his righteousness is not genuine, he must be on constant guard against fact, circumstances, or people that might expose him. Instead of the truth being the foundation of his life, values, and hope, it becomes an enemy against which he must always be on guard (Matthew 6:23 ; Luke 11:34-36 ; john 3:19-21) ( http://questions.org/attq/whats-so-dangerous-about-hypocrisy/ ) Others will be difficult to understand what he was hiding. It is because the hypocrite will continue to provide the signs, through actions to cover up the truth. Not only through actions, hypocrites with their self-consciously deceive others through his language, the words they said to others. Those are why the lie will be difficult to be understood. KINDS OF HYPOCRISY Roger Crisp and Christopher Cowton offers a fourfold distinction of the vice, which are (Spiegel, 1999 : 30) : Hypocrisy of Pretense The hypocrisy of pretense occurs when a person puts up a front of being morality or physically better than he is. Pretentious hypocrites are motivated by desire for selfish gain. But as Crisp and Cowton note, pretenses may be motivated by malice, shame, and even interest in others (Spiegel, 1999 : 30). Nor must the pretense aim to sham genuine virtue. People experiences hypocrisy of pretense when they hide their real motive which is better rather that the real motive. For instance, a person is feeling in bad condition but when the other people ask about his condition he tends to hide by telling that his condition is good. This example can indicate that this person is experiencing hypocrisy of pretense. Hypocrisy of Blame Hypocrisy of blame, defined as moral criticism of others by someone with moral fault of their own. The vice often appears to lie particularly in the fact that the fault of the critic is worse than criticized (Spiegel, 1999 : 31). Hypocrisy of the blame Occurs when the perpetrator has an error then he tends to put the blame on to someone else. it is done with the purpose to cover up his own mistakes. By blaming others actually he does not realize that his sin was far worse than the mistake he accuses. It was because he had an error and then add the mistake of accusing others with the intent to cover up his mistake which ended up being worse. Hypocrisy of Inconsistency The third category of hypocrisy is that inconsistency, which is defined as the uttering of some (overriding) moral requirement that does apply to oneself and then failing to live up to it. Hypocrisy of inconsistency occurs when a person's action is not in accordance to his words. For instance, a person told to his friend that he would read a novel but then the other friend of this person sees that he is not reading a novel but he is playing piano. The other example which can be indication of hypocrisy of inconsistency is when a person promised to himself or another person about something, but in fact he does not do what has been said by his own self. Judith Sklar regards it as "the distance between assertion and performance" (Spiegel, 1999 : 31). Hypocrite are generally regarded as insincere the faults of the other two characters are quite different. The hypocrite engages in action which, as it were, contradict or "negate" one another morally. One is morally good, while the other is bad. Thus, the hypocrite is irrational, because inconsistent, in the moral sense. Hypocrisy of complacency Lastly, complacency in certain conditions can be said a form of hypocrisy. To be guilty of this is to ignore the demands of morality when they become costly, to be content with one's moral status, refusing to improve or even to reflect upon it, while carrying on a pretense of virtue blaming others for they vices, or failing to practice what one preaches. Thus, as Crisp and Cowton note, complacent hypocrites protect "their complacency from criticism on the grounds of the first three kinds of hypocrisy" (Crisp and Cowton, 1994: 343-345). The hypocrisy of complacency could also fall into any of these categories, as suggested by Crisp and Cowton's own assertion that such hypocrites may sustain their complacency through any of the other forms of hypocrisy ; pretense, blame or inconsistency (Spiegel, 1999 : 32). RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF-DECEPTION AND HYPOCRISY Some writers maintain that at least in some form, hypocrisy is rooted in self-deceit. The self-deceived which can be called as 'internal' hypocrite is characterized by psyche fractured by refusal to fully own up to some moral truth she knows in her heart to heart (Spiegel, 1999: 33) . The self-deceived person tends to act that way because of she/he wants to refuse some moral truth she/he knows. It can be caused by her/his unreadiness of accepting the truth. The self-deceived person tends to 'make believe' in which he/she pretends to believe what she/he knows that it is not the case. The delusional person experiences no conflict in her belief of a lie, for she is completely convinced. On the other hand, the self-deceived does experiences conflict because of her belief contradicts her knowledge. Self-deceived actually knows that what she/he has done contradicts to her knowledge. Hypocrisy involves self-deception when it results from either: (1) A false belief resulting from a motivated bias of some sort, (2) A disavowal of some continuing engagement in which one is involved, or (3) Some combination of 1 and 2. Some writers prefer to see hypocrisy as a "second order" or "meta" vice. It means that self-deception occurs as the result of self-deception that happened before. In the words of Crisp and Cowton, it is symptomatic of "a failure to take morality seriously" (Spiegel, 1999 : 35). It can be said that it is metavirtuous to acknowledge the domain of morality, that is, to be moralist. But the hypocrite is metavicious, for someone tacitly refuses to do so, and is therefore an amoralist such a person considers herself somehow exempt from moral constraints. And yet, being aware of how the moral community operates and when and why rewards are doled out to the virtuous, the hypocrite plays a part for personal gain. As quoted by Spiegel, Christine McKinnon notes that hypocrite "wishes a certain status and she recognizes that this can be achieved if she can manage the elicit positive moral assessments" (Spiegel, 1999 : 35). So like the self-deceived hypocrite, the amoralist hypocrite gains praise and respect for qualities she does not really possess. But unlike the self-deceived hypocrite, she experiences no psychological dissonance, because she is genuinely convinced that she is not the subject to the relevant moral rules. As quoted by Szabados and Solfer, Shklar argues that allowing self-deception to count would result in a regrettable proliferation of accusations of hypocrisy (Solfer, 2004 : 256). It is possible that such hypocrisy involves, not only deception to others, but rather than self-deception, which may not similarly involve knowledge that one is engaged in deception. In short, self-deception and hypocrisy are two terms which cannot be separated because they have relationship each other. Self-deception can also be called as internal hypocrisy, a hypocrisy which is done to his/her own self. A deceived and a deceiver are the same person. Meanwhile hypocrisy can also be called as interpersonal deception, a deception which is done to the other people. Hypocrisy involves more than two people, there is a deceiver and also involves the other people which become deceived. Besides, self-deception can give raise to hypocrisy when a person becomes self-deceiver, there is a possibility that makes him/her becomes hypocrite. It is because self-deception is the cause of hypocritical behavior. One and the same hypocrite's actions are as resulting from self-deceit or lack of moral seriousness. Self-deceit and amoralism as dual causes of hypocritical behavior (Spiegel, 1999 : 36). If self-deception is deceiving their own selves to believe something they know that it is false. If the self-deceptive belief results action, behaviour, language or something else which lead them to deceive others rather than their own selves, it can be said that their self-deception give raise to their hypocrisy. Thus we can see how self-deception and hypocrisy have relationship each other and cannot be separated. DEPICTION OF IVAN'S SELF-DECEPTION Self-deception is a mental defense mechanism by which some people cope with intensely painful emotions. The self-deceivers are becoming aware of, or accepting the truth about, a current life circumstance or person simply because it is too painful or scary to do so. In this novel, the central drama of the story is Ivan's struggle with illness and death, and Tolstoy gives us quite the setup. He tells us Ivan's whole life story up to the point when he becomes sick. We get to know Ivan, his habits and desires, his family and friends, and his circumstances. The main character Ivan is someone who experiences self-deception because he is not ready in accepting the truth that he is facing illness which leads him to the death Ivan forces himself thinking that he is getting better. He keeps forcing himself to believe that the illness is getting better and the medicine begins to take the effect. But then the usual pain is coming back to him, he becomes more painful because the illness feels more serious. As he grows sicker, Ivan's mood and attitude toward life begin to change dramatically. He starts having to struggle with fear, discomfort, and isolation. The illness begins after he slipped when he was preparing his new house. Ivan feels everything is well after his move to his new house, but sometimes Ivan complains of a strange taste in his mouth and something wrong with his left side, but this could hardly be called as an illness. The something wrong grows worse, and although it is not real pain, it is a feeling of pressure in his side which throws him into a constant state of depression. The state of depression depends and begins to spoil the pleasure of the easy and decorous life that the Golovin family had recaptured. As his ill humor begins to mar the easy and agreeable lifestyle he has worked so hard to construct, volatile disputes with his wife occur more and more often. Ivan goes to see the doctor. To him, the only important question is whether his case is serious or not. But ignoring Ivan's concern, the doctor focuses on the strictly medical question of whether Ivan's problem is a floating kidney or appendicitis. This question the doctor answers brilliantly, and as Ivan thought, in favor of the appendix. Ivan gets the feeling that his case is very serious and he is struck by the doctor's indifference and utter lack of sympathy to a matter of such importance. After think about his illness, he becomes more realize that he is going closer to the death. It shows that Ivan reviews from the beginning when the first time he gets the pain from his illness. It begins when he slipped in his new house, then he get a bruise which hurts a little. But then it becomes more painful, so he visit to the doctor to consul about the pain he feels. He is not sure to the doctor's diagnosis then he intents to see another doctor to get more accurate diagnosis. But from the other doctors, he gets the same diagnoses which resume that his illness is chronic. Then from doctor's resume, he gets the thought that it is not the case of what disease he is suffering, but it is about life and death. Demos argues that self-deception exists when a person lies to himself, that is to say, persuades himself to believe what he knows is not so, self-deception entails that someone believes both p and not-p at the same time (Mele, 1987 : 122). This argument also confirms what is being experienced by Ivan, because based on quotations in the novel it is clear that he believes something contradictory at the same time. On the one hand he fully understands that there is something bad in him as a result of his illness, he knew it was the explanation from the doctors he visited. On the other hand, he forced himself to think that there would be no bad thing in him, and believe that it is not a chronic disease, unlike what has been described by doctors. Then it can clearly be seen that in this case Ivan lies to himself. Barnes argues that a belief that p functions to reduce anxiety that not-q when (1) the belief that p is caused by the anxious desire that q (Barnes, 1997 : 59). In Ivan's case, a belief about his illness that it is just a small thing functions to reduce his anxiety that it is a chronic illness not a small thing as he believes. It occurs because his belief is caused by his anxious desire that it is a chronic disease. Ivan has anxious feeling about his illness, he will not it becomes chronic because it will make him die. In the depth of his heart, he feels so anxious with what has been said by the doctor, he knows well that the doctor diagnoses there are something bad in himself because of his illness. He also feels that his condition becomes worse gradually, and becomes more understand about the illness from medical book he read. All these things make his anxious feeling becomes worse. That is why he always forces himself to think that he is getting better and his illness is just small thing, it functions to reduce his anxious feeling. It occurs when the purpose of the occurrence of the belief that p is to reduce anxiety that not-q (2) (Barnes, 1997 : 59). Barnes explain that the belief about p does not only function to reduce anxious feeling but also has the purpose to reduce it. Ivan's belief about his illness does not only function to reduce his anxious feeling, it also has a purpose. His purpose to have a belief that his illness is just a small thing is to reduce his anxious feeling that it is a chronic disease. Ivan feels anxious that his illness will mar his pleasure of life. Ivan is someone who has desire in life that his life ought to be easy, pleasant, and decorous. He has bright childhood, good life, and good physic, mental and social background. . He is someone who has big ambitious in life, especially in his job. He will do everything to fulfill his pleasure of life. In his mind, the happy frame of life comes from his success in job and the harmonious relation with his wife, the one augmenting the other. Everything goes in accordance with what he desires in his life. But since he married with Praskovya Fredorovna, his easy, pleasant and decorous of life changes gradually. He feels that his marriage cannot bring him the pleasant of life. He realizes that being married at least to this wife, does not necessarily augment the pleasures and proprieties of life, but on the contrary, threatened them and that therefore he must guard himself against these threats. Something worse happens and then begins to mar his easy, pleasant and decorous life. He suffers the chronic illness which makes his condition became worse gradually. Since he got an incurable illness that has tortured him biologically and psychologically, Ivan feels anxious. He feels anxious because he seems that he is not ready in facing death and also he feels anxious that his illness will mar his easy, pleasant and decorous life. As the time goes by, and the illness becomes worse more than before, automatically Ivan cannot live his life like he used to live, easy, pleasant and decorous. Peterman describes in the symptoms of self-deceiver that A part of the explanation for A's believing that P is that A desires that P (Spiegel, 1999 : 56). If it is used to analyze Ivan's case, the A stands for Ivan as the self-deceiver and P is Ivan's belief that his illness is just a small thing. Ivan believes it because he desires it to be. Ivan believes that his illness is just a small thing that it is actually not a chronic diseases because he indeed desires everything is well. Then his desires lead him to keep believing that his illness is just nothing, just a small thing. he does not want his illness will destroy what he has believed about his life that it should be run in accordance with what he believed : easy, pleasant and decorous. REVEALATION OF IVAN'S SELF-DECEPTION GIVES RAISE TO HIS HIS HYPOCRISY There is also another term that almost has the same meaning as self-deception which is hypocrisy. Based on the online dictionary, hypocrisy is "the condition of a person pretending to be something he is not, especially in the area of morals or religion; a false presentation of belief or feeling" (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/hypocrisy). Indeed, hypocrisy is very close to self-deception but it may affect one else rather that just between his/ her own self. Self-deception and hypocrisy are two terms which are cannot be separated. It is because at least in some forms, hypocrisy is rooted in self-deceit. Self-deception is also called as internal hypocrisy. Self-deception is deceiving themselves to believe something they know that it is false (Spiegel, 1999 : 33). If the self-deceptive belief results action, behavior, language or something else which lead them to deceive others rather than their own selves, it can be said that their self-deception give raise to their hypocrisy. It has been analyzed that Ivan experiences self-deception in his life, but unfortunately his self-deception give raise to his hypocrisy. Ivan does not only deceive himself in the matter of facing his illness. His self-deceptive belief results action, language and behavior which lead him to deceive others rather than his own self. Ivan's self-deception give raise three kinds of hypocrisy, they are hypocrisy of pretense, hypocrisy of blame, and hypocrisy of inconsistency. HYPOCRISY OF PRETENSE Ivan experiences hypocrisy of pretense in himself. It happened when he had to struggle with the illness. As explained in the previous analysis of self-deception, he has a belief in himself that his illness is just a small thing. Ivan believes that his illness is just a small thing, that it is actually not a chronic disease. It is because he indeed desires everything is well. Then his desires lead him to keep believing that his illness is just nothing, just a small thing. he does not want his illness will destroy what he has believed about his life that it should be run in accordance with what he believed : easy, pleasant and decorous. He realizes that his illness will destroy his faith about life. Then he forces himself to think that he is getting better. But then it appears the internal conflict in his heart, because his belief contradicts with the fact that his illness is a chronic disease. He knows that he is dying, but he is unable to grasp the full implications of his mortality. He sees that he is dying, and he is in a constant state of despair. In his heart of hearts he knows he is dying, and it is not simply that he could not get used the idea that he could not grasp it, could not possibly grasp it. He hides his real condition by pretending though his words that "the appendix is getting better". But then the painful feeling of his illness follows his words. By doing so, everyone especially his wife in this case, will consider that indeed he is in a good condition because he say to her that "the appendix is getting better". It occurs to a hypocrites, they will act through their action and language by their self-conciously that this action or this utterance is false. It is done to hide the actual case. That occurred in Ivan's case, when his friend and his wife or everyone in his environment considers that Ivan illness is just a small thing, Ivan success becoming hypocrite. A hypocrite takes an action to deliver a purpose that is not the real goal. They tend to hide the real goal with actions which they are doing. So it conveys through his actions, others will accept that the goal is not their real goal. They made their action as a mask to hide the true purpose (Spiegel, 1999 :20). From the quotation above, Ivan uses "cheerfully" action as a mask to hide his condition, so it leads the other goal which is his wife will assume that his condition is good. It is called that Ivan's pretense will raise another perception in his wife's perspective, rather than the actual case that Ivan never forget about the pain which is caused by his illness. He pretends and hides his real condition to everyone, so then it leads the thought of everyone that Ivan is in a good condition. Everyone think that Ivan is just suffers simply disease, not a chronic disease. The only thing that Ivan need is simply following the doctor's treatment and taking his medicine regularly. By doing so, Ivan will get better again as he used to be before he got the illness. Others will be difficult to understand what he was hiding. It is because the hypocrite will continue to provide the signs, through actions to cover up the truth (Spiegel, 1999 : 23). The quotation above shows that how everyone does not know about the real condition of Ivan. It is because Ivan always hides it by acting like he is not suffering the chronic illness. HYPOCRISY OF BLAME Ivan's self-deception give raise to his hypocrisy of pretense because in the matter of hiding his condition, Ivan does not only experience hypocrisy of pretense, but also hypocrisy of blame. When everything goes but it is not in accordance with what he wants, he blames his wife. He also blames his wife's attitude that it seems like his wife does not notice him. Ivan's attitude in hiding his condition causes his wife's attitude towards his illness. Ivan thinks that his wife seems not notice and will not understand about his condition. It is described clearly by the statement above, that his wife's attitude is actually his own fault. But Ivan seems that he is blaming his wife because of her attitude. In this case, his wife's attitude toward him happens as a result of his own deception. As it has been described in the previous analysis about hypocrisy of pretense, that Ivan hides his real condition by pretending through his "cheerful" action, then it leads to his wife's perspective, she assumes that indeed Ivan is in good condition. By thinking that way, automatically she also will not too worry with his condition. So then his attitude in blaming his wife can be called as his hypocrisy of blame, which is rooted by his own deception. Ivan hides the doctor's diagnose about his illness from everyone even his wife. Ivan seems blame everyone's attitude toward him that they seem annoyed and do not want understand about his condition. He does not realize that the environment's attitude toward his illness is a result of his hypocritical behavior which he pretends as he is not suffering chronic disease. Then it automatically leads the thought that he is indeed in a good condition, so then everyone will notice him like a person who is in good condition and will not give more attention like the attention to person who is suffering chronic disease. Ivan hates his wife who is actually always giving him attention but he himself always rejects it. The only one to blame is actually Ivan himself, it was because he pretends and hides the actual condition. The second is because he always refused any attention that is given by his wife. When someone is always giving attention, but the attention she gives was rejected then she will feel bored to continue giving attention to the same person. Likewise with Ivan's wife, who wants to give him more attention even by every simple way, but Ivan always refused and thought that his wife would not understand his real condition. Actually it is Ivan's mistake because he does not want show the doctor's diagnosis to everyone, including his wife. When his wife tries to ask about the doctor's diagnosis he lies and hides it by telling that everything is fine. With all his mistakes, he blames his wife. He does not realize that actually the only one to blame is his own self which is cause by his own behavior, not the mistakes of other people even his wife. Finding Ivan's condition even worse, however, his wife chooses to tell Ivan to take his medicine rather than make the announcement. Ivan looks at his wife with extreme animosity and tells her to let him die in peace. Ivan greets the doctor with the same hostility, declaring that the doctor can do nothing for him. The doctor admits to his wife that Ivan's case is very serious, and that he can only administer drugs to ease the pain. Yet more than his physical sufferings, Ivan's mental sufferings cause him the greatest torture. One night Ivan begins to doubt whether he has lived his life correctly. It occurs to him that his official life, the arrangement of his family, and all his social interests are actually false. He wants to defend his life path, but finds that there is nothing to defend. Realizing that the only truth in his life was when he attempted to struggle against the expectations and values of high society, Ivan realizes that his life "was not real at all, but a terrible and huge deception which had hidden both life and death." Seeing the footman, his wife, his daughter, and all the other people he comes across in his daily routine confirms to Ivan the truth of his realization. This consciousness increases his suffering "tenfold." For the first time, Ivan recognizes the hypocrisy and artificiality of his life. He calls into question the values that he has lived by, and he honestly entertains the conclusion that the way he lived has obscured both life and death. A proper view of life, Ivan now understands, entails an acknowledgment of the inevitability of death, as well as an appreciation of the true joys of life. The two go hand in hand. By accepting unpleasantness as a fact of life, one can derive full benefit from life's joys. Ivan's realization has affected a shift in the focal point and intensity of his spiritual suffering. Ivan no longer feels obliged to take part in the pretense around him. He confronts both his wife and the doctor with the truth of his condition. Now, however, Ivan's spiritual pain is caused by the possibility that his whole life has been in error. Yet despite Ivan's new knowledge, Ivan still does not wholly relinquish the hope that his life was lived rightly. Even though he is now keenly aware of the spiritual component of life, he is not yet ready to fully admit the error of his life. In a sense, he knows it, but does not acknowledge it. In this manner, Tolstoy paves the way for the resolution of the life and death of Ivan Ilych. HYPOCRISY OF INCONSISTENCY Ivan's attempts to deal with the disruption caused by his illness are also revealing. By following the doctor's orders in a scrupulous and exact fashion, he not only takes up the position that his illness is purely physiological, but he also demonstrates his belief that life is well regulated and predictable. With his wife's pregnancy, Ivan managed to adopt a perspective that ignored the disagreeable aspects of her behavior. And when the proper channels of complaint failed to gain Ivan notice when he was passed over for promotion, a sudden and miraculous reorganization of the government landed him a better position. Yet unlike the previous incursions of unseemliness and unpredictability into his life, Ivan's illness resists such decorum restoring measures. When meticulous attention to the doctor's instructions fails to help, Ivan tries to force himself to think that he is better. But even self-deception is unsuccessful when problems with his wife, difficulty at work, or bad cards at bridge make him conscious of his disease. The fact that life's unpleasantness causes the pain that Ivan experiences is a key to Ivan's condition. If Ivan's condition is not physiological, but is truly caused by a misperception of the nature of life, i.e., if Ivan's illness stems from his belief that life is always proper, formal, decorous, and neat, then any signs to the contrary would serve to aggravate his symptoms. A close look at Ivan's night of bridge seems to point to the same conclusion. Ivan enjoys bridge because it mirrors his perception of reality. Bridge, in a sense, is a metaphor for Ivan's ideal of a proper life. Thus, when Ivan realizes that his excitement at making a grand slam (the best possible bridge hand) is ridiculous in light of his present condition, bridge seems to lose all its appeal. Ivan's illness makes him conscious of the fact that bridge does not reflect the true nature of life. Missing a grand slam, as Ivan does when he misplays his hand, is really a trivial occurrence. Ivan simply does not care. And the reason that "it is dreadful to realize" why he does not care is because that realization implies the destruction of his worldview. Although Ivan has not yet completely relinquished his view of life as neat and predictable, his illness is gradually making him aware that a world and a reality exist outside of the one he occupies. He begins to deal with himself that he should stop being too aware of his condition as the impact of his illness, the only thing he should do is just going to one doctor and follow the instruction in order to get better. Ivan believes and hopes when he follows the instruction and takes the medicine regularly, his condition will get better. But then his wife tells to the doctor how Ivan does not follow the doctor's instruction by not taking his medicine. Then it clearly described that Ivan becomes inconsistence, because his action is not accordance with what has been said by him. Two more weeks pass by, and Ivan's physiological condition degenerates further. One morning Praskovya enters Ivan's room to tell him that their daughter's suitor has formally proposed. Finding Ivan's condition even worse, however, she chooses to tell Ivan to take his medicine rather than make the announcement. Ivan looks at his wife with extreme animosity and tells her to let him die in peace.Ivan does not want follow his wife's demand, he did not take the medicine even his condition has become more serious and worse. Ivan greets the doctor with the same hostility, declaring that the doctor can do nothing for him. The doctor admits to Praskovya that Ivan's case is very serious, and that he can only administer drugs to ease the pain. His wife tells that Ivan does not take the medicine and does not follow the doctor's instruction. The only thing he does is just lying in his bed while his legs up, because he feels better by doing so. Ivan does not consistence with what he has been told and promised that in the previous he said that he will follow the doctor's instruction and take his medicine regularly, but in fact he does not do it. It indicates that what Ivan is not in accordance with what he has told that it can be said as hypocrisy of inconsistency. As Judith Sklar regards about hypocrisy of inconsistency is that "the distance between assertion and performance" (Spiegel, 1999 : 31). Where it can be described that what happen to Ivan is hypocrisy of inconsistency, does as Ivan said, not as Ivan does. CONCLUSION Based on the whole analysis of the study in chapter 3, there are several conclusions in line with the statement of the problem. Based on the definition of self-deception which has been explained by Barnes that self-deception involves just one person, that person does not only become deceiver but also deceived. The deceivers are getting themselves to believe something that they know or truly believe is false. It occurs to the main character Ivan in The Death of Ivan Ilych. The central drama of the story is Ivan's struggle with illness and death, and Tolstoy gives us quite the setup. He tells us Ivan's whole life story up to the point when he becomes sick. The writer gets to know Ivan, his habits and desires, his family and friends, and his circumstances. Ivan experiences self-deception in his life as a result of his unreadiness in accepting the truth that he is facing death. Barnes argues that the self-deceptive belief functions to reduce anxiety. It also occurs to Ivan that he feels afraid in facing his illness. He seems aware even anxious that the illness will disturb his pleasure of life. That is why he uses self-deception to reduce his anxiety about not fulfilling of his pleasure of life and the anxious because of his unreadiness in facing death. Furthermore, Ivan's self-deception gives rise to his hypocrisy. Self-deception is deceiving themselves to believe something they know it is false, if this self-deceptive believe result action, language, behaviour or something else which lead them to deceive others rather than their own selves, it can be said that his self-deception give raise to his hypocrisy. In Ivan's case, his self-deception results action, language, behaviour and something else which lead him to deceive others rather than his own self. So it can be analyzed that Ivan's self-deception gives rise to his hypocrisy. Ivan's self-deception gives rise to three kinds of his hypocritical behaviours those are hypocrisy of pretense, hypocrisy of blame and hypocrisy of inconsistency. His hypocrisy of pretense appears to hide his real condition from people around him. Besides hypocrisy of pretense, Ivan's self-deception also gives raise to his hypocrisy of blame. Ivan blames his environment's attitude toward his condition that they tend does not pay more attention to his condition. Actually it is his own mistake that he hides his real condition which leads the attitude of everyone that they will not give him more attention. Ivan blames the other person which actually the only person to blame is his own self. Lastly, Ivan also experiences hypocrisy of inconsistency. It occurs because he does not take his medicine regularly. Whereas he has promised that he will allow the doctor's instruction by taking his medicine and does not eat food which is forbidden by the doctor. It indicates that what Ivan does is not in accordance with what he has said. All hypocritical behaviours performed by Ivan are rooted by his self-deception. Basically self-deception is root of hypocrisy. When someone experiences self-deception, she/he has possibility to be hypocrite. But in the end story of Ivan, Ivan realizes that he has actually been traveling opposite his intended direction. Moving up in social esteem has not led to joy, fulfillment and life, but to misery, emptiness and death. Blinded by the values of high society, he has been traveling in the wrong direction on the road of life. After Ivan's climactic realization, his waking life is defined by one thing, suffering, and lots of it. But he has at least finally stumbled on the thing he needs to recognize: his life was wrong. when Ivan realizes his error and comes to a fuller understanding of the nature of life, he is reborn spiritually and experiences extreme joy. REFERENCES Barnes, Annette. 1997. Seeing Through Self-Deception. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. Coon, Dennis. 1992. Introduction to Psychology : Exploration and application (6th Edition). St Paul : West Publishing Company. Jabrohim. 2001. Metodologi Penelitian Sastra. Yogyakarta : PT hanindita Graha Widia. Mele, Alfred R. 1987. Irrationality. Oxford : Oxford University Press. Sklare, Arnold B. 1965. The Art of the Novella. New York : The Macmillan Company. Solfer, Bela Szabados & Edon. 2004. Hypocrisy : Ethical Investigation. Canada : Broadview press, Ltd. Spiegel, James S. 1999. Hypocrisy : Moral Fraud and Other Vices. United States of America : Baker Books. Tolstoy, leo. 1960. The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories. London : The New American library of World Literature, Inc. Waluyo, Herman. 2002. Apresiasi dan Pengajaran Sastra. Surakarta : Sebelas Maret University Press. Wellek, Rene & Austin Warren. 1949. Theory of Literature. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.

Issue 4.2 of the Review for Religious, 1945. ; ,~Befora wrlt[~9 to ~s~° pl:~'se'co~sult noilce ~a Inside. back ~ove,. VOLUME IV / MARCH"i'5. 1945 ¯ ,, + " " l~ItJMbl~l~,2 , CONTENTS, +, ., , SECOND YEAR OF NOVI:FIA'~E" Adam~C: Ellis, +g.J -. .-. 73,, BOiDKLETS . ? . ° . . .,\. HOLY COMMUNIO~ AND SPIRITUAL .~ROGRES~-- " ~- , Clarence McAuliffe; S.2 . ~. . . .- ,-'OUR CO~qT~IBUTORS + ' ' ' " ILL-HEALTH AND THE APOSTOLIC VOCATION~A Missionary" ~THREE PREVENTI'#ES OF, "EXHAUSTION"~ ' ' BOO~S,~i~CEIVED . . ~. ,, .' ' " ' ' . . ,10, THE FAST BEFORE COMMUNION--Gerald Kelly,~ S.J. .~. . .j :l o# L~+'DECISIONS OF ,THE HOLY SEE o. . 122 BOOKREVIEWS (Edited by Clement DeMnth, S.J.)-- '-+- TJ~e Man NeareSt to ChriSt: ~A Herolne~of the Mission Field:,~niroductio . : ~ in Codicerfi: A Prefad'e to Ne,wman's Theology; War'is My Parish; Secrets , . ' ." 124~"~ of ghe Saints: Our Lad, y of Fauma '. , ,.~,, . COMMUNICATIONS ;' . . ' ; . -+. ; . .'+I~0 QUESTIONS AND' ANSWERS-- " '" Absences froXm the Novitiate: ,General+Pei'missions to Spend Small Sfims:' . +Soliciting Votes at General Chapter: Meaning 6f the Perio,dic "General r +Abso ut on":~ Use'+of Old Albs ahd ~eligious Habits: Plenary 'Indu"lge~ce . ~n articulo morris and thd_He~oic Acf; Plenary Indulgence~for.~Communion of Reparation: Nbvitia~e.+at Ordinary House and NoviCes at Community Recreation: Power to Ex't~ndoTime °of Novitiate;'Per'mission for Reli-gious to Donate Blood: Renewal,of Altar Breads: Banner b~fore Blessed, ~5" S,acrament, during Office: Oinission of Sign 'of Cross during the PassiOn; Right"to Admit Can, didate.s . " . ¯ " . ' " " i~ . ~ 136 SUMMER S~HOOL 'DIRECTORY O" --" " " " ~,~'-- ' '~; " " "" EX'PLANA:FI.ON OF THE MASS . " 14'4 ~'MARYKNOLL MISSION LETTERS . ' .- A 144 REVIEW FOR°REI~IGIOUS, Mar~h. 1945". Vol.°IV, No. 2. Publis~'ed +.+~n°ntb] y ; .~January'o March,. , May, July,. Sel~tember;and November, at"~he College.,,, +press,, '606 H;~rnson Street, T, opeka, Kansas,. by St. Mary s College, St. Marys, Kansas; with ecclesmsttcal, approba~t ¯i o- n , E n t ,e- r e d a s s e c o n d c ,lass matter ,January 15 1942o+ at thePost Of~ce~ Topeka,~Kansasi under'the act of March 3, 1879. ¯ '- ~ 'Editofialfl3oard: Adam C. Ellis, S~. G. Augustine Ellard. S.3. Gel:~ld¢K~ll~,, S.3. Editorial Secretary: Alfred F. SchnetderJ S.J. . C6pyright. 1'945. by Adam C. ,Elli,s. Permission' is hereby granted fo~ quotati~nS '~of reasonable~ length, provided due~ credit be giyen this rewew and .tile ,au'thdr. Subscriptioii pric~: 2 dollars a year. ,~, ' Prifited in'U.- Second- Year of Novi :iat:e Adam C. Ellis, S.J: ,7T H| "EE mFRpEirNe,C aHnd R oet~hoelru p'toil0inti,c 3aol sthepehoir~iems iinni mthiec Aalu tsot rtihaen Church had all but ~estroyed the .religious life in: ~ Europe by the end of the eightdenth century. V.ery many,, monasteries and convents had either been Suppresse'd or were, f6rbidd~n to take novices. As a restilt ¯many" b~n~fi~ent labors~of the religious, in behalf Of the social needs 6f the:J "Church ~ere brought to a standstill. BU~ it was imperative that these spiritual and corporal.~works of mercy should hot'be abandoned altogether. Divine Providence inspired dd~'oted laymen and women to step into the-breach~ ~ to.take.up the task of teaching Christia_n Do~.r.rine ~to chil- ~dren, and of caril~g for the sick, .th~ aged, and the orphans. - Eventual.ly th~se zealousla~borers ,bhnded tbgether into .~,~smallgrout~s in order to work together more efficiently.; then-they began to live toge'ther in community,'and with ¯ the-permission of their local Ordinary they took simple, private vows and wore a common garb. Recognized offi-cially neither by Church nor State, the.y carried on their work valiantly. Eventually the Church rewarded thei~o °o zealous efforts. At first approval was given only 'to" their "constitutionsi but, especially during the second half~ of the nir;eteenth century,,, the Holy See .appro.ved the institutes .themselves as congregations with simple vows. Many of the founders of these modern congregations o realize'd that men.~and women whose vocation it was to-strive for perfection, in the active life needed a longer period " of' ptobation than the single year of novitiate commgnly ~-,,prescribed for cloistered religious. Hence these founders.~ ordained that all c.andidates undergo a second year of novi-. , 73~ ADAM C. ELLIS -.tiate~before the "firs~ Reoieto for R~ligiou.s profession+ of vows.° Furthermore, - some provided in their constitutions that the noviCesshould b~ employed in the external works of the congregatiffn during their second year. "This was done to determine whether they were fitted for this kind of work, and to give them opportunity to adjust their spiritua! life to the dis-tractions and trials+of the actiye apostolate. The Sacred Congregation of Religious consistently-refused to permit novices to be so employed during,the first year of nov.itiate.~ This practice of the S. Congregatt0n passed into the legislation of the NOrrnae of /901. 'After . stating in Art. 73 tfiat novices were n~t to be engaged in the ¯ study of the arts and sciences nor in theeexternal work of the institute, Art. 7"4 continued as follows: "Where there are tyro years of novitiate,the first is to follow all the i~r~- scriptio, ns laid down above for the one (canonical) year. During the second year, howe('er, the novices may engage moderately in studies or in other works of the institute ¯ always under the direction and vigilance of the master; this is to be done in the novitiate house itself, but" not outside of it, unless-grave, reasons advi~e otherwise." - The Code of-Canon Law was promulgated on.Pente-- cost.Sunday, May 27, 1917,, and.began t6 bind on Pen-tecost Sunday,. May 19, 1918. ~ Since the l~gi_slation of the Code sut~'erseded .the old Noi'rnae, upon which most of the cons~titutions of modern congregations were based, it became necessary for all religious institutes ~o revise their constitutions .in order (o bring ~hem into con-" ?;forniity with the Code. Superiors, therefore, were inter-i~ sti~d to find out what theCode had to say in regard t6 the second year of novitiate. They fo'ufid very little. 'Canon 5.55,"§ 2 allo~ed a second year df nowt~ate tf the+constitu-tions prescribed it,- but stated that this second year was not required for the validity of the subseqUent profi~ssi6n of 74 - w.hich were eventually-.sent tothe :Congregation of Reli-,. giou~ fora solution.Since canon 565, § 3-forbade n6vices _to engage in studies or in the. external' Works'of the institut~ "::during the year of novitia'te," did the s~im~ prohibition apply also'to the second year? Again, some congregatidns that employed, novices in external work, as was permitted' .![ b}'~ their, constitutions, preferre,d t6 do this during "the firs.t "~°~' year (as a means-dr trying out th,e:no~rices), and then~ to- ~ devote the Second ~ear exclusively to their spiritual f0rma/ ~ ., tion. Was this permitted under the new Cod~? -Such ";questi0ns,land others similar to-them, ~ind the fact that ~, various .provisions .concerning this rhatter.were found in many constitutions which had been revised according to the Code and submifted to the Itoly See for approval ~ill induced }he Congregation of Rdigious to make a careful 0 study of the subjgct. This study resulted in the "Instruc- [ion on the Second Year of Novitiate'" in .which all~ such 0_. questio~s~ gre. ~nswered and the fundamental :prinCiples-- which governed the pr.acticeof the Church during the.past ninety years are brought to the attention of all superiors of ~instit'utes having, two years of novitiate, . " There are fdur cardinfil points.in the instruction,~ ¯ Let us~consider each one in turn, I,. SpiritaalTormation of the Nboice is thO Principal ~ Purpose of the Second" Year. " -, "It is qui'te right that a i~ovitiate of more than one yearo~ be prescribed in. some institutes, especiz[lly, among those. '~Whose members ~are emp~loyed in external works, since they, distracted by various cares and more exposed ~o the dangers ~For thcr. tegt of "this Instruction see pp. 122-1.23 of this- issue. ~ Mar~b, 1945 " SECOND YEXR OF NOQI'rlAT[~ - ~ 'thereby serve You-in serving them for the mission. I was "~ " d~sconsolate at the thought that I'had"lost my work in the. mission and~had been given none in the province: ai~d al~l, the~while Your loving mercy was gig, ing me a-~hr~e~f01~t work, TO. YOU, IN MY FELLOW RELIGIOUS,. FOR° .~ December 1,Sth. It ~toesn't matter what I do if-I~-do .~ ~. God's will, if I: obey,-if [ love. God w~nts not my:~vork, ~ but. my love. ~o - . December 20.th. There is NO VACATION for ~a.'., " religic~us. Is no work ass{gned'or°allowed? Then must ,~' ¯ ~l.eisure be used to work the ~arder at becoming a saint, oat ~ ~. .- loving God more, at intercedifig and atoning more for souls~ ~ December 29th. -A ciborium full of hosts was conse- -, ~ated at Mass and then ,pushed ,back to the co~ner 6f the :~. /. corporal so 'that.it would not interfere with the l~Ias~s beingsaid. I waiat to be like that ciborium. Even though ; :'~ I am not a~llowed to return to the mission or am not givdn- " " ~" "~ ' work elsewhere, I wa~t to~do God's holy .will quietly and. entirely a'nd unostentatiously like that.citmfium-~-not hin~- derin~g .the great work of lorethat others'are carrying.on, ~- - and yet keeping Jesus all the while in my heait, read,r to ~.7" impart Him~without losing Him~to the souls, whoeve~ and wherever they be,to which "the servants of our Lord, .my'superi°rs, may. take me. . . \ Three Preventives" "' ot: "l xhausfioh" -. G. Augustine Ellard, S:J. ~, ~ ECENTLY it was announced that l~sychiat/isti i~n th~ United. States-ArmY have discovered threeLfactors, which tend to prevent "exhaustion" or "combat: :fatigue,".,that is,~a~bndition of certain soldiers who with~" Out being wounde~lbr, diseased.bave become more: or lels, iinfit to continue fi~hting, They may have fought long and ourageously: :but now, though apparently physicall_y well, they feel incapable of doing more; they are "exhaustedT'. too grdatly_ fat.igued to go on. The three preventives are: ~-edprit de corps, gooffleadership, and~reasons for fighting2 ,, ~Ivappears not unlikely that among- religious there may sometimes be an amilogous condition of "exhaustion," "and that it may be avoided by. the same three means. The first pre~;entive is esprit de corp.s. Amon~ Ameri-can~ service units its character and efficacy, are best illustrated _~.perhaps by the Marines. A Marine ~is taught f~om the beginning to feel that he is in thd greatest fighting group in all the world. ~Hence the~re is every reason why he should have the ti'tmost confidence in all his t~eilow Marines,' and why. he in turn must measure up to their exp,ectations. The ~Mdrines' records ar~ most glorious:, they must not be allowed to be'stained with ~nything that would dim their ~ luster.0 Everybody, atleast everybody in the American ~world, expectsofily what is most excellent~and heroic"from the Marines: he mu~f not disappoint.them. The'importance ~ of esprit.de co.rps is recognized by the Aimy and Nawy to be _so gregt that they are careful to f~reserve the distinctive "ide~nti~y and"historical ;ontinuit.y, with all their ~raditions ~> " - '- G,~ "AuG~-STINE EELAR~ ~ ¯ ; " Reoied) fo~ Relioious," aitd glories, of each s~parat'e u.n.i~ or division.--.The "~ight- -ingoSixty-hinth'' would be another ~xample of a. gtou_p in the American/~rmy that is.noted for its esprit de dorps. - ,.Religious orders and cbngregations also have their own esprif db corps., ' Sometimes it leads 'them intb faults,, for example, corporate pride or envy. But that is n6reason why it should not be cultivated f0r the good th~it is in it." A teligious:naturally and rightly tikes a cett~iin pride "in belonging to his 6rder-=-otherwise why did he-join it?-- an-d if h~ shoul~l 'feel~ deeply' and tritimatelywith regard to it: What is. meant by .noblesse oblige; that ~sense could be powerful aidto, livin_g up.t.o tile ideals andtoattaining t,ile ::purpose~ of the o~der'. 'The.laistok~r.'andtraditions of the institiate can be'a perennial f6untainhead of .inspiration arid courage: Its professed aims are a standing.challenge a~nd stirhulation to renewed or greater,.exertion. The examples of the founder arid of distinguished member~ are a~ constant _ invit~tioh to.emulate them, and'a clear prbof of what mem-bers o{ the organization, can achieve-.:' One feels that it" Would be a sil~me not to give a good account oYoneself in Suchcompany or t9 disappoint their hopes. The laurels

Issue 66.2 of the Review for Religious, 2007. ; Challenges Ignatian Insights Experiencing Prayer Religious Life Perspectives QUARTERLY 66.2 2007 Review for Religious fosters dialogue with God, dialogue with ourselves, and dialogue with one another about the holiness we try to live according to charisms of Catholic religious life. As Pope Paul Vl said, our way of being church is today the way of dialogue. Review for Religious (ISSN 0034-639X) is published quarterly at Saint Louis University by the Jesuits of the Missouri Province. Editorial Office: 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, Missouri 63108-3393 Telephone: 314-633-4610 ¯ Fax: 314-633-4611 E-Maih review@slu.edu ¯ Web site: www.reviewforreligious.org Manuscripts, books for review, and correspondence with the editor: Review for Religious ¯ 3601 Lindell Boulevard ¯ St. Louis, MO 63108-3393 Correspondence about the Canonical Counsel department: Elizabeth McDonough OP ° Pontifical College Josephinum 7625 North High Street ° Columbus, Ohio 43235 POSTMASTER Send address changes to Review for Religious ¯ P.O. Box 6070 ° Duluth, MN 55806. Periodical postage paid at St. Louis, Missouri, and additional mailing offices. See inside back cover for information on stibscription rates. ©2007 Review for Religious Permission is herewith granted to copy any material (articles, poems, reviews) contained in this issue of Review for Religious for personal or internal use, or for the personal or internal use of specific library clients within the limits outlined in Sections 107 and/or 108 of the United States Copyright Law. All copies made under this permission must bear notice of the source, date, and copyright owner on the first page. This permission is NOT extended to copying for commercial distribution, advertising, institutional promotion, or for the creation of new collective works or anthologies. Such permission will only be considered on written application to the Editor, Review for Religious. religious Editor David L. Fleming SJ Associate Editor Philip C. Fischer SJ Canonical Counsel Elizabeth McDonough OP Scripture Scope Eugene Hensell OSB Editorial Staff Mary Ann Foppe Tracy Gramm Judy Sharp Vdebmaster . Clare Boehmer ASC Advisory Board Martin Erspamer OSB ¯ .Kathleen Hughes RSCJ L~uis and Angel.a Menard Bishop Terry Steib SVD Miriam D. Ukerids CSJ QUARTERLY 66.2 2007 contents prisms 116 Prisms 118 challenges Between the Culture of the Satisfied and the Culture of Death John Lydon OSA looks at the challenge religious life faces in the developed world in light of declining numbers of mem-bers. Calling for an .ethic of solidarity, the article proposes not losing sight of our mission to the poor in these difficult financial times. Reflection Questions for Personal and Group Use 130 The Spiritual Blahs--Rejection or Invitation? George Aschenbrenner SJ interprets the painful, empty, dull experience in prayer and finds an invitation to greater intimacy with God. ignatian insights 138 The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises A. Paul Dominic SJ studies the Ignatian Three Methods of Praying in the Spiritual Exercises and finds that they serve to carry the fervor and glow of the retreat into the prosaic chores of daily living. 114[ 154 "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving David L. Fleming SJ explores the notion of "to serve" in the spirituality of St. Ignatius Loyola through Ignatius's life expe-rience and through the Spiritual Exercises. Reflection Questions and Prayer Mantra Review for Religious 168 176 ~p~rJ~ncin~ pr~yer ~ Prayer Is a Risk Rick Malloy SJ reviews the practical benefits of a daily personal prayer life. Reflection Questions Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross James W. Kinn carefully explains the beginning of contemplation according to the writings of St. John of the Cross and his practical advice for praying this way. 188 rsJigious ~i~ p~rspoctivss ~ Living Religious Life with Chronic Illness Mary Therese Johnson OP shares her experience of how chronic health problems affected her person, her ministry, and her life in the community. 197 Revisiting My Revisit of Religious Life Lucy Fuchs recounts a reunion, after fifty plus five years, of former novices, those remaining in their religious congregation and those who have left it. A deep sharing and friendship is now all the more evident. 2O5 209 214 ~epar~men~s ~ Scripture Scope: The Bible for Meaning and Nourishment Canonical Coun'sel: Conscience Matters Book Reviews II15 66.2 2007 prisms ~here do we find our contact with the risen Christ? When we read the post-resurrection accounts in the Gospels, we are struck by the always unex-pected presence of the risen Jesus to his follow-ers. Their slowness in recognizing him leaves us perplexed. If he still wore the marks of his crucifixion, surely they would immediately know the One they had been with, perhaps for some three years. Wouldn't they recognize his eyes, his smile, his tone of voice? Of course, when he addresses Mary Magdalene by her name, then she knows at once. We might want to consider ourselves as superior to these first followers because we certainly would not be so slow in recognizing Christ. would we? I think that the church has treasured the gospel writings about the resurrec-tion appearances just so that we Christians of all ages can appreciate the difficulties we humans have in recognizing God's presence in our lives. Like the first disciples, we struggle to name our "unusual/divine" experience as an encounter with the risen Lord. Maybe we are afraid of fooling ourselves. Perhaps we have a fear of God enter-ing so closely into our ordinary life. But just as Jesus came in surprising ways and at unexpected Revie~v for Religious times to his early followers, so he continues to come into our lives today, if we but take note. If we look to the most obvious place, Jesus meets us in our praying. Most of us are all too aware that our prayer time can be "ordinary," full of attention meanderings, dis-tracted, heavy in time-waiting. But, then, there are those prayer moments when we are taken out of all time, and we know Jesus' touch, Jesus' presence, Jesus' love, Jesus' calling our name. Even though the experience is immedi-ate, we need to note God,s presence by a review of our prayer or by our journaling. It is when we take notice, looking back, that we acknowledge and make our own that "it is the Lord." There is also the same type of "moments" in the pan-orama of our day where Jesus is present in the comfort-ing kind act or in the challenging question asked by the stranger. There are the moments when we are in the midst of a party or when we are riding on the public transport and we experience that "you are the one I love." Again it requires a looking back, a reflection, on our part, likely a noting through the daily examen or through some brief or extended journaling. We are claiming our experience and "incarnating" it even by our noting the divine inter-vention. Why does the risen Jesus want to enter into our lives? For the same reason that he appeared to his first follow-ers after his resurrection. He wants us to share in his joy of a life forever with God. He wants to confirm our faith. He wants to strengthen us in our own life mission. It is important for us to note how the risen Jesus enters into our lives. Our contact with the risen Jesus is not just through the testimony of others. All of us Christians are the recipients of Jesus' attention and presence--if we only take note. David L. Fleming sJ 66.2 2007 JOHN J. LYDON Between the Culture of the Satisfied and the Culture of Death challenges 118] Let us clarify the terms. "Culture of the Satisfied'? comes from the tide of a book by John Kenneth Galbraith, i a study of how the well-off econo-mies of the world have shaped the .entire world's economic culture. "The culture of death" refers to the poor, who, as Peruvian theologian Gustavo Guti~rrez says, "die before their time." The United States is part and parcel of the culture of the satisfied, yet we as religious are called to bear witness to something better. What are the challenges this poses for us? Can we be relevant in either or both of these cultures? We are challenged by two dominant features of American x;eligious life. First, we are immersed in the culture of the satisfied, in the consumer-ori-ented culture that never seems to have enough. An October 2000 article in the New York Times reported that hundreds of millionaires were asked if they considered themselves "wealthy.". John J. Lydon OSA has been for eighteen years a professor in the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Trujillo, Peru. Email: jlydon@osaperu.com. Review for Religious Of those whose net worth, apart from their home value, was between one million and four million dollars, only a few considered themselves wealthy. The rest said that being wealthy meant having around five million. People having .five million dollars in net worth also said they were not wealthy, just "comfortable." And so it went. People having ten million dollars gave the same answer: they needed to advance one or two steps more up the economic ladder to be wealthy. It would appear that the consumer culture convinces most people that they never have enough even when all of their basic and frivolous needs are satisfied. We American religious, immersed as we are in this culture, may--without a critical conscious-ness-- easily assume these same values and lose sight of our mission. Second, we live in the sociological reality of American religious life. It is a vocational option being chosen by very few. All of our communities are getting older, and many are simply going to disappear. And so the closing of apostolates, the reduction of personnel, the advancing median ages, and the declining health of older members is already a reality. In the middle of that stark reality, it is easy to forget the vast numbers of people who live in great poverty beyond our horizon--and to forget what still remains our mission in the world. The Option for the Poor At its roots, religious life has an evangelical reason for the preferential option for the poor. As the Congregation on Consecrated Life in its document Fraternal Life in Community puts it, one of the marks of religious life is "everyone for the poor," "many with the poor," "some [living] like the poor" (§63). In the light of this, our mis-sion seems clear. It is to somehow challenge those that live in the culture of the satisfied and to reach out in solidar- 119 66.2 2007 Lydon ¯ Between Cultures Solidarity is an attitude based not simply on but also on justice, 120 ity with those who are in the culture of death. Solidarity is the key to understanding our mission, as it is the key to understanding the church's social doctrine, especially under the papacy of John Paul II, who used the word constandy.2 For him, solidarity was intimately related to the cause of peace and justice; this explains its importance in his social doctrine: "The motto of the pontificate of my esteemed predecessor Pius XII was opus iustitiae pax, peace as the fruit of justice. Today one could say, with the same exact-ness and the same power of biblical inspiration (see Is 32:17, Jm 3:18): opus solidaritatispax, peace as the fruit of solidarity.''3 For Pope John Paul, there are two kinds of solidarity. (1) Solidarity is the binding together of people who are disadvantaged so that they can be stronger in the face of injustice. The classic example of this is trade unions, sup-ported by the church since Return novarum (1891). It is no coincidence that the trade union of Poland that went up against and helped bring down the Communist govern-ment was called Solidarity. (2) There can also be solidarity between those who have a great deal and those who have little. This is where the greater emphasis of this term is placed in John Paul's writings. Solidarity is an attitude based not simply on charity but also on justice. The church has always maintained that the goods of the earth are destined by the Creator to be used by all of God's creation. The accumulation of a great part of the goods of the earth in the hands of a small number of people, while the great majority of the Review for Religious world's people live in misery, is an affront to the plan of creation and the manifestation of an unjust social order. "The church's admonition is clear, and it is a faithful echo of the voice of Christ: earthly goods are meant for the whole human family and cannot be reserved for the exclu-sive benefit of a few.''4 What are the temptations we face that can lead us to lose sight of our basic mission? We need to be aware of these because we may be so immersed in the culture of the satisfied that we are no longer a symbol of protest or an authentic invitation to solidarity. Jesus faced three temptations as he went into the desert after his baptism. It would seem that we face at least an equal number of temptations that would pull us away from our mission. Temptation 1: Focus on Ourselves and Not the Mission As we become older and have a rising need to take care of sick or less mobile members, we are tempted to see that as the principal preoccupation of our religious life. We look to build better healthcare units and accord-ingly to find benefactors to better equip them or to pro-vide endowments for them. These are noble concerns that require attention, but the danger is that they become the principal focus. Erik Erikson, the famous psychologist, developed a theory of eight stages of life in which we grow as human beings. Each stage faces its own challenge and thus can involve either grace and sin. Erikson adds that, if we fail at one stage, we cannot hope to move to the next one. The last two stages are of particular interest here. In the penultimate stage we might choose either the grace of generativity or the sin of self-absorption. Generativity is a concern for the betterment of others and of society. We either reach out beyond ourselves in service to better our environment, our world, or we fall into self-absorption. ,121 66.2 2007 Lydon ¯ Between Cultures 122 ]. In the final stage the struggle is between integrity and despair. Those who see that they have made a contribu-tion, that their life has had meaning and they leave .some-thing better behind, .~c~n leave this world in peace. For those who wonder if i~"Fihs been worth it,if they have left anything good behind, the destiny is despair. As much of religious life in the United States and Canada enters the last stages of its sociological growth, Erikson's insights can guide us. If we lose sight of our mission and focus on ourselves and our own needs, all the up-to-date healthcare units, all the endowments in their name, will not bring us fulfillment. Having failed to make use Of the grace of generativity, we cannot move to the final stage, integrity. It is not easy to keep that mission in the forefront ¯ of our existence. John Paul II, then, reminds us to con-front society's consumerism, which leads people to accu-mulate more, believing that their worth is in what they have rather than in who they are. The way to challenge this unbridled consumerism is through a .greater sim-plicity of lifestyle. If.the goods of the world are to be shared with the poor, those who are economically bet-ter off must adopt spiritual poverty and strive to simplify their lifestyles so as to make more of the world's goods available for the poor.s "Evangelical poverty is something that transforms those who accept it. They cannot remain indifferent when faced with the suffering of the poor; indeed, they feel impelled to share actively with God his preferential love for them.''6 Temptation 2: Change the Meaning of the Mission Marshall McLuhan coined the famous adage "The medium is the message" to assert that the mass media have been shaping modern culture. The medium gives any message a new meaning. Similarly, we are tempted to Review for Religious give mission a new meaning because our needs push us to change the meaning of the words. We readily change what we mean when we talk of the "poor." Our evangelical mission as religious is to have a pref-erential option for the poor. But people debate who are poor. (Gustavo Guti~rrez has often pointed out that the poor have no difficulty identifying who are rich.) And so we are tempted to change the definition of who are poor, even to believe ourselves to be "the poor." We think we have a preferential option for the poor because we take care of our weak and infirm members and our parents and family members. We give them "the best of care" and see this as fulfillment of the option for the poor. No doubt they are needy, and we reach out to them. We should, however, avoid the temptation of identifying ourselves as the poor. We may be needy, but we are not the poor. At the Millennium World Summit, heads of state and other officials met at the United Nations to mark the year 2000 ~nd set up goals for humanity over the next quarter century--goals mostly having to do with the poor, the marginalized, those excluded from the benefits of devel-opment. Their definition of "the poor" is those who live on $2 or less a day; remember this. When our mission requires a preferential option for the poor, the question is not what we give to the needy in our own religious family. The question is what we do for the needs of those that fit the world's definition of the poor. What exactly do we mean when we say "preferential option for the poor"? The phrase, like all such terms, has its limitations. Let us examine briefly, the words "option," "preferential," and "poor." Option has not always been interpreted correcdy. It does not mean "optional"---choose according to your own wishes. Option here implies a con-scientious choice of, a profound permanent commitment to, solidarity with the poor. 123 66.2 2007 Lydon * Between Cultures The very word preferential rejects any kind of exclusivity, 124 The very word preferential, as should be obvious, rejects any kind of exclusivity. It highlights who should be the first--not the only--objects of our solidarity. It specifies those most in need of our attention, and is not "exclusive or discriminatory towards other groups.''7 Poor has perhaps been the most misunderstood term here. At times it seems that people do not want to identify the poor, or they identify them as everyone so that the word and the expression lose meaning. The Latin American Episcopal Conference of Medell~n examined this same issue and made it clear who is being referred to by the word poor, making a distinction between three types of poverty. (1) Materialpoverty. This means a lack of what is nec-essary to live a dignified life. It is an evil that is always denounced "as contrary to the will of the Lord, and mosdy the result of man's injustice and sin.''8 (2) Spiritual poverty. A quality to be imitated. The poor in spirit are people open to the Lord's will. Like the anawim of the Old Testament, the poor in spirit are the humble people who put their trust in the Lord. The poor in spirit are followers of Jesus. The Beatitudes indi-cate the attitudes for disciples who welcome the kingdom and show solidarity with the excluded. In this "spiritual infancy," they seek to remain fully available to the will of the Lord. It is a quality that everyone is called to adopt. (3) Poverty of solidarity. This is a free decision to share the plight of those who are victims of material poverty in order to bear witness against the evil that such pov-erty represents and to demonstrate spiritual freedom Review for Religious from material goods. "In this one follows the example of Christ.''9 Likewise, it obviously is one of the principal marks of our religious vows. The "poor" of the "preferential option for the poor" are dearly identified in the Medellin document as being those who lack the necessities for a dignified life. After Medell~n, attempts were made to debilitate this option by broadening the definition to include everyone and thus effectively eliminate the idea of a preference "for the poorest and most needy sectors."~° For this reason, the Latin American Episcopal Conference document of Puebla,11 in one of its most moving and significant sec-tions, precisely explains the identity of the "poor" to whom both Medell~n and Puebla refer. As the bishops mention, the faces of the poor include the indigenous peoples who live in inhuman situations, the campesinos (farm workers) who have no land and are exploited, fac-tory workers with little pay and no unions, outcasts of the cities who have no money, children weakened by poverty even before they are born, and those that are abandoned because they can no longer produce.~2 The poor, then, are not just an economic category but are dominated peoples, exploited social classes, despised races, and marginalized cultures. They are the "excluded," those who have no power, no voice, and for that reason suffer the effects of injustice. Undoubtedly, these groups of people are almost always the economically poorest as well. They are those who suffer unjust death, premature death.~ The Social Viewpoint of the Poor To adopt this preferential option, some attempt must be made to understand reality from the viewpoint of the poor. This requires a change of "social position." Poverty (and marginalization and exclusion) must be seen from 125 66.2 2007 Lydon ¯ Between Cultures the point of view of the poorest, though not necessarily by living among the poor. If economic conditions worsen for the poor while the gap between poor and rich widens, then the situation is unjust, whatever the macroeconomic statistics may say. This "social position" to interpret real-ity is a viewpoint we must all take up, whatever pastoral work we undertake, because only in this way can we be "for the poor." Only thus are we ready to fulfill the man-date: "everyone for the poor, many with the poor, and some [living] like the poor."!4 The church wishes to be a "church of the poor.''Is This means that it gives "preferential attention to the poor, seeking to share time and resources in order to alleviate suffering, [and] works with all sectors of society, including the poor themselves, in search of solutions to the problems of poverty and so freeing people from mis-ery and want. [It means using] the talents and gifts of the poor, relying on them in her mission of evangelization. The church of the poor is a church in which the poor are welcomed, listened to, and actively involved . A true church of the poor contributes decisively to the needed transformation of society, to social renewalbased on the vision and values of the gospel.''16 Those who still lack the means to live are the only measure of whether we live that preferential option or neglect it because we put our own needs (as real or imagined as they my be), rather than the poor, at the center of our mission. 12:6 TemPtation 3: Lose Our Trust in the Providence of God Mark Twain famously remarked, "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics." Numbers have power to persuade, but even accurate numbers may bol-ster inaccurate statements, and so we need a critical eye in examining them. They remain an important tool, but a tool to use only within the perspective of our mission. Review for Religious In our communities we face a clear loss of numbers and an aging population. We.can see that attending to the old and infirm means greater costs while income-produc-ing members are fewer and fewer. In the light of this, we make budgetary decisions to reduce costs, but we also invest more in ourselves. We start to build endowments, and we seek to be "fully endowed" so that we can meet these needs on just the interest generated by our endow-ment portfolio. Yet perhaps the gospel story of the man who has a great harvest and builds storage bins to keep it all should alert us not to make our goal the establishment of an endowment that more or less eliminates a need to believe in God's providence (Lk 12:16-21). If we look at the poorest among even the relatively rich (by world levels) American population, the latest studies of the Federal Reserve show that the bottom twenty percent of the population have an average net worth of only $7,500. At that level they lack any degree of security about the future. If we move beyond the poor-est Americans to average American families, the net worth goes up to $93,000. This is the net worth, including prop-erties, of the average American family. And so, as we build up our endowment portfolios, we need to ask ourselves whether we are a community of faith, vowed to poverty, looking for a.guaranteed future that is not only out of line with the poor, but also out of line with average families in our culture of the satisfied. Does our fear of the future lead us to forget God's provi-dence and put so much en.ergy into building up endow-ments that we eliminate some or all of our programs of solidarity with the poor? Most of our world lives in the "culture of death." Much of the human race lives on less than $2 a day while a few live in the "culture of the satisfied." As religious living in this latter culture, we are still called, perhaps 127 66.2 2007 Lydon * Between Cultures 128 especially in the sunset of pastoral commitments and even congregations, to make a difference in our world. The fulfillment of our mission, to have a preferential option for the poor, requires of us that we do not sacrifice our mission for the sake of our own futures. In the end, that would only result in our losing both. It is in our mission that we realize our dreams and desires for a church that is more eternal than apostolates and congregations. It is in contributing to that mission that we find integrity and peace. Through our acts of solidarity with the poor, with those who "die before their time," we raise a prophetic voice in favor of divine providence and against the con-sumer culture that encompasses us. We tell the world by our actions, by "walking our talk," that joy and peace come from narrowing the gap between the world's haves and have-nots. We recognize and/'eject temptations that can lead us astray, not because there is nothing good in them, but rather because they are not the "walk" taken by Jesus Christ. Notes t John K. Galbraith, The Culture of Contentment (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1992). In Spanish it is La Cultura de la Sati~Caccidn (Barcelona: Ariel, 1992) although it is often cited as La Cultura de los Sati~Cecbos. I use this Spanish idea here. 2John Paul II used the word 104 times in his documents related to the social doctrine of the church (Laborem exercens 6, Sollicitudo rei socialis 13, Centesimus annus I 1, 1995 UN speecb 7, World Peace Day messages 67) 3 John Paul II, Sollicitudo, §39. 4 John Paul II, If You Want Peace, Reach Out to the Poor, §3, cites Centesimus annus, §§31 and 37. 5John Paul II, lfYou l/Vant Peace, §5: "In order to promote the social, cultural, spiritual, and also economic welfare of all members of society, it is therefore absolutely essential to stem the unrestrained consumption of earthly goods and to control the creation of artificial needs. Moderation and simplicity ought to become the criteria of our daily lives. The quantity of goods consumed by a tiny fraction of the world population produces Review for Religious a demand greater than available resources. A reduction of this demand constitutes a first step in alleviating poverty, provided that it is accompa-nied by effective measures to guarantee a fair distribution of the world's wealth." See also Gaudium et spes, §88: "The greater part of the world is still suffering from so much poverty that it is as if Christ himself were crying out in these poor to beg the charity of his disciples. Let us not be guilty of the scandal of having some nations, most of whose citizens bear the name of Christians, enjoying an abundance of riches, while others lack the necessities of life and are tortured by hunger, disease, and all kinds of misery. For the spirit of poverty and charity is the glory and witness of the church of Christ." 6John Paul II, If You Want Peace, §5. 7 John Paul II, Centesimus annus, §57. 8 Medellfn, §14, 4. This was held in Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. 9 Medellfn, §14, 4. ,0 Medellln, §14, 9. 11 Held in Puebla, Mexico, in 1979. " Puebla, §§31-39. 13 John Paul II identified the "poor" with the "marginalized." As the new millennium approached, he asked, "How can we fail to lay greater emphasis on the church's preferential option for the poor and the out-cast?" (Tertio millennio adveniente, §51). Such marginalization can be more than economic; it can also be cultural and religious. See Centesimus annus, §57. 14 CICLSAL, Fraternal Life in Community, §63. is CICLSAL, Fraternal Life, §63. 16 John Paul II, address in September 2003 to bishops from the Philippines, §25. Reflection Questions for Personal and Group Use 1. Lydon identifies three temptations that can head us to lose sight of our basic vision. Do you agree with the ones he identifies? Would you want to add other temptations from your own experience? 2. How can religious men and women be relevant to the culture of the satisfied and to the culture of death? 129 66.2 2007 GEORGE A. ASCHENBRENNER The Spiritual Blahsm Rejection or Invitation? /~r some people, spiritual boredom is not painful. hey are so distracted by exciting pleasures and challenges in daily life that an interior emptiness, smoth-ered by all the excitement, is not bothersome to them. They do not even seem to notice. Though they have not overtly denied faith and God, they have become unim-portant realities, rarely experienced in any lively personal way. This is a sign, a sad sign, that both their sensibil-ity and their deeply personal desire have been numbed. Something might snap them out of their stupor, but, until it does, life just rushes on. Crisis of Interpretation For many of us, however, the effect is very differ-ent. The inner boredom is painful. It discourages and stings with frustration. Beneath all the busy concerns, and even the quick superficial pleasures, something seems t30 George A. Aschenbrenner sJ is rector of the Jesuit Community at the University of Scranton; Scranton, Pennsylvania 18510. This article, published in the fall 2006 issue of Ignatian Imprints, a new publication of the Maryland Province Jesuits, appears here with the permission of its editor and of the author. Review.for tCetigi~us stale, drab. There must be more to life. How to ignite the fire? The issue is a matter of interpretation. Before know-ing what to do, we must honestly feel and face the interior boredom. We must appreciate what it means, what it is saying to us. A quick automatic interpretation rises in the face of this dulling pain. Nothing is going on so why waste time with prayer, with usual signs of devotion? This is not our time. Such an instantaneous interpretation, though understandable, is often misleading, incorrect, even dan-gerous. A more mature and helpful interpretation requires more time and faith-filled reflection. Once we let the quick emotional explanation pass by, we can look more deeply at a larger array of possibilities. In the first place, this may be happening to us because we have not been very serious, very personal, about our faith and have not prayed much. In such a case this festering frustration serves as a wake-up call to get more serious about our relationship with God and not to settle any-more for careless and heartlessly mumbled words. This may be a call to a more lively personal relationship, a call to pray in our own words beyond the traditional ones, a call to listen more openly and interactively to God's Word in Scripture and throughout our whole life. If we are undisciplined and out of shape spiritually, some hard work at tuning up our spirit will be required before the dismal "nothing's happening" lethargy will lift. On the other hand, if the dreary dry condition is not caused by our negligence, then a whole new and more serious possibility presents itself. In this case, we are not out of shape spiritually, nor stuck in complacency with numbed, untended desires. We have personally known God's love. We have .been stirred, .consoled, emotion-ally touched by that love and have fashioned our daily life accordingly. Recently, over days and weeks, that has 66.2 2007 Ascbenbrenndr * The Spiritual Blabs--Rejeaion or Invitation? We must carefully turn to God in faith for appreciation and interpretation of this malaise. changed; a smog has settled in and contaminated the sunny enthusiasm of our faith. It sure seems as though nothing is happening now. And the temptation to aban-don our prayer life stares hauntingly into the eye of our SOU1. Seriously misleading, however, this temptation beck-ons to exacdy the wrong decision. In the awareness of no personal negligence on our part, we must carefully turn to God in faith for appreciation and interpretation of this malaise. This crisis of interpretation is an important point in the spiritual life of the mature believer. The invitation turns our hearts away from the emotional discomfort (oh, how boring and dull it all feels!) to what God is really saying in and through it all. This always involves a second look of reflection beyond the spontaneous disheartening emotional response. In this dark, dreary dryness, God, whose love is as personally present as ever before, is inviting us to draw closer by entering a deeper part of our faith relationship. i32 Invitation to a Deeper Faith Even though the emotion of God's love can be pre-cious grace, this felt sensation of love can easily turn into a golden calf, an idol, a false god for selfish wor-ship. Without intending it and sometimes without even noticing it, we begin to presume on the presence of this emotional grace and cannot imagine life without it. But such emotional experience, grace though it is, registers on the superficial, unpredictable level of our person. God, Review for Religious whose desires for each of us are all-embracing beyond our imagining, is inviting us to an ever more profound and, therefore, more intimate, more personal union. Development of such a union always involves a purifi-cation, a stripping away of selfishness, of too much "me." And, put starkly, this stripping always hurts. In this inter-pretation, which is critical to a deeper, more personal rela-tionship with God, flae dry, stale emptiness of our faith is not a mistake, a negligence on our part, but rather a call from God, our lover extraordinaire. We are being invited to believe beyond our feelings, to enter a realm of pro-found faith. Though it may not emotionally involve lots of fun and intense pleasure, our relationship with God at this level is more trustworthy, more foundational, more dependable than any simply emotional sense. This profound interpretation of God's loving presence does not downplay the emotional, even exciting, experi-ence of God's love. The truth here pushes deeper into our soul than the level of feelings. We see the same truth in our human interpersonal experiences of love. Though the emotional excitement of falling in love can be intense and wonderfully endearing, such goose-bump experiences of love cannot endure forever. No, these beloved emotional experiences must be rooted in a more profound dimen-sion of our relationship. Belief in the Presence of God's Love How easy it is to get stuck in these emotional traps. We want always to feel the fire and comfort of God's love. Because God is so jealous as to desire all of us in relationship, our divine lover must pry loose our emotion-ally fierce grasp, must wean us away from the wonder-ful, but undependably fluctuating, emotional satisfaction. This purification of our experience of God calls us deeper into our person beyond the realm of emotion and feeling. 133 66.2 2007 Ascbenbrenner ¯ The Spiritual Blabs--Rejection or Invitation? This deeper invitation does not kill and bury forever the emotional part of us. But the pain of temporarily letting go of this sensual dimension of our relationship with God hurts--and is risky. What will be left after such a letting go? For this reason, such purification invites and requires grieving. These tears at the apparent loss and absence of God can sting and burn, and should honestly be shared with God. But the tears and ache are soothed finally in a dawning realization: God is more than emotional spontao neity. Such a loving God is our very life. Far beyond any emotional impulse, God's love, intimate and uniquely per-sonal, is profoundly and ineradicably present at our very core, intentionally loving life into us breath after breath. This profound presence gives a peace, a harmony, a humble confidence beyond any intensity of emotion. Such an awareness can quiet us and synchronize us to the divine breath-giver's artful creation of us in the imme-diacy of every moment. Simply to breathe is to be loved, just to exist is to be cherished beyond imagining. This realization is truly awesome: for me as I write this, and for you as you now read it. A centering such as this reveals a foundation, always there, beneath all emotional and spon-taneous fluctuation. The apparent drying up, even death, of emotional fervor does not imply rejection. The belief in the core presence of God's love blessing us with life reveals the emotional nagging dullness as invitation, not rejection, on God's part. This appreciation of God's kind and insistent invitation does not automatically deluge us with emo-tional fervor. Nonetheless, this felt sense of God's love will always be part of our relationship, though now rooted in a more profound and personal dimension. In this deep-ened experience of God, our emotional sluggishness and lack of fervor reveals God's intentional loving dynamic, if joined with other signs: a keen desire for prayer, for Review for Religious simply being with our loving Creator all through the day, and for serving God's will in everything. These signs demonstrate that the sensible dullness is not a matter of divine reiection, nor does it drain our energy for serious effort in response; rather it is a precious moment of lov-ing invitation. Acting as if. Activity, concretely imaginative and bordering on the heroic, puts our faith to work beyond any emotional stimulation. This is a time for "acting as if." While we do not feel like belieying, praying, or serving in love, it is time to act, to act as if we do feel it. Why? Because we are loving, believing, acting out of a genuine experience of our loving God, but from a depth of ourselves more profound than emo-tional. But this "acting as if" can seem insincere, dishonest, even hypocritical. The insinuation of this type of inter-pretation reveals an evil, unholy spirit always eager to mislead and deter us. -- Rather than hypocrisy, we are here in the depths of incar-national, sacramental faith. To cling to and to kiss a cru-cifix when we do not even feel like giving time for prayer, to reach out to the needy person when we rather feel like turning away in withdrawal are not acts of dishonesty. These can be heroic efforts, whether quietly private or publicly observable, to sacramentalize in hope our deepest center of faith and love. Without such quiet heroism, our faith, our intimately personal relationship with God, will not mature and persevere over the long haul of life. An important distinction, however, is at work here. We are not acting as if we believed what we actually do not believe. That is hypocrisy. Rather, we are acting in line with what we deeply believe, even though, at this This is a time for "acting as if " i135 66.2 2007 Ascbenbrenner ¯ The Spiritual BlabsnRejection or Invitation? 136t moment, the emotional drive for such acting is absent. This is mature faith: to act as if we are always feeling what we deeply believe. The ability to believe and sacramental-ize in action what we are not now feeling marks the seri-ous believer. Often we are tempted, quite unconsciously, to identify faith and feeling. This always short-circuits faith, and, though we enjoy the emotional intensity, such an identification of faith and feeling often precludes the permanent fidelity of a mature faith commitment. Couples, for whom the honeymoon is long past, know, live, and act from a depth of love, mutual trust--and a more mature emotional caring for one another--devel-oped over years. In the hit Broadway musical "Les Miserables," Jean Valjean, the central obvious Christ figure, promises to care for the daughter of the dying and poverty-stricken Fantine with these words: "I swear this on my life." This promise cuts far below any momentary surge of emotion. And the beautiful climax of the show reveals Valjean's fidelity to this promise through a great variety of chal-lenges. Mature adult believers know the challenge and the blessing of acting what they believe, and acting it as if they felt what now, as a matter of fact, they are not feel-ing. This faith-filled acting is always blessed over time with an emotional fervor which, at certain times, in God's mysterious loving ways with us, seems absent and lost. A Presence in Faith A lack of accustomed satisfaction and felt closeness to God in our prayer and ordinary devotions when accom-panied by a lively desire, on our part, not only to be with God but also to serve the justice of the Risen Jesus in our world, reveals finally a clear message of divine endearment for us. Beyond the realm of graced emotional intimacy lies a presence in faith sometimes too deep for words, but Review for Religious more trustworthy and dependable than the fluctuations of graced feeling in our relationship. This is often a rather new land for many of us. It is a land where God is always with us inviting our trust. It is a land where our identity, satisfaction, and fire for generous service most deeply and personally reside. A spiritual staleness, when insightfully investigated, is always an invitation, never a rejection--an invitation to greater intimacy with God, whose love in the Risen Jesus is serving us, at every moment, in a more charming fash-ion than we could ever fully realize before we die. Couldn't You Return? You came to be with us. From strips of linen to strips of linen, swaddling to shroud, You began and ended as the least of us, a man martyred in a power game you wouldn't play. Now we must put ourselves where You can find us, with the least, the last, the lost: children of the homeless, pawns of politicians, those religion oppresses. Dear manger-born, martyr-torn One, we are small again today. Couldn't you return now? Bonnie Thurston 137 66.2 2007 A. PAUL DOMINIC The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises ignatian insights "It is relatively easy to live a life of clarity.and peace if you take yourself on retreat to a moun-taintop. But how do we bring the fruits of that stillness and clarity into the rush of the modern world?" The question is raised by a travel writer about his writings taking on a spiritual tone.l How much more would St. Ignatius have been seized with such a question in relation to the Spiritual Exercises! Given his thoroughness, he would have left his own answer to it. The last of the formal exercises, the Contemplation to attain love.would seem that answer. But after it come "three methods of praying" (§§238-260).2 Lowly compared with the Contemplation, they too may serve to carry the fervor and glow of the Spiritual Exercises into the prosaic and profane chores of daily living. A. Paid .Dominis SJ last wrote for us in early 2005. His address remains c/0 Missionaries of the Poor; Fatima Nagar; Warangal 505 004; India. Re'vie'~ for Religious . Prayer after the Thirty-Day Retreat This thought impressed me more and more as I sought to understand the place of the unsung "three methods" in the whole ensemble of the Exercises. The first method is four modes of examining our conscience; the second and third are ways of praying orally. The question of these methods in the overall progress of the Spiritual Exercises came to me in a practical way as I planned a course of meditation and prayer for a group of novices whom I had directed some months earlier in the full Exercises. I asked the novice mistress if the three methods of praying would satisfy her expectation. However she envisaged it, it was clear to me that, to do anything really useful for her nov-ices, I had to teach them to pray as people who had made the full Exercises more or less well according to the mea-sure of grace given them by the Lord. I do not remember having heard anything special about the three methods from the "specialists" with whom I had either made the Exercises or studied them. An exception was the unassuming, unlearned specialist my own novice master, who after the long retreat kept us novices praying for some days using the three methods, in the best tradition of the Exercises (§256), though with-out explaining why. That tradition is worth discovering, recovering, and pondering. The Three Methods as Part of the Exercises First, as the various methods of meditation and con-templation are part and parcel of the full Exercises, so are all three methods of prayer without exception, though not in the same way. All appear in their proper order. Meditation comes in the First Week of the Exercises and contemplation runs through the remaining Weeks, the three methods emerging towards the end of the full Exercises. They are clearly and cleverly appended to the [139 66.2 2007 Dominic ¯ The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises 1401 Fourth Week. What is more, the three methods form an "inclusion" with the early sentence that defines and explains the phrase "spiritual exercises" (§§238 & 4). Polanco's witness is consistent with this in letter and spirit; he says: "The Fourth Week is completed when he [the exercitant] is judged to have made sufficient progress in the exercises on the resurrection and on enkindling the love of God, as well as the methods of prayer.''3 Of course, The threeme ho'dS lend themselv, es~to.different levels of exercising and experienCihg them, the three methods may be detached and used for those who go through the partial Exercises restricted to the First Week alone (§ 18). That only suggests and emphasizes that the three methods lend them-selves to different levels of exercising and experi-encing them. The level at which the exercitants will ben-efit to the full, however, is when they make use of them as the last part of the full Exercises of roughly one month. Such an understanding is in accordance with what has been called the circular nature of the Exercises.4 The idea of circularity, I believe, implies that the principles and practices with which the Exercises begin run all through the Exercises with an ever greater intensification and leave their effect even afterwards. That is to say, the aim is the same in the beginning and the end; in the beginning it is present at least as an urgent desire, and at the end, hope-fully, it finds its actualization. Thus, for example, though no one can begin the Exercises without some magnanim-ity and generosity toward God as expressed in offering God one's entire will and liberty (§5), no one is expected to make the offering of the Sume et suscipe (Take and receive) right at the beginning, but only after a month Review for Religious of maturation, with or without struggle, climaxing in the Contemplation to attain love (§§230-237), a part of the finale of the Exercises. In the same way, if the three meth-ods of prayer (examen and vocal prayer) are practiced at the beginning, they ought to provide the exercitants a far greater relish and perfection at the end, with no abrupt ending, but rather a continuation. How that happens is the matter for consideration now. The First Method The first method of prayer (§§238-248) appears to be at first sight a plain and simple examination of conscience, making use of various headings: laws (decalogue) or gifts (three powers of the soul and five senses) or related topics (capital sins). Given the usual emotional perception of most people, the examination of conscience does not pass for prayer. But in the Exercises it is out-and-out prayer, albeit of a particular kind; St. Ignatius mentions it first in his list of prayer exercises (§1). No doubt a conscientious examina-tion yields an account of our soul during a certain period of time, but not all on our own; it involves attentiveness to God's presence from start to finish, and so it qualifies as prayer. It begins with gratefulness for God's benefits and asking for grace to know our general ingratitude or our unfaithfulness in a particular matter; it is followed by asking God's pardon and receiving grace to do better (§43). This prayer practice of the examen twice daily all through the Exercises is deepened towards the end by the first method of prayer, engaging the exercitants with focused soul-searching under the guidance of the Lord, who has sought and found and accompanied them for as long as a month. This argument gains further force from the fact that, like the other methods of prayer in the Exercises, the first method has its bwn assigned subject matter: the ten commandments, for example, to focus the prayer of 141 66.2 2007 Dominic * The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises interior purgation. This prayer leads us to beg first for a complete understanding of the commandments as expres-sions of God's good pleasure (well enunciated in the first two modes of humility, §§165-166) soas to arrive at a greater recognition of one's failures and the correspond-ing need of forgiveness. The aim is "to keep them [the commandments] better for greater glory and praise of the Divine Majesty" (§240). If anything, the expression Divine Majesty suggests the awesome holiness of God (the mysterium tremendum) and calls for our correspond-ing reverence. To this must be added what may not be so apparent. For Ignatius, the designation "Divine Majesty" also invites devout retreatants' more personal approach to God, resulting from God's winning presence and initiative as mysterium fascinans.S Those who have felt such reality in the Spiritual Exercises are bound to respond with repentance and rev-erential love worthy of our God of majesty of love. The plaintive prayer of the converted soul--"Against you, you alone, have I sinned; O wash me more and more from my guilt and cleanse me from my sin" (Ps 5I:2,4, Grail)mis not for just a moment or occasion. Although the purga-tive way of the First Week leads on to the illuminative way of the Second and the unitive way of the Third and Fourth Weeks, the exercitant is never beyond the purifi-cation that is ever refreshing and re-creative. Indeed, it is those who have experienced the illuminative and unitive ways who appreciate all the more the need to get rid of even the least sin or imperfection. The first method of prayer, with its varied subject matter listed by Ignatius and added to by ourselves, wonderfully meets the never ending need of exercitants who have learned discernment in the Exercises. The first method of prayer is, then, not only "a com-plete examen"6 that keeps exercitants from slipping back; Review for Religious it is also an aid to progress. For example, bringing the five senses to this method, we do not stop with mere examina-tion of ourselves, but go beyond it. Intent on doing some-thing more, we pass on to the imitation of Jesus and his mother in their use of the senses. Ignatius mentions this explicitly. "He thereby recalls the exercitants' attention to their strivings during the last Three Weeks to behold, observe, and contemplate either Christ, the model of all perfections, or those holy persons whose life most faith-fully mirrored Christ's perfections, in order that they may learn from this how to perform all their actions more perfectly, day after day.''7 The Second Method The second method of prayer consists in contemplat-ing the meaning of each word of a familiar prayer such as the Our Father. I wonder if there has been much serious appreciation of the explicit Ignatian directive to conclude all daily examens, meditations, and contemplations in the Exercises with the Our Father. Anyway, those who have been faithful to Ignatius in this small detail will have an occasion now to discover its sense and intrinsic usefulness, and so come to pray it better with greater understanding and relish. In this second method, Ignatius offers a way to find depth in set routine prayer. It happens not by reflecting on but contemplating the meaning (significaci6n) of each word of the Our Father or other vocal prayers used in the triple colloquies. Contemplating the words of a prayer is certainly something new at this point. It consists in opening ourselves to the "meanings, comparisons, relish, and consolations connected with it" (§252). It is a matter of sensing and entering the evocative aura of each word. Coathalem has spoken of this as penetrating, assimilating, and tasting each word.s Though this method is new at this 66.2 2007 Dominic ¯ The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises 144 point, still it is not unlike what has transpired all through the contemplations of the Exercises as the exercitants lis-tened to the words uttered by the persons in the scene. Anyway, in the second method of prayer, exercitants contemplate as their own words the words of a traditional prayer they know by heart. In their devotion they may go on to recognize and appreciate the words as hallowed because of the hitherto unsuspected personal import they have. They may become sensitive to the human words now bringing them unction from God, along with God's embrace and the grace to give God better service (§15). The words have been given to them by none other than the Spirit (see Rm 8:26). Thus privileged and engrossed, the exercitants make bold at the end to ask for whatever virtues and graces they feel greater need of (§257). This is a colloquy in the usual terminology of the Exercises. But, according to Peters, its purpose and its way are markedly different from the col-loquies mentioned throughout the Exercises. Given the second method of prayer as not only a contemplation but a high contemplation--shown by the person practicing it being called not the exercitant but the "contemplant" or contemplator (persona que contempla, who enjoys devo-tion, relish, and consolation, §§254, 252)9--the needs here are greater than any experienced earlier. Peters argues: "One would think that the exercitant had been taken into the seventh heaven, that he did not lack anything at all. Evidently, at the height of contemplation, he feels more than ever his own insufficiency; he realizes how he falls short in virtue and is in dire need of special help. Close union with God goes hand in hand with a profound sense of one's own unworthiness and even helplessness.''1° In other words, even as we are delighted immensely by the nearness of God, we are distressed by the spec-tacle of our own sinwall the more disturbing because of Review for Religious the .contrast. In this situation, reminiscent of Paul and his visions (see 2 Co 12:2-9), what need could be greater than overcoming the lingering failings that frustrate our desire to be united with God? While experiencing such a need, the praying exercitant descends into silence, and the silence speaks louder, and there is no need for many words. As Peters points out, Ignatius directs the exercitant to ask en pocaspalabras, that is, in a few words (§257). The Third Method The third method of prayer is simply an inward reci-tation of a known prayer, slowly synchronizing each word with one's respiration. Since this method uses the same material for prayer as . the previous one, a natural way to under-stand it suggests itself. .~ The third method is a repetition of the sec-ond, in the spirit of what Ignatius consis-tently advocates for every meditation or contemplation. 11 We come to savor ever more what we have already prayed more than once. The whole exercise unfolds and rests in contemplative peace, poise, and relish. If each word of prayer is uttered with the breath, it rises from silence and ends in greater silence of repose. It is the receptive silence of the human word answering the penetrative silence of the divine Word or Spirit and turning into silence of communion, as when a drop of water falls into a sponge (§335)--that is a simile, coming from the unpoetic St. Ignatius himself. In this way, whatever word keeps us praying and imbibing The third method is a r~etition of the second, in the spirit of what Ignatius consistently advocates for every meditation or contemplation. 66.2 2007 Dominic ¯ The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises becomes more and more part of ourselves; the very prayer makes a home in those who pray. Whoever prays thus not only prays but becomes the prayer by virtue of one's very breath. Anyone who has reached the stage of the third method of prayer knows how "to join the praying man to the breathing man, or more accurately the other way about: take the breathing man that he is and gently make him into a praying man as well.''12 Whether directing our attention to the word's meaning or the person addressed or our own lowliness (§258), we are inhaling and exhal-ing rapt in contemplation of the divine in and around ourselves. 146 The Three Methods as "Repetitions" The three methods taken together provide three perspectives on the full Exercises. First, they appear as concluding repetitions of the entire month of Exercises. Right from the First Week (§§62&64), Ignatius directs and insists that individual exercises be repeated once or twice or thrice so that the exercitant may reap ever greater fruit from them. The three methods he proposes towards the end of the Exercises may well be viewed as repeti-tions, not of one or another exercise, but of the whole of the Exercises as orie-prolonged prayer experience. If the Exercises as a whole aim at removing all dis-ordered affections and so ordering our life according to God's will, the first method finds its place as a compre-hensive examen. It brings the daily examens to comple-tion, shaping a greater, more sensitive response to what must have been grace upon grace for a month (§238).13 If the subject matter of the second and third methods is mostly the vocal prayers that conclude contemplations of the mysteries of the Son, these methods together certainly provide ready repetitions of the manifold experience of the Second, Third, and Fourth Weeks. Such repetitions Review for Religious will be at once evocative and expansive, delightful and deepening, looking back and looking forward. The Three Methods as "Review" The three methods may be viewed in terms of another typical Ignatian practice too, namely, the review following every meditation or contemplation. As there is no spe-cifically mentioned last exercise in the Exercises, there is no specific reminder to review it. Another closely related fact worth thinking about is that, though there is no specified last exercise, there is a concluding tempo. This tempo may be observed right at the start of the Fourth Week, with the omission of the midnight contemplation and the reduction of the daily exercises from five to four. Whatever happens after the exercises of the resurrection in the Fourth Week definitely concerns the retreat's final days. The lack of detailed direction may well suggest the importance of the very content available for those days. While the Contemplation to attain love revolves round grateful love to the God of all gifts, the three methods of praye~ aim at exciting the same kind of response to God all holy and all loving, in and through Jesus. Viewed thus, they cannot but lead the .exercitants over all they have done in the preceding long period of grace, resulting in an overwhelming sense of gratitude and love. Come to think of it, all who have faithfully reviewed their meditations and contemplations four or five times daily ought to have learned and could not but have learned the dynamism of review for their spiritual practice. And so they are likely to hold on to the same dynamism as, rather reluctantly or not, they finish their retreat. Almost all retreatants, even those who have not been fervent enough all along, would, I believe, wish near the end that the retreat would not end. How much more, then, might the enthusiastic exercitants miss those days of 147 66.2 2007 Dominic ¯ The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises fervor. But such a feeling is not altogether a true conso-lation, and discerning exercitants would avoid it, sensing that their real consolation is in God and God's pleasure. They know that the period of grace and consolation must end, not abruptly, though, but gradually and gently. In this situation the three methods as review of the whole Exercises can help. To appreciate this, remember that the ordinary reviews of meditation or contemplation during the retreat bring the exercitant slowly from prayerful absorption to the ordinary activities of eating, drinking, resting, and so forth which we cannot do without.~4 Given devout per-sons' absorption in God at the end of the Exercises, there is all the more need for them to pass smoothly from the retreat to ordinary engagement and activity outside the retreat. This very need is filled by the three methods serv-ing as review of the whole course of the Exercises. The Three Methods as Reformation Corresponding to the "gradual lessening of bonds with the four preceding Weeks" evinced by the three methods, there emerges "an ever-increasing occupation with the duties of the exercitant's normal life.''~5 Though St. Ignatius does not say anything so explicit, his entire exercises are directed to that, namely, leaving the retreat and beginning our life anew as we have discerned God inspiring us. The genuine exercitants cannot but be con-cerned positively and negatively about their life after the retreat. Negatively, they may be anxious about the uncertainties of daily life after the peaceful certainty of the Exercises. Positively, they may be zealous to live for the glory of God. In this struggle between leaving Tabor and returning to their trade, the three methods bring a stabilizing sobriety. The first method of prayer helps their still weak selves to remain steadfast. The second and Review for Religious third methods, with their peculiar combination of famil-iar words and a fresh interiorizing of them, sustain and nourish their trustfulness by disposing them to receive the lights and consolations of God's love and grace.16 The conviction grows that the God of the Exercises will be their God after the Exercises. Thus they ready themselves to take up again the humdrum of day-to-day life with the zeal of a contemplative. It should be no surprise if their enchantment with God enhances their enchantment with the world they return to. Passing through the in-between period, the exercitants exercise themselves in faith, hope, and love, not from any nostalgia for the month gone by, but with a simple examination of conscience or with age-old prayers prayed contemplatively,j7 If the main value of whatever is done during the Exercises is "for living a Christian life after the Exercises are completed,''18 as Jules Toner says, this living clearly stems from the Exercises and is confirmed as the retreat's last days and hours run their course. St. Ignatius says something very practical in his directive for the three methods: before entering prayer one should recollect oneself in spirit, either sitting or ambling up and down, and consider where one is going and for what (§239). On the face of it there is nothing special here, but one familiar with the spiritual genius of Ignatius may discover something more. If the instruction here under consideration corresponds to the usual second additional direction (§§74-76 & 131), it nevertheless differs from it in its advocacy of recollection and suggestion of suitable posture (sitting or walking) different, from before. From this, one may suspect that the regularity of the Exercises is giving way to ordinary life, as Peters argues clearly and cleverly before concluding: "The pattern of the Four Weeks has completely gone, and yet the retreat itself con-tinues under totally different circumstances.''j9 There is .149 66.2 2007 Dominic * Tbe Finesse at tbe Finisb of tbe Exercises There can be intense Chris tian !i iyg without constant prayer: I50] no better way of envisaging how one ideally passes from the time of the retreat to the time after, neither needing nor wanting an exit. There are convincing reasons here that retreats last indefinitely, there being no last exercise prescribed as such by St. Ignatius. Since the Exercises train people in profound prayer over a long period, they surely will want to continue it even in, or in spite of, their changed circumstances after-wards. There can be no intense Christian living without constant prayer (see 1 Th 5:17). The third method trains the exercitant in such prayer. If it does not have the pre-ludes of the usual Ignatian meditation or contempla-tion, the reason would seem to be that it is done in the midst of a busy life. It can and ought to be done any-where and anytime for any length of time, directed always by discreet charity. If the prayer of the Exercises has grown all along through a regimen of do's and don'ts, it can now dispense with them all. The contemplatively trained exercitant can rejoice to find God in all circumstances and enter into silent collo-quy as constant as breathing. So, depending on the grace of the moment, the third method can be as simple "as a spirit of recollection floating, as it were, upon the rhythm of one's breathing"; and it can also be--here Peters is per-fect-- as profound as reliving the Exercises "to the extent of their being integrated into the quiet and tranquillity of one's breathing.''2° If earlier the exercitants went by the principle of sensing and savoring much in prayer rather than knowing ever more (§2), now they ought to have arrived at a new principle: "Brief time and bounteous con-solation!" Review for Religious The whole of life after the Exercises may be expressed as continuing the reforming of our life (§189). One may find this confirmed by what St. Ignatius designed for his young men after their noviceship, which included the long retreat. Besides attending Mass, they were to spend no more than an hour in prayer. The prayer was to include first the examen twice a day and next reciting the Office of Our Lady,21 both of which cotild certainly be done fol-lowing the three methods. St. Ignatius writes, echoing St. Thomas Aquinas, "In the midst of actions and studies, the mind can be lifted to God; and by means of this directing everything to the divine service, everything is prayer.''= Obviously for Ignatius formal prayer, like everything else in our life, must be not for itself but for God, as is well expressed in the unchanging preparatory prayer of every exercise (§46). That constitutes the sublime fruit of the Spiritual Exercises. The exercitant desires to persevere in it after the Exercises. For this the single-minded exercitant needs noth-ing more than the three methods of praying that are at once simple and sublime. When no surprise sublimity of the Spirit is manifestly active, we are to be content with the ready-made prayer that the vocal prayers are, know-ing that they come to our breath because of the Spirit's breathing in us. The Ending Finesse The three methods are perhaps like the performance of the circus artiste Philippe Petit. He had walked on a high wire between the towers of the World Trade Center in August 1974. Some time afterwards, on a much lower high wire between two "towers" in a circus in New Haven, Philippe walked and jumped and danced playfully, mak-ing it look easy. But more surprising was the ending. He began walking down a wire from one of the towers to the 151 66.2 2007 Do~ninic * The Finesse at the Finish of the Exercises ground. This was not easy. "Attention as well as tension grew and all kept their eyes on his outstretched arms. Everyone was so engrossed in his act that no one real-ized that for five seconds Philippe had been walking on the safe floor. Only after he himself looked down to the floor with a puzzled face and then up to the stands with happily surprised eyes did the tension break and everyone explode into roaring applause.''23 The applause seemed to be no less for walking on the circus floor than performing on the high wire--no less than when we managed to walk for the first time. If the thirty-day retreat is a feat, its success lies in making the days following it no less a feat and a feast to boot. The three methods help in accomplishing this. Notes ' Pico Iyer to a columnist. See Pradeep Sebastian, "In Autumn Radiance," The Hindu Literary Review, 5 November 2006, p. 6. 2 Such numbers in parentheses refer to the paragraph numbers in The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. 3 See Martin E. Palmer, On Giving the Spiritual Exercises: The Early Manuscript Directories and the Official Directory of l Y99 (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1996), p. 126 (emphasis added). 4 See Gilles Cusson, Biblical Theology and the Spiritual Exercises (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1988), pp. 155-156, 327-330. 5 See William A.M. Pet~s, The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius: Exposition and Interprdtat~on (Rome: CIS, 1980), pp. 51-52. 6 Jos~ Calveras, Th~ Harvest-Field of the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius (Bombay: St. Xavier's College, 1949), p. 251. 7 Calveras, Harvest-Field, p. 252 (with a change of singular to plu-ral). 8 See Herv~ Coathalem, Ignatian Insights (Taichung, Taiwan: Kuangchi Press, 1971), p. 235. 9 This does not appear so clearly in English translations: The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius by George E. Ganss (Anand: Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, 1993) or by Louis J. Puhl (Bombay: St Paul Publications, 1965). ,0 Peters, Exercises: Exposition, p. 175. Review for Religious ~t See Calveras, Harvest-Field, p. 248. ~2 Peters, Exercises: Exposition, p. 177. 13 Taking the cue from the comment of Calveras as found in Ganss, Spiritual Exercises, p. 186, n. 127. t4 See Peters, Exercises: Exposition, pp. 41-42, 178. ,s Peters, Exercises: Exposition, p. 179 (though he excludes the first method here). 16 See Calveras, Harvest-Field, pp. 245,249. 17 See Calveras, Harvest-Field, pp. 245-246. ~8 Jules J. Toner, A Commentary on St. Ignatius' Rules for the Discernment of Spirits (Anand: GSP, 1982), p. 39. 19 Peters, Exercises: Exposition, p. 172. 20 Peters, Exercises: Exposition, p. 179. 21 See The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, trans. George E. Ganss (St. Louis: Institute of Jesuit Sources, 1970), §342. 22 See Constitutions, trans. Ganss, p. 183, n. 4. ,3 Henri J.M. Nouwen, Donald P. McNeill, and Douglas A. Morrison, Compassion (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1982), p. 77. In Impressione Ss. Stigmatum S. Francisci wings and wood, fire and air and the pain goes right through it is harder to bear, Francis told a brother, "than any martyrdom. I am not speaking of the reward, but only of the intensity of suffering it causes" (Thomas of Celano, Vita Prima S. Francisci, ii, 7). love into blood, blood into love and the pain goes right through Sean Kinsella 66.2 2007 DAVID L. FLEMING "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving 1541 One of the key phrases capturing the charism of Ignatian spirituality is "to love and to serve in all things." In Ignatius's Spanish it reads "en todo amary ser-vir." The phrase is used in describing the grace we pray for in the prayer exercise the Contemplation on the Love of God, the final exercise within the Spiritual Exercises. Ignatius lets us know how he is considering the verb, to love, by his prenote of two points in this exercise. He tells us that love is shown more in deeds than in words in the first point. Then in the second point he says that people in love share what each has with the other. The Ignatian Spanish word we translate in English as "to share" is comunicar. And so in a paradoxical way, though Ignatius does say deeds express true love more than words, he goes on to say that what lovers do for each other speaks or communicates love. David L. Fleming SJ delivered this presentation as a keynote address for the first Ignatian Spirituality Conference for Asia, held in Hong Kong from November 24 to 27, 2006, with the theme "Finding God in the 21st Century." His address is 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, Missouri 63 I08. Revie'w for Religious Although Ignatius helps us in some way to appreciate his understanding of to love, I do not find him as helpful in letting us know what he might mean by to serve. It is true that we find some thirty-nine uses of the words ser-vice or to serve in the Exercises, but we do not find a kind of definition. If we can cite some seventy times a form of the word service being used in the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, we still are left to imagine what the word itself means for Ignatius. I want to explore with you this notion of Ignatian service. Ignatius the Mystic Ignatius Loyola is numbered among the great Spanish mystics of the 16th century. Although he did not reflect in writing on his mystical experiences in the way that Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross did, Ignatius takes his place with his own spiritual legacy alongside these two great Carmelite mystics. A most important mystical experience for an under-standing of Ignatian spirituality happens to Ignatius in 1537 as he is journeying to Rome with his companions in order that they might offer themselves to the pope for his missioning. Ignatius makes reference to this vision in his Autobiography §96, but he does not expand on it. He makes even a more passing reference to it in his Spiritual Diary when he writes, "i recalled the day when the Father placed me with the Son" (§22, 23 February 1544). At a shrine at La Storta, Ignatius received an extraordinary response to his novena-like prayer to Mary, "Place me with your Son." Ignatius describes his experience in these words: "He experienced such a change in his soul and saw so clearly that God the Father placed him with Christ his Son that he would not dare doubt it--that God the Father had placed him with his Son." In the "seeing" (Ignatius's 155 66.2 2007 Fleming ¯ "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving vision), Jesus was carrying his cross. The Father addresses Ignatius and says, "I shall be favorable to you at Rome." Then the Father turns tO Jesus, who is carrying his cross, . and makes this request: "I want you to take this man to serve us." Jesus, with his cross in hand, looks at Ignatius and says, "We want you to serve us." The vision is an obvious answer to Ignatius's prayer to Mary. He is con-firmed in his being placed with Jesus. But the placement is made with Jesus in action--Jesus carrying his cross. This vision becomes an icon of Ignatian spirituality. The vision is about Ignatian service. A Spirituality of Service Ignatian spirituality, always identified as an active spirituality, finds expression in the phrase "to serve." Many commentators on Ignatius have noted that the you in Jesus' invitation to Ignatius "We want you to serve us" is plural. You would ~opnras~s~'-e~' --- e~"~-e . seem to point not only in . 0" roe,. '~i to Ignatius but also to all the people who find life in Ignatian spiritu-ality. As we try to live Ignatian spirituality, we want to be a people who serve. We are moved, then, to ask what does service or to serve mean in Ignatian spirituality? Does Ignatius help us to understand what service might include? Is it confined to tasks performed or work accomplished? Is service always about a project or jobs? Is service restricted to certain kinds of actions or deeds? I am suggesting that we might follow Ignatius in some of his experiences as recorded in his Autobiography to see a R~iew for Religious development in his own life about what it means to serve. Then we might return to the Exercises themselves tO see how Ignatius incorporates an openness to God's invitation to serve the Kingdom. Ignatius's Experience The young Ignatius was a man of great ambition. He was one who could dream of doing great deeds, being recognized for signal service in the service of a king, and perhaps by glorious accomplishments he might win the hand of a noble lady. The cannonball in the siege of the city Pamplona by the French forces against the Spanish shattered not only Ignatius's leg but also his dreams. During his long recovery at the family castle of Loyola, he had only two books--a Life of Christ by Ludolph of Saxony and the legendary .tales about many saints by Voragine--to fill his reading time. But through these two books Ignatius's dreams returned, only to be fired by the challenge to do glorious deeds like the saints, glorious deeds in the service of Christ, his king. Although service was still caught up in glorious deeds and accomplishments, Ignatius also found himself listening to the still, small voice of God calling within him. Little by little, he began to pay attention to the different spirits that stirred inside him, some leaving him to feel sad and desolate and others giving him joy. He began to under-stand a language of God through a process of. discerning these spirits. He would spend long hours gazing at the stars in the skry, and felt within himself a great drawing to serve the Lord. In the midst of his dreams, he asked him-self what was it that he really desired to do. As an answer, Ignatius felt that the content of his dreaming was to be a pilgrim, one going to the Holy Land where Jesus lived. Ignatius at this time represents all those first aposdes called by Jesus in the Gospels. He is like the fishermen 66.2 2007 Fleming ¯ "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving Peter and Andrew, James and John, and like the tax collec-tor Matthew, who heard Jesus say "follow" and they did. A!though Ignatius still harbored his idea of great deeds, at this moment of recovery at Loyola castle, he knew only that he wanted to follow Jesus, and somehow this follow-ing seemed to lead him to the land called "holy" because Jesus was born and died there. He wanted to be identified with Jesus. That would be service enough, and perhaps he could help souls. "Following" is a way of serving. But it is not so much our doing some deeds as it is an active passivity on our part, just to let someone take the lead and we come behind. But, for the apostles in the Gospels and for Ignatius at Loyola, the first form of his newfound service of Jesus is just to follow, wherever he may lead. Manresa becomes another stage in Ignatius's growth in understanding service. At Manresa, through a long and sometimes zigzag forming by the grace of God, Ignatius becomes available, available to go wherever God may lead him. At Manresa, Ignatius was initially self-determining his way of serving Christ. He set himself some seven hours of prayer each day. He fixed on his way of getting God's grace by a total fast. A major temptation was phrased in the question: How will you be able to endure this life for the seventy years you have to live (Auto §20)? When he was beset by debilitating scruples, he correctly took all the human means he could to rid himself of them. But finally he had to cry. out to God for help only God could give. In a dramatic image of being a child, Ignatius tells God that however God wants to work with him, he, a grown man, would chase after a puppy dog if that is how God would give him a healing remedy (Auto §23). Immediately he reflects that God was at this time treating him like a schoolmaster with a pupil. Why was God teaching him Review for Religious this way, he asks. Because of the strong desire that God himself had given him to serve him (Auto §27). Manresa became the schoolhouse where Ignatius began to learn that serving is not focused on our own predetermined efforts. To serve God means first of all to be available to God's direction and grace. God is the master, the teacher, and we are the disciples, the learners. To bring home the fact that God is the director, Ignatius recounts five special mysti-cal experiences--all of them pointing towards an under-standing or grasp of the deepest of faith realities: God of serving Christ. as Trinity, creation as worked by God, the Eucharistic presence of Jesus, Christ and Mary in their holy human-ness, and finally insights into spiritual matters as well as matters of faith and scholarship (Auto §§28-30). God was making Ignatius his disciple, a person available to God. For Ignatius, to be available is to serve. He would reflect this stance particularly in the attitude of the third class of people in the exercise "The Three Types of People," in the Exercises. As Ignatius moves to the next phase--the pilgrimage to Jerusalem--he opens another door which leads to a notion of serving. He discovers through many experiences of being the pilgrim that a way of serving comes from faith--believing and trusting. Whether it be with the use of money (prudently having some or not), or with the choice of boat (going with the bigger and better outfitted one or not), or with weather at sea (cold and stormy or beset by pirate ships), or with church authority (allowing or not allowing his stay in Jerusalem), Ignatius came to a realization that believing God and believing in God and Ignatius was initially self-determining his way 66.2 2007 Fleming ¯ "Here I Am". Ignatian Ways of Serving trusting God and trusting in God was to serve God. This understanding of seryi.'ng is reflected in Ignatius's contem-plative approach to the Gospels. When Ignatius determines that studies were impor-tant for carrying out his desire to serve God and others, he slowly moves to another stage of serving. Although it is at Salamanca that he evidences his desire to have companions with him in service, the realization of this desire will have its fruition during the time of his stud-ies in Paris. There it was that Francis Xavier and Peter Faber and four others form the nucleus of the "friends in the Lord." Whether it is the call of Christ coming to every person to be with and to work with Christ reflected in the Call of the King exercise in the Spiritual Exercises that inspires Ignatius to seek to serve in relationship with others, we can only infer. ¯ But, whatever the stimulus, we see another stage in Ignatius's own growth in understanding and practicing service. To serve is to be in relationship with others. It is to accompany and to be accompanied. This is the root foundation for the Company of Jesus, the Jesuits, ones who call themselves companions of Christ and so companions with one another. The service of the Society of Jesus mirrors always men-in-companionship, not the individual aposde. Ignatian service historically is people working together because of their working with Christ. I believe that Ignatius's growth in understanding ser-vice came out of his experiences which we have pointed out through the citing of certain incidents recorded in his Autobiography. Ignatius reflected upon his experience in terms of being helpful to others, and the result was his writing of the Spiritual Exercises. The Exercises, then, I believe, become a summation of what Ignatian service is. Let us look more closely at the Exercises. Review for Religious The Evidence from the Exercises What Ignatius discovered and what he hands on to us is that God is the One who first serves. This is the vision that Ignatius shares with us in the Principle and Foundation and in the Contemplation on the Love of God. Ignatius begins his Principle and Foundation state-ment with the catechism-like answer to the unspoken question "why did God make us?" Ignatius writes: God creates human beings to praise, reverence, and serve God, and thereby save their souls. Ignatius goes on to say that God gifts human beings with all their personal talents and presents everything in creation as gifts to help them to come to know, love, and serve God. Our human response is to choose among the many gifts which ones help us in our direction towards life-with-God forever. God is the first to serve us by gifting us with an abundance of gifts so that we can make the choice among them which ones better help us seek and find God. Ignatius makes his approach eminently clear in the final exercise, the Contemplation on the Love of God-- what I call the "other bookend" of the Exercises similar to the Principle and Foundation. We are praying for the grace to be empowered to love and to serve in all the .ways that God does. All four points outlined by Ignatius are pictures of God serving us. Of course, by his prenote on love, Ignatius has prepared us to see that God shows his love in deeds--in all the ways that God continues to serve us. These deeds, these giftings, speak out and com-municate to us how much God loves us. In loving us, God is the first to serve. As directors, not as first-time retreatants, we are aware that the vision pieces that mark the beginning and end of the full Spiritual Exercises are about a God who gifts, a God who loves, and a God who serves. In every way God communicates his love for us and so serves us. If God 161 66.2 2007 Fleming ¯ "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving is the first to serve, then how better can we learn what service means than by perceiving all the ways that God communicates his love for us by his deeds--all of which are meant to speak. Just as there has been a tradition of the four points of the Contemplation on the Love of God being a rtsum6 of the Four Weeks of the Exercises, so we might review some aspects of the Four Weeks to obtain, perhaps, a better grasp of how God serves, with the result that we might learn to serve. I am selecting a few key images that speak of ways of serving. In the First Week, we might turn our eyes to Jesus nailed to the cross as we are asked to image him in the colloquy in the first exercise. When we are caught in wonder that Jesus, being the Word made flesh, the Word in whom all things are created, is being crucified, we are open to hearing his response to us as a part of our prayer conversation. Jesus would tell us that his hanging on the cross is a way of his serving. Moved by love of God his Father and focused in his love for each of us, his brothers and sisters, he gives himself over to us, holding noth-ing back, even allowing us to put him to death. Sin in our lives is the way that we keep trying to pot him to death. But Jesus waits for us, Jesus' arms are held wide to embrace us, Jesus offers us his forgiveness. How does Jesus (God) serve us? Jesus serves us by his patience, by his ever-present welcome, by his words of forgiveness. Jesus loves and so he serves. In the Second Week, we might look at and listen to Christ issuing his call to every man, woman, and child today. The exercise is called the Call of the King. This is the risen Christ, the one who is still busy about the king-dom to come. This Jesus personally invites each one of us to be with him and to work with him. God's kingdom will come, the victory is assured in Jesus' resurrection, Review for Religious and life forever with God is our realizable goal. How does Jesus (God) serve us? Jesus serves us by calling us to an intimacy with him, but being with Jesus is not enough. Jesus serves us by asking us to work alongside him as together we serve the kingdom. Jesus loves us so much that he wants us to be _~ right alongside him as we act together in our work for the kingdom. Just as Jesus' being caught up in love of God his Father has him serving just by being with him, so too our being with Jesus models this divine intimacy--essential to all other forms of serving. In our eagerness to work as our form of ser-vice, we often forget that service of God demands a loving relationship with God. In the Third Week, we are struck by the first exercise as imaging service in a special way. In his points for the Last Supper contemplation, Ignatius highlights the pas-chal meal context, the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus, and the Eucharist as the greatest mark of his love. The paschal meal is a liturgical context in which Jesus, known as the Lamb of God, will bring to a fulfillment the Mosaic celebration so that it becomes a celebration of a new covenant "in my blood." Jesus serves us by entering us into the liturgical celebration of the covenant between God and humankind. Celebrating liturgy, then, is a way of serving. In washing his disciples' feet, Jesus clearly identifies himself as teacher and wants to expand their understand-ing. He wants, above all, to broaden their understanding of what it means to serve. Jesus is not asking them to fix their attention on one action of a good deed done to We often forget that service of God demands a loving relationship with God. 163 66.2 20O7 Fleming * "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving understand service. He has them first of all reflect on the One who serves. Created in God's image, just like the eternal Son, our very being is realized in our being people who serve. In challenging their understanding, Jesus is exploding whatever restrictions these first apostles and then all of us later ones humanly use to limit our notion of service. When Jesus institutes the Eucharist as the greatest mark of his love, Jesus again shows his love by his deed. The Eucharist is the ever-making-present total gift of self that the risen Jesus continuously makes to his Father and to us. The actuality of the event of the cross, limited in time and in space, receives its "now" reality and meaning in every celebration of the Eucharist--the greatest mark of Jesus' love. Jesus is forever giving over himself to us. Jesus shows us that service is embedded in surrender, a giving over of self, with nothing ever held back. In the Fourth Week, once again it is the first exercise that is most suggestive of our drinking in ways of serving. The first exercise is the appearance of the risen Jesus to Mary, his mother. Ignatius dismisses the fact that there is no scripture passage to support this contemplation by claiming that Scripture says that there are other appear-ances and that we have understanding. By having us con-template the risen J~sus appearing to his mother, Ignatius brings home to us the newness of the risen life and the change in relationship that it necessarily entails. Jesus' intimacy with Mary his mother, before his resurrection at a level incomprehensible to us, is taken to another, wholly unimaginable, level at this resurrection time. This Jesus, whose risen body knows no natural, physical boundar-ies, meets his mother in an intimacy that can only be described with explosive joy. Jesus shares with his mother the joy of the resurrection as his way of se]'ving. Mary, then, becomes our key to something of the newness of Review for Religious our relationship with the risen Jesus. We experience Jesus' way of serving us sometimes by this gift of joy, at other times by his gift of consolation. In joy and in consolation, we feel a oneness with the Lord that leaves us faltering in our language to describe our experience. This brings us back to our two "bookends" of the Exercises, the Principle and Foundation and the Contemplation on the Love of God. We realize now more fully that the phrase "to love and to serve in all things" has a necessary proper sequence. To love comes before to serve. With Ignatian insight, loving always is the root and foundation of serving. If we love, then we will be serving people. Ignatius sees that God loves, and so God is the first to serve. As he has experienced God in his own life, he has come to a wholly new way of under-standing service--a transformation of the great deeds and accomplishments that made up so much of his dreams. God has taught him, and now he knows that by drinking in God's actions, by watching Jesus in the Gospels, he has expanded his notion of service and has taken in its breadth, its length, its height, and its depth. Ignatius writes into the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus the richness of this understanding of service. Some would complain that the Jesuit order has little specifica- ¯ tion for its mission. Although the Formula of the Institute (like the basic Rule of a religious order) does describe the mission of the Jesuits, we Jesuits must confess that it does not so much restrict our activities as open up many doors to the needs of our world. The Key of Helping A part of Ignatius's first insight into the service of following Christ never left him. The Spanish verb ayu-dar, meaning to help, is the kernel of all Ignatian service. Ignatius always wanted "to help souls." His Exercises 66.2 2007 Fleming ¯ "Here I Am": Ignatian Ways of Serving are written to be a help first for the director and then through the director for the retreatant. Consistently Ignatius urges the director of the retreat to use or not use material on the basis of whether it is "helpful" for the one making the retreat. In terms of the special vow of obedience of the professed Jesuit, the mission was to be determined by the pope, who saw where the need was greatest and, as a result, the Jesuits could be of greater "help." "To help" is hardly an exalted notion of service. It does not conjure up great deeds and accomplishments. But it is a way of serving as God serves. What have we learned about Ignatian service? First, by looking at God, who is the first to serve, we begin to learn about service. Second, from God, we learn that love is the foundation and love is the stimulus for ser-vice. Love is expressed in deeds--in acts of service--more than in words. And yet our service should speak out and communicate the love that is at its source. Third, service cannot be restricted to certain actions or deeds, to certain results or accomplishments. From Jesus and the Gospels, we learn that to follow is to serve, to be available is to serve, to believe and to trust is to serve, to accompany is to serve, to forgive and to be compassionate is to serve, and to celebrate the Eucharist is to serve. We also learn to serve is always to share what we have been given. That is why serving always follows upon loving--because lovers share their gifts. After our explorations of this idea of service, we find that Ignatius again leads us to the grace that we prayed for in the Contemplation on the Love of God. We pray for the grace that we might be empowered "to love and to serve in everything," "en todo amary servir." Our ways of serving will be as rich and deep as our ways of loving. We are acting with God. We are God's servants. We stand ready and willing. We say: Here I am. I want to serve. Review for Religious Reflection Questions 1. How do I define or describe what it means to serve as a Christian? Do I find myself making changes in my thinking as I reflect on the Ignatian ways of serving? 2. "God is the first to serve." What has been my experience of God serving me? Prayer Mantra Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve. The Christ of Psalm 19 Champion. Waking to his strength and the morning's grace he seizes the radiant sun as it sets out on its way, and runs, runs and leaps, clasping it joyously to his breast. The light f!lls him, glows from his hands, haloes his footsteps, shines in his exultant laughter. Climbing, bounding across the sky, he spreads lavishly the beneficent light to mirror his heart's fire. Kate Martin OSC 66.2 2007 experiencing prayer RICK MALLOY Prayer Is a Risk ¯ 168] At a community meeting when I was a Jesuit nov-ice, someone asked our provincial about the big-gest problem he faced. His blunt answer startled me: "Jesuits not praying." As novices, our lives were so structured that not praying was impos-sible. After the novitiate I learned, painfully at times, that the demands of the apostolic works easily crowd out the time for prayer (although I always seem to find the ten minutes to catch Jay Leno's monologue). Why is it so difficult to engage in prayer, contemplative prayer? We know that many people pray, that prayer is something we as Catholic Christians ought to do, and we hear that prayer can change things. But many of us are conflicted and confused when we go to pray. Does God really respond to our prayers? Does God really listen to, or care about, what we say? If we prayed some other way, or Rick Malloy sJ is professor of anthropology at St. Joseph's University; 261City Avenue; Merion Station, Pennsylvania 19066. Review for Religious prayed more regularly and faithfully, would we be better people? Can our praying make the world a better place? In our age, which tends to elevate activism to ethereal heights, would our time not be better spent serving the poor or doing something for somebody in need? Would God not be interested more in our doing something "worthwhile" than in our sitting in silence and trying not to pay attention to the random thoughts rumbling end-lessly around in our heads? And when we get right down to it, do we all not ask ourselves sometimes, "Does prayer really work? Does prayer really do anything?" The way to move forward and avoid getting lost in the flurries such questions generate is to realize that prayer is a risk. There is no science of prayer. Just as you cannot prove sci-entifically the worth or effects of real love, the day in and day out lov-ing and caring and living with other persons, you cannot prove the worth of prayer, the practice of paying attention to God day in, day out. If we could prove prayer's value scientifically, it would not be prayer. Pyayer is a risk because it is a lifelong, life-changing act of faith. The word "believe" comes from the German belieben, meaning "to belove." Prayer is all about the risks involved in loving. Much of our reluctance and resistance to pray is in our fear that God might really respond to us. On one hand, we fear God will not take us seriously. On the other hand, we are afraid that God may take us very seriously, as seriously as we take ourselves and our loved ones. Prayer is a risk because the God who calls us to conversion and Much of our reluctance and resistance to pray is in our fear that God might really respond to us. !169 66.2 2007 Malloy ¯ Prayer Is a Risk 1701 change takes us up on the invitation to get involved in our lives. VChen that happens the adventure begins. To be Catholic is to be aware of our call to great trans-formations, transforming us over our lifetime into persons incorporated into the reality of God--the promise made to us all, that we may "come to share in the divine nature" (2 P 1:4, NAB). Our personal transformations are part of larger cosmic processes: the transformation of all human history and all creation (Rm 8:21) into the coming king-dom of God, where God will be "all in all" (1 Co 15:28). Right at the beginning of Lumen gentium, the great docu-ment of Vatican Council II that describes what the church is and ought to be, we are told what Catholicism is all about. God's plan is "to dignify men and women with a participation in his own divine life" (LG §2). This is not some radical, unorthodox, crazy, Jesuit spin on spirituality. Back in the early days of the church, St. Athanasius said the same thing I am saying here: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God" (Catechism of the Catholic Church, §460). Prayer makes us aware of, and committed to, this transformation in Christ. Risk comes in refusing to cooperate in the offered transforma-tions. There is also risk in yielding to the transformation, freely accepting who and what God is making of us and our lives. Prayer Is Relational. MI prayer is relational. By pray-ing, we relate to God, our God who loves us passionately, consistently, challengingly. When we truly relate to any-one we love, we may be called to change. The parent who loves a child suffering from cystic fibrosis changes in many ways. The son or daughter loving an aging mother or father makes many unexpected life changes. Such changes always call us to deeper, more active love. Knowing that extreme poverty in Africa can be alleviated changes one who prays about it. Witness Bono and the ONE campaign Review for Religious to eradicate extreme poverty (www.one.org). When we pray we risk changing and being changed. Prayer may make us know that we need to change. Prayer may make us able to change things, from addictions to relationships to social problems. Prayer may make us willing and able to do something for God and others we never imagined doing. Prayer is relational because we relate to God on both personal and communal levels of reality. We never pray alone. Always, and in all ways, we ourselves and someone else are involved. As soon as we try to pray, God takes us up on our effort. Prayer is neither a competition nor a goal-oriented activity. To try to pray is to already have "won." Prayer is much _ __ more like making love, or hitting a baseball, or learning to play a musical instrument (even loudly and badly) than it is like getting a promotion, or achieving a goal, or mas-tering a skill. Prayer is more like floating on water than paddling strenuously to get somewhere. Prayer is more "letting go" than "holding on." Prayer is a journey on which we are simply "there" while paradoxically always being "on the road." Prayer is allowing our lives to be har-monized. Prayer is getting our lives and loves in order, and prayer is inviting God's ordering of our loves and lives. We are all being divinized. Pray-ers know this truth. To be aware of and cooperate with divinization takes work. Real prayer is work; it is spirituality that is disciplined as Catholicism is disciplined. We find ourselves recognizing that consolation is not always comfortable, and desolation is not always disagreeable. Being disciplined about prayer is essential and beneficial just as regular physical exercise Prayer is the effort to consciously experience God. 171 66.2 2007 Malloy ¯ Prayer Is a Risk 172 gets and keeps our bodies in shape. The more in shape we are spiritually, the more we are likely to realize and recog-nize God in our lives. Prayer is the effort to consciously experience God. Praying is consciously paying attention to the central relationships of our lives, with ourselves, with others, and with God. Our relationship with God is the one that makes all these other relationships possible. With conscious attention to our relationship with God, we find whispers of God's presence in the other relation-ships of our lives. We speak to God in prayer, and the word God speaks back is our life. Prayer is paying attention to what is really real. Prayer is not just finding God in all things. It is more than that. Prayer is seeking God in all realities, realities that were, are, and are to come. Our heart's awareness of God and God's ways of divinizing is evident in how we make choices. At the moral level, prayer leads us to wisdom and cor-rec~ choosing. When I was a little kid, in wintertime my mother used to dress us up in those bulky blue snowsuits that made us look like midget Michelin men. She would let me and my siblings out along with the dog. As soon as I was out in the snow, I would reach down and grab a mittenful of the cold, delicious snow and begin to eat. My mom would yell, "Ricky, don't eat the yellow snow!" Prayer is learning what is, and is not, "yellow snow." What is not good for us is whatever frustrates and foils our trans-formation in Christ. For serious pray-ers, life becomes a series of exercises for discerning in God what we truly and deeply desire. Such holy desires reveal God's will for us, and prayer, mediates the grace that helps us choose what we deeply desire and thus make the right choices. Prayer, practiced regularly and faithfully, can become the pivotal center of our daily lives, keeping us on plan and focused. Prayer, even engaged in sporadically and Review for Religious frenetically, is valuable. Annie Lamott, one of the most refreshing if iconoclastic contemporary writers on prayer, says the two best prayers are "Thank you" and "Help." How to Pray. Prayer does not have to be elaborate to be the stream carrying us through life to life eternal. There are many ways of praying: prayers of petition (probably the most common form of prayer), Mass each day, the Liturgy of the Hours, daily spiritual reading, sys-tematically and slowly working one's way through various books of the Bible, reading beforehand the readings for the upcoming Sunday, the rosary, Eucharistic adoration, the utterly simple practice of centering prayer. These are all valid ways to pray. Prayer groups are helpful for many people. Choose freely what you find agreeable. No one stays with a prayer practice they find tedious and frus-trating. Experiment with unconventional methods that make use of and stimulate the imagination. See a movie with Jesus, write someone a letter while in prayer mode, create a dialogue with the Holy Spirit, draw pictures for God. The imagination is the arena where we can often most powerfully experience God. Ignatian contemplation of gospel scenes is a tried and true example of using our graced imagination in prayer. Prayer Guides. Many have traversed the paths through the forest of prayer. Do not feel you have to reinve'nt the wheel. For the beginner, Jesuit Mark Thibodeaux's Armchair Mystic is an excellent book. Pushing Jesuit works on prayer may seem too much like I am pushing the fam-ily business, but anyone who knows about free and flee-ing spirituality will agree that anything by Tony DeMello sJ is worth reading and pondering. Franciscan Richard Rohr's amazingly brief and deceptively simple Everything Belongs is the best book on prayer I have ever read. Rohr orients the 2 lst-century person to what prayer is and can be. The Cloud of Unknowing is a classic on prayer and is 66.2 2007 Malloy * Prayer Is a Risk 174 the inspiration for the contemporary Trappist method of Centering Prayer. Annie Lamott's Traveling Mercies is a wild zany take on everything from prayer to writing to parenting to eating disorders. Kurtz and Ketcham's Spirituality of Imperfection is a real jewel. There are many more good books one can read. Magazines like America and Commonweal are excellent sources and guides for spir-itual reading. The Internet, where so many young adults spend their reading time, offers great sites like the Irish Jesuits' "Sacred Space" (http://www.sacredspace.ie) to ori-ent you in prayer. What Does Prayer Do? Ultimately the practice of real and consistent prayer changes our desires. When we find ourselves wanting what God wants, we are in right relationship with God, and that is the experience of jus-tice on the personal level. Prayer practiced over time will lead us through the process that the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius aim to elicit. Prayer will free us from, free us for, and free us to be with. This means free from all that frustrates our transformation in Christ, from addictions to personality faults; free for service and the righting of relationships on many levels, which ultimately denotes social justice for all; free to be with God as the Holy Spirit transforms us in Christ, and thus free to be our deepest, truest selves in relation with others. Real prayer is about deep transformation and everyday mysticism; it is not some kind of magic or tawdry grace. Prayer does not do anything if we do not pray. I go to the gym three times a week, once a year. The results, or lack thereof, are rather predictable. Regular, consistent, committed prayer is worth the effort, but we never know it until we do it. That means going ahead and taking the risk. Then we can authentically urge others to follow our example. Review for Religious Reflection Questions for Personal and Group Use 1. In view of the title of this article, do I feel that I am risking anything when I pray? 2. What has been the most helpful insight about praying that Malloy has offered to me? 3. In trying to help another person in their prayer life, what two or three points would I want to share? Ubi est mors victoria tua? (1 Corinthians 15:55) Who is this jealous Lover, leaving to any Shylock his pound or two of.flesh, but coming himself and claiming ALL? Who, this unknown Knower, sounding the yearning depths of hearts that run, pursued, from that Encounter (frightful!) which ends at some strange Jacob's-ladder dream (or game)? See: the brand burns deep! No doubts remain; the claim is made; the stake is driven. Take, Lord, receive. (What did Ignatius say?) All is yours, now. Agnes Cunningham SSCM 175" 66.2 2007 JAMES W. KINN Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross 176 SDt. John of the Cross deserves the title Mystical octor. His writings are profound and original. He is without parallel in his rich content and brilliant teach-ing on the mystical life. To many, however, his writings seem almost opaque. They include tedious repetitions, disproportionate emphases, misplaced material, unwieldy sentences, and imprecise language. For example, John often speaks of "this night" without specifying the active night of sense, the active night of spirit, the passive night of sense, or the passive night of spirit. We can determine what night he means only by careful study of the con-text. Spiritual writers who interpret John often confuse his meaning instead of clarifying it because they mix the nights indiscriminately. The focus of this article is quite narrow: it centers on John's description of the beginning of contemplation. James W. Kinn is a retired priest of the Chicago Archdiocese. This article is a further development of his book Contemplation 2000: St John of the Cross for Today (Saint Bede's Publications, 1997). He can be addressed 6318 243rd Court; Salem, Wisconsin 53168. . Review for Religious First we will try to clarify his mystical teaching on the dark night as the actual beginning of infused contempla-tion. Then we will describe his practical advice for pray-ing this way. John treats this beginning of contemplation especially in his Dark Night, Books I and II. Spiritual writers agree with John of the Cross about the general description of contemplative prayer. They see contemplation as an integral -- development of prayer. That is, ¯ mental prayer exhibits a natu-ral progression from discursive mental prayer to more affective prayer to simpler prayei" and then to more passive prayer, in which God takes over our prayer in contemplation. Writers agree that the beginning of contemplation is generally dark and gentle; the first experiences are so subtle and tenuous that we hardly know what is occurring. Writers also agree with John on the three essential characteristics of infused contemplation: (1) in contem-plation we have some vague experience of God as present within us; (2) this direct contact with God is general and dark in the beginning; it is not accompanied by images or distinct notions, but consists of a simple and dark intuition; (3) we receive the experience passively, not as a result of our own efforts. We cannot obtain it, retain it, or recall it. We no longer meditate by means of ideas, images, or affections. John's Teaching on the Beginning of Contemplation The Dark Night, Book I, is titled "a treatise on the passive night of the senses." John says, "this dark night signifies . . . purgative contemplation.''l The memory, understanding, and will are dark and empty. That is, just as actual night leaves our eyes dark and unable to func- 177 66.2 2007 Kinn ¯ Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross tion, so dark contemplation leaves our memory, under-standing, and will dark and unable to function. And John calls this the night of the senses because "at this time God does not communicate himself through the senses as he did before . . . but begins to communicate himself through pure spirit by an act of simple contemplation, in which there is no discursive succession of thought.''2 This night of the senses consists essentially in our inability to meditate, becaus~.e all our natural faculties (memory, intellect, wi!l.,.-affections) are now darkened. This very inabilityAs'the necessary condition for the new form of prayer that God is beginning to bestow. John insists that this new way of prayer is properly called con-templation: A person should not mind if the operations of his fac-ulties are being lost to him; he ought to desire rather that this be done quickly so that he may be no obstacle to the operation of the infused contemplation which God is bestowing., and make room in his spirit for the enkindling and burning of love that this dark and secret contemplation bears and communicates to his soul. For contemplation is .nothing else than a secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God) John wants us to know that this dark prayer is actually the beginning of contemplation: This food is the beginning of a contemplation that is dark and dry to the senses . Now in this state of contemplation, when the soul has left discursive medi-tation and entered the state of proficients, it is God who works in it .At this time a person's own efforts are of no avail.4 That is, this prayer is not just a period of transition between meditation and contemplation nor a proximate prepara-tion for contemplation; rather it is the very beginning of contemplation: "At the time of the aridities of this sensory night, God [withdraws] the soul from the life of the senses Review for Religious and [places] it in that of the spirit that is, he brings it from meditation to contemplation--where the soul no longer has the power to work or meditate with its faculties on the things of God.''s He teaches that this is actually something new in the soul, a new experience; it is not simply a deep-ening of what has gone before, not just a continuation and further simplifying of meditation. We have seen our own personal activity in meditation become more simple and even reduced to nothing. The old world of our senses and intellectual ideas is now remote and useless. We no lon-ger meditate by means of ideas, images, or affections. Now God begins to act, though darkly. God almost impercepti-bly infuses himself into our soul and awakens a new level of awareness. This is the actual beginning of contemplation. We experience this night of contemplation as darkness, because we have only an undefined intimation of God's presence. The experience itself is ineffable, for it is void of any intermediary of sense or image. The critical point, which John of the Cross often repeats, is that this dark, pas-sive, and simple form of prayer is truly contemplation: In this state of contemplation, when the soul has left discursive meditation and entered the state of profi-cients, it is God who works in it. He therefore binds the interior faculties and leaves no support in the intel-lect, nor satisfaction in the will, nor remembrance in the memory. At this time God does not communi-cate himself through the senses as he did before., but begins to communicate himself through pure spirit by an act of simple contemplation, in which there is no discursive succession of thought. John takes great care in repeating just what this begin-ning of contemplation consists in, because it is not what most people understand it to be. They hear about more advanced forms of contemplation such as raptures, ecsta-sies, and visions. They do not understand that those are not at all the experiences at the beginning of contempla- 179 66.2 2007 Kinn ¯ Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross tion. They do not realize that their natural progression of prayer from meditation to affective prayer to simpler prayer leads them to this very next step. They see their own personal activity reduced to nothing; their reflec-tions, personal affections, and quiet insights have mostly disappeared; God no longer seems to touch them through ideas, images, or affections. They find themselves in front of a wall without any satisfying thoughts and they wonder, "Where did I go wrong?" John wants us to know that this troubling development is not a dead end, not a wall at all. It is actually the natural development of our prayer and the necessary condition for God to act in us in a new way.7 As long as we filled our minds with all our rational ideas, images, reasoning, . and affections, there was no room for a new and infused way of experiencing God. Only when we admit that all our rational efforts can take us no farther do we willingly let God take over and let ourselves be peaceful and atten-tive in that dark night. Then God begins to act and show his presence, though obscurely. God almost imperceptibly infuses himself into our soul and awakens us to a new level of awareness. God opens a new door for us. At first we experience this as darkness because the experience itself is so subtle and elusive. In addition, we have no words to describe it; we use words such as "know, see, feel, sense, perceive, touch," but they are not adequate to express how we experience God now; they are only metaphors or analogies. The experience itself is ineffable, for it is void of any intermediaries of sense or image. But this direct inflow of God is actually the beginning of contemplation. Over a period of time, this new way of experiencing God will gradually reach some degree of clarity. Only little by little does this gleam in the night seem closer and some-what distinct. God only increases his light according to our ability and our faithfulness in this way. Review for Religious How to Pray in the Beginning of Contemplation What is John of the Cross's advice for those who can no longer meditate and are beginning contemplation? Fortunately, he is entirely clear and simple: The attitude necessary in the night of sense is to pay no attention to discursive meditation, since this is not the time for it. They should allow the soul to remain in rest and quietude, even though it may seem very obvious to them that they are doing nothing and wasting time. ¯. Through patience and perseverance in prayer, they will be doing a great deal without activity on their part. All that is required of them here is freedom of soul, that they liberate themselves from the impediment and fatigue of ideas and thoughts and care not about think-ing and meditating. They must be content simply with a loving andpeaceful attentiveness to God and live without the concern, without the effort, and without the desire to taste or feel him. These desires disquiet the soul and distract it from the peaceful quiet and sweet idleness of the contemplation which is being communicated to it.s John teaches here that, once we can no longer meditate with sensible images, imaginations, rational thoughts, and affections, we should not continue to struggle with our natural faculties but "remain in rest and quietude" with "a loving and peaceful attentiveness to God." Very simply, we should remain peaceful and attentive in God's presence. Again and again he assures us that the primary agent in this contemplative prayer is God:. The principal agent [now] is God, who secretly and quietly inserts in the soul loving wisdom and knowl-edge, without specific acts . Thus the individual also should proceed only with a loving attention to God, without making specific acts. He .should conduct him-self passively . . . without efforts of his own but with simple, loving awareness.9 That is, all our activity can be summed up in this one 181 66.2 2007 Kinn ¯ Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross 182]. word: attentive. Since the natural operations of our intel-lect and will are helpless to attain the direct knowledge of God, all we can do is put them at rest. Only when we put to rest all our sensible ways of knowing will there be room for this direct, infused experience of God. Our whole effort is to remain quiet, peaceful, open, and recep-tive to this new experience. Various metaphors might help to describe our situ-ation in this beginning of contemplation: (1) There is nothing we can do to water this garden; we can no longer even bring up buckets from the well of meditation. We have no control over the rainwater that comes from God's infused contemplation. (2) We need a new way of breath-ing in this rarefied air; only the pure oxygen of God will sustain us at this altitude. (3) We are beyond our ability to swim any more; all we can do is float in the water and wait for God to carry us along. (4) All our efforts cannot open this door to the new experience of God; the most we can do is remove all the obstacles of our mental images and rational thoughts. (5) God is the sun ever shining; he will certainly shine in our soul once it is empty of the clutter of sensible images and natural reasoning. And these same metaphors may help us to be patient in this passive form of prayer--content to be peaceful and atten-tive in God's presence. John wants us to know that, once we no longer have the power to work or meditate with our faculties, God will soon bring us from meditation to contemplation: "As soon as natural things are driven out of the enamored soul, the divine are naturally and supernaturally infused, since there can be no void in nature.''1° Again he repeats his assurance: "Little by little and very soon the divine calm and peace with a wondrous, sublime knowledge of God . . . will be infused into his soul . Learn to be empty of all things--interiorly and exteriorly--and you Review for Religious will behold that I am God.''~1 John's words, "there can be no void in nature," remind us of the familiar experience of opening a can of vacuum-packed coffee; as soon as we puncture the can, the air fills the void with a hiss of air rushing in. The image suggested by John, then, is that, once we have learned to remain in the presence of God peacefully and attentively, God will soon fill this void with an infused sense of his presence and love. Now, if this dark and passive prayer is really the beginning of contemplation, then what is the source of that infused grace? John answers clearly: "The principal agent and guide and mover of souls in this mat-ter [at the beginning of contemplation] is . ¯ . the Holy Spirit. ¯ When the soul frees itself of all things . . . it is impossible that God should fail to do his part by communicating himself to it, at least silently and secretly.''12 That is, instead of relying on our own rational faculties and efforts, John tells us to rely on the infused wisdom of the Holy Spirit, who is "the principal agent and guide and mover" in all of contempla-tive prayer¯ Throughout this dark night, the Holy Spirit continues to infuse this contemplative prayer in our soul: "This communication [of dark contemPlation] is secret and dark to the work of the intellect and the other fac-ulties insofar as these faculties do not acquire it but the Holy Spirit infuses it and puts it in order in the soul." Finally, throughout The Living Flame of Love, John identi-fies the source of further union and transformation of the soul as the Holy Spirit: "This flame of love is the Spirit of its Bridegroom, which is the Holy Spirit.''~4 We have no control over the rainwater that comes from God's infused contemplation. 183 66.2 2007 Kinn ¯ Beginning Contemplation according to John of the Cross I84 So, in this beginning stage of contemplation and in all the stages of contemplation, our singular effort will be to be quiet and attentive. At first, our usual sense of God's presence will be dark and unsatisfying; we will feel weak and empty. Yet this is the only way we can learn not to rely on our rational faculties but only on the Spirit of Jesus. In Scripture, Jesus promised us this "Spirit of Truth" who will "be with you always" (Jn 14:16-17); "he will teach you everything" (Jn 14:26) and "will guide you-to all truth" (Jn !6:13). Certainly this "everything" and "all truth" include this wonderful infused contemplation. We can trust in Jesus' assurance: "How much more will the Father in heaven give the holy Spirit to those who ask him?" (Lk 11:13). One Example of Contemplative Prayer V~hen we reach this dark night of the senses, we can feel lost in our prayer because all our faculties, are dark and all our efforts are useless. Despite the guidance of John of the Cross, we would like to have some example of just how to proceed in this beginning of contemplative prayer. Here is one example. Receive, 0 Lord, my whole freedom--my senses, my imagination, my affections, my reasonings. All these faculties l have received from you. I renounce the use of all of them during this prayer, unless it be according to your will. Grant me only the inspiration of your Spirit, nothing more. Lord, I am content to dwell in this dark night in which all. my faculties are helpless. This dark-ness is my friend, for on!y in this night can your new light become visible; this silence is the.way to wisdom, for only in complete quiet can the gentle voice of

Issue 27.6 of the Review for Religious, 1968. ; EDITOR R. F. Smith, S.J. ASSOCIATE EDITORS Everett A. Diederich, S.J. Augustine G. Ellard, S.J. ASSISTANT EDITORS Ralph F. Taylor, S.J. John C. Treloar, S.J. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS EDITOR Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Correspondence with the editor, the associate editors, and the assistant editor, as well as books for review, should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; 61~2 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; Saint Louis, Missouri 63~o3. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; St. Joseph's Church; 32~ Willings Alley; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania xgxo6. + + + REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Edited with ecclesiastical approval by faculty members of the School of Divinity of Saint Louis University, the editorial offices being located at 612 Humboldt Building; .539 North Grand Boulevard; Saint Louis, Missouri 63103. Owned by the Missouri Province Edu-cational Institute. Published bimonthly and copyright ~) 1968 by R~;vIEW :-'OR RELIGIOUS at 428 East Preston Street; Baltimore, Mary-land 21202. Printed in U.S.A. Second class postage paid at Baltimore, Marl,'l_and. Single copies: $1.00. Subscription U.S.A. and Canada: $5.00 a year, $9.00 for two )-ears; other countries: 55.50 a year, $10.00 for two years. Orders should indicate whether they are for new or renewal subscriptions and should be accompanied by check or money order paya-ble to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS in U.S.A. currency only. Pay no money to persons claiming to represent REVIEW VOR RELIGIOUS. Change of address requests sbould include former address. Renewals and new subscriptions, where accom-panied by a remittance, should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; P. O. Box 671; Baltimore, Maryland 91203. Changes of address, business correspondence, and orders not accompanied by a rernitlan¢e should be sent to REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; 4~)8 East Preston Street; Baltimore, Maryland 21202. Manuscripts, editorial cor-respondence, and books for review should be sent to REvIEw FOR RELIGIOUS; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boulevard; Saint ~-ouis, Missouri 63103. Questions for aoswermg should be sent to the address of the Questions and Answers editor. NOVEMBER 1968 VOLUME 27 NUMBER 6 FRANCISCAN FRIARS OF THE ATONEMENT Provisional Constitutions [Editor's Note: REvIEw FOR RELIGIOUS is grateful to the Very Reverend Michael F. Daniel, S.A., superior general of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement, who kindly granted per-mission to the REvmw to print the text of the Friars' pro-visional constitutions approved by the 1967-1968 general chap-ter. The REVIEW would also be grateful to any religious order or congregation who would send in copies of their revised consti-tutions (along with any relevant material that may seem partic-ularly important). Although it would be impossible to print all of such constitutions and materials in the REvIEw, all of them will be kept on file at the REVIEw as a recordof the creativity of American religious and each will be carefully con-sidered for printing in the REvIEw as samples of representative constitutions now being drawn up by U.S.A. religious. Copies of such revised and provisional constitutions and related docu-ments should be sent to: R. F. Smith, S.J., Editor; REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS; 612 Humboldt Building; 539 North Grand Boule-vard; St. Louis, M!ssouri 63103.] . INTRODUCTION THE SOCIAL STRUGTURE OF THE COMMUNITY 1. In the Mystical Body of Christ we have the perfect image of what the religious community should be in its way of life and order. In the body we have the head and all the members. Each has a task to serve the good of the whole in subordination to the head. From the unity of all the members with the head a well ordered community, a healthy body is derived. This harmonious coordination of head and members is the practical basis of true unity in a religious community. It is, then, the principle to be fol-lowed by all the .Friars in exercising their responsibility within the Community. 2. Adaptation is always a part of the religious life. If undertaken carefully it ensures maximum vigor and efficacy within the Community. In order for the whole Community to periodically renew itself each General Chapter shall review the,~con-tents of the Book of General Statutes. The General Chap- + Constitutions~ VOLUME 27/1968 979 ter is the only competent authority to formulate, elimi-nate or modify in any way the General Statutes of the Community. Changes in the Constitutions may be effected by the Holy See alone. The General Chapter, by a two-thirds majority vote, has the right to request such changes. Authentic inteipretation of the Rule and Constitutions is reserved to the Holy See, that of the Book of General Statutes to the General Chapter. PART I CHAPTER I THE NATURE OF THE COMMUNITY AND ITS SERVICE TO THE CHURCH 3. The Friars of the Atonement are a community of re-ligious in the Franciscan tradition, committed to living an intensive form of the Christian life, following the inspira-tion given by their Founder, Father Paul James Francis (Lewis T. Wattson), and existing specifically to help ful-fill the Church's mission of Christian Unity by engaging in ecumenism, which is the work of restoring the visible unity of all Christians, and by bearing witness to the Gos-pel through mission activity among Christians and non- Christians. + 4. + Friars the Atonement REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 98O 4. As envisioned by their Founder, the ideal of unity in all its aspects should guide and direct the lives of the Friars. They are to seek unity with God and unity with one another; they are to preserve unity within the Church, promote true and complete unity among all Christians and bring all men into the fullness of unity with the People of God. The common calling of all the Friars is the Christian Unity vocation. By Christian Unity the Friars understand the various efforts to promote the unity of all Christians and also mission activity among Christians, restoring or strengthening their oneness with God and with one another, and bearing witness to the Gospel among non- Christians to achieve the unity of all men with God, for "it is God Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation" (II Cor. 5:17). 5. Promoting Christian Unity by prayer, sacrifice and work, personal and corporate, is the apostolate of the Friars of the Atonement. Since the Church is deprived of that fullness of unity willed by Christ, when divisions exist among Christians, the Friars will make every effort to contribute toward healing these divisions. In the spirit of the Founder the Friars are to seek opportunities for ecumenical involve-ment as the principal dimension of activity in the Com-munity and the principal mark of identity for the Community, whether they 'are at home or abroad, whether they are working among Christians or non- Christians. Acting out of the innermost requirements of her own catholicity, and in obedience to the mandate of Christ, the Church strives to proclaim the Gospel to all men. The work of evangelization both strengthens and extends the unity of the Church. For this reason the Friars devote a generous portion of personnel to spreading the Gospel among peoples where it is not known, and preserving and revivifying it where it is in danger of being lost. 6. The effectiveness of the Community depends on a common spirit and mutual cooperation. All the activities of the Community have an obvious relationship and any disjunction between them ought to be avoided. 7. In order that their service to the Church be both au-thentic and effective the Friars strive in all they do to be deeply loyal to Christ and His Church. In the Franciscan tradition they express this particularly by their fidelity to the Vicar of Christ, by their reverence towards all Bishops, by the honor they show to all priests and by their dedicated service to all the People of God. CHAPTER II t~ELIGIOUS PROFESSION 8. Religious life is a sign of the Church, the Community of God's People gathered together visibly and effectively bearing witness to His saving work. Its purpose is union with God, the pursuit of perfect charity through the following of Christ and service to the Church. For the Friars this, especially, means preparing the way for recon-ciliation of all men with the Triune God. 9. The Friars of the Atonement, as religious, seek in com-munity to respond to their common vocation by conse-crating themseh, es to the work of developing to the maxi-mum the state of sonship of God received in baptism. In responding to this call the Friars, individually and com-munally, enter into a covenant of trust and confidence in God's promises and seal that covenant on their own part by professing the evangelical counsels lived in community. ÷ ÷ Constitutions VOLUME 27, 1968 10. The act of religious profession for the Friar means that he ,willingly frees himself and willingly dedicates himself to live more profoundly according to the Holy Gospels. Evangelical life consists in the realistic accep-tance of salvation effected by the death and resurrection of Christ and the sending of the Holy Spirit; it consists in accepting God's design for men, that is, His will for all men to be at one with Him; it means to live according to the renewed condition of man to whom in Christ Jesus has been given the grace of sonship. 11. To live the religious life is to witness to the fact that true life in Christ can be realized and that holiness is possible for all to achieve. The Friars, therefore, profess the evangelical counsels to express their own and the Community's total commitment to the mission of Christ in the world and to witness to the Pilgrim Church's active expectation of Christ's Second Coming, when all things will be made at-one with God in Christ. Celibacy 12. Religious are especially called to witness to the Christian's baptismal death and new life to which they are raised in the Spirit. The Friars of the Atonement pro-fess the vow of celibacy precisely because it allows them to give expression to this mystery, or freedom won for us by Christ, which both enables and requires the Christian to love and serve God and man. The vow of celibacy is the positive choice to observe chastity in the unmarried state for the sake of Christ and for the sake of His life's work: the establishment of the Kingdom of God. By the vow of celibacy each Friar con-secrates himself in his aifective life to the Lord who is the revelation of the Father's love (Jn. 15:13) and who enables the Friar to respond with his own love so that he too can lay down his life for the brethren (Jn. 3:16). Friars A tonertumt REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 13. Christian celibacy is a gift from the Holy Spirit. If lived fully, celibacy witnesses to the love of Christ for His Church, to the real possibility of a perfect human com-munity founded on Christ's love, and finally to that per-fect union with God which will be man's when the King-dom of God is fully realized. Perseverance in the celibate life demands a life of self-denial and discipline, a deep personal prayer life and an abiding trust in the sufficiency of God's grace. Poverty 14. The Friars profess the vow of poverty to express their faith and trust in their Heavenly Father, Who provides for all who seek first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and to be at one with Christ Who "had no place to lay his head" (Matt. 8:20). 15. Profession of the vow of poverty means to sincerely acknowledge one's need for the Lord. It means to be so deeply imbued with the conviction of God's love and con-cern for men that one places himself in God's hands, de-pending on Him for strength and protection. Through this vow the Friar, like St. Francis, shares in the poverty of Christ so that the riches of God can be made available to men (II Cor. 13:3-4). For the Friars of the Atonement the ideal of poverty is best translated into actual observance by a conscientious adherence to the principle enunciated by Father Paul, namely, to use the minimum for self and the maximum for God. Obedience 16. The loving obedience of Christ is God's greatest glory and the cause of man's salvation (Rom. 5:19). The Friars of the Atonement, therefore, profess the vow of obedience as the principal expression of their response to God's call to share more intimately in the life of Christ. By religious obedience the Friars unite their wills to the will of God and profess their intention to work together in community under the direction of their superiors, to arrive at perfect charity and to serve the People of God. 17. Obedience which is informed by charity enhances one's human dignity and freedom. It means the generous and energetic use of one's talents and abilities in fuIfilIing assignments and directives. For the Friars the practice of obedience is essentially an exercise of one's responsibility in view of his freely made response to the call of God to the religious life within the Community of the Friars of the Atonement. Obedience facilitates that direction from the Church and from religious superiors which is conducive to an orderly and effective Christian life as well as to a fruitful apostolate. 18. Those Friars called to the exercise of authority shall recognize that this special practice of obedience obliges them to be attentive to the Spirit working among the members and to serve their confreres so that under their Ieadership the objectives of the Community will be achieved. Docile to the action of the Holy Spirit, and out of love for God's will, a11 the Friars, then, are to show humble obedience to their superiors, whom they shall see as the representatives of Christ, according to the norms of the ÷ ÷ ÷ Constitutions VOLUME 27, 1968 983 Rule, these Constitutions and the Book of General Statutes. RELIGIOUS FOR1VIATION AND EDU~,ATION 19. Religious Formation is the process of communicating to the religious an ever deepening knowledge of and a commitment to the person of the Word Incarnate. 20. The object of religious formation programs within the Community of the Friars of the Atonement is to imbue its members with and to aid them to grow in the spirit of the Gospels according to the inspiration of the Father Founder. These programs likewise are to be the means to set be-fore the Friars the ideals of the Founder so that all will be formed in the common vocation of the Community. 21. Religious formation provides the conditions for the possibility of the Friars' initial experience of Franciscan brotherhood in communal worship, in fraternal responsi-bility and in apostolic endeavors cooperatively under-taken. 22. Houses of formation and education should be such that genuine community can be created and apostolic works, ac.cording to the development of those being formed, may be pursued. 23. In order that formation and education may be effec-tive, direct responsibility for them shall be entrusted to particular Friars. Nevertheless, each and every Friar shares the responsibility for these programs and partici-pates in them by his living of religious community life and by his efforts to realize with the Community its spirit and aims. + + + Friars the Atonement REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS Candidates 24. The Community has the right to expect its candidates to be open to guidance, to be willing to learn, to be de-voted to the Community and to be generous in their efforts to make its spirit and aims a part of their lives. Each candidate is expected to have an ardent desire to serve God and the Church through the fraternal com-munity of the Friars, and should develop in himself a sensitivity for others so that he may live communally. 25. On his part, the candidate may expect the Com-munity to guide him in his development as a total person in community, and that the Community will offer him the living experience of its own life and work. He may also expect the opportunity that his own natural abilities will be developed, his capabilities brought to the fore and his generosity given expression. 26. Admission into the Congregation of the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement at the time of novitiate means participation in a fraternal community wherein all the members share its life and apostolic aims. The Father General as the head of the whole Commun-ity, with the consent of the General Council, after re-ceiving counsel from the Directors of the pre-Novitiate program, receives candidates into the Community of the Friars. 27. Each Friar is to have the opportunity, by means of education and experience, to develop his own unique area of contribution, according to the needs of the Com-munity. In this way the comprehensiveness of the entire Community will be increased and enriched. Superiors and Directors primarily have the responsibil-ity to work with the Community to discover, to develop and to orientate the talents of each Friar according to what is demanded for a faithful apostolate of Unity and an energetic community life. "CHAPTER IV P~ELIGIOUS COMMUNIT~ Lx~E 28. The Friars of the Atonement as a community recog-nizes that they have been called together by the Spirit into the charity and fellowship of Christ Jesus. Their fraternity depends on their oneness of heart and mind in Christ Jesus (Acts 4:32) and in their common spirit of "rejoicing in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the Atonement" (Rom. 5:11). As a witness to the bonds that unite them, the Friars hold all goods in common, share life in community, join in fellowship for worship, and perform their apos-tolic ministry in a spirit of brotherhood. 29. All the Friars contribute to the upbuilding of the whole Community, because each Friar accepts responsi-bility for our way of life through a fraternal sharing in the same obligations and rights. These are exercised in a manner commensurate with each Friar's ability and his assigned role or office within the Congregation, for there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord; + 4. 4. 985 .there are varieties of workings; but the same God, who works all things in all , (I Cor. 12:4-7).' "30. "The Eucharistic Liturgy proclaims the saving death of the Lord ufitil He comes (I Cor. 11:26) and in it the 'Friar receives Christ's Body and Blood, the principal source of man's reconciliation with God. First place, then, is given t6 the celebration of the Eucharistic Liturgy be-cause "the doctrine we are to preach and ever hold before the eyes of men is the at-one-ment of man with God, and the sole insirument of its accomplishment is the Holy Cross" (Father Paul). '311 :Wfie.n praying the Canonical Hours, the Liturgy of 'Praise, [he Community stands before the Lord in'the name qf the whole People of God, interceding for the needs of man and "giving glory and honor and benedic-tion to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever" (.Apoc. 4:9.). Because this is so, the ordinary daily community prayer offered by the Friars is the Liturgy. of Praise, so that the whole day may be made holy with glory given to God. 4. .4- 4. Friars of the o'Atonement REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS ~986 32. Since the Church wills religious to give an increas-ingly clearer revelation of Christ, the Friars should en-deavor to manifest Him both in c6nt~mplation and in proclaiming God's Kingdom to the multitude. Drawing on the authentic sources of Christian.tradition, the Friars recognize the need for both personal prayer and endeavor to cultivate a.spirit of prayer rooted in Sacred Scripture and in the Sacred Liturgy: Religious reflection, too, .can enri'ch and make the Friars more effective in responding, both individually , and. communally, to the vocation and. work of the'Congre- .gation. Above all, it .can deepen the Friars' 'prayer life and the intensity of their communion with God and with each other, because of Christ. The Friars' practice of re-ligious reflection, then, ought to offer opportunities for them in charity to assist, to encourage, and to counsel each other. Religious reflection is not passive--on the ,contrary, it is genuinely human, begetting stability and maturity and fostering human love and unity. 33. Because of their particular devotion to Christ's Atone-ment, and following the example of Father Paul who made prayer and sacrifice a basic way of life, the Friars of the Atonement are encouraged to perform k, oluntary and personal acts of mortification. The Friars, too, are reminded that as a commianity they should offer corporate witness to their Atonement voca-. tion. Fidelity to the way of life and work to which they are committed is to be their primary corporate witness. Particular mortifications and penances which are mutu-ally agreed to by all the Friars in a local community, like-wise, should be part of their lives so that corporately they, too, can fill up ".what is lacking in Christ's atfliction for the sake of His Body, that is, the Church" (I Cot. 1:24). 34. Where true Christian life is experienced something ~f God is discovered. "Where love is, there is God." There-fore all of the Friars are to strive to create an atmosphere which is cheerful and friendly in all our houses so that they will truly be places fit for genuine community life. The Friars, too, shall express their respect for one another as individuals within the Community. This is to be done by honoring each Friar's privacy and by .extend-ing ordinary courtesies to each other. Finally, the tradition of Franciscan hospitality .which so characterized Father Founder is to be the. established policy in all our houses. Visitors are to be welcomed and, according to local circumstances, a hospitality marked by generosity is to be extended to them. 35. Mindful of the words of the Lord, "Whatsoever you do for the least o~ my brethren you do for me," and of the fact that the infirm are both a sign of the suffering of Christ among us and a call from God to respond with love and compassion, every care and consideration is to be shown to the sick Friars, and everything that is spiritually and physically beneficial to them is to be' provided as far as possible. . Likewise, whatever good the Friars have shown each other should not cease with their death, because the bonds that religious profession establishes among the Friars do not cease with death. The memory and dedication of the deceased Friars should often be recalled, .so that tile fruit of their good works may live on. On their anniversary day some remembrance of them should be made in common. PART II GOVERNMENT OF THE CONGREGATION CHAPTER I '. THE GENERAL CHAPTER" 36. The General Chapter, whether Ordinary or E~raor-dinary, lawfully assembled, is the supreme authority ~of 4. + Constitutions ; VOLUME 27; 1968:~ ' 987 the Congregation. The General Chapter is the concern of all the Friars. Consequently each Friar has the right and the duty to propose matters for its consideration. 37. An Ordinary General Chapter of Affairs shall be convoked every three years. An Ordinary General Chap-ter of Elections and of Affairs shall be convoked every six years. An Extraordinary General Chapter shall be convoked when the office of Father General becomes va-cant. An Extraordinary General Chapter shall be con-voked upon the decisive vote of the General Council, with the approval of the Holy See. An Extraordinary Genei:al Chapter of Affairs may be convoked if a two-thirds majority of perpetually professed Friars request it and the General Council consents. An Extraordinary General Chapter of Elections may be convoked if a two-thirds majority of perlSetually professed Friars request it, the General Council consents, and the Holy See approves. 38.The Father General or, if the office of Father General is vacant, the Vicar-General, is responsible for convoking the General Chapter and conducting the elections for delegates thereto. The procedures established in Canon Law, in these Constitutions, and in the General Statutes, and in the~ Rite to be Observed in holding the General Chapter, are to be followed in all General Chapters, whether Ordinary or Extraordinary. + 4- 4- ~'rhrrs o! t~ Atonement Capitulars 39. The incumbent Father General and the four C6uncil-lors General are Capitulars ex ol~cio. The other Capitu-lars are a representative number of Friars elected accord-ing to the norms of the General Statutes from: A) Combination of the larger houses; B) Geographic combinations of other houses; C) Friars at large; D) Seniority combinations. The General Chapter alone has the fight to designate which houses of a locality are to be combined and the number of delegates from each combination. Between Genera/Chapters, if a house or houses, should be estab-lished outside of the localities prescribed, the General Council by a deliberative vote shall determine to which locality it or they belong. This designation shall be con-firmed or changed by the subsequent General Chapter. FOR RELIcq0US 40. All perpetually professed Friars have both an active 988 and passive voice in the election of delegates to the Gen- eral Chapter. Capitulars shall attend the Chapter under bne title only. CHAP~R II THE GENERAL COUNCIL AND GENERAL CURIA 41. The Father General and the four Councillors General constitute the General Council. It is the duty of the Gen-eral Council to govern the Congregation collegially with-out prejudice to the authority of the Father General. Since the government of the Congregation is collegial, the Father General will see to it that all members of the General Council are well informed concerning the affairs of the whole Congregation so they can actively participate in the government of the Congregation. The General CounciI, together with the Secretary General, the Treasurer General and the Procurator Gen-eral to the Holy See constitute the General Curia. The members of the General Curia shall be perpetually pro-fessed and are subject to the Father General alone. The Father General 42. Outside of the time of the General Chapter, supreme authority within the Congregation is vested in the Father General, who with the aid of his Council governs and administers the whole Congregation in accordance with Canon Law, the Decrees of the General Chapter, these Constitutions and the Book of General Statutes. The Father General shall be a priest at least ten years professed and thirty-five years of age. He is elected for a term of six years by the General Chapter and may be elected for a successive term of six years. Should the Father General judge it his duty to resign from office he will submit his reasons for resignation to the Holy See and await its decision. Should it seem necessary to remove the Father General from office, the General Councillors, after due delibera-tion and a secret vote, will refer the matter in proper form to the Holy See and await its decision. At least once a month and whenever else he may deem opportune, the Father General will convoke and when present preside over meetings of the General Council. With the advice of the General Council the Father General shall implement policies set by the General Chapter for the Congregation. With the advice and, if necessary, the consent of the General Council, he shall inaugurate and implement policies that are deemed valua-ble for the Congregation. At least once every three years the Father General, either personally or through a delegate, shall make an official Visitation of each house of the Congregation. ÷ ÷ 4- Constitutions VOLUME 27, 1968 989 ÷ 4. ÷ Friars the Atonement REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS The Father General shall prepare and sign any neces-sary reports to the Holy See. He shall likewise prepare and sign the report to the General Chapter on the state of the Congregation. The Vicar-General and Councillors General 43. Should the office of the Father General become va-cant, the Vicar-General, who shall always be a priest ten years professed, immediately assumes the government of the Congregation. According to the norms of Art. 38 above and the General Statutes he shall then convoke a General Chapter. In the absence of the Father General the Vicar-General shall convoke and preside over such special meetings of the General Council as are deemed opportune. Should the office of the Vicar-General become vacant the Father General and the three other Councillors shall elect a priest, ten years professed, to this office. Should the Vicar-General judge it his duty to resign from office he shall submit his resignation to the General Council and await its recommendation. Should it be deemed necessary to remove the Vicar-General from office, the Father Gen-eral and the other three Councillors General, after due deliberation, shalI refer the matter to the Holy See and await its decision. Should the office of a Councillor General become va-cant, the Father General and the Vicar-General and the other two Councillors shall elect a perpetually professed Friar to fill it. Should a Councillor General judge it his duty to resign, he shall submit his resignation to the General Council and await its decision. Should it be deemed necessary to remove a Councillor General from office, the Father General, the Vicar-General and the other two Councillors shall refer the matter in proper form to the Holy See and await its decision. Sessions of the General Council 44. It rests with the Father General as President of the General Council to lay before it those matters to be con-sidered at each session. The Councillors, however, have the right to suggest other subjects after these have been considered. Regular sessions of the General Council shall be con-vened monthly. Special sessions of the General Council shall be convoked at the request of two Councillors Gen-eral. The following matters only may be decided by the de-cisive vote of the General Council. The responsibility for making decisions in all other matters rests with the Father General, who is to seek the advice of the General Council- lors before making a decision unless circumstances dictate otherwise. A) Matters assigned by Canon Law, these Constitutions and the General Chapter for decision by decisive vote. B) Interpretation for practical purposes of the Consti-tutions, Book of General Statutes and the Decrees of the General Chapter. C) Change or confirmation of previous enactments of the General Council. D) Promotion to Sacred Orders and to First and Per-petual Vows, and questions regarding dismissal from the Congregation. E) The opening or closing of houses. F) Enactment, in accordance with these Constitutions and General Statutes of regulations regarding re-ligious community life and matters regarding re-ligious observances. G) The election of the Secretary General, the Treas-urer General and the Procurator General to the Holy See, and the acceptance of the resignation or deposition of a member of the Curia. Also, the ap-pointment of a Visitor General for the visitation of the whole Congregation or a notable part of it. H) Convocation of an Extraordinary General Chapter. I) The election of local superiors, their vicars, direc-tors of the Congregation's formation programs and directors of the Congregation's apostolic works. J) Extraordinary expenses, loam, mortgages and sales, in accordance with the directives of the General Chapter, and the determination of quotas for con-tributions to be levied on various houses for the support of the poorer ones, and to meet the general expenses of the Congregation. K) Approval of the General Accounts of the Congrega-tion and of financial reports submitted by the local superiors. L) Legal proceedings of major importance to be initi-ated or continued in accord with the directives of the General Chapter. 45. In disposing of matters that require the decisive vote of the General Council, all members shall be present. If a member cannot participate the session shall be post-poned. If the session cannot be postponed the other mem-bers of the General Council shall elect a qualified Friar to replace him. In matters which require the decisive vote of the Gen-eral Council the Father General acts invalidly if he re-jects the majority vote. In matters which do not require the decisive vote of the General Council a quorum of + + + Constitution~ VOLUME 27, 1968 991 three, one of whom must be the Father General or, in his absence, the Vicar-General, shall be competent. In the disposition of matters that do not require the decisive vote of the General Council, the Father General shall seriously consider the opinion and the votes of the Councillors. However, he need not follow the vote of the Council even thougil it be unanimously against his opinion. The minutes of each session of the General Council shall be kept by the Secretary General, signed by the Councillors General and preserved in the archives. CHAPTER III THE CANONICAL VISITATION 46. The aims of the Canonical Visitation by the Father General or his delegate are: To strengthen the bonds of fraternity, unity and charity within the Community and the Congrega-tion; to inspire Friars to strive for greater holiness; and to encourage the Friars to greater efforts in the apostolates of the Congregation. At least one month before, the superior of the house will be informed of the impending Visitation. He will then make this known to the Friars of the house. In the Book of Visitations the Visitor will record any recommendations or ordinances he deems proper. He will likewise prepare a written report of the Visitation for the General Council CHAPTER IV ÷ + ÷ Friars the Atonement REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 992 LOCAL COMMUNITY GOVERNMENT 47. The General Chapter shall designate certain houses into Regions if this is judged useful for the good of the Congregation. A) 1. A Region is a territory where the pastoral care of the people is entrusted to the Congregation; 2. Or, a Region is a geographical grouping of parishes and houses. Each Region shall have its own regional superior and council with as many members as the regional statutes indicate. B) The Father General and General Council shall ap-point the regional superior after a consultative vote of the Friars in the Region has been taken. Regional councillors are elected by the Friars of the Region; these elections, however, must be confirmed by the GeneraI Council. C) Regional superiors and councillors serve for a term of three years unless a General Chapter intervenes. In this instance their term ends, although they con- tinue to serve until new elections have been com-pleted and confirmed. Friaries 48. All the Friars are to be assigned to specific houses or regions of the Congregation, even if their particular work is not directly attached to a particular house. All houses of the Congregation are called friaries and the local su-perior of each is called its Guardian. Local superiors are to be perpetually professed. Each local superior serves for three years or until the next General Chapter. He may serve for a second three year term and, exceptionally, for a third in the same house. Ordinarily no Friar may serve as Guardian more than three consecutive terms either in the same house or in different houses. 49. Each friary is to have a friary council with as many councillors as the local statutes provide. These Friars share responsibility with the local superior for the govern-ment of the community. Friary councillors are to be perpetually professed and, with the exception of the first councillor, who is the fl:iary's vicar, all shall be elected by the Friars of the house to serve a term of office which coincides with that of the local superior. In these local elections junior professed Friars have active voice. No Friar may serve for more than two consecutive terms on a friary council in the same house. The friary council shall meet monthly under the leader-ship of the local superior, who shall prepare its agenda. When these matters have been treated then the council-lors may introduce other subjects. In houses with less than five Friars the Father General may dispense from the prescription calling for a friary council. Local Chapters 50. In order to adapt to the needs and conditions of a particular house or region, the friary or regional council concerned, after consulting the community, shall draw up their own book of statutes, which shall be submitted for approval to the General Council. Periodically, local and regional superiors are to call the Friars together for a house or regional chapter, that is, a general meeting where policy, religious life and matters of special interest to the Friars shall be discussed. + ÷ 4- Constitutions VOLUME ZT, Z968 A New Charter of Charity of the Order of Citeaux ÷ ÷ ÷ Charter oy Charity 994 [Editor's Note. M. Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O., of St. Joseph's Abbey; Spencer, Massachusetts 01562, has been kind enough to provide the REvIEw with the text of an initial schema for a new charter of charity for the Cistercians. The schema was prepared by the constitutional Renewal Commission of the Order. of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists). It must be emphasized that the document is only an initial schema, th~tt it has not yet been fully discussed within the Cistercian Order, and that it is in no sense an official and au-thoritative statement of the Order. Even the designation of the Cisterc]ans of the Strict Obsen,ance as the "Order of Citeaux" i~ a suggestion of the schema, not a settled designation; In other words,'the document printed below is a schema--a working paper to serve as a basis for discussion within the Order as it prepares to renew itself according to the wishes of Vatican Council II. Only the main text of the document is printed here. The complete edition of the schema includes copious notes and ex-planations which it was felt could be omitted for the purposes of.publication in the REvmw. Abbreviations used in the docu-ment. as printed here are the following: AG = Vatican Council II's Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity; Ex. Parv. = The Little Exordium; GS = Vatican Council II's Constitution on the Church in the Modern World; LG = Vatican Council II's Constitution on the Church; PC = Vatican Council II's Decree on Religious Li[e; RB = The Rule of St. Benedict; and RM = The Rule oI the Master. Readers may find it of interest to compare and contrast the schema for "A Eife Charter for the Sisters Adorers of the Most Precious Blood" that appeared in REvIEw for RELIOIOUS, vol-ume 25 (1966), pages 557-89.] INTRODUCTION " 1. United in Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, journey-ing to the Kin~gdom of the Father, the pilgrim Church has welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every man. Gathered in Council, under the Holy Spirit, probing more profoundly into its own mystery, the Church set [or itself the goal to intensify the daily growth of all the faithful in Christian living, to be more responsive to the needs of our times, to nurture whatever can contribute to the unity of all who believe in Christ and to reach out to all mankind. Hence the Second Vatican Council had special reason to call for renewal in the lives of thbse who bind themselves to the evangelical counsels and thus are committed to the honor and service of God under a new and special title. 2. This summons, which was addressed in a particu-lar way to us as members of communities wholly dedi-cated to contemplation, gave expression to a deep as-piration already intensely alive in our Order. The Founders of Citeaux were in quest of a truly authentic response to the perennial values of the monastic voca-tion. As we write this new Charter for our Cistercian life we are conscious of the need to enter more deeply into this same quest. At the same time we seek to re-spond to the signs of the times and the needs of the Church by expressing and living in a vital contempo-rary way the charism which our Fathers shared with the Blessed Benedict and expressed through the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives. We can do this only if all of us, monks and nuns, individually and as com-munities, strive to be renewed in the same Spirit. 3. This new Charter should be seen within the history of our Order as another stage in a constant and con. tinuing development. It reflects our history and con-crete life, develops new insights from both the sacred and secular sciences which must enrich our monastic vocation, and opens the way for us to continue to evolve with the Church and the family of man. 4. In formulating our new Charter we turn to the source of all Christian life, the Gospel, as embodied in the Rule of Saint Benedict and lived by our Cistercian Fathers, to the Charter of Charity and all the subse-quent historical and cultural developments of our tra-dition and to the needs of a contemporary Church and society. 5. The Rule of Saint Benedict remains the basic Code of our Order. Following in the footsteps of our Cistercian Fathers, we seek to live the evangelical life according to the monastic tradition as it has been syn-thesized in this Rule. This new Charter seeks but to place this heritage within the flow of ecclesial tradi-tion, and to establish structures which will enable us to live our profession of the Rule in a way that is con. stantly meaningful. 6. The supreme law in our Order is that of fraternal love, which is the new commandment of Christ (cf. .In 13,34) and the fulfillment of the law (cf. Rm 13,10). This is the bond which unites us. For this reason, and 4. ~harter ot Charity VOLUME 27, 1968 995 as a sign of our intimate union with our Fathers and our desire to live according to their spirit, we call our Charter, the New Charter of Charity. 7. This means that we must respect the Christian dig-nity of each monk and nun and the unique character of each community, that we must be responsive to the Sl~irit speaking within us. With full consciousness of our responsibilities, each one of us must effectively share in the life and government of our communities and Order. 8. Our laws and structures are to be in the service of evangelical freedom. They give our life a stability which it needs. They open the way for us to full growth in Christ (cf. Ep 4,13; Col 1,28). They must always be such that they do truly serve to strengthen our bond with one another and enable us to realize our most basic aspirations after fulfillment through union with God. Only those which are required by the essential characteristics of our Cistercian life are expkessed in this Charter. Others which arise from the realization of needs common to the whole Order are placed in the Customary of the Rule, which will remain under constant review. CHAPTER ONE LIFE CONSECRATED BY THE PROFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS ARTICLE ONE THE INNER MEANING OF THIS STATE OF LIFE + + + REVIEW FOR RELI61OUS A Personal Call 9. Jesus Christ, God made man, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life," is given to us in the New Cove-nant as our model, that we might follow in his steps (cf. 1 P 2,21; 1 Co 11,1) and that he "might be the eldest of many brothers" (Rm 8,29). But such, is the perfection of "the image of the unseen God" (Col 1,15) that each one of us can reflect only certain aspects of his beauty. Whence the great number of vocations in the Church: the Spirit "distributes different gifts to different people just as he choses" (1. Co 12,11). It has pleased God to invite some to follow a special path of holiness, to imitate "more closely" (LG 44; PC 1) his Son, virgin and poor, who had "nowhere to lay his head" (Mr 8,20; Lk 9,58) and who "emptied him-self to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross" (Ph 2,7-8). 10. Mary, Jesus' Mother, went before us on this way of virginity for the love of God. By her "Fiat" (Lk 1,38) given in faith, the "highly favored one" (Lk 1,28) who knew not man (cf. Lk 1,34), conse-crated herself wholly to the work of the Redemption. "Taken up body and soul into heavenly glory" (LG 59), she is the Church's living sign of the spiritual fruitful-ness of virginal consecration. 11. John the Baptist, the greatest of the children born of woman (cf. Mt 11,11), completed his self-emptying as he effaced himself before the "Lamb of God" (Jn 1,29.36): it must be that Jesus become great and that he, John, fade away (cf. Jn 3,30). His rigorous asceticism, his life in the desert, as well as his special prophetic mission invite us to find in him that virginal simplicity which enables him to speak of himself as "the bridegroom's friend, who stands and listens," and who "is glad when he hears the bridegroom's voice" (Jn 3,29). In the end, John foreshadowed the "Lamb of God" in his obedience to the divine will, even to a martyr's death (cf. Mt 14,3-12; Mk 6,17-29). 12. Mary the virgin and mother, Joseph her chaste husband and guardian of her virginity, . John the Bap-tist, all were led by the Holy Spirit and anticipated the explicit invitation of Christ. It was only when he came preaching that the Master uttered those words which were destined to inspire so many through all succeeding generations: ".there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can'~ (Mt 19,12). In Jesus' teaching, the "kingdom of heaven" is the salvation which has been proclaimed, the New Covenant which has been established by the coming of the Son of God and which will find its full realiza-tion in the world to come. Virginity chosen for the sake of the kingdom anticipates the time when the risen Christ will have completely swallowed up death in victory (cf. 1 Co 15,54). "For at the resurrection men and women do not marry; no, they are like the angels in heaven" (Mt 22,30). Under the Old Dispensation the spiritual meaning of virginity was already known and expressed in Jeremiah who embraced celibacy at Yahweh's word in view of the times to come, but it belongs to the Church of the New Covenant to per-ceive the full grandeur and dignity of Christian celibacy. 13. In its life and in its teaching the primitive Church faithfully preserved this "divine gift" (LG 43) of virginity for the love of God. Saint Paul, wishing that all the world were as he, told celibates and widows that it was good to remain as they were: "i believe that in these present times of stress this is right" (cf. 1 4, Charter of Charity VOLUME 27, 1968 997 ÷ ÷ Ch~rt~r o~ ~,harit~ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 998 Co 7). He, who in writing to the Ephesians .would extol the dignity and sacramentality of Christian mar-riage (cf. Ep 5,21-33) did not hesitate to affirm that "the man who sees that his daughter is married has done a good thing but the man who keeps his daughter unmarried has done something better" (1 Co 7,38). 14. This charism which the Church received through the Holy Spirit gradually acquired an established form in the midst of the people of God. During the first two centuries celibacy for the sake of the Word, without any explicit recognition as a special juridic structure, was embraced by a multitude of Christians. These vir-gins were considered as Saint Cyprian said, "the most illustrious part of Christ's flock." 1 The profession of the evangelical counsels has con-tinued up to our own days to adorn the Spouse of Christ. Through the course of the centuries it has become more stable, more diversified, ever richer. After being principally of the monastic type during the first part of the Middle Ages, it began to give birth, especially after the twelfth century, to new religious families responding to new needs of the Church. 15. Carrying forward the teaching of the Council of Trent, the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council ex-pressed clearly the importance of this state of life in the Church, asserting that "although the religious state constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels does not belong to the hierarchical structure of the Church, nevertheless it belongs inseparably to her life and holiness" (LG 44). As in the case of every other Christian vocation, the consecrated life is a response to a personal call from God addressed to a particular individual. To this biblical call which we receive through the Church, the Holy Spirit adds his interior grace, giving his gifts to the members of Christ, enlightening and inspiring them in his own mysterious way, guiding and adorning them with different charisms for the good of all mankind (cf. Am 2,10-11). Our Response to This Call 16. God, who has freely committed himself and has remained faithful to his promises, the "God of truth," the "God-Amen" (Is 65,16), has brought about the full-ness of salvation in Christ, who is the "Yes" to God, the "Amen" to God (cf. 2 Co 1,19; Rv 3,14). It is "through him, in him and with him" that we say "Yes" to God, that we respond in faith to his love, that we express our "Amen to the praise of God" (2 Co 1,20). Upheld 1 The Habit ot Virgins, trans. A. Keenan, "The Fathers of the Church," v. 36 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1958), p. 33. by the hope of meeting the Lord "face to face" (cf. Gn 32,31; 1 Co 13,12) and drawn by the "Father of all light," from whom we receive "all that is good, every-thing that is perfect" (Jn 1,17), we seek to conform. "ourselves ever more to Christ and to follow him "more closely" in his going to the Father (cf. Jn 14,12). It is the Father himself who calls us in the Holy Spirit and receives us, through the invitation and acceptance of the Church, to the praise of his glory (cf. Ep 1,14). 17. The profession of the evangelical counsels in the Church is but the flowering of the Christian initia-tion. Through the grace of Baptism we die to sin and become men possessed by the Holy Spirit. "This same Spirit gives himself in a fuller way in Confirmation, to assure the stability and vigour of our Christian ex-istence; it is to him that the martyrs and the virgins owe their victory over the attractions of the perishable." Now, in order to gather more abundant fruit, we wish, by the effective practice of the evangelical counsels to free ourselves from those obstacles which may draw us away from the fervor of charity and the perfection of divine worship (cf. LG 44). The religious life is then a "special consecration which is deeply rooted in the baptismal consecration, expressing it more fully" (PC 5). Many of those who "tend towards holiness by a narrower path" (LG 13) enter into a community of brethren which is "united, heart and soul" (Ac 4,32) where they mutually sustain each other. This union of brethren finds its greatest expression and its actualiza-tion in "the meal of brotherly solidarity" (GS 38), the efficacious sign of the union of brothers with one another and the Church universal in the glorious Body and Blood of the Lord. ARTICLE Two THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL COUNSELS IN THE CHURCH TODAY The Spiritual Growth of the Individual 18. If the Church has again insisted on the im-portance of the religious state it is because experience gives witness to the innumerable benefits that derive from this "divine gift" (LG 43). The profession of the evangelical counsels is.seen first of all to facilitate the spiritual growth of the individual who is faithful to the divine call. Although all Chris-tians have been called to "freedom and glory as children of God" (Rm 8,21), Saint Paul teaches us that those who ÷ ÷ ÷ VOLUME 27, 1968 999 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1000 persevere in celibacy for the love of God find a greater spiritual liberty. According to him, marriage is open to the danger of being seen only in itself, without the pro-found reality which it signifies: divine agape. Because of a duty to please the other (cf. 1 Co 7,33-34) the mar-ried man or woman has to worry about the affairs of the world. For the married person then it is more difficult to follow the ideal of the beatitudes: to be poor with Christ, to hunger and thirst with him, to suffer for his sake. "An unmarried man can devote himself to the Lord's affairs" (Ibid.). Seeking to please Christ alone, the virgin, undivided in heart, appears in the Church as one whose life is wholly ordered to God and whose ex-terior activities embody this total consecration to the Master. Here is the ideal condition for the pilgrim who wishes to go ever deeper into the desert, to meet his God (cf. Ex 19,17). 19. When the Fathers of Trent said that the state of virginity or celibacy is "better and more blessed" than that of marriage, they had in mind this doctrine of Saint Paul, even borrowing at times his own expressions. This doctrinal tradition is again echoed in the thought of the Second Vatican Council. Chastity "for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" (Mr 19,12) is presented as "freeing, in a singular manner, the heart of man" (PC 12) so that "he may, more easily and with undivided heart, dedicate himself to God alone" (LG 42). The religious state "gives its members greater freedom from earthly cares" (LG 44); it permits them "to follow Christ more freely and imitate him more closely" (PC 1). 20. The profession of the evangelical counsels locates the consecrated person in the depths of the Paschal Mystery; it unites him more intimately with Christ in his "baptism" of the cross (Mk 10,38; Lk 12,50) and in his resurrection. Saint Paul saw Christian asceticism as a dying of the old man, as going down into the tomb with Jesus, entering into his death through baptism (cf. Rm 6,1-11; Col 2, 11-13). Saint Luke places the coun-sel of virginity in the Christological context of Saint Paul: "There is no one who has left house, wife, brothers, parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God who will not be given repayment many times over in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life" (Lk 18,29-30). To leave wife and children is to renounce marriage and to realize in an eminent way the condition demanded by Christ of those who wish to follow him, carrying the cross (cf. Lk 9,23). The Christian life in union with the Lord does not end at Calvary. God "raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus" (Ep 2,6). By the holocaust of perpetual continence, one vowed to celibacy is "set apart," "dedicated; . consecrated" to God, and thus participates in the exaltation of Christ: "All he need worry about is being holy in body and soul" (1 Co 7,34). The Extension of the Reign o[ Christ in the World 21. If the profession of the evangelical counsels is a cause of spiritual growth for the consecrated person himself, it is also ordered to the good of the entire Church and of all mankind. "The evangelical counsels which lead to charity join their followers to the Church and its mystery in a special way. Since .this is so, the spiritual life of these people should then be devoted to the weffare of the whole Church" (LG 44). If every Christian, in virtue of his baptism and confirmation, ought to bear witness and radiate Christ, it is evident that the profession of the evangelical counsels insofar as it is a structure of life and holiness in the Church, ought to share in a special way in the sacramentality of the Church in the world. Christ, through the vivifying Spirit, has formed his Body which is the Church as "a universal sacrament of salvation" (LG 48), as an effica-cious sign and "instrument of the Redemption" (cf. LG 9). We are conscious then of our obligation to be vitally significant, so that the Church-sacrament can realize itself in us, according to the measure of the grace we have received from Christ. 22. The value of the religious life as a sign has been abundantly underlined in the texts of the Second Vati-can Council. The profession of the evangelical counsels "manifests and signifies, by a more intimate consecration to God in the Church, the inner nature of the Christian calling" (AG 18). While the charity which is active within the secular world identifies itself concretely with the tasks and activities of the world, the profession of the evangelical counsels brings clearly into view the deeper, transcendental and supramundane dimension of Chris-tian life. In a striking manner, this profession attests to the truth that "the world cannot be transformed and of-fered to God without the spirit of the beatitudes" (LG 31). In transcending not only in spirit but also effectively and visibly the very noble values of Christian marriage, . of the possession of the good things of this world and of the free disposition of one's own life "in pursuit of an excellence surpassing what is commanded" (LG 42), the consecrated religious preaches in his own life the Sermon on the Mount. He reminds all that we ought to use this world as men not engrossed in it, that this world is passing away (cf. 1 Co 7,31). 23. Because of its greater spiritual liberty, a life con- VOLU./VIE- 27, 1968 1001 secrated by the profession of the evangelical counsels can become a very efficacious sign of the saving love of God, universal and multiform. That is why the Council ex-horts religious "carefully to consider that through them, to believers and non-believers alike, the Church truly wishes to give an increasingly clearer revelation of Christ. Through them Christ should be shown contem-plating on the mountain, announcing God's kingdom to the multitude, healing the sick and the maimed, con-verting sinners to a better life, blessing children, doing good to all, and always obeying the will of the Father who sent him" (LG 45). The profession of the evangelical counsels, then, is "the very heart of the religion that has come to us from the first days; it is devotion wholly founded on Christ; it is the ancient heritage of the Church of God. It was prefigured in the time of the prophets. John the Baptist, at the dawn of the New Covenant, established and re-newed it. The Lord himself lived it. And his disciples, while he was still with them, ardently desired it." " CHAPTER TWO THE CISTERCIAN VOCATION ARTICLE ONE CISTERCIAN LIFE AS ONE AMONG THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF RELIGIOUS LIFE REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1002 Monastic Lile 24. The phenomenon of monastic life is found al-most universally in the history of religions. Secretly drawn by the grace of the "unknown God" (LG 16) and experiencing their fundamental powerlessness, men of the most varied religions and cultures have been led to a certain withdrawal from society, and separation from family ties, to a rigorous personal poverty and asceti-cism. "In shadows and images" these "pilgrims of the Absolute" have striven after purity of heart, goodwill towards all men, a greater interiority leading to a truly deep and lasting personal peace. In this peace they have experienced something of God, who is the "eternal Peace." Through these elements of asceticism, interior-ity, total abandonment to an ultimate obscurely present, through this monastic way of life, divine grace has been poured into their hearts by the Spirit through the uni-versal redemption of Christ and has brought them into the flow of salvation history. 25. The revelation of the loving goodness of God, William of St. Thierry, Letter to the Carthusians, I, 3. made first to Abraham when he was invited to leave his family and his people to become the Father of all the faithful (cf. Rm 4,11-12), came to direct a basic human aspiration to a yet higher goal. God entered personally into our history to gradually transform the religious conscience of man. He chose for himself a people and educated them in a special way, preparing them for the coming of Christ. In the formation of the Hebrew peo-ple as they marched towards the Land of Promise the desert experience played an important, even essential role. Their prophets reflecting back upon it, elaborated a theology of the desert which would inspire the monas-tic movement lived within the fullness of the historical revelation. The desert is the place where God submitted Israel to the test to teach him that "man does not live on bread alone but that man lives on everything that comes from the mouth of Yahweh" (Dt 8,8). The sobriety of the cult of the desert would not let the Israelites be content with a formalistic piety, but called them to truly seek God. Recalling the disobedience of this "headstrong" people (Ex 82,9; 33,8-5), the Spirit urges us that at least today we ought not to tempt God (cf. Ps 95,7-8). Finally purified by the experience of the desert, Israel would be open to intimate converse with her Lord, Yahweh. It is the time for espousals (cf. Ho 9,16.21). 26. The Rekabites wished to prolong this ideal time; the Essenes, to make it return. Through the cours~ of the centuries Christian monasticism would draw from these spiritual treasures, adding to them the riches of the New Testament, above all the example of Jesus led into the desert by the Spirit (cf. Mk 1,12). To go into the desert is to leave behind the normal conditions of human life. It is to leave behind the com-fortable surroundings of c~vlllzatlon and qmckly expe-rience the hardships of solitude: ?'What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swaying in the breeze? No? Then what did you go out to see? A man wearing fine clothes? Oh no, those who wear fine clothes are to be found in palaces" (Mt 11,7-8). A hard life, however, is only the outer shell of a reli-gious experience of the desert. The man who is led by the Spirit to follow Christ quickly discovers the spiritual riches that are hidden within. Putting distance between oneself and the city with its preoccupations is the most radical way to keep from being submerged in the "cares of the world" which too often choke the Word, ren-dering it unfruitful (cf. Mt 13,22). Solitude leads a man back to a true perspective of himself. Exposing all his pretences, it impresses upon him the evidence of his own personal poverty, of his total destitution, his need of ÷ ÷ ÷ Charter o] Charity VOLUME 27, 1968 1003 ÷ ÷ ÷ REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1004 God's help. In a word, the desert is the ideal place to en-counter God, to return to Yahweh: "That is why I am going to lure her and lead her out into the wilderness and speak to her heart" (Ho 2,16). 27. What distinguishes Christian monasticism and gives it its preeminence is the inner meaning it receives from the New Testament, the Gospels, the fullness of the revelation: "Even the angels long to catch a glimpse of these things" (1 P 1,12). The monastic life is above all centered on "Christ, the Son of the living God" (Mt 16,16) and "the Light of the nations" (LG 1) and the sign of God's love in our midst (cf. Jn 3,16; 13,34; 14,9). The monk seeks a God whom he knows in Christ. He is conscious of belonging to the human family that has been wounded and subjected to sin (cf. Rm 7,23) but also redeemed and renewed by him who became "our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our free. dom" (1 Co 1,30). It was the word of the Master with its invitation to leave all to follow him that inspired Saint Anthony, and so many after him, to withdraw into the desert. There they struggled with sin and passion, they gave themselves to rigorous asceticism, they strove for incessant prayer and perseverence in this new form of martyrdom. Living in the continual presence of the Lord they were admit-ted to the contemplation of divine mysteries. The des-erts of Egypt, Syria and Palestine attracted many as-cetics. Some lived in complete solitude, some, under the spiritual guidance of an "Abba"; others joined the "Koinonia," following the example of the primitive Je-rusalem community. This latter form, initiated by Saint Pachomius, largely inspired later monasticism. Saint Benedict gathered together and adapted the better elements of the preceding monastic tradition. He proposed his Rule as an initial way of conversion, di-recting his disciples who thirsted for greater perfection to the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine of the "holy Fathers" (c[. RB 73). Because of its discretion and adapt-ability the Benedictine Rule became the principal mo-nastic code in the West, while the Orient has received its inspiration for the most part from the Rules of Saint Basil. 28. The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council have insisted that "in the East and in the West, the venerable institution of monastic life should be faithfully pre-served, and should grow ever-increasingly radiant with its own authentic spirit. Through the course of centu-ries, this institution has been of value to the Church and the human community" (PC 9). The Council recognized two forms of monastic response; the one hidden and wholly consecrated to divine worship; the other legiti- mately taking up some apostolate. Nevertheless the Council asserted that "the principal task" of all monks "is a humble and noble service of our divine Lord within the confines of the monastery" (Ibid.) The Cistercian Life 29. Today, the Church, through the voice of the Council, asks us to renew our monastic life according to "the spirit and aims of our Founders" (PC 2). Through the grace we share with our Fathers, we are convinced that the Cistercian life can continue to bear fruit for the Church of today and tomorrow. But this will be so only if we are attentive to the Holy Spirit and able to distin-guish the permanent values in the patrimony bequeathed to us by our Fathers which we must re-express in the socio-cultural context of our own times. Giving ourselves to this work of "renewal and adap-tation" we wish truly to seek a deep understanding of the charismatic intuition of our Fathers, to perceive their "spirit," that is, the totality of the essential prin-ciples of their spirituality, which it was given to them to objectify within the Church and to transmit to us a "letter," that is, all the practical determinations meant to incarnate the essential principles in a certain histori-cal epoch, a certain society, a certain culture. Because of the inevitable changes of time and circum-stances, in accord with a dialectic willed by Divine Providence, the "letter" of the Founders, in a new his-torical situation, finds itself sometimes in conflict with their "spirit." We have then the right and the duty, in order to be fully faithful to the "spirit," to confront the "letter" with the signs of the times, weighing and veri-fying all things, retaining what is good (cf. 1 Th 4,21) and creating where necessary new structures, but not before first calling upon God in most earnest prayer to guide our undertaking to a happy conclusion (cf. RB Prol. 4). 30. Our Cistercian Fathers were indeed living a re-presentation of the spiritual plenitude of Saint Ben-edict. Their own particular grace was an outburst of fervor and of love for Christ whom they wished to serve with greater generosity. To achieve this it was not their thought to establish in the Church a form of monastic life new and untried. They simply resolved to observe "more closely and more perfectly the Rule of Saint Ben-edict" (Ex.Parv. ch.2). Keenly alive to the value of au-thenticity, they looked for the "direct way of the Rule in every circumstance of their life," rejecting all that ran counter to its integrity (Ibid., ch.15). New soldiers of Christ enrolled in a spiritual militia, carrying on the combat in solitude far fi:om the affairs of the world, they ÷ ÷ ÷ Charter ol Charity VOLUME 27, 1968 1005 ÷ ÷ ÷ Charter o] Charity REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1006 labored to gain their living and to be able to offer to all a fitting hospitality. Poor with the poor Christ, they despoiled themselves of all that was superfluous and were content with the more simple, thus sharing in the hum-ble state of the poor of Yahweh and placing all their confidence in the Lord. Their attachment to the Benedictine Rule was above all in the service of love, the queen of the virtues, to-wards which all the observances were ordered. On a deeper level their spiritual enthusiasm was centered on Christ. It was because they wished to prefer nothing to him (cf. RB 4,21) that they returned to a more faithful observance of the prescriptions of Saint Benedict, their "guide, teacher and legislator." It was on the cross, with Christ, that they made their profession, hoping to re-main faithful to him. Mary, the "new Eve" at the side of Christ, the tender Mother of Christians, they honored as the Queen of heaven and earth. 31. The doctrine of the relationship of the "letter" to the "spirit" was present in the thought of the first Cistercians; it explains some of the decisions they made. Thus, of the monastic traditions introduced after the time of Saint Benedict, our Fathers retained some and rejected others according as they did or did not enable them to live the Rule in a more authentic way in the context of their own times. Indeed, to better incarnate the "spirit" of the Patriarch of Western Monasticism, they did not hesitate to set aside observances of the Rule itself and to create new forms. It was "~ight, in fact, that what was established for the sake of charity, should be omitted, discontinued or changed for something bet-ter when charity called for it. On the other hand, it would have been erroneous to wish to maintain con-trary to charity something that had been established for its sake." 3 32. We have received from God the Cistercian char-ism. We share it with our Fathers. As they had, so we have the right and duty to bring it to concrete realiza-tion within the Church of our times. This co-respons-ibility demands on our part that today we clearly dis-cern what are the essential principles of the spirituality of Saint Benedict, and what concrete form our creative fidelity to these principles ought to take. The true son of Saint Benedict, first and above all, seeks God (cf. RB 58,7) in the love of Christ (cf. RB 4,21). This search for God finds its highest expression in the "Work of God" (cf. KB 19; 43,1.3), which must be nourished by sacred reading (cf. RB 4,55; 48,1) and by intense personal prayer (cf. RB 4,56; 20). It is lived in St. Bernard, A Book on Precepts and Dispensations, II, 5. the midst of a community of love (RB 72,1-8), where all the brethren in their zeal for humility (RB 58,7) seek to obey one another (RB 71,1) and before all others, their abbot (RB 71,13), who holds for them the place of Christ (RB 2,2; 63,13). Identifying with the poor, they are ready to add manual labor, according to the example of our Fathers and the Apostles, to their habitual ascet-icism of silence, vigils, fasts and abstinence (RB 48,8). The workshop in which the disciple of Saint Benedict does all this is "the enclosure of the monastery and sta-bility in the community" (RB 4,78) far from the affairs of the world (RB 4,20). Recognizing our authentic vocation in this very clear Benedictine doctrine, we proclaim with Saint Bernard that "our life is one of self-abasement, humility, volun-tary poverty, obedience, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit; it is submission to a master, to an abbot, to a Rule, and to a discipline; it is living in silence, fasting and watching, praying and manual labor; above all it consists in following the more excellent way which is charity." 4 33. All these fundamental values must be brought into confrontation with the signs of our times. Thus we will be able to distinguish among the particular deter-minations of the Rule which of them still correspond to its true "spirit," and which of them ought to give place to new forms better able to realize the fullness of Bene-dictine life in the Church of today. Because the differences between their respective his-torical situations were not so great, our Fathers of Citeaux were able to live in the "spirit" of Saint Bene-dict retaining most of the particular determinations of the Rule. Today the world situation is almost entirely different. And therefore we realize that often we must be creative if we wish to live in full conformity with the "spirit" of Saint Benedict and our Cistercian Fathers. ARTICLE TWO THE CONTEMPORARY VALUES OF CISTERCIAN LIFE Its Value in Regard to Personal Fulfillment 34. In addition to the values it shares with the other forms of religious life, the Cistercian life is able to bring forth both for the individual and for the Church particular fruits flowing from its own proper character. Being wholly dedicated to contemplation, our Insti-tute seeks before all else to give to each monk and nun the possibility of the greatest spiritual liberty in order to ~St. Bernard, Letter 151, trans. B. James, Letters o] St. Bernard of Claimaux (London: Bums, Oates, 1953), p. 220. 4. + Charter ot Charity VOLUME 27, 1968 1007 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1008 be open to God alone without any other concern, not even that of a ministry or special service among the peo-ple of God. In spite of the urgent necessities of the active apostolate, the Second Vatican Council has insisted that institutes whose life is wholly contemplative should re-tain their proper character and their withdrawal from the world (cf. PC 7). The peace of the Cistercian clois-ter, while remaining open to all the concerns of the Church and the progress that is taking place within the human family, yet frees us from whatever does not per-tain to contemplative love, to adhering mind and heart to Christ, our God. This spiritual liberty of the monk and nun is an ex-tension of the special freedom enjoyed in every conse-crated life. Besides the freedom enjoyed in regard to the values of Christian marriage, of the possession of mate-rial goods and of the free disposition of one's own life "in pursuit of an excellence surpassing what is com-manded" (LG 42), the contemplative transcends even the values of specialized visible apostolates, although these are so necessary in a missionary Church. If we forego this aspect of Christian charity it is to realize more effectively and surely its deeper dimension: the perfect union of the soul with God. "You are freer from the distractions and delights of the world; seek all the more to please God" (Ex.Parv. 14). 35. Our spiritual ascent is also characterized by a rad-ical asceticism intended to help create and preserve our spiritual liberty as monks. To the renunciation found in the counsels of virginity, poverty and obedience Cis-tercian asceticism adds that of withdrawal from the world, silence, watching and fasting. These are meant to penetrate to the most secret attachments of the human heart, unmasking disordered passions liable to escape a less radical asceticism. It is the experience of the desert: "But what does it mean: to have come into solitude? It means to consider this world as a desert, to desire the Fatherland, to have only so much of this world as is suf-ficient to complete the journey." ~ Because of the "law of sin" which is still alive within us (cf. Rm 7,23) it is very difficult for a man. to detach himself from the values sacrificed by our monastic pro-fession. The "spirituality of the desert" certainly brings a great freedom but it also involves a painful detach-ment and demands a great fidelity to divine grace. "That there should be in the middle of great modern cities, in the richest of countries, as also on the plains of the Ganges or in the forests of Africa, men and women ca-pable of finding complete fulfillment in a life of adora- St. Aelred, Sermon 5: First Sermon [or the Feast o] St. Benedict (P.L., v. 195, col 244C-D). ¯ o o tion and praise, who consecrate themselves wllhngly to thanksgiving and intercession, who freely make. them-selves the surety of humanity before the Creator, the protectors and advocates of their brothers before the Father of the heavens, what a victory for the Almighty, what a glory for the Savior. And monachism, in its es-sense, is nothing else." ~ 36. In the midst of this "labor of obedience" (RB Prol. 2) we experience "how good, how delightful it is for all to live together like brothers" (Ps 133,1). While learning by the help of many brethren how to fight against the devil (cf. RB 1,4) we can love our brothers with a tender and chaste love, having a profound respect for each one (Rm 12,9-10), carrying each other's burdens (Ga 6,2), patiently enduring one another's infirmities, obeying one another, seeking not what is useful to self, but rather what benefits the other (cf. RB 72,4-8). Such fraternal love is not only the strongest safeguard for chastity (PC 12), it fulfills the law of Christ (cf. Rm 13,8-10; Ga 5,15) and responds to a man's basic need to give himself in love in order to live in union with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn 1,3). 37. Enriched by the experience of centuries, the Cis-tercian monastic life, in spite of its particular austerity, can hope to bring together the necessary conditions for the maturation of a well-balanced community, provided, of .course, that those who bind themselves to the com-munity by profession are freely and maturely responding to a true call from the Lord. Saint Bernard noted that "the variety of our observ-ances forestalls tedium and acadia." In this variety we wish to find more and more the original Benedictine equilibrium, balancing sacred reading, the "Work of God" and labor. This is in effect "what Saint Benedict said, or rather the Holy Spirit in Saint Benedict. He did not say that we ought to be attentive to reading, as Mary, and omit the corporal work of Martha. He rec-ommended both to us, assigning certain times to the occupation of Mary, and others to that of Martha'." 7 That sincere love of our brothers which favors the full development of the affective life of each is also an im-portant factor for equilibrium in our life. The Cistercian Life in the Presence of the World Today +~, 38. If we do not, in fact, exercise any specialized serv- ÷ ice in the Church of Christ, we are nevertheless con- 6Plus XII, Allocution to the Congress on Oriental Monastic Studies, April 11, 1958 (Acta Apostolicae.Sedis, v: 50 (1958), p. 285. ~ St. Aelred, Sermon ~or the Feast ol the Assumption (P.L., v. 195, col. 307). Charter o] Charity VOLUME 27,.1968/, . 1009 REVIEW FOR RELiGiOUS 1010 scious that in virtue of the plenitude of love towards which we are tending we must dedicate ourselves to im-planting and strengthening the reign of Christ in souls, to spreading it to all the universe (cf. LG 44). "The contemplative life belongs to the fullness of the presence of the Church" in every region (AG 18). We wish to be truly part of the Church-as-sacrament according to the role that is proper to us, over and above that which is proper to all religious. 39. Fundamentally, our Cistercian life is a living man-ifestation of the most profound dimension of the mys-tery of the Church: the ineffable love of Christ and his Spouse, in the Holy Spirit. This aspect is certainly present in every authentic Christian life but it becomes in a certain sense visible in our integrally contemplative life since our love for Christ does not call upon us to render any special form of service within the visible Church, but rather to express itself in a more exclusive and continuous dialogue with God, in the Holy Spirit. We are conscious that in order to give our full and proper witness among the people of God, contemplative prayer must wholly inform our lives. With all our hearts, we wish to be "men of God," in body as well as in spirit; that is, in such a way that all our activities come to have a certain transparency, visibly reflecting in each of our undertakings our contemplative union with Christ and the Father. Thus may we render visible the intimacy of the Church with her Spouse, and, in Christ contemplating on the mountain (cf, LG 46), the intimacy of the Church with the Father, in the Holy Spirit. 40. United in a community of love, under an abbot who holds the "place of Christ in the monastery" (RB 2,2), we contribute as do all the other religious brother-hoods in the Church, to showing forth to all the ideal of the Christian community as it was traced out by the Lord. Furthermore, the unity of the brethren manifests, by the fulfillment of his commandment, that the Lord has indeed come. "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another" (Jn 13,35; 17,21). 41. In their own way, our radical asceticism and the simplicity of our live have special value as signs. Tran-scending the goods of the earthly city, the life of the desert is beyond even the profession of the evangelical counsels as an effective sign of the eschatological reali-ties. This life reminds men that the "world as we know it is passing away" (1 Co 7,31). "For (as William of Saint Thierry said) your simplicity provokes many men to emulation; your poverty, so complete and so spiritual, confounds the cupidity of many; your silence creates in many a distaste for those things which cause or seem to cause so much excitement and noise." 49_. If our integrally contemplative life, our brother-hood, and our radical asceticism enable us to partici-pate in the sacramentality of the Church in the world today, our vocation is also a commitment to the service of all men as our brothers. Our participation in the Church-as-sacrament is realized, not only by the wit-ness of our lives, but also by our activities. Our principal obligation toward mankind is that of prayer and redemptive penance. Through these we exer-cise a role in the conversion of man to God (c[. AG 40). Interceding for our brothers and filling up in our bodies what "still has to be undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church" (Col 1,24), we realize that we exercise in depth the priesthood shared by all Christians. 43. In extending hospitality to all who come to the monastery, we wish to respond to the desire ex-pressed by many pastors that our monastic communi-ties might be spiritual oases where all, believer and unbeliever alike, might come to seek spiritual rest after their labors in the city of man, and where we might mutually encourage one another (cf. 1 Th 5,11). "The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the men of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ," so that nothing genuinely human ought to fail to raise an echo in our hearts (cf. GS 1). Receiving every man who comes as if he were Christ himself, we should re-lieve the poor, clothe the naked, help those in trouble and console the sorrowing (cf. RM 53,1; 4,14-15.18-I9). In order that our monasteries might be "sources [or the upbuilding of the Christian people" (PC 9), we will want our guest to share as fully as possible in our spiritual riches, in our liturgical life, in the fraternal love that our communities should perfectly express. The Holy Spirit, distributing his charisms for the service of the local Church, will not fail to give some monks an aptitude for spiritual dialogue with the guests, for directing souls with judicious counsel, and for sharing the fruits of wisdom that have been drawn from Christ in the solitude and silence of contemplation. Some of us are called to the priesthood, responding to a freely given and personal call from God, according to the needs of the place. Fully compatible with the con-templative life and withdrawal from the world, a monastic priesthood of ministry exercised among the guests as well as within the community can produce very 4. Charter o~ Charity VOLUME 27, ~.968 lOll REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1012 valuable fruits both for the monastery and for the local Church. Finally, by a generous and completely open hospital-ity we hope to make a contribution to the ecumenical endeavors of the different churches. By contact with our monastic brotherhoods which simply aim at estab-lishing an ideal milieu in which to live the Good News of Christ in its fullness, our separated brethren can easily recognize the spiritual riches which we hold as a common heritage. 44. Although we are not ordinarily called to fulfill a specific apostolic function within the Church, neverthe-less we always remain open, as true sons of Saint Benedict, to a special appeal to express the charity of Christ in particular circumstances. In this way we follow the "spirit" and example of our Cistercian Fa-thers who were continually open to the concerns of the universal Church and ready to respond to the de-mands of charity addressed to them as individuals or as communities. 45. Nor will we neglect to help humanity, with all the potential offered by our particular charism to transform and perfect the world, to participate in the development of cultures by cooperating in the effort of civilization and by working at a better distribution of material goods among peoples and individuals. In this we are conscious of following the path traced by our Fathers and the whole Benedictine tradition. For "it is he [Benedict] principally and his sons, who, with the cross, the book, and the plough, brought Christian progress to peoples extending from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia, from Ireland to the plains of Poland." s At this moment in history when it is given to man, thanks to the progress in science and technology, to develop himself more fully by an ever more marvelous mastery of the dynamisms of creation and by responsi-bly cooperating with God in the realization of the values of this world, we can render many services to the Church and the human family by our commitment. Nevertheless we are profoundly convinced that the pil-grim Church has need above all of our contemplative life: of men and women, who, by a life more visibly turned to God and the realities to come, remind all men that the most fundamental dimension of their existence is their personal relation with the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, remind them that while all things are ours, we are Christ's and Christ is God's (cf. 1 Co. 3,22-23). s Pius XII, Homily oI september 18, 1947 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, v. 39 (1947), p. 455. ERNEST E. LARKIN, O.CARM. Scriptural- 7 heological Aspects oJ Religious Life The concept* of Christian perfection has moved from an almost unilateral emphasis on the eschatological and transcendent aspects of Christian life into the per-spectives of person, community, and social conscious-ness. Pre-Vatican II thinking saw the religious vocation less in terms of becoming a person, creating community, and being involved in the great social issues than in personal detachment and a supernatural charity nour-ished by spiritual exercises and the observances of the cloister. The emphasis has shifted now to these new values which bring in the role of terrestrial values. Life is seen as a building of a universe in which the in-dividual and society are the agents. A man constructs his life through his multiple relationships with his fellows, through being-with-others, through his history. Simplistically and often in exaggerated reaction, sweep-ing changes are urged in the name of this new phi-losophy: silence must cede the place of honor to dialogue, s~litude to community, prayer to a peace march or poverty program, spiritual love to human affection, blind obedience to collegiality, poverty to having the most efficient equipment for the work we do. It thus becomes apparent how necessary it is to review from a theological point.of view the very foundations of re-ligious life in order to evaluate the changes in religious theory and practice that are occurring. Religious Lqe in General According to one recent writer the task of rethinking religious life in postconciliar terms is almost impos-sible (J. Mahoney in National Catholic Reporter, March 6, 1968). Religious life, he says, is Gnostic and Jansenis-tic in its opposition to the world so that it is poisoned * This is the text of a talk given June 26, 1968, to the Conference of Major Superiors of Religious Men held at Mundelein, Illinois. Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm., professor of spiritual theol-ogy at Catholic University, lives at 1600 Wesbster St., N.E.; Washington, D.C. 20O17. VOLUME 27~ 1968 1013 Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1014 in its roots. As an "esoteric sub-culture" with its "Stoic discipline" and "unearthly spirituality," it is a counter-sign and parody of Christian baptism. This is a harsh judgment; but one that serves to remind us that re-ligious life must be above all Christian life, rooted in Christ, the Gospels, and the Church. I~ one distinguishes renewal and adaptation and identifies renewal as revitalization of the substance, whereas adaptation is adjusting forms and structures, the primary task before us is renewal. It is a new realization of the radical Christian dimensions .of re-ligious life. Religious life is "a following of Christ" (PC 2a),1 "a sharing in the life of the Church" (PC 2c), a life in the Spirit (PC 2e). The principal agent of renewal is the Holy Spirit who calls religious to return to Christ in faith and personal decision. Existing struc-tures stand under judgment. They must be rethought and, as necessary, revamped in terms of authentic Gospel spirituality and the concrete realities of our day (PC 2d). What is obsolete, that is, irrelevant (PC 20; ES 17),2 is to be expunged; what is valid is to be revivified; and viable new ways of implementing the ideal are to be created. Religious life is baptismal life; otherwise it is a thief who "enters not by the door into the sheepfold but climbs up another way" (Jn 10:1). Religious life is a "special" way of Christian life (LG 44;3 PC 1), because it is the way of the evangelical counsels institutionalized in the Church. The evangeli-cal counsels, which are "manifold" (LG 42) and meant for all Christians, are reduced in this case to the three values of chastity, poverty, and obedience. These coun-sels can be lived independently of religious life (LG 42) or concretized in an approved institute in the Church (LG 43). In the latter case they identify the religious life. The documents stress the theological significance of the counsels, their relation to charity, hope, axed faith. The legal bonds in the form of vows, oaths, or promises express the dedication to the ethical values in an approved institute and are necessary as human in-struments for the stability and permanency of this state, even as they promote the more basic value of "freedom strengthened by obedience" (LG 43). The vows are servants of faith, hope, and charity; hence they are open to revision, that is, dispensation, when the religious state, which is permanent, becomes a hin-drance rather than a help to faith, hope, and charity. x PC throughout this article refers to Vatican II's Per[ectae cari-tatis (Decree on Religious Lile). ~ ES throughout this article refers to Paul VI's Ecclesiae sanctae. 8 LG throughout this article refers to Vatican II's Lumen gentium (Constitution on the Church). The evangelical counsels and the theological virtues, in other words, are the operative principles of religious existence, in the mind of the Council. The history of the text of Perfectae caritatis illustrates the shift in emphasis from law to spirit in the conciliar thinking about religious life. Is religious life a superior way of Christian life? Chapter VI of Lumen gentium and the decree Perfectae caritatis imply a higher excellence when they refer to the "special" nature of this life (LG 44; PC 1), when they use comparatives in stating that religious are "more intimately consecrated" to Christ and enjoy a union with the Church by "firmer and steadier bonds" (LG 44), and when they emphasize the "unique" eschatological sign value of the religious state (LG 44; PC 1). All of these citations, however, refer to grace offered, not to grace lived. The Council, as is well known, eschewed odious comparisons between one state and another and underlined the universal call to holiness in all the baptized. It refused to speak of states of perfection and took the personalist approach to different vocations in the Church by stressing the uniqueness of each call and the complementarity of all vocations. The mind of the Council is summed up in the dictum: "Your vocation is the best, indeed the only one, for you." It might have cited the words of O. W. Holmes: "Every calling is great when greatly pursued." In summary, we can maintain, it seems to me, that a religious call is objectively a higher grace th~n the married vocation, but in the teaching of the Council one's state or way of li~e is as good as it is lived. Why then does a Christian choose the religious life? It is an "outstanding gift of grace" (PC 12), a charism; and ultimately the conviction that one has been offered this grace is the only valid reason for entering religion. But the judgment is made on the basis of self-knowledge whereby the candidate believes that in view o~ his limitations and potential this way of life offers him the best possibilities for his human and transcendent selbfulfillment (see Development of Peo-ples, n. 16). Given the appropriate emotional maturity presupposed for any life-choice, whereby the individual recognizes the values in each option and is free enough to choose either one, human or psychological factors enter the decision in favor of religious life as for marriage. The religious answers a call, but one heard in the depths of his own human aspirations. He does his "thing" as laymen do their own, and together they express different dimensions of human existence as well as different aspects of the whole gospel. Religious life, in other words, is a human value as well as an other- 4- Religious Liye VOI.UMt= 27, 1968 1015 ÷ ÷ ÷ Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1016 worldly one. It is important today to see religious life under this double aspect. Otherwise it may not appear as worth the burden to contemporary Christians, who deeply sense Karl Rahner's definition of man as "that being who must necessarily realize himself in love in order to correspond to his own being" (The Word in History, ed. T. Patrick Burke, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1966, p. 70). I shall try to develop these values by first showing the Scriptural basis for each of the evangelical counsels and then by indicating the positive values for the person, the Church, and the world in these evangelical counsels. Scriptural Basis Consecrated chastity, or virginity "for the sake of the kingdom," is a New Testament value explicitly taught by St. Matthew in these words of the Lord: Not all can accept this teaching, but those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mothers' womb; and there are eunuchs who were made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves so for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him accept who can (Mt 19:11-2). Both the source and the goal of the charism of evangelical virginity are taught in this passage. Neither physical impotency nor psychological ineptitude nor social pressure grounds the choice of virginity over mar-riage for a follower of Christ. Virginity "for the sake of the kingdom" is a gift freely accepted, not out of timidity or selfish bachelorhood, but precisely "for the sake of the basileia." It is ordered to charity. This is"its positive content: it frees the heart for love (PC 12); it is a "sign and incentive of charity" (LG 42). The charism of evangelical virginity makes it possible for a Christian to love God and his fellowmen intensely without the normative and natural support of mar-riage. A second locus classicus in the New Testament is St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 7, especially verses 25-35. Paul is addressing himself to practical cases in the Corinthian church. In view of a parousia that may occur imminently, he advises the Christian converts to maintain their present status, married or virginal, waiting with a certain freedom and detachment as "this world as we see it posses away" (v. 31). The advice is ad hoc and pragmatic, in view of "the present distress" (v. 26). Even the general principles which he enunciates in the latter half of the passage are to be interpreted in the context of an imminent parousia: He who is unmarried is concerned about the things of t~e Lord, how he may please God. Whereas he who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife; and he is divided (vv. 32-3). In the context of the Corinthian church, there is no doubt that in Paul's mind virginity is a better way. It disposes for contemplation, for "praying to the Lord without distraction" (v. 35), much as earlier in the chapter Paul allows abstinence from intercourse by mutual consent by husband and wife in order thht they may give themselves to prayer (v. 5). Is Paul also teach-ing as a universal principle that virginity practically speaking is a better way for the Christian than mar-riage? Exegetes generally seem to have thought so, but some recent commentators restrict the teaching to the extremely eschatological perspective of the Corinthian problem. In this reading Paul is not explicitly asserting a universal superiority for virginity. But there is no doubt in Paul's mind of the particular merits of vir-ginity for the cultivation of what we call today the vertical aspect of Christian life. The paragraph devoted to poverty in Per[ectae cari-tatis (n. 13) cites a number of texts which single out different aspects of the Old Testament theme of the anawim, the poor people of God. The first citation, 2 Corinthians 8:9, holds up Jesus himself, who "though he was rich, for our sakes became poor." Alan Richard-son writes of these words: "It is Jesus himself who embodies the biblical idea of 'the poor man' who trusts only in God, and herein lies the real theological significance of his poverty" (A Theological Word Book of the Bible, ed, Alan Richardson, New York: Mac-millan, 1962, p. 169). Other texts cited reinforce the interior attitude of trust in God (Mt 6:26), resting one's security in God and not in earthly treasures (Mt 6:20), being detached enough to share everything with the poor (Mr 19:21), with those in need (Mt 25:34--45; Jas 2:15-6), in effective acts of fraternal love (1 Jn 3:17). The interior attitude of trust, openness, and detach-ment is primary; but it thrives best in actual poverty, in renouncing riches in favor of the poor, and experi-encing, therefore, the insecurity of the anawim who are thrown upon the Lord's care and driven to hope in Him since they have no worldly prestige and influence on which to rest their security. Even Matthew 19:21 cannot be invoked as a proof text for voluntary re-ligious poverty, since the context indicates a universal norm of total renunciation for all Christians. Religious life specifies that recommendation in an institutional form, whereby persons become poor "both in fact and in spirit" (PC 13) in order to create the ideal disposi- + Religious Lif~ VOLUME 27, 1968 1017 Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1018 tion for centering their lives in God and giving gener-ously to their fellowmen. The Scriptural basis for poverty, then, lies in the long tradition of the anawira, celebrated in the first beatitude in both Matthew (who extols' poverty of spirit) and Luke (who proclaims actual poverty). While religious poverty is not primarily a socio-economic con-dition, it cannot be reduced to mere lack of owner-ship or legal (often legalistic) dependence on superiors' permissions. Religious poverty is an experience of emp-tiness and felt need for God created by the lack of significant worldly resources. It is a visible witness to the pilgrim status of the Church, but its essential spirit animates rich and poor alike in the Church who place their resources at the service of men. Obedience in the Bible is the equivalent of hearing, that is, responding to the word of God; hence for Christians it is an exercise of faith. Thus in St. Paul Abraham "believed in God" (Rm 4:3), while in Gene-sis Abraham "obeyed God's voice" (Gn 22:8; 26:5). The decree presents Christ's example of love and obedience to the will of His Father (for example, Jn 4:34) recog-nized in the institutions of His own earthly existence (Hb 5:8) in total service of His fellowmen (for example, Mt 20:28) as the root of religious obedience. Voluntary choice of submission to a religious regime beyond the hierarchically constituted structures of the Church is not taught explicitly in the New Testament. Religious obedience, therefore, is a development. Theologians have endeavored to work out a theory of religious obedience (for example, K. Rahner, Hill-man, Tillard, 0rsy). The following reflection assimilates some of this thinking. Religious institutes are charismatic interventions of the Holy Spirit approved by the Church but not part of the hierarchical structure. The com-munity is the bearer of the charism; hence the exercise of authority and obedience in the group is eminently collegial. But religious communities are not free-floating bodies independent of the Church. They exist in the Church, and the superior is the. link between the teach-ing and ruling authority in the Church and the religious community. While religious obedience, therefore, can-not be reduced to a simple equation of the superior's will and God's will in a magical fashion, still the superior remains the authority, the last word, as it were, in debate and dialogue (PC 14). In summary, religious obedience finds its justification in the individ-ual members subordinating themselves to a community effort guided by the Holy Spirit in a life-form of service that has the guarantee of the Church for its evangelical validity. The new ordering of the three counsels, with chastity placed in the first place, is intended to bring out the radical and central role of evangelical virginity in the formation of a religious life. It is the charism which sets an individual and a community apart. Virginity im-plies dose companionship with Christ, an affinity for prayer, and the freedom to dedicate all one's energies to the kingdom. Poverty is a condition for this positive content of chastity. Like celibacy itself it aims to create an emptiness and disponibility so that one is free to "use the world as though not using it" (1 Cor 7:31), having nothing but possessing all things. Obedience is the way of insuring the ecclesiastical character of this venture. Chastity forms a celibate community of love in the Church. With6ut poverty the celibate community gives no witness; without obedience it lacks *mission. The poverty must be visible, and obedience must be responsi-ble search by the whole community for the Spirit. All three counsels together, therefore, structure the gift of the Spirit which is religious life. Values of the Evangelical Counsels We shall consider the meaning of the vows on four different levels suggested by Cardinal Doepfner in a conciliar speech at Vatican II. These four levels are the ascetical, the ecclesial, the apostolic, and the eschato-logical, all of which are designated values in para-graph 5 of Perfectae caritatis. Ascetical Value The ascetical value, which refers to the vows as means of personal sanctification, corresponds to the first prin-ciple of renewal, personal union with Christ (PC 2a). The ascetical significance is the key. Whatever the role in the Church of a particular community, "the mem-bers of every community, seeking God solely and be-fore everything else, should join contemplation, by which they fix their minds and hearts on Him, with apostolic love, by which they strive to be associated with the work of redemption and to spread the kingdom of God" (PC 5). The religious vocation is a call to con-templation and apostolate addressed to all religious. The vows are renunciations of recognized earthly good for the prosecution of this double personal goal. If, however, sexuality, property, and the exercise of personal judgment and decision are the raw material for growth into personhood, as is recognized today, will not the vows frustrate the maturity which is pre-supposed for a life of prayer and action? Why then renounce these human goods? The answer is that the ÷ ÷ ÷ neUglous Life 1019 REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1020 vows do indeed presuppose a basic adult self-possession, freedom, and responsibility. This is why only balanced persons, who relate well to their peers, the opposite sex, and superiors, who have a healthy psychic as well as physical development, should be accepted for reli-gious profession (see PC 12). But the vows take human growth a step further to an even higher fulfilment. The Development of Peoples puts the matter well: . human fulfilment constitutes, as it were, a summary of our duties. But there is much more: this harmonious enrich-ment of nature by personal and responsible effort is ordered to a further perfection. By reason of his union with Christ, the source of life, man attains to a new fulfilment, to a trans-cendent humanism which give him his greatest possible perfec-tion: this is the highest goal of personal development (n. 16). The vows, therefore, are no mere negations: "What are called the inhuman imperatives of the Gospel could just as well be called pointers to unexpected possibili-ties" (Concilium General Secretariat, "Stirrings in Re-ligious Life," in Renewal and Reform of Canon Law, New York: Paulist Press, 1967, p. 171). The vows apply the paradox of human life and the gospel, so that by giving we receive, by renunciation we possess. Ulti-mately only renunciation is the way to the hundredfold and to full humanity (see LG 46). The counsels are not defenses against life, protections for an individ-ualistic "spiritual life" against one's body and the world. They are secrets of growth in an age that has perhaps forgotten the necessity of renunciation for true love. If they are lived loyally and faithfully so that the limitations of human nature and of the finite are ex-posed, if they are renewed daily in the free choices that present themselves in .an adult £ashion, and not by legalistic, almost unwilling conformity, they promise the Resurrection as well as the cross and the fullest humanity. Religious are criticized for immaturity, mediocrity, and lack of joy. Besides the inevitable human failings the fault may lie in the beginnings, in the acceptance of candidates who are too immature to make the re-nunciations of the vows or in formation policies that preclude further development of the person. Com-munities should take a long, hard look at the age level and psychological condition of their candidates and the kind of novitiate and juniorate training that is given. Or the fault may lie in the failure of com-munities to create the atmosphere of openness and trust that will allow persons to carry out in freedom the implications of their vows. Liberty, not overbear-ing law, is the only atmosphere in which the Christian life of renunciation can thrive. Ecclesial Value The opening paragraph in Per[ectae caritatis makes dear that the rule of religious is a double one of being and function, consecration and apostolate, witness and mission. These roles overlap, but they correspond to the ecclesial and apostolic meaning of the counsels respec-tively; they also enter the final category of this paper, the eschatological value of religious life. Our division, therefore, is inadequate, but one that, hopefully, suits the purpose of exposition. This call to being, to consecration, to witness in the Church is the call to holiness, not in a purely trans-cendent, vertical fashion, much less in an individ-ualistic way, but in community as in the present mani-festation of the kingdom before the visible return of Christ at the parousia. Religious create communities of fraternal love. They are paradigms of the Church itself, either after the manner of the Jerusalem commu-nity as in the case of monastic orders, or in the tradition of the Pauline churches which looked outward as with modern apostolic communities. The structuring of these two types of community is different, one ad intra, the other ad extra;, and each religious institute must choose between the two according to its own nature and goals. Too long have apostolic communities endeavored to live by a monastic schedule and mystique to the detriment of both professional excellence and religious growth. In both monastic and apostolic communities, however, the witness value for the Church lies in visible charity that unites the members and, in the case of apostolic communities, creates community outside. The evangelical counsels make religious community possible, first, by creating a need for it, and, secondly, by giving a particular physiognomy to the celibate community. Celibacy needs the support of living com-munity: "Let all, especially superiors, remember that chastity is guarded more securely when true brotherly love flourishes in the common life of the community" (PC 12). Priestly celibacy is a problem where priests have to live without this human support. The religious house must be home for its members, where individuals can be themselves~accepted, welcomed, understood-- where they are treated as persons and not functions or numbers that man the machinery of a rigid horarium and overcommitted apostolates, where genuine friend-ships prevail, in a word, where the religious like to return to from their apostolic labors. The horarium and observances will depend on the nature of the com-munity work, and the primary concern will be. to create an atmosphere of peace and friendship. Where 4. VOLUME 27, 1968 1021 4. 4. 4" Ernest E. Larkin~ O.Carm. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1022 love is, God is; where two or three are gathered in His name, there is the presence of the Lord. This means among other things that recreation is as important as faculty meetings and cordiality as necessary as zeal. The celibate community complements the married community, and Christian love is at the heart of both. Celibate love manifests its own constellation of the qualities of Christian love: it highlights the freedom, the all-embracing, non-exclusive character of Christian love that gives without looking for a return. Human love that leads to marriage draws two people apart from the community to form one person (one flesh, one family) whereas celibate love emphasizes the other-ness of the one loved. Each love has something to teach the other, and both participate in the same love that animates the union of Christ and the Church. Each expresses part of the Christian mystery, celibacy the freedom of the sons of God, marriage the identification love causes and the intimacy it seeks. The consecrated virgin reserves identification for the Lord and bestows his love on the People of God freely. Even his intimate friends do not close him off from others, for he can call no one his own. His interpersonal relationships, there-fore, have a phenomenology different from the friend-ships that lead to or exist in marriage. His way demands faith in God and trust in his fellowmen; but he stakes his very life on the principle that by giving he re-ceives, by loving he is loved. The other vows make the witness of celibate love a reality. Poverty in its Biblical meaning must be visible. Some ways suggested in the documents are the sharing of one's goods, one's time, one's love inside and out-side the community, identifying with the poor and experiencing their insecurity by belonging to a religious family that is not obviously affluent but has to work hard and stint in order to survive. Experimentation and creative expression in new forms are needed to witness poverty, both personally and as a community, both to our affluent society and to the deprived and destitute peoples in our land. Without real poverty the witness of celibacy speaks to no one, because the kind of charity that is its touchstone will not be seen. Renewed obedience contributes to this witness inso-far as it is more responsible, more collegial in character, when "holy disobedience" need not be a contradiction in terms. An autocratically oriented Church with a strictly vertical obedience, in which the superior has all the answers and takes sole responsibility for deci-sions, tends to keep people in a state of perpetual childhood and creates a "gimme" syndrome rather than a "giving" service. In adapting to democratic methods, obedience need not suffer; it does not become majority rule or the totally "dialogal" type condemned in the decree (n. 14). Authority remains, but "an active and responsible obedience" gives it balance and allows the whole community to be actively engaged in community service, Apostolic Value The practical contribution of religious institutions to the social apostolate of the Church is evident. Without this army of low-paid, dedicated workers, as Pope Plus XII remarked, the Church's work of education and service would collapse. But the external aposto-late of religious is secondary. Paul VI scored "the false idea that the first place should be given to the works of the external apostolate, the second to con. cern for our spiritual perfection, as though such were the requirement of the spirit of our age and the needs of the Church" (Magno gaudio, May 23, 1964). The Council itself sees the apostolic work for the kingdom promoted in two ways, by "prayer or by active undertakings" according to the nature of a given order (LG 44); and in the case of apostolic orders it inserts "charitable activity" into "the very nature of the religious life" (PC 8). The mission of religious in the Church, indeed of the whole redemptive apostolate of the Church, lies on a deeper level than the pragmatic. The apostolate springs from union with Christ and consists in participation in the Paschal mystery of kenosis and resurrected life as expressed by prayer and work. More concretely, the apostolate o£ the Church is the same as Christ's, to break down the middle wall of partition (Eph 2:14), creating community inside and outside the local re-ligious community itself. It is the work of charity, of self-emptying, that allows God's love for mankind to filter into the lives of others through the agency of those who are bearers of that love. They must possess this love before they can be its instruments. To live and ex-press fraternally this gift of God's love means "the bearing about in our bodies of the dying of Jesus in order that the life of Jesus may be manifest in our bodily frame" (2 Cor 4:10); in this way "death is at work in us, but life in [the community]" (ibid, v. 12). The apostolate, in other words, is charity, expressed in prayer or action. Far from being opposed to the witness of religious life, the apostolate is practically identified with community. Community and apostolate in the Church are thus correlatives and mutually interde-pendent. Neither one is pure means to the other. In a + + + Religious LiJe VOLUME 27, 1968 1023 given institute, especially when it strives to remain faithful to its particular "spirit and special aims" (PC 2b) in the midst of pressing local needs of the Church, there will be tensions in the structuring and implementation of the two aspects. But in general the type of community life will depend on the in-stitute's apostolate. Apostolic communities will have fewer common observances and perhaps greater flexi-bility in horaria, whereas monastic groups will sub-ordinate external involvements to~ the conventual sched-ule. The apostolic works as well as the prayer forms and religious practices should be rigorously reviewed and evaluated in view of the nature and goals of an institute, and courageous changes made as necessary. Here again a great deal of experimentation is called for in order to make the institute relevant to itself and the Church. Harmonious balance between the common life and apostolic involvement according to the insti-tute's identity is the desideratum. Once again renewal is more important than adaptation, since ultimately both community and apostolate are mere expressions of the one union of charity, of death-resurrection in the Lord. Ernest E. Larkin~ O.Carra. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1024 Eschatological Value The Biblical notion of virginity, especially clear in the New Testament, contains a strong eschatological note. The state anticipates the future messianic marriage with Christ, "that wondrous marriage decreed by God and which is to be fully revealed in the future age in which the Church takes Christ as its only spouse" (PC 12). Thus religious life is a "splendid" (PC 1) and "unique" (LG 44) sign of the heavenly kingdom. It is customary to equate this eschatological or trans-cendent quality of the religious vocation with an exclu-sive love of Christ that avoids the distraction and competition of a divided heart (1 Cor 7:32-5). But this is the vocation of all Christians. All Christians are called to a unique love of God that does not allow any creature to be placed on the same level as God; other-wise we have idolatry. In the effort to cultivate this unique love of God religious bypass one sign, that of marriage and property and independence, and assume another sign, that of physical virginity lived in poverty and obedience. The celibate community does highlight the eschatological character of Christian life, just as the married community reflects more clearly the in-carnational aspect. As two ways to the kingdom, they are not as two ways of living Christian love, totally exclusive of each other; they complement each other as witnesses of the Church's love for Christ. The hazard of the celibate community is to lose sight of the world and people, whereas-the hazard of the married com-munity is to forget the transient, passing character of the historical moment and lose sight of the Christ who is to come. Religious, therefore, are dedicated to an eschatological existence as a bias and emphasis, but not as an ex-clusive concern. Especially in the light of incarnational theology that identifies Christ's presence in the person and community, religious today are not absolved from temporal concerns, from making their contribution to human development and the building of the earth. They can engage in the same works as the laity, such as teaching, social work, any human endeavor; only their bias will be different. They come to human tasks with an eschatological eye to the future, to what is not yet, to what will come in the final age, already begun, in Christ. In this sense they live in hope. No matter how important the classes they teach or their social involvement, they bring to their work in the world a sense of the Deus semper major, of the person of Christ who is to be revealed in the parousia. Where speciali-zation is feasible, perhaps it is desirable to leave secular tasks to the laity and let religious concentrate on sacred functions. But no universal law demands such a distri-bution of tasks, and the distinction may continue the unhealthy separation of sacred and secular. We should abandon the dichotomies implicit in the phraseology, "religious first, professional second," or "religious first, apostle second." Religious are not "strangers to their fellow men or useless citizens of the earthly city" (LG 46). On the contrary they embrace the world in its truth and reality. They see it as inchoate glory, as the kingdom of God in embryo, and yet as "no lasting city," as a moment in an evolutionary process, and as less than the ultimate Good that is Christ reappearing and handing the kingdom over to His Father. In a word they live in hope, and this hope is the secret of the joy that must be their witness if it is to be true. For them as for the married joy is the surest index that they are living their vocation in Christ. Two practical questions may be raised here. First, what does the eschatologlcal vocation contribute to the Church and the world at large? Second, how does the eschatological emphasis affect the prayer life and selbdenial of religious? The first question is answered admirably in Lumen gentium. Religious are "a sign which can and ought to attract all the members of the Church to an effective and prompt fulfillment of the duties of their Christian ÷ ÷ ÷ l~eligious Li]e VOLUME 27, 1968 1025 Ernest E. Larkin, O.Carm. vocation" (LG 44). Why is this assertion made? Because religious represent the presence of Christ Himself "con-templating on the mountain, announcing God's king-dom to the multitude, healing the sick and the maimed., doing good to all" (LG 46). The second question is more complex. Since prayer and self-denial are founded on the eschatological di-mension of Christian life, it is to be expected that re-ligious life will be characterized by these acts. But both. prayer forms and the practices of self-ddnial must be-come more incarnational. Prayer should become the loving awareness of Christ present in human mani-festations. Such prayer is nourished above all by Sacred Scripture and the liturgy, the only two sources of "the spirit and practice of prayer" explicitly signaled out by Perfectae caritatis (n. 6). Thus mental prayer as con-frontation with the word of God is more important than a multiplicity of devotions (ES, n. 21). For re-ligious as for the whole people of God the liturgy weds the human and divine and is the summit and source of Christian life (Constitution on the Liturgy, n. 2, n, 10). Self-denial too'will take on a more human dimen-sion. The cross is one's daily life, and it is present wherever Christians endeavor to be an Easter people. The self-denial of religious, therefore, will be the self-renunciations inherent in being all things to all men, in fostering community, in giving generously in the apostolate. As a disposition for this life a disci-pline, an ascesis, is necessary. Today this discipline would better consist in the cultivation of the openness, understanding, welcome, and patience that are the necessary framework in which charity can operate rather than in the corporal penances and often mean-ingless gestures of some religious rules. Conclusion We have tried to set down the broad theological principles of religious life. On this background the practical questions about religious life today can be raised and discussed. The basic question which must guide this inquiry is this: In the welter of change and conflicting ideas, where is the Holy Spirit speaking? To what is He calling American religious at this time? The paper offers some guidelines in which to pursue this question', but only in honest and prayerful dialogue can we ask the right practical questions and move in the direction of the Holy Spirit's answers. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1026 L JAMES O'REILLY Lay and Religious States oJ Life: Their Distinction and Complementarity If we must have a fight, let us have a good fight: not shadow-boxing with peripheral questions but hand-to-hand engagement on basic issues, a battle of wits, not a conflict of emotions. Here in the Southland we find ourselves in the midst of a controversy over the subject of renewal of the religious life. Some view the con-troversy as a jurisdictional struggle between religious independence and episcopal authority. The charismatic is threatened by the institutional. Others discern here a clash between modernity and antiquity, between youth and age, between male and. female, between classic and romantic. Others think that they detect a conflict between Perfectae caritatis and Gaudium et spes. No doubt all of these elements are present in the chorus of debate, but only as screechy overtones to a fundamental note. They are present as coloring and obscuring that which is .at the heart of the matter, namely, a just conception of the distinction between the lay and religious states of life, and, flowing from this, a question of the significance of religious presence in the professional world. If we are to have a good fight, this is what we must concentrate upon. We must come to grips more effectively on this central ground instead of wasting our energies on local skirmishing. As a first approximation to a final position, let me venture the statement that the distinction of lay and religious states arises out of the need to provide a system of checks and balances in the general effort of Chris-tians to make an integral response to the human con-dition. Let me elaborate briefly. The human condition is described, at least, in the Christian world, as one of fallen creaturehood moving forward toward a saving James O'Reilly is a faculty member of St. John's Semi-nary; 5012 East Seminary Road; Ca-marillo, California 9301O. VOLUME 27, 1968 1027 games O'Reilly REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS 1028 consummation in Christ. That movement, however, is mysteriously two-sided: one of simultaneous ascent and descent, of evolution-devolution, of engagement and withdrawal. Man's approach to his salvation is both a making and a being made, a doing and a being done to, an accomplishment and a gift. Running through all our days from here to eternity is a counterpoint of nature and grace, of a lifting up and a letting down, an immanence and a transcendence, a winning and a losing, a living and a dying. It is in the effort of the Christian community to keep a just balance between these counter-elements that a distinction in the public order has come to be made between the two states of life, lay and religious. The distinction of states provides a syste

Issue 41.4 of the Review for Religious, July/August 1982. ; REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS (ISSN 0034-639X), published every two months, is edited in collaboration with the faculty members of the Department of Theological Studies of St. Louis University. The editorial offices are located at Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108. REVIEW FOR RELIGIOUS is owned by the Missouri Province Educational Institute of the Society of Jesus, St. Louis, MO. © 1982 by REviEw FOR RELIGIOUS. Composed, printed and manufactured in, U.S.A. Second class postage paid at St. Louis, MO. Single copies: $2.50. Subscription U.S.A.: $9.00 a year; $17.00 for two years. Other countries: $10.00 a year; $19.00 for two years. For subscription orders or change of address, write: REVtEW FOR RELIGtOUS; P.O. Box 6070; Duluth, MN 55806. Daniel F. X. Meenan, S.J. Dolores Greeley, R.S.M. Daniel T. Costello, S.J. Joseph F. Gallen, S.J. Jean Read Editor Associate Editor Book Editor Questions and Answers Editor Assistant Editor July/August, 1982 Volume 41 Number 4 Manuscripts, books for review and correspondence with the editor should be sent to REVIF:W FOR RV:HG~OUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108. Questions for answering should be sent to Joseph F. Gallen, S.J.; Jesuit Community; St. Joseph's University; City Avenue at 54th St.; Philadelphia, PA 19131. Back issues and reprints should be ordered from RF:VlF:W F'OR RF:IaG~OUS; Room 428; 3601 Lindell Blvd.; St. Louis, MO 63108. "Out of print" issues and articles not published as reprints are available from University Microfilms International; 300 N. Zeeb Rd.; Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Familiaris Consortio: Themes and Theses Robert F. Morneau Bishop Morneau continues his commentaries on papal documents with this present article which, though not directly concerned with religious life, has much to say about being Christian. Bishop Morneau, Auxiliary Bishop of the Green Bay diocese, continues his work with the Ministry to Priests Program, and may be addressed at that office: 1016 N. Broadway; De Pere, WI 54115. On November 22, 1981, Pope John Paul I1 issued an apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio.~ This document on the family followed the Synod of Bishops n~eeting that dealt at length with issues of family life. A vast range of topics was discussed: I) the role of the family--its identity and mission. The centraliky of love was stressed with great clarity. 2) The meaning of human sexual-ity, meaning which can be found only when sexuality is perceived in relationship to the whole person and to the plan of God. 3) The call to the family to participate in the development of society. This challenge prevents a narrow parochialism and urges a social consciousness that is inclusive. 4) The character of rights for the family. Without justice there will be no peace in the home or among nations. 5) Concern for the hurting. Compassion demands that we reach out to the families that are broken and experiencing loss of any kind. Documents such as this exhortation serve a most important purpose in life, i.e., the sharing of a vision. Parker J. Palmer writes of the need for vision: Finally, we need to seek and find the grounds of Christian hope in the midst of our public crisis. Those grounds are to be found in God's promise of reconciliation and God's faithful-ness to that promise. We will touch that ground and root ourselves in it through prayer and ~'Apostolic Exhortati~, Familiaris Consortio, of His H~liness Pope John Paul II to the Episcopate, to the Clergy and the Faithful of the whole Catholic Church regarding the Role of the Christian Family in the Modern World (Rome: Vatican Polyglot Press, Nov. 22, 1981, pp. 176). 481 till2 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 contemplation--not as an isolated individual act, but as directed and disciplined within the community of faith. Just as private and public life are halves of a larger whole, so private prayer and public worship are meant to be as one. In all these ways the Church can help renew that vision without which the people perish!2 In a society that is pluralistic, in a world ajar with great changes, in a Church undergoing rapid development, the vision of the family is bound to be obscured. Whatever can help clarify the basic elements of family life and its interdependence with the Church and society is invaluable in daily decision making. Familiaris Consortio provides a vision from which to evaluate and plan. Unfortunately, because of its length, this document may well find its way to the shelf unmarked and unread, suffering the same fate as Pacem in Terris, Laborem Exercens, and Redemptor Hominis. If this happens, th~ vision remains at a certain level of leadership but never gets into the minds and the hearts of the people. The problem is one of communication. This article attempts to give a general overview of the central themes of the document; its aim is to attract the reader to the primary source itself. Theme 1: Family T~esis: The Christian Family is a community of persons committed to self-giving and fidelity. The family, which is founded and given life by love, is a community of persons: of husband and wife, of parents and children, of relatives, Its first task is to live with fidelity the reality of communion in a constant effort to develop an authentic community of persons (18). The family is the first and fundamental school of social living: as a community of love, it finds in self-giving the law that guides it and makes it grow. The self-giving that inspires the love of husband and wife for each other is the model and norm for the self-giving that must be practiced in the relationships between brothers and sisters and the different generations living together in the family. And the communion and sharing that are part of everyday life in the home at times of joy and at times of difficulty are the most concrete and effective pedagogy for the active, responsible and fruitful inclusion of the children in the wider horizon of society (37). Loving the family means being able to appreciate its values and capabilities, fostering them always. Loving the family means identifying the dangers and the evils that menace it, in order to overcome them. Loving the family means endeavoring to create for it an environment favorable for its development (86). In his strong and sensitive novel A Death in the Family, James Agee writes of the delicate bonds of family life. Those bonds were ruptured when the father of the family was killed in a car accident. His son Rufus cries out to his mother: "Hide 'n Seek's just a game,just a game. God doesn't fool around playing games, does He, Mama! Does He! Does He!" The story paints the intersecting lines of relatives and friends offering sympathy and advice, raising questions and sharing consolation. A community of persons dealing with life and death, faith and doubt, joy and sorrow. A family at once imbued with love and yet wrenched with selfishness. 2Parker J. Palmer, The Company of Strangers iNew York: Crossroad, 1981), p. 33. Familiaris Consortio 483 Agee masterfully tells of people striving to sustain relationships in adverse orcum-stances, striving to comprehend life in the face of death. This finely tuned story provides an example of family life; the apostolic exhortation addresses itself to such a community and offers a faith perspective for dealing with life's questions. The backbone of family life is community. When a group of people lives out a common value system in which each individual is deeply loved and challenged, a oneness is formed which we call community. It ismore a process than a state of being. Its organic nature means that things never remain the same. This constant flux is not to be understood negatively. Rather, this positive change is called growth, the development which underlies every healthy family. The values are constant, their implementation and application continue to vary. Community happens when people truly care and share. The central act of the family and community is self-giving: the ability to be with and for others in a loving and compassionate way. This act is not without its risks. While it can and often does lead to acceptance, such sharing can also lead to rejection. Relationships demand trust, that invisible elixir, which creates an atmosphere in which dialogue and revelation can happen. Where do we find authentic family life? Where self-giving, trust, sharing and love abide! The prophets of the Hebrew scriptures confronted the people with the sin that destroyed the family of Israel: infidelit!! Hosea would say: "My people are dis-eased through their disloyalty" (Ho 11:7). The haunting motto semperfidelis must not be ignored. Family life and community depend upon depth commitment that is able to withstand the fierce testing of crises and weaknesses. Much grace is needed, especially in a culture that accepts infidelity as being "only human." Humorously, if sadly, we speak about a dog as being man's best friend--yet the fidelity of a dog does at times outrun human commitment. Often the apostolic document draws our attention to the power, necessity and beauty of fidelity. Theme 2: Sacrament of Marriage Thesis: The sacrament of marriage is God's special grace enlightening a couple to see their true vocation and empowering them to five it. The gift of the sacrament is at the same time a vocation and commandment for the Christian spouses, that they may remain faithful to each other forever, beyond every trial and difficulty, in generous obedience to the holy will of the Lord: "What therefore God has joined together. let not man put asunder" (20). A vivid and attentive awareness of the mission that they have received with the sacrament of marriage will help Christian parents to place themselves at the service of their children's education with great serenity and trustfulness, and also with a sense of responsibility before God, who calls them and gives them the mission of building up the Church in their children. Thus in the case of baptized people, the family, called together by word and .sacrament as the Church of the home. is both teacher and mother, the same as the worldwide Church (38). The social role that belongs to every family pertains by a new and original right to the Christian family, which is based on the sacrament of marriage. By taking up the human reality of the love between husband and wife in all its implications, the sacrament gives to Christian couples and parents a power and commitment to live their vocation as lay people and therefore to "seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them 4~ltl / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 according to the plan of God" (47). The sacrament of marriage is the specific source and original means of sanctification for Christian married couples and families. It takes up again and makes specific the sanctifying . grace of baptism (56). God is love! In divine self-giving we receive that love which we call grace. Faith allows us to experience the mystery that God has made his home in our hearts, that we are indeed temples of the Spirit. As blood flows through our systems providing life and energy, so grace flows through life affording participation in the Divine Reality. Freely given, it must be freely accepted and exercised. Such gifted-ness does impose serious demands on the individual and the community. Because of this there is a tendency to resist the reception of God's love and to opt for that "cheap grace" which seemingly makes no demands. Such a choice is fatal because it is a lie. Grace will always remain true to its essence: love calling out to love. Once received it must be shared lest one's very integrity be shattered. Grace comes to married life and love through the sacrament of marriage in a very special way. This visible sign of God's incomprehensible love brings about what it signifies: union and holiness. Such is the vocation for all people. God provides specific help to couples who have special demands in the nurturing and sustaining of unique relationships. The sacrament has two sides: invitation and imperative. By means of the invitation each couple builds up the Church and by fulfilling the imperative they participate in the work of salvation. In order that this be known and deeply sensed, the apostolic exhortation stresses the significance of adequate preparation. An understanding of the meaning of grace, as well as the invitation and imperative that underlie it, is crucial to successful married life. Proper disposition makes possible a full response. Here, as in most situations, ignorance is not bliss. Anwar eI-Sadat, in his autobiography In Search of Identity, reflects on a central question of life, one's vocation: Without a vocation, man's existence would be meaningless. We have been created to bear the responsibility God has entrusted us with. Though different, each man should .fulfill his specific vocation and shoulder his individual responsibility? Marriage is a vocation, one sanctified by a sacrament. God's calling is accompan-ied by the necessary help enabling an adequate response in the light of one's gifts and talents. A sense of identity enriches family life and interpersonal relationships. Without this self-awareness, the inner poverty of relationships results in destructive deprivation. Only a sense of one's vocation allows for the proper ordering of life's many demands. Marriage as a basic vocation claims centrality: work, play and social engagements all take a secondary role. A constant challenge in life is to get in touch with one's vocation and to maintain an abiding awareness of this mystery. Theme 3: Mission/Task of the Family Thesis: Christian families are called to receive and share the divine graces of life and love. Looking at it in such a way as to reach its very roots we must say that the essence and role of Familiaris Consortio / the family are in the final analysis specified by love. Hence the family has the mission to guard, reveal and communicate love, and this is a living reflection of and a real sharing in God's love for humanity and the love of Christ the Lord for the Church his bride (17). Thus. with love as its point of departure and making constant reference to it, the recent Synod emphasized four general tasks for the family: I) forming a community of persons: 2) serving life: 3) participating in the development of society; 4) sharing in the life and mission of the Church (17). Therefore love and life constitute the nucleus of the saving mission of the Christian family in the Church and for the Church (50). A movie, novel, or a walk through Disneyland often offer a moment of escape from the harsher realities of life. In the film Raiders of the Lost Ark impossible missions are pulled off one after another. Sheer enjoyment, totally unreal. After such moments we reenter the real world: the world of work, the world of interna-tional conflict, the world of the family. Missions here seem impossible as well: to bring about justice, to foster peace, to live love. Indeed, without grace and great personal effort, the task is overwhelming, if not impossible: with discipline and divine assistance the ideals of justice, peace and love become historical realities. Authors from various disciplines have constantly commented on the task and mission of the family: love and life. A father did not visit his son, nor the son his father. Charity was dead? I've always been intense about relationships. At times, my love overwhelms people. And it puzzles me. My business is to IoveP ¯. and Alyosha's heart could not endure uncertainty because his love was always of an active character. He was incapable of passive love. If he loved any one. he set to work at once to love him? Thus writes Barbara Tuchman in her excellent study A Distant Mirror; in The Belle of Amherst playwright William Luce puts words into the mouth of Emily Dickinson; Dostoevsky too ponders the movements and the mystery of love in his character Alyosha. There is a certain messiness in the mission. Oftentimes motives are mixed in trying to love. Grace faces blockage and detours at every turn. Infrequent success and daily failures can be discouraging. 'Yet the moments of concern, care, respect and love--the central vocation of the human heart--are breakthroughs of healing redemptive life. The exhortation strikes dead center in urging families to guard love from every danger, to reveal love in trust and openness, to communicate love through honest dialogue. The mission is realized by means of such activity. Four specific tasks are delineated for the family: 1) The mission of forming 3Anwar eI-Sadat, In Search of Identity (New York: Harper Colophon Books, 1977), p. 82. aBarbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1978), p. 97. 5William l,uce, The Belle of A~nherst (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1976), p. 30. ~'Fyodor Dostoevsky. The Brothers Karamazov (New York: International Collectors Library, 1941), p. 171. 111~6 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 interpersonal relationships, of building community. Such formation demands time and self-giving; it is endangered by loss of identity and ambiguity about central values. 2) The mission of serving life by protecting the procreative and unitive functions of married love. Education and ongoing training are also tasks of par-ents. 3) The mission of participating in societal and political changes of society. Reaching out to the larger community prevents a destructive individualism. 4) The mission of becoming church. Through love, Christ is made present in our homes and in our world. Theme 4: Love Thesis: The heartbeat and central principle of family life is love. God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion. Creating the human race in his own image and continually keeping it in being, God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation, and thus the capacity and responsibility, of love and communion. Love is therefore the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being ( I I ). The inner principle of that task (to develop an authentic community of persons), its perma-nent power and its final goal is love: without love the family is not a community of persons and, in the same way, without love the family cannot live. grow and perfect itself as a community of persons (I 8). It cannot be forgotten that the most basic element, so basic that it qualifies the educational role of parents, is parental love. which finds fulfillment in the task of education as it completes and perfects its service of life: as well as being a source, the parent's love is also the animating principle and therefore the norm inspiring and guiding all concrete educational activity, enriching it with the values of kindness, constancy, goodness, service, disinterestedness, and self-sacrifice that are the most precious fruits of love (36). Vocation is a mystery. Who can explain exactly how a call comes into our lives and what makes it possible to respond? Faith offers some reflections on this matter and the Second Vatican Council clearly states that all people are called to holiness. The present document says the same thing but in a different way: the intrinsic calling of every person is love. How this universal vocation is lived out is deter-mined by the specific path an individual chooses: single life, married life, religious life. In a sense there is both freedom and determination here. We are free to choose our unique path, we are not free not to be loving and still retain our humanity. Romano Guardini understood well the process involved in discerning one's vocation: A vocation is no label marked "chosen" which can be fixed to a hum~in existence once and forever. It is a living intention of God, efficacy of his love in the chosen one. Only through the action taken by that person can it become reality.7 The family is inextricably involved in the vocation question. The pragmatic "how" question arises in the search for love and community within the family circle. Many forces that tend to block love and concern must be dealt with. How 7Roma~ao Guardini, The Lord (Chica~o: Henry Regnery Company, 1954), p. 94. Familiaris Consortio / 4117 can we live simple and fruitful lives in a culture characterized by chaos and violence? The good news of the Gospel draws our attention to the person of Jesus in whom we find love incarnate. The basic command is not merely a verbal communication--it is a lived reality. Before preaching, Jesus so often heals, frees, forgives--only then does he explain in word what has taken place. Such self-giving is the model for the family, the domestic church. Jesus shares with that church his Spirit that enables its members to fulfill the perfect command to be loving, forgiv-ing people. And within all this is a paradox: "Jesus' authentic power is revealed in his frailty and importance.'~ The power of powerlessness lies at the heart of love, at the heart of the family. Roots determine fruits. Where authentic parental love exists as the source of family life, then the possibility of various virtues finding expression in the lives of its members is probable. The apostolic exhortation lists six: I) Kindness: that attitude and action that affirms and strengthens one another: 2) Constancy: that rich fidelity fostering trust; 3) Goodness: love incarnate in a small word, gracious deed; 4) Service: awareness of and response to the needs of others; 5) Disinterested-ness: that unique self-forgetfulness in being for and with others: 6) Self-sacrifice: that realism that all love involves a cross. The vocation to love and to be loved is fulfilled only in grace. Theme 5: Sexuality Thesis: Sexuality finds its full meaning only when seen in the context of the human person, God's plan and love. Consequently, sexuality, by means of which man and woman give themselves to one another through the acts which are proper and exclusive to spouses, is by no means something purely biological, but concerns the innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a man and a woman commit themselves totally to one another until death. The total physical self-giving would be a lie if it were not the sign and fruit of a total personal self-giving, in which the whole person, including the temporal dimension, is present: if the person were to withhold something or reserve the possibility of deciding otherwise in the future, by this very fact he or she would not be giving totally (I I). In the context of a culture which seriously distorts or entirely misinterprets the true meaning of human sexuality, because it separates it from its essential reference to the person, the Church more urgently feels how irreplaceable is her mission of presenting sexuality as a value and task of the whole person, created male and female in the image of God (32). Education in love as self-giving is also the indispensable premise for parents called to give their children a clear and delicate sex education. Faced with a culture that largely reduces human sexuality to the level of something commonplace, since it interprets and lives it in a reductive and impoverished way by linking it solely with the body and with selfish pleasure, the educational service of parents must aim firmly at a training in the area of sex that is truly and fully personal: for sexuality is an enrichment of the whole person--body, emotions and soul--and it manifests its inmost meaning in leading the person to the gift of self in love (37). ~Jon Sobrino, S.J. Christology at the Crossroads. trans, by John Drury (New York: Orbis Books. 1978), p. 281. 41111 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 When things are disconnected, they become distorted. The absolutizing ten-dency to identify a part for the whole is not uncommon. A recent movie/play, The Elephant Man, demonstrates what happens when a single moment of life excludes other factors. Most people were unable to move beyond the elephant man's deformity and penetrate to the rich, inner beauty of his person. Sexuality has suffered over the years from the absolutizing impulse that has fragmented this great and powerful gift. When sexuality is reduced to physicality, emotionality or pleasure, meaning is lost. Familiaris Consortio presents a different vision. Here sexuality is understood as an integral part of the personality. It has meaning only in reference to the person and authentic love. This integral vision provides mean-ing and allows for prudential decision on how the gift will be used. Vision and virtue help to order this radical power in our lives. Though complex, sexuality is not incomprehensible; though innately powerful, sexuality is not uncontrollable. Certain things in history are a matter of life and death. One of these is human sexuality. Abundant life flows when this gift of sexuality is used with proper regard for the individual and is an expression of authentic love. Physical, emotional and spiritual life are all enriched. However, when sexuality is misused and becomes a form of manipulation or exploitation, few things are as destructive. Death is the consistent effect of unprincipled use of human sexuality. Here truth is abandoned, a lie is lived. The fruits are well-known: deception, secretiveness, joylessness, angst, boredom--exit Mrs. Robinson. Thus the paradox: that which can be most life-giving is capable of causing infinite harm. Sex education is an urgent need today. This obligation is frustrated because of confusion in regard to sexual matters, breakdown in communication, sheer ne-glect. Much information regarding sexual matters is transmitted through the mass media and peer groups, often highly distorted and erroneous. Justice is at stake. The child has the right to know; the duty rests primarily on parents. Assistance is often needed and other bodies (church and schools) get involved. One point must be stressed: ¯. the Church is firmly opposed to an often widespread form of imparting sex information dissociated from moral principle (37). The key issue is clear: human sexuality must always be dealt with in context: the context of love, the human person and God's plan. Theme 6: Education Thesis: Education is a primary duty and right of parents; the full growth and development of children depend upon the exercise of this obligation, The task of giving education is rorted in the primary vocation of married couples to partici-pate in God's creative activity: by begetting in love and for love a new person who has within himself or herself the vocation to growth and development, parents by that very fact take on the task of helping that person effectively to live a fully human life (36). According to the plan of God, marriage is the foundation of the wider community of the family, since the very institution of marriage and conjugal love are ordained to the procreation and education of children, in whom they find their crowning (14). Familiaris Consonio / 489 The mission to educate demands that Christian parents should present to their children all the topics that are necessary for the gradual maturing of their personality from a Christian and ecclesial point of view. They will therefore follow the educational lines mentioned above. taking care to show their children the depths of significance to which the faith and love of Jesus Christ can lead (39). Full growth and development demand education. This process of learning is of special significance in the first decade of a person's life. Here the twig is bent, the fate of the tree deeply influenced. In the confines of the home a type of informal education is always at work. By osmosis children are assimilating the values, thoughts and life-style of their parents. There will be times of more formal educa-tion: planned discussion, structured dialogue, explicit exchange of facts and per-spectives. Whether formal or informal, the learning process nourishes the mind and heart as food does the body. Intellectual needs are as deep as bodily ones. If deprived of proper feeding, strange compensatory behavior sets in, causing serious disorder or relationships. If nourishment is well balanced, the result is a healthy home and society. Given the limitations of time, talent and skills, parents will necessarily reach out to others for help in the fulfillment of this primary obligation to educate their children. This appeal for help should not lead to abdication. Certain things can only be learned in the home: the art of sustaining relationships in close quarters, the ability to deal with moods over long periods of time, the gift of hospitality to strangers. In these and other areas, parents are always teaching, if not in word, certainly by their actions. To succeed in this duty parents must continue their own education. The formation of parents through information and transformation is necessary for the full dex~elopment of the family. In an age of rapid ~:hange and high activism, there is a special lesson that parents can teach their children, the lesson of silence: We have yet to accept and act upon the axiom that the cultivation of a habit of silence is an integral part of all true education; and that children, so far from looking upon a demand for silence as an unnatural and intolerable imposition, have an inborn aptitude for quietness.9 Such silence gives access to the voice of God and the deeper recesses of oneself. Contemplation then becomeg a possibility and this activity is essential to a full, human life. Constant activity and incessant noise destroy the conditions for true humanness: loving attention and presence to others. A quiet period in the day could well be one of the greatest blessings a child might learn from parents and the Theme 7: Society Thesis: The mutual relationship between family and society must be carefully Herman. Creative Prayer (Cincinnati. Ohio: Forward Movement Publications). p. 33. Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 nurtured and lovingly critiqued. The family has vital and organic links with society, since it is its foundation and nourishes it continually through its role of service to life: it is from the family that citizens come to birth and it is within the family that they find the first school of the social virtues that are the animating principle of the existence and development of society itself (42). The social role of families is called upon to find expression also in the form of political intervention: families should be the first to take steps to see that the laws and institutions of the State not only do not offend but support and positively defend the rights and duties of the family. Along these lines, families should grow in awareness of being "protagonists" of what is known as "family politics" and assume responsibility for transforming society: otherwise families will be the first victims of the evils that they have done no more than note with indifference. The Second Vatican Council's appeal to go beyond an individualistic ethic therefore also holds good for the family as such (44), The family and society have complementary functions in defending and fostering the good of each and every human being (45). The privatization of religion is a constant danger. This attitude compartmen-talizes one's relationship with God, separating it from economic, socio-political, cultural issues. Christians must be constantly challenged to assume their proper role in society by fostering a public outlook: A public outlook among Christians asks them to care for the good ordering of people who are not saved and may never be. It means having concern for arts and letters, the quality of life and its cultural dimensions, the institutions of education and the forms of politics--even if there is no direct payoff for the churches.~° This linkage to the larger social whole was a major concern at the Second Vatican Council: the Church is to participate in the amelioration of the world by being socially conscious and politically concerned. Again this vision is shared in Famil-iaris Consortio. Families are to participate in social happenings in dynamic and varied ways. Non-involvement will often threaten human dignity and justice since a vacuum will be created if people abdicate their duty of articulating and living Christian values. The notion of responsibility underlies the mutual relationships between family and society. This responsibility is grounded in power. The individual, the family, the society, the church and the state, all possess this ability to bring about or prevent change. When all these parties exercise responsible power in fostering the common good, then justice and peace result. The common good is served. Yet vested interest tends to direct energies and gifts meant for the growth of the community toward self-serving and self-preserving needs and wants. Injustice is effected and society and the family are greatly harmed. The exercise of power for the common good and the proper assumption of responsibility by each grouping are of vital importance to the Church and the modern world. Rugged individualism will continue to thwart the creation of a healthy society. Narrow parochialism, social myopia, crass apathy, indulgent consumerism, afro- *°Reflection of Martin E. Marty in Parker J. Palmer's The Company of Strangers, p. 13. Familiaris Consortio / 49"1 gant nationalism are cancer sores that mar and rend the human heart and human family. Society will never be rid of these illnesses but they can be minimized by fostering a social consciousness that truly sees others as one's brothers and sisters. This consciousness begins at home or it never begins at all. Parents enrich society by their involvement in societal and political issues and by encouraging their children to participate as fully as they can. Theme 8: Church Thesis: The family as the domestic church gets its true identity and sense of purpose from its ecclesial nature. Christian marriage and the Christian family build up the Church: for in the family the human person is not only brought into being and progressively introduced by means of education into the human community, but by means of the rebirth of baptism and education in the faith, the child is also introduced into God's family, which is the Church (15). Among the fundamental tasks of the Christian family is its ecclesial task: the family is placed at the service of the building up of the kingdom of God in history by participating in the life and mission of the Church (49). The Church, a prophetic, priestly and kingly people, is endowed with the mission of bringing all human beings to accept the word of God in faith, to celebrate and profess it in the sacraments and in prayer, and to give expression to it in the concrete realities of life in accordance with the girl and new commandment of love (63). There is a rich symbiotic relationship between the family and the Church. They need each other; they enrich each other. Through the family new life is raised up, potential members of God's family; through the Church, the grace of baptism gives entrance into the community of disciples. The family is as integral to the Church as cells are to the body. Both the community of the family and the Church are about the same task: acceptance and proclamation .of the Good News, worship in spirit and in truth, service to those in need out of love, the building up of the kingdom. In a special way the Church does this through sacramental, apostolic and educa-tional avenues; the family does it by living faith, hope and love in ordinary and concrete situations. Several times in this apostolic exhortation Pope John Paul 1! stresses the building of the kingdom of God in history. Our liturgy describes some aspects of that kingdom: a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.~ The Church and family intersect at this junction. Both strive to promote the realities of God's saving mysteries. Both are at the service of Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth. Both find in him truth and life; in him the oneness with the Father; in him the love that makes justice and peace reality. Christ Jesus is the "Preface for the Feast of Christ the King. 4~)2 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 center of the Christian home and the Church. Romano Guardini refreshes our faltering memories: "Faith" in the sense of the New Testament means not only religious trust, reverence, self-surrender, but something specific: man's relationship to Christ and to the God who speaks through him which Christ demanded.~2 Two phenomena characterize the twentieth century: confusion about identity and the subsequent loss of meaning. Who are we? What are we to do? What is our destiny? The Church has a self-understanding that embraces mystery. Yet the task is clear: be a prophetic, kingly and priestly people! With such a vision the Christian family comes to its own self-understanding: the family also is to be a community of persons and the task and mission is the same as the Church's. No small grace here. Amid all the confusion and ambig6ity a sense of direction and purpose emerges. Energies can now be directed in meaningful ways. The Christian family is deeply enriched by seeing and living this relationship with the Church. Theme 9: Values Thesis: Family life is grounded in the knowledge and expression of basic gospel values. Christian families can do this (bear witness to the kingdom and the peace of Christ) through their educational activity--that is to say by presenting to their children a model of life based on the values of truth, freedom, justice and love--both through active and responsible involvement in the authentically human growth of society and its institutions, and by support-ing in various ways the associations specifically devoted to international issues (48). The Christian family also builds up the kingdom of God in history through the everyday realities that concern and distinguish its state of life. It is thus in the love between husband and wife and between the members of the family--a love lived out in all its extraordinary richness of values and demands: totality, oneness, fidelity and fruitfulness--that the Christian family's participation in the prophetic, priestly and kingly mission of Jesus Christ and of his Church finds expression and reali:,ation (50). Many negative phenomena which are today noted with regret in family life derive from the fact that. in the new situations, young people not only lose sight of the correct hierarchy of values but, since they no longer have certain criteria of behavior, they do not know how to face and deal with the new difficulties (66). Freedom, truth, justice, love, totality, oneness, fidelity, fruitfulness! These are the pillars (values) that support the community of persons we call the family, society and church. The importance of these values can readily be seen in contrast to their opposites: enslavement, falsity, injustice, hatred, non-commitment, divi-sion, infidelity, sterility. None of these categories are ultimately abstract; they. are not esoteric philosophical constructs. Rather, they provide the attitudinal base from which life is lived. Values shape decisions which in turn terminate in concrete action. Our actions have consequences that either humanize or destroy people. In evaluating our lives we move beyond specific, individual acts to the root system-- the values from whence they flow. These values truly characterize the essence of ~2Romano Guardini. p. 436. Familiaris Consortio / 493 our personality. Choices in life! To teach in the catechetical program or spend more time with the children; to build a new room onto the house or give more money to the poor: to take in a refugee child or prod the government to promote international justice. These choices are not necessarily exclusive but a theology of limitation restricts how much we can do. The formation of conscience is based not only on values but also the ordering of these values. What is helpful here is a guiding vision: To be an effective member of the Church. one needs a guiding vision. Such a vision should serve to interpret one's experience of life with fellow-believers, to suggest priorities and values, and to indicate ways in which the Church might make itself more effectively present in today's world.13 Value-free homes and societies are dissipated homes and societies, lacking direc-tion and purpose. Values provide a sense of meaning. The constant process of value clarification is urgently needed. The social scien-ces have methods to discern when values are truly authentic and when they are merely nominal. Internalized values have the markings of free choice, strong affective force and patterned activity. Clarifying our values helps to promote civil discourse, a discourse that is essential to keep our planet partially civilized. When values are confused and misunderstood, debate turns into a diatribe. Political, social and religious issues become muddied and constructive communication ceases. Value clarification is not the solution to world problems, but without some clarity there can be no progress. What is true of larger society is also true of the home. Clear values nourish healthy family life. Theme 10: Dangers and Difficulties Thesis: Inner and outer forces present major challenges to the delicate health of family life. On the other hand, however, signs are not lacking of a disturbing degradation of some fundamental values: a mistaken theoretical and practical crncept of the independence of the spouses in relation to each other: serious misconceptions regarding the relationship of author-ity between parents and children: the concrete difficulties that the family itself experiences in the transmission of values: the growing number of divorces: the scourge of abortion: the ever more frequent recourse to sterilization: the appearance of a truly contraceptive mentality (6). Consequently. faced with a society that is running the risk of becoming more and more depersonalized and standardized and therefore inhuman and dehumanizing, with the negative results of many forms of escapism--such as alcoholism, drugs and even terrorism--the family possesses and continues still to release formidable energies capable of taking man out of his anonymity, keeping him conscious of his personal dignity, enriching him with deep humanity and actively placing him, in his uniqueness and unrepcatability, within the fabric of society (43). Among the more troubling signs of this phenomenon (obscuring of certain fundamental values), the Synod Fathers stressed the following, in particular: the spread of divorce and of recourse to a new union, even on the part of the faithful" the acceptance of purely civil ~-~Avery Dulles, "Imaging the Church for the 1980"s." Thought. vo!. 56. no. 221 (June, 1981), p. 121. 4~4 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 marriage in contradiction to the vocation of the baptized to "be married in the Lord": the celebration of the marriage sacrament without living faith, but for other motives; the rejection of the moral norms that guide and promote the human and Christian exercise of sexuality in marriage (7). Teilhard de Chardin's work The Divine Milieu shows the deepest reverence for the environment, human-divine-natural, that surrounds and sustains us. When that environment is affected adversely, there is a breakdown in the rich interde-pendence of all life. Family life is no exception to this universal phenomenon. Certain negative attitudes are in the air and certain ways of relating are becoming accepted that are injurious and destructive of communities of persons: divorce that rends and tears the hearts and minds of parents and children; misunderstanding and subsequent misuse of the gift and beauty of sexuality: erroneous attitudes regarding freedom; a striving for a type of independence that makes relationships impossible. The litany is long and off-key: the pain and the hurt are even more far-reaching and dissonant. Realism demands that we share the full portrait. Healthy family life does survive and is the source of much hope and joy. There are homes where children rejoice in the love and care shown by their parents; there are homes in which youth are given a sense of dignity and respect; there are homes that are sites of caring education and gracious growth. God has promised his presence to the family and with that presence comes the grace to fulfill that unique and noble vocation of every home--the sharing of love. Familiaris Consortio offers a blueprint, charting the waterways of family life. The journey of Lewis and Clark was filled with many unnecessary delays and detours because of the lack of maps. Though they do not remove the struggle of the journey, maps do help in marking the way. The papal exhortation continues the apostolic mission: revealing the mystery of God's love and forgiveness which makes possible community, the building of the kingdom in which we hear and respond with love to the voice of the Lord. From Tablet to Heart: Internalizing New Constitutions--I Patricia Spillane, M.S.C. Sister Patricia, a psychotherapist, lectures on initial and on-going formation. She resides at the convent of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart; 428 St. James Place: Chicago, IL 60614. The second part of her presentation will appear in the next issue of REWF.W FOR REI.IGIOUS. During the past few years, we religious have witnessed a ferment of activity in our congregations centering on drafting, writing and debating new constitutions. The Lord's charge to Habakkuk: Write down the vision clearly upon the tablet so that we can read it readily (Hab 2:2) is being taken seriously. Constitutional committees, feedback designs, provincial chapters have been devoted to this task. Some of us are already breathing a sigh of relief before a completed task, some of us are still laboring to clarify the vision or inscribe the tablets. But there is a hidden illusion here, that once the tablet is inscribed, the work is over! The Lord who told Habakkuk to write on the tablet also told Jeremiah that he, himself, would plant his law deep within, "writing it on their hearts" (Jr 31:33) instead of on fragments of stone or clay. So it is today. Whoever finishes "tablet-work" is at a crossroads of a more intense and crucial nature. The real task, the "heart work," is just beginning and the challenge which lies before us is far greater than the challenge we may have already surmounted. A beautiful document will remain just that and nothing more, unless it also becomes an opportunity for personal conversion, for personal adherence to its sources of inspiration: the gospel, and the charism of the individual congregation. New constitutions are indeed "a word that goes forth from my mouth" (Is 55:! i) and so may be likened to the seed in the parable of the sower (Mt 13:1-23). There the seed-word was met by a whole spectrum of attitudes that rendered it 495 4~ / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 more or less efficacious: from the indifference and defensiveness of those of "coarse heart., dull ears., shut eyes., fear [of] being converted," to the limited disponib~lity of those who "have no roots [since] trials., persecutions., worries ¯. riches choke the word," even after an initial joyful reception. The unconditional acceptance of those who are "good soil" is not found as often as we would like to believe. Human nature has not changed since the time those attitudes were described. The "word," whether of the gospel or of a congregation, will be as effective as each of us can allow it to be, personally and corporately. Our new constitutions are indeed a "two-edged sword," but we can block its passage to our "secret emotions and thoughts"(Heb 4:12). It is indeed a seed, bursting with the potentiality of life, but the finest seed in the world needs a welcoming environment. With all of our good will, each of us may be specializing in certain obstacles that may prevent these constitutions from taking root and producing the fruits of inner conversion, may render subjectively ineffective the objective grace of the moment. These obstacles, rather than our good will, may be at the root of our attitudinal decisions before the constitutions. Whether we realize it or not, we are not just passive recipients of these new documents. Each of us makes active decisions concerning them, with or without our awareness, and often the decision may be made before we even see the document. Neither is this "decision" an isolated factor in our life; rather it springs from the same soil which has fostered every other decision we have made. What Attitudinal Decisions Do New Constitutions Evoke in Us? What are some of the myriad possibilities of responses to this word, of attitudi-nal decisions before our constitutions, that could arise? We must recognize that anything which is both new and demanding naturally represents a threat to our established way of looking at things, to our life-style, to our values. It calls for change, for letting go of the comfortable and familiar, for embarking on untried and risky roads--even if only in small and subtle ways. It is good for us to recognize and admit how easily the gospel, our charism, our documents can threaten us. Our challenge lies in how we handle the stress which this threat brings. On the one hand we can resist in an active, rebellious way, challenging the need for norms, for institutional guidelines, for adherence to the magisterium of the Church. Or we can resist in a more subtle, passive way--remaining indifferent, unaffected; quietly ignoring what rubs us the wrong way. We can comply, go along with what is outwardly expected of us, as long as the community is aware of it or because the consequences of not "going along" would be too unpleasant. Or, at another level, we can accept the constitutions because "that's what good religious do," or because the present community to which we belong values them, and so should we. While this identification does not stop when we are no longer actually being observed by members of the community, the satisfaction due to our relation-ship with others is more important to us than the value itself. Thus, this attitudinal choice still leaves something to be desired. Our motivation remains external to us. From Tablet to Heart / 497 Finally, Luke describes the last category of listeners to the word as: people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance (Lk 8:15). This is an excellent biblical description of what is meant by internalization: a true taking-to-heart of the value for its own sake, whether it is popular or unpopu-lar, whether we are being observed by others or not observed, whether it is gratifying or painful. Internalization of his Father's will was the only way that Jesus remained faithful unto death to his redemptive mission: rewards and friends had all disappeared; there remained only faith that this was what the Father called him to do. Vulnerability of Our Attitudes So we see that the great accomplishment of approved constitutions can falter and come to nothing, unless we are disposed to respond by attitudinal decisions that lead to the increase of internalization and the decrease of either resistance or compliance. We see that our attitudinal choices are vulnerable, with the result that, unknowingly, we may be moving towards an ephemeral and passing satisfaction instead of towards the true life that Jesus intends for each of us through these documents (see Jn 10:10). But what makes our attitudinal choices so vulnerable? What can we do about it? Perhaps we can begin by attempting to understand the source of these vulner-abilities. After all, it is a very ancient problem. The Israelites d~]ring the exodus could be seen to manifest the same spectrum of attitudes towards the covenant. Moses, in the words of the writer of Deuteronomy, finally put it to them clearly: I set before you life or death, blessing or curse: choose life then. (Dr 31:19). Let us begin to look more deeply into how, from the time of the Israelites to the present day, our choices can be torn between life and death, can lead us to our highest happiness or our greatest betrayal. To that end, let us look first at the source of these decisions--our very selves--and then at various aspects of these decisions. A. The Person as Locus of Attitudinal Decisions Attitudinal choices of life or death do not spring from a vacuum. They origi-nate in and are consistent with" that complex of motivations, forces and behaviors which we call "the self." Concentrating on the self, however, is not meant to be an exercise in individu-alism. Vitz~ warns us how the exaltation of the self and concentration on self-fulfillment result in a parody of our true selves. Kernberg2 has devoted many years ~Paul C. Vitz, Psychology as Religion: the Cult of Self- Worship (.Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977). 2Otto Kernberg, Borderline Conditions and Pathological Narcissism (NY: Jason-Aronson, 1975). __, "Why Some People Can't Love," Psychology Today (June, 1978), pp. 55-59. 1191t / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 to a study of the increasing manifestations of narcissism in American society that result in a pathology of the self. Hendin describes the culture of the Age of Sensation as: marked by a self-interest and ego-centrism that increasingly reduces all relations to the question: What am 1 getting out of it?~ Obviously such caricatures of the self are inimicable to the gospel which says "anyone who wants to save his life will lose it" (Mt 16:25). Nevertheless, it is precisely self-knowledge which can be the greatest aid to making it possible for us to lay down our lives. All the saints testify to this truth, but 1 will restrict myself throughout this article to two great woman saints: Catherine of Siena, the great laywoman and mystic of the fourteenth century, and Frances Xavier Cabrini, the zealous mission-ary of the twentieth century, who founded my own congregation, the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. If you would come to perfect knowledge and enjoyment of me, eternal life, never leave the knowledge of yourself . oh, how delightful to the soul and pleasing to me is holy prayer made in the house of self-knowledge and knowledge of me! (Catherine of Siena, The Dia-logue, no. 4,66). And when we begin to know ourselves, it is a grace so great that we can never thank Jesus enough since it is an illumination from his divine heart. Let us gratefully run along this way. (Frances Cabrini, Letters, no. 96). We have already insisted on the capacity of the self to function as an active sub-ject-- not just to react as the passive object of environmental stimuli. Our behavior may stem in part from external influences, but these influences are internally organized into already existing psychic structures that we normally call motiva-tions. Hence the motivations are as important as the behavior, the inner structures as important as the process of emotionally experiencing the environment. Neither is the self simply an organization of the present moment. We reach back to the past (which we may have forgotten) and forward to goals we have not yet attained. The actual needs of the past and present must be balanced with the ideals of the future, a fact which psychologists are more and more integrating into their self-theory. Wylie4 considers the sub-components of the self as the actual-self and the ideal-self. Kohut, who has devoted himself to the analysis of the self,~ speaks of its developing optimally from the interaction of ambition (needs) and ideals. Rulla6 further subdivides our actual-self with its needs and ambitions into a social, behavioral and latent self, and our ideal-self into a personal self-ideal as well SHerbert Hendin, The Age of Sensation (NY: McGraw-Hill & Co. 1977), p. 13. *R. C. Wylie, "The Present Status of Self Theory" in Handbook of Personality Theory and Research, Borgatta & Lambert, ed. (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1968), pp. 734-752. ~Heinz Kohut, The Analysis of the Se/f(NY: International Universities Press, 1977). 6Luigi M. Rulla, S.J., Depth Psychology and I/ocation (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1971), pp. 35-37. The theoretical framework of this article is derived from the writings and teachings of Rulla. From Tablet to Heart / 499 as the ideals we believe others expect of us (institutional-ideal). Rulla further distinguishes between the subjective ideals we personally hold as important to us and the extent to which these are consonant with objective ideals---especially the revealed values of the gospei and the following of Christ. Needs and Values Within Our Conscious and Unconscious Selves However, we must admit that the self often remains a mystery to us. Paul laments "I do not understand my own behavior" (Rm 7:!5). Conscious factors interact with unconscious forces within us, unknowingly influencing our decisions and our attitudes despite our good will. Because they are unknown to us (and our defenses may be strong enough to resist coming to know them), this unconscious part of the self can greatly contribute to the vulnerability of our attitudinal deci-sions. Whether we are talking about the "Known/Unknown-to-self" of the Johari Window,7 Freud's unconscious, or Rulla's latent self, we cannot ignore the fact that we unconsciously put obstacles in the way of taking the word to heart. Grace builds on nature--but we may abuse our God-given freedom by hiding from unpleasant truths which may be interfering with the action of grace. It is this unconscious aspect of the self that touches so deeply two primary attributes of the self: our human needs which are innate, universal and strive naturally for psycho-biological or psycho-social satisfaction; and our values and ideals which are developed in the course of a lifetime. We all have needs, e.g., aggressive, dependent, sexual, and so forth, but backgrounds and previous situa-tions may have made these needs so unacceptable to us that we divorce them from ourselves by a defensive barrier that relegates them to our unconscious self. Because they are buried, however, does not mean they are inactive; in fact they may be all the more influential because of our lack of awareness. At the other end of the spectrum of self-attributes are our values which natu-rally begin by being subjective and personal, but which should mature so that the objectivb values of Christ come to coincide with our personal ideals and choices (which is what internalization is all about). However there is a "tension arc" stretched between these two poles which can often result in the weaker values succumbing to stronger unconscious needs. In this case, the values never are internalized because of contradictions in the self between the actual and the ideal. Rulla has introduced the term "inconsistencies" to describe these poorly-integrated tensions between needs and values. While certain human needs may be consistent with the following of Christ, e.g., the need to achieve, to care for others (nurtur-ance), to overcome difficulties (counteraction), certain others such as inferiority (abasement), avoidance of pain (harm-avoidance), or defensiveness interfere with the following of Christ and hence may represent significant inconsistencies in individuals where they predominate. Ideally, we should be able to acknowledge and accept the presence of these inconsistencies which we all have, integrate them 7joseph Lufl. Group Processed (Palo Alto: National Press, 1961). 500 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 in a manner appropriate to a vowed life, and thus be freer to be attracted by and assimilate the values of Christ. However, when the block of unconscious needs cannot be acknowledged, a vicious circle begins of denying what we most need to deal with, of distorting our image of ourselves to match our ideal-self instead of dealing with what is actually present. Self As Holistic, Structural, Purposive Thus far we have seen that our attitudinal choices originate in a self that is both reactive and becoming, both conscious and unconscious, both real and ideal in our efforts to integrate values and needs in a consistent way. Another theorist, Jane Loevinger,8 describes the necessary characteristics that must be incorporated into a healthy self, or into any adequate self-theory. Thus, among other elements, she maintains that the self must be understood as holistic, structural and purposive. When we interpret this in the light of religious life, several implications concerning the self emerge: The holistic self." Self as the locus of growth in Christ and for purposes of internali-zation must be seen as the integration of all its aspects: conscious and unconscious; active and passive; the psycho-biological, psycho-social, and psycho-spiritual: the cognitive, affective and volitional; the real and the ideal. The part that each element has to play in the final ordering of a mature consistent self is not just a result of haphazard whim or fancy. Rather, true integration moves from more primitive, ego-centered positions to more advanced levels that do not exclude the earlier but incorporate them into newer, more mature patterns. The structural self." A great many theorists today stress the self as being in process; problems are envisioned in terms of blocked emotional and experiential pro-cesses. 9 They emphasize those components of ourselves that are or should be in movement, in flux, in change. While this approach contains an undeniable truth, a holistic approach includes other aspects as well. We are not only emotion, flux, becoming. Our inner selves are also organized into stable structured patterns of needs, motivations and ideals; of behavioral tendencies and patterns of relation-ships that are remarkably stable, resistant to change and indeed form the source of our emotional reactions, our manner of experiencing the world and our behavioral tendencies. Thus while our structures or psychic patterns seem to epitomize Our stable and non-changing elements, in reality we can experience no real change unless these very structures are touched and altered. A structural view of the self is sound not only from a psychological point of view but also from a theological. The late Gustave Weigel in his considerations on Theology and Freedom looks first at the self which is capable of reaching freedom. He contrasts an experiencing self in flux as: 8Jane Loevinger, ~Theories of Ego Development" in ClinieabCognitive Psychology: Models and Inte-gration, L. Breger, ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N J: Prentice-Hall, 1969), pp. 87-99. 9E.g., most of the humanistic schools--Rogers, Maslow, et al. From Tablet to Heart / 51~1 isolated, unrelated consciousness, floating without orientation or direction on the mysterious sea of existence, itself selfless with the self as presumed by Catholic theology which begins with the supposition that the self is structured and its affirmations must be related to that structure.~0 ¯ Thus a view of the self without structure and only in process cannot help us either spiritually or humanly. If a religious has unknowingly reacted all his or her life so as to comply with the sacrifices invited, by chastity, poverty and obedience and has never really internalized them, he or she has unwittingly formed a pattern and a structure of compliance that will not change only by focusing on his or her emotions and experiences. The roots of our patterns must be dealt with before lasting, significant change can occur. The purposive self." Loevinger sees the self as inherently striving for meaning, purpose, goals--echoing the ideal-self of Wylie, Rulla, Kohut, et al. Frankl speaks of the "will to meaning" as opposed to "the will to pleasure." Indeed happiness, fulfillment, identity are all side effects of the successful search for meaning: It may now have become clear that a concept such as self-actualiTation, or self-realization, is not a sufficient ground for a motivational theory. This is mainly due to the fact that self-actualization, like power and pleasure, also belongs to the class of phenomena which can only be obtained as a side effect and are thwarted precisely to the degree to which they are made a matter of direct intention. Self-actualization is a good thing: however. I maintain that man can only actualize himself to the extent to which he fulfills meaning. Then self-actualization occurs spontaneously: it is contravened when it is made an end in itself.~ Indeed the capacity to commit ourselves marks our highest capacity, our ability to transcend ourselves, to go beyond gratification and pleasure to value and meaning. To the extent that the values and meanings for which we transcend ourselves are objective and true (consistent with our self-as-it-ought-to-be), happi-ness and self-fulfillment will gradually emerge as side effects. Thus, new constitutions ought to prick and challenge us--make us uncom-fortable- not be already within our grasp. Our tendency can be, however, to "cut down to size," reduce the demand quality of something which may annoy and anger us because it disturbs our comfort. We have to be willing to forego, unlike the rich young man (Mk 10:17-22), the gratification of"but I've already been doing all that," to push forward, stretch, go beyond where we are, to transcend our own comfort in the service of values which have originated beyond us. The Subjectivization of Values Both Frankl and Rulla have been very concerned with the relativization and individualization of values which we see so often in modern society. Values which ~0Gustave Weigel, S.J., "Theology and Freedom" in Foundations./'or "a Psychology of Grace (Glen Rock. N J: Paulist Press, 1966), p. 188. ~Victor Frankl, Psychotherapy and Existentialism (NY: Clarion Bks, 1967), p. 8. 502 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 should be objective and clear become subjectively evaluated (for discarding or adaptation); we tend to elevate ourselves and our needs as ends in themselves, thereby actually making ourselves into an object. We become the measure of the value instead of the value calling us forth. Here our ideal-self has become absorbed into our actual-self and has become its puppet, instead of being a liberating, independent force which urges our actual-self further along the road to maturity and freedom. An adaptation of one of Frankl's diagrams can help us envision this tendency more clearly:12 Strong human needs (1) especially unconscious ones that are dissonant with the following of Christ can cause the values (2) to be unconsciously "adjusted" (subjectified) so that the person (3) becomes the norm (objectified). This may lead to temporary self-fulfillment and gratification, but not to lasting happiness because it has diluted the values that encouraged us towards self-transcendence. Frankl calls for changing this situation through re-objectifying the values and re-subjectifying the person by means of a value-oriented theory and practice (4). To the extent that we can realize this, to that same extent can we find a true self-fulfillment in Christ that comes as a result of having transcended ourselves. Unless a grain of wheat fails on the ground and dies, it remains a single grain: but if it dies. it yields a rich harvest (Jri 12:24). Thus far we have considered the self with its intricate weaving of values and needs, structure and function, elements known-to-self and unknown-to-self as the source of our attitudes ranging from acceptance to refusal of God's design. Now let us turn to examine more closely the process and result of our decision-making, so '~Ibid., p. 66. From Tablet to Heart / 503 as to better understand the interactions of nature and grace within us. To do this, we shall look at attitudinal decisions from three aspects: spiritual philosophical and psychological. B. The Spiritual Dimension of Our Attitudinal Decision We can consider the spiritual dimension of decisions and attitudes since, in a holistic and purposive view of the self, over and above the fact that our capacities are God-given in themselves, we can and ought to reach out for transcendent goods. Thus our decisions may be considered spiritual on the basis of their object, i.e., what is being chosen, and on their mode, i.e., how the "what" is being chosen, under the influence of what--grace or inconsistent human needs. God calls, and awaits our human decision. He offers us his grace that makes possible but not obligatory our decision to respond to a transcendent good. Thus our decision may be the meeting ground between nature and grace--an encounter between two liberties. But, as we have already seen, this liberty to ,respond may be conditioned by various factors, notwithstanding our good will and sincere desire to serve God. This is our subjective holiness, the extent to which we actually do respond to grace in spite of our human limits and weaknesses. However, we also have to consider objective holiness--the extent to which we could respond to God if our liberty was less impaired, i.e., if there were less unknown inconsistencies with which we had to struggle.~3 We are responsible within the bounds of subjective holiness because there we know the weaknesses against wfiich we must consciously struggle. Obviously, we are not responsible for what we do not know--our hidden faults and failings--but we are responsible to do what is in our power to become aware of them. This is what the saints tried to do constantly--to become aware of what was formerly hidden from them through reflection, prayer, examen, and so forth. And because they were not defensive, they usually succeeded. Cabrini writes: We shouldn't be surprised at our defects, for such marveling comes from pride, but let us humble ourselves and reflect that they are like windows where the light enters so we can know ourselves better. Only humility is called the beginning of all perfection; why shouldn't our defects help to know ourselves better and become more humble? (Pensieri e PropositL p. 166-167.) Discernment When we consider the object and mode of our choices, we are reminded of St. Ignatius' rules for the discernment of spirits: whether the soul is choosing a real or an apparent good; whether this soul is being drawn by grace or by "evil spirits." How can we discern between these two goods, since nothing is chosen except under the aspect of good? Or, as Lonergan would have it, how can we discern whether we are being drawn by the goods of the "ego-centered self" or the "ego-transcending self"?. It is beyond the scope of this work to comment in detail on the ~-~Luigi M. Rulla, S.J., Joyce Ridick, S.S.C., Franco Imoda, S.J., Entering and Leaving Vocation (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1976), pp. 212-214. 504 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 parallels between Ignatian discernment and modern vocational depth-psychology: the reader is referred to the numerous articles that have appeared recently in this vein)4 Suffice it to say that the real goods of the kingdom are consistent with the revealed objective truths of the gospel and of Church teaching: that they are concerned with discovering and living God's will regardless of the cost, and not our plan for ourselves; and that such goods leave intact or intensify our intimacy with Christ, our acceptance of and living out of his word, even when that entails great sacrifice and hardship. In some cases it is fairly easy to discern the real from the apparent good: at other times we know what God wants even though we feel humanly repulsed by it. Many times, however, the case is not so clear; we can be convinced that God wants something when in reality it is our own inconsistent tendencies that want it. Sometimes we later see and understand our error: sometimes we never discover that truth. St. Ignatius tells us to look for "consolation without cause" following the choice of the real good--and desolation when this is not so. Unfortunately, our emotional weighing of a good to be chosen can be confused by unconscious inconsistencies rendering our emotions unreliable guides. Consolation and desolation do not necessarily identify with pleasure and pain., only when affeetivity is ordered can it in turn become the clue to the direction in which one should go within the myriad good options that surround one's life (Italics mine).~5 Grace or Gratification? We have considered "decision for what?" The issue of "how, under what influence?" is equally important. How do we discern if grace or gratification is what moves us? Certainly, grace moves us in the direction of the real good: our conversion to the will of God and the imitation of Christ. Grace enables us to go beyond our natural desires for natural goods and to take root in a transcendent love of Jesus Christ. Not only does grace make conversion possible (Lonergan's operative grace) but enables us to cooperate with it so as to effect the gradual movement towards a full and complete transformation of the whole of one's living and feeling¯ one's thoughts, words, deeds and omissions.~ But how can we tell if it is really grace at work, or our own needs? There are no litmus tests for the Spirit, no computer analysis which can pin him down. But holy men and women from the dawn of the Christian era have used their spiritual ~'~Luigi M. Rulla, S.J., "The Discernment of Spirits and Christian Anthropology," Gregorianum (Vol. 59, 3: 78), pp. 537-569. Laurence Murphy¯ S.J., "Psychological Problems ~f Christian Choice." The Way, 1~75, pp. 25-28. ¯'Psychological Development," Supplement to 7he Way, n.38 (Summer. 1980), pp. 30-40. Louis Gendron¯ S.J., "The Exercises and Vocational Therapy," Supplement to The Way, n.38 (Summer, 1980), pp. 53-67. ~Michael Buckley¯ S.J., "Rules for the Discernment of Spirits," Supplement to The Way, no.20 (1973), pp. 29-35. ~rBernard J. Lonergan¯ S.J.¯ Method in Theology. 2nd ed. (NY: Herder and Herder. 1973), p. 241. From Tablet to Heart / 505 intuition, the fruits of disponibility to grace, to discern. Rahner, using the most simple and commonplace of means, discerns that only grace can be at work in the following instances: Have we ever kept quiet, even though we wanted to defend ourselves when we had been unfairly treated? Have we ever forgiven someone even though we got no thanks for it and our silent forgiveness was taken for granted? Have we ever obeyed, not because we had to and because otherwise things would have become unpleasant for us, but simply on account of that mysterious, silent incomprehensible being we call God and will?. Have we ever tried to love God when we are no longer being borne on the crest of the wave of enthusiastic feeling, when it is no longer possible to mistake our self. and its vital urges, for God?. Have we ever been good to someone who did not show the slightest sign of gratitude or comprehension and when we also were not rewarded by the feeling of having been "selfless," decent, etc.?~7 It is interesting from a psychological point of view how clearly Rahner sees that an inordinate need for self-esteem can be an obstacle to our growth in grace and holiness: when it is more important for our self-esteem to be boosted up by others' good opinion of us, our own positive evaluation of ourselves, uplifting emotional experiences, and so forth; when it is more important for us to feel good about serving God than simply to serve God for his own sake. Self-esteem is essential; abasement (a helpless sense of inferiority) is a deterrent to growth in holiness. But our self-esteem should be secure enough to withstand at times the lack of external supports and proofs of how good we are. Rahner, in commenting on the latter occasions, goes on to say: If we find such experiences, then we have experienced the spirit., when we let ourselves go in this experience of the spirit, when the tangible and assignable, the relishable element disap-pears, when everything takes on the taste of death and destruction, or when everything disappears as if in an inexpressible white, colorless and intangible beatitude--then in actual fact it is not merely the spirit but the Holy Spirit who is at work in us. Then is the hour of grace . The chalice of the Holy Spirit is identical in this life with the chalice of Christ. This chalice is drunk only by tho~ who have slowly learned in little ways to taste the fullness in emptiness, the ascent in the fall, life in death, the finding in renunciation. Anyone who learns this, experiences the spirit--the pure spirit--and in this experience he is also given the experience of the Holy Spirit of grace.~ Thus we see that evaluating our attitudinal decisions in the light of the spirit has to focus on the object of our choice (real, ego-transcending goods; apparent, ego-centered goods or the whole spectrum inbetween) and on the mode of our choosing (under the influence of grace or of gratification). Our constitutions are a real good, calling for that transcendence which leads to greater assimilation of Christ and consistent living of the gospel. "It is now no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Ga 2:20). Such a transformation can only be possible with the aid of grace, but grace is "God;s action on the psychic structure of man,''~9 and those same psychic structures can also render grace ineffective. ~TKarl Rahner. S.J., "Reflections on the Experience of Grace" in Theological Investigations. Vol. Ill (NY: Seabury Press, 1974), p. 87. ~Slbid. p. 88. ~gRulla, 1971, pp. 167-8. 501~ / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 C. The Philosophical Dimension of Our Attitudinal Decisions The intellect, memory and will have traditionally been the principal faculties of man which have concerned the great philosophical theorists of the past. Modern thinkers have elaborated on the traditional criteria and begun to determine other intervening variables which must also be considered. Their contributions can be enlightening in our search for greater understanding of our attitudinal decisions. Lonergan20 analyzes the conscious operations of man to see how conscious decisions are reached, as summarized in this chart: Level of Faculty Operation Product Consciousness Senses Registration of empirical sense data Perception Empirical cs. Intellect Understanding (inquiry) Hypothesis Intelligent cs. Judgment (critical reflection) Validated insight Rational cs. Will Will: willing; willingness Decision Responsible cs. Decisions are built upon all the preceding conscious operations. Our intellect not only takes what has been perceived (level of experience) to inquire ("What is it?") and reach a hypothesis ("! think it's X!'), but also judges ("Was that fight?") to validate the original insight ("No, it was a Y!'). Only then do we, according to Lonergan, reach the level of responsibility where we can make a decision (therefore, I'll . . .). In reality, for example, a feeling of unrest (sense data) gets tentatively tagged ("Maybe I'm angry"), then validated ("As a matter of fact, I'm furious!'), before reaching a decision ("1'11 try to get hold of this, see what's causing it and not just attack the first person in sight!'). "An admirable decision!" we might say, but it is not one that occurs automatically. Lonergan's four steps are clear, but they do not explain why the resulting decisions could be so different from person to person. We can fail to come to a correct hypothesis of the same sense data ("They're all against me!"), fail to validate it properly ("As a matter of fact, they're figuring out how to get rid of me!"), and so come tb a completely different decision ("1"11 get even--I'll outsmart them all!'). In this example, it is obvious that emotion acted as intervening factor to distort the appropriateness of our final decision even if the four operations remained the same. To help us resolve this dilemma, Lonergan distinguishes at the level of respon-sibility between will, i.e., the bare capacity to make a decision, exercised or not; willing, i.e., the act of deciding; and willingness, i.e., a readiness to decide that does not need persuasion to bring it about.2~ Obviously, there are some objective goods -'°Lonergan, Method. pp. 6-16. __, Insight: A Study of Human Understandingo(I,ondon: I_ongmans Green, 1958), pp. 271- 278; 608-616. Ibid., pp. 622-23. From Tablet to Heart / 507 that we might be more reluctant to choose than others. This reluctance of ours is our lack of '~antecedent willingness." The whole issue of freedom is concerned here--not just essential freedom which is innately given to our nature, but even more important for our discussion, our effective freedom, i.e., "the broad or narrow., operation range" which this essential freedom can exercise.22 But, according to Lonergan, one of the requirements for effective freedom is precisely that antecedent willingness of which we have been speaking. Furthermore, Loner-gan sees grace as directly affecting this antecedent willingness,23 the grace of sincere effort even without guarantees of successful outcome. Finally, antecedent willing-ness is directly affected in conversion: To religious conversion. I would ascribe as a minimum two notes: First. it is a change in one's antecedent willingness: one becomes antecedently willing to do the good that previously one was unwilling to do . 24 And yet how do we become antecedently willing to do the good? What is there that prevents our passage into that state of mind and heart? What more must be considered? Rulla makes some useful comments when he considers the interrelationship of personal dispositions, affective and effective, on Lonergan's four conscious opera-tions. As in the previous!y quoted example, emotions originating from needs may influence our perception of X, our first hypothesis concerning X, and our judg-ment concerning our first impression. Emotions and human needs can befuddle us enough when they are conscious; the situation is even more serious when our needs and the subsequent emotions are unconscious and, therefore, even more influential on how we judge a situation. Hence, affective dispositions, whether conscious or unconscious, influence effective dispositions (and especially antecedent willingness) that lead to decision-making. With antecedent willingness thus limited, our effec-tive freedom is also limited, with the result that our emotions resulting from our needs (especially when unconscious) can form the single most effective barrier to God's gift of conversion. Our resistance to cooperative grace can render the gift ineffective. D. The Psychological Dimension of Our Attitudinal Decisions We have looked at the process of decision-making from the point of view of grace on the one hand, and our will on the other. What remains is to see in what way psychology can complement and round out what we have already seen. Magda Arnoldz5 has devoted her life to a phenomenological analysis of emo- "-'-Ibid., p. 619. 23Bernard J. Lonergan. S.J. Foundations of Theology: McShane. ed. (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan¯ 1971), p. 226. ~'~Lonergan, Method, p. 241. ~Magda Arnold¯ Feelings and F~notions (NY: Academic Press, 1970). ¯ Emotion and Personality. II Vol. (NY: Columbia, 1960). 501~ / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 tion, especially in its influence on choice, will, and action. Her work is both scientifically sound, value-oriented, and appreciative of our transcendent dimen-sion. Arnold maintains that all choice--even of the most transcendent goods-- usually involves an emotional component which normally is derived from a basic human need on the psycho-biological and/or psycho-social level. Actually, truly human decision-making is a secondary possibility that follows from a more primi-tive instinctual movement. In this earlier phase, something is perceived, and immediately appraised, in a spontaneous, involuntary manner, as "good or bad for me here and now," i.e., as appealing to a basic instinct or need. Usually a spon-taneous emotion of attraction or withdrawal is the result. Emotional Wanting Three additional factors enter into this intuitive appraisal or emotional warn-ing. The first is the physiological reaction which accompanies normal emotion, e.g., changes in cardiac and/or respiratory functions, changes in hormone and enzyme secretions, tensing/relaxing of voluntary and involuntary muscles (from which the whole gamut of psycho-physiological disease can emerge). Often, if we are insensitive to our emotional states, our bodily changes may be the first indica-tions we will have--although we may remain in the dark as to the source of our physical discomfort. The second element in intuitive appraisal has already been indirectly noted, i.e., that we may be unaware of the emotional reaction which is taking place. Two components may become involved here, either the object of the emotion (e.g., at whom I am angry) or the experience of the emotion itself (e.g., the fact that I am angry). In either case, my defenses have arisen so that part of what I am subjec-tively experiencing becomes lost to my awareness even though it continues to influence me. The further pity is that I can no longer do anything about it and will remain enslaved to an unknown factor. In this case, I can no longer exercise my capacity for conscious choice (e.g., what ! am going to do about my anger). The reason behind my lack of awareness (partial or total) of my emotional state may involve the third factor, "affective memory." Memory involves not only the who, what, when. and how of the past (modality-specific memory), but also the specific feelings which that event or person aroused in me, e.g., fear, attraction, hatred, inferiority (affective memory). It is quite possible for the modality-specific dimension to drop from awareness behind the defensive barricade while the affec-tive dimension is being aroused time and time again--explaining why, for exam-ple, I continually have the same angry reaction towards authority figures, since my affective memory is being stirred up in each case. Hence, this emotion-laden deposit may be a hidden factor which predetermines me towards/away from a particular decision/course of action. The connection between Arnold's affective memory and Lonergan's antecedent willingness should be apparent. Furthermore, when mention was made in the previous section of the affective dispositions which influence Lonergan's conscious operations, it was precisely this issue of emotional wanting and affective memory that was meant. From Tablet to Heart / 509 Rational Wanting Are we, then, to remain a slave to our emotional vagaries and to the needs from which they spring? No, for Arnold has determined that a second phase of the decisional process may follow the first. 1 say "may" because I can stop at the level of emotional wanting ("l want it/l don't want it") and mislake that for a real decision. Certainly, animals and small children have no further possibilities, but as we chronologically mature, our capacity for reflective appraisal or rational want-ing should mature also. Here, what is appraised and judged is the emotional reaction and its accompanying tendency: "OK, I feel that way! now what am 1 going to do about it?" Here, the possibility for a real decision, not just an emo-tional reaction, occurs. The emotion and its source is consciously and calmly accepted, but we remain in control to decide whether or not to follow the emo-tional tendency. Here we move beyond our spontaneous reactions to the possibil-ity of free choice: if human needs from our actual-self were the source of the initial emotional movement, we can contrast and weigh them against the values, ideals, and commitments of our ideal-self Here, Lonergan's true level of responsibility has been reached, because we can truly take hold of the movement of our lives and give it responsible shape. Either form of decisions can prevail in a given life, either the pseudo-decisions of emotional wanting, or the true decisions of reflective judgment and rational wanting. In the first case we have the child, the immature adult--the man of James' epistle who looks at himself "and then, after a quick look, goes off and immediately forgets." In the second case, we have the man who looks steadily at the perfect law of freedom and makes that his habit--not listening and then forgetting, but actively putting it into practice (Jm 1:25). This is a portrait of a consistent individual who knows and integrates both needs and values in an increasingly mature and transcendent life-style. Not only must we respond appropriately to our human affectivity, but we must also be open to feel increasingly attracted to transcendent goods as well--intimacy with Jesus and the desire to imitate him, which is the hallmark of the emotional integration and affective maturity of the saints. The understanding., is moved by affection [which] is love's hand. and this hand fills the memory with thoughts of me and of the blessings 1 have given . IT]he soul cannot live without love. She always wants to love something, because love is the stuff she is made of ICatherine of Siena, The Dialogue. 51). What Function Does This Value Have in My Life? Obviously we form habits of reaction or decision-making in both emotional wanting and rational wanting. Pervasive attitudes are being established which form a matrix of"readiness to respond" in the direction of our needs/emotions or of our values and their attractiveness. Hence the phrase "attitudinal decisions," since each decision that we make is based" on the foundation of our previous attitudes, emotional wantings and rational wantings, known and unknown. 5"10 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 Let us focus more closely on this all-important attitudinal factor. We have myriads of attitudes--beliefs about this or that person, the community, the super-ior, the ministry in which I am engaged, the responsibility which 1 might be asked to assume. The basic components which underlie this multitude are more limited since our attitude towards any particular object is shaped largely by our needs or by our values; hence we may speak of emotional attitudes or rational attitudes (with the obvious admixtures). Like emotions, we may be aware or unaware of a particular attitude--or at least of the source behind it. Katz26 has determined that not only is the content of an attitude important (e.g., "working for social justice is the only worthwhile apostolate for me"), but important also is why that attitude is held, i.e., the function, known or unknown, which it plays in my life. Hence Katz demonstrates that attitudes (and values as well) may fulfill, among others, the following functions: an ego-d~fensive.function: I need to work with the poor and down-trodden to lift up my own sense of inferiority and feel good about myself. a utilitarian.function: Social justice is the stated concern of our hierarchy, and identifying with that will help me get a particular appointment I desire. Obviously, few of us can be that direct and honest about our motivations (although, with help, we could come to conclusions concerning our real intentions, and then be in a position to do something about it). Sadly enough, research27 shows that the more needy and conflictual we are a) the more we will act according to one of these aforementioned functions, and b) the more we will unconsciously protect ourselves from that knowledge, leading to a vicious circle which is not easily broken. Finally, we may espouse an attitude because of its value-expressive function: in spite of the discomforts and difficulties involved, ! think Jesus Christ is calling me to work directly with the poor without self-seeking or self-righteousness. Obviously even when struggling to maintain "a pure intention," motives get mixed, The difficulty lies in the situation where we are unaware of the mixture and, therefore, unable to choose otherwise; where we are so convinced that only the value-expressive function moves us that we never honestly look at other possibilities. A Deeper Look Into Compliance, Identification, Internalization To tie up this discussion of attitudes with our earlier considerations of the self from which these attitudes proceed, we must remember that in a structured self these tendencies towards the predominance of emotional over rational wanting (or vice versa) or towards the prevalence of ego-defensive or utilitarian functions of attitudes/values all form stable structures, enduring inner patterns which lead to -'nDaniel Katz. "The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes" in Readings in Attitude Theory and Measurement. Fishbein. ed. (NY: Wiley, 1967), pp. 457-468. aTRulla, Ridick and Imoda. 1976, pp. 77-80. From Tablet to Heart / 511 persistent behaviors that may or may not enhance the vowed following of Christ. Another psychic structure to which we have previously referred was the tendency to adapt new attitudes]values through compliance, identification or internaliza-tion. 2s It would seem advantageous to examine these tendencies more deeply. Kelman theoretically distinguishes them as follows: compliance is the predom-inant mode when we adopt a new attitude]value leading consciously or uncon-sciously to a particular behavior in order to gain a reward or avoid punishment, i.e., a satisfying or disappointing social effect on a significant other or others. We do not behave in that way or proclaim that value unless others are there to witness it. We do not believe in the content of the value or behavior for its own sake. In identification, we do believe in the value/behavior, but only because it is relevant in the context of a satisfying relationship to a person or a group. I identify with my friend Fr. X who believes in]does Y: or, 1 am happy to be a member of Group A which believes in and practices B. "Being a friend of," or "belonging to" is my chief source of satisfaction and self-esteem, not the belief or practice in itself. When X is no longer my friend, or no longer cares about Y: when my role as member of A is no longer attractive, or when A tells me that B ispassb, then 1 have no reason to continue believing in and living that value, and it will quietly be extinguished from my life. Finally, in internalization, we accept and live the value for its own sake, apart from punishment or reward, apart from roles or relationship. We believe in it and manifest it, whether it is popular or unpopular, "welcome or unwelcome" (2 Tm 4:1). I will serve God with all the faithfulness of which I am capable--not for the reward promised nor for the sake of the threats against those who are unfaithful--but for the pure love of him (Frances Cabrini, Pensieri e Propositi, p. 170). How clearly Cabrini rejected any lesser motivation than internalization, acting only for the pure love of God! We are called to do the same. In Katz's terms, the attitude/value is lived in a value-expressive way, and not in a utilitarian or ego-defensive fashion, as would be the case for compliance and identification. Rulta has made some important distinctions and additions to Kelman's theo-retical foundation. First of all, identification is really an ambivalent force, since it may lead us in time to an appreciation of the value in itself, apart from the relationship or role. Most of us began religious life identifying with the group or a particular person: only in time can it be seen if our initial identification leads forward to internalization of values, or remains bound up in non-internalizing identification. Secondly, external social influences are not the only factors at work in these three processes. There are also internal personal factors, especially those hidden in our latent selves, which dispose us to react to the environment in certain structured ways. Thirdly, true internalization for Rulla is not just a matter of any -'SHerbert Kelman. "Processes of Opinion Change," Public Opinion Quarterly (.Vol. 25, 1961). pp. 57-78. 512 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 value, no matter how fervently espoused, but of values which are objective and true. To achieve this, therefore, there must be a double consistency, my actual-self with my ideal-self, and my personal values with the objective values of Christ and the Church. In other words, 1 must have come sufficiently to know and accept my real self, so that I can then be attracted to, and be converted in reality to the values of Christ. Thus does affective maturity in Christ become possible: "knowing and accepting one's objective and free self-ideal and living it."~9 So far, we have proposed a number of problems and pitfalls that can occur when subjective attitudinal decisions meet the objective truth of our new constitu-tions. What can be done about this? In what direction must our attitudes change to effect the true internalization that we all seek? As it can be suspected, whatever tentative answers do exist are neither altogether new, nor will they provide an easy panacea. However. in the second part of this article 1 will try to provide a frame-work that may be useful in clarifying such a task. -"~Rulla, 1971, p. 182. The" Activ e-Co nte m pl a tiv e' Problem in Religious Life by David M. Knight Price: $.75 per copy, plus postage. Address: Review for Religious Rm 428 3601 Lindell Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63108 Poverty and Incarnation John J. O'Donnell, S.J. Father O'Donnell is a Lecturer in Christian Doctrine at Heythrop College: 11-13 Cavendish Square: London WIM 0AN. A Jesuit friend once confessed that he could honestly say that he wanted to be chaste and obedient, but he could not honestly desire to be poor. This attitude probably reflects the attitude of many Christians. After the Second Vatican Coun-cil with its affirmation of secular values and its admission that building this world contributes to the growth of God's kingdom, many Christians desired to turn away from an other-worldly spirituality, symbolized dramatically by external practices of asceticism and poverty. Interestingly enough, however, even the few intervening years since Vatican II have revealed that the gospel does not allow such an easy settlement with the issue of poverty. From the opening descriptions of Jesus' humble origins in a tiny, utterly insignificant corner of the Roman empire, to his final moments on the cross, abandoned by his people, his disciples and even the God whom he called Abba, Jesus is indeed poor. No doubt some elements of the gospel story, such as the stable at Bethlehem, have been sentimentalized. But even a non-believer such as Ernst Bloch acknowledges that we cannot demythologize the poverty of the historical Jesus. He writes, "The stable, the carpenter's son, the fanatic among the humble people, the.gallows at the end, all this is the stuff of history, not the gold of fable." Furthermore, if the life of Jesus manifests such a restlessness for the kingdom that he is the man who has nowhere to lay his head, his preaching as well points to the poor man as the one who is in the right situation to grasp the message of God's kingdom. At the heart of the New Testament is the beatitude whose original form according to Scripture scholars is closer to the Lucan version: "Blessed are you poor." It is the literal poor who are in a position to grasp what Jesus is about. The 513 5"1~1 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 woes of Jesus upon the rich are full of pathos. Tragically the wealthy are in the wrong life-situation to grasp the good news of Jesus. The only hope for such people is to sell all that they have and give it to the poor. As St. Luke puts it, "Sell your possessions and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Lk 12:33-34). In pointing to the heart, St. Luke touches upon the ultimate danger of riches. The man who piles up material things becomes a slave to the mentality of having so that he is no longer free to be himself. He so identifies himself with what he has that he is no longer free to be open to receive God's gift. God can only give his kingdom to the man who is poor enough to want to receive. Therefore, St. Luke's attitude to material things is to get rid of them as encumbrances to that openness necessary for accepting the good news. The gospel attitude to poverty operates on two levels. There is no escaping the fact that Jesus recommends real poverty but real poverty is for the sake of spiritual poverty. The latter is the ultimate goal but we deceive ourselves if we think we can achieve the one without the other. Bonhoeffer, in meditating upon the story of the rich young man in the gospels, suggests the kind of rationalization which we are all prone to make: "Jesus may have said: 'Sell thy goods', but he meant 'Do not let it be a matter of consequence to you that you have outward prosperity: rather keep your goods quietly, having them as if you had them not. Let not your heart be in your goods.'" Bonhoeffer rightly comments that such rationalizations prevent us from submitting to that single-mip, ded obedience to the word of the Lord which he demands. If Jesus demands both real and spiritual poverty from his followers, he has himself first embodied both these dimensions of poverty in his own life. The actual poverty of the man who began life in the stable and ended it on the gallows points to the spiritual poverty of the man for others, the one who loses his life to find it, who loves his own to the end. The actual poverty of Jesus thus points to the deeper poverty of his entire being. As Son of the Father he has nothing of his own. It is literally his nature to receive his entire being from his heavenly Father. And all that he receives he passes on in turn to his disciples. "All that 1 have heard from my Father I have made known to you" (Jn 15:15). The deepest poverty of Jesus then is the poverty which he has at the heart of the Trinity, a poverty which reveals itself in the incarnation. Grasping and possess-ing are so alien to his being that even his equality with God is not something to be clung to. Rather, as Paul says, Jesus emptied himself taking the form of a servant. He divests himself even of the form of his divinity. Paul sees that there is a logic which binds incarnation and poverty together. For what the incarnation means is precisely this: "He who was rich, for our sake became poor" (2 Co 8:9). And as the apostle further perceived, the sharing of our humanity contains already within it the risk of our rejection and the shadow of the cross. What then does this poverty of Christ mean for us, men and women of the Poverty and Incarnation / 515 twentieth century, who desire to be his disciples? Fundamentally it would seem that we are required, as Paul says, to put on the mind of Christ. The heart of his mentality is, as the incarnation attests, the self-emptying love of the servant of others. Matthew no doubt grasped this .point accurately when he modified the first beatitude to read: "Blessed are the poor in spirit." But poverty of spirit without actual poverty would be a rationalization and compromise of the gospel. For there is no way around the stumbling block that the God of Jesus is a God who is a partisan of the poor, the defender of the widow and the orphan, the champion of the oppressed, the seeker of the lost. God has identified himself with the outcast and those on the margins of respectability. The irrevocable event of this identification is the cross of the Jesus who died con-demned as a blasphemer and a rebel. In this event it becomes transparently clear that power-seeking is utterly alien to the being of God. This is the stumbling block which shatters the illusion that we can create an identity by grasping and self-assertion. The gospel proclaims that the weakness of God is stronger than men. If a man is truly grasped by this gospel, he cannot do otherwise than divest himself of possessions, not because he despises material things but because he is as restless as Jesus for the kingdom. And knowing who God is he wants to identify himself where God has identified himself, with the poor and the oppressed. It is not just a question of helping others. It is a question of identification. The man who believes the gospel of Jesus about the kingdom, who believes the gospel about the cross literally finds God hidden under His contrary in the ongoing suffering of the world. And here is perhaps the greatest challenge facing the contemporary disciple. There was a time when the gospel could be preached and understood in more individualistic categories. The neighbor with whom Christ identified was the man next door, the poor and needy of the village, other members of my family. But today it is impossible to identify with my neighbor unless I think in global terms. Our planet has become so small and the network of relationships so intertwined that one inevitably bears a responsibility for the suffering of men and women everywhere in the world. In 1980 the Brandt commission reported such statistics as the following: the northern hemisphere including Eastern Europe has a quarter of the world's population and four-fifths of its income: the southern hemisphere including China has three billion people, three quarters of the world's population but living on one-fifth of the world's income. Eight hundred million people are estimated to be destitute in the Third World today. It is estimated that hundreds of millions die from lack of food or will have their physical development impaired. The consumption of energy per head in industrialized countries compared to middle-income or low-income countries is in proportion of 100:10:1. Total military expenditures are approaching $450 billion a year, of which over half is spent by the Soviet Union and the United States, while annual spending on official develop-ment aid is only $20 billion. One could argue that such statistics reveal an injustice of tragic proportions according to the norms of any humanistic ethics. But for a Christian it is more 516 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 than a question of justice. It is the logic of God's love which impels him. If God's being is self-emptying love, if his preferential love is for the poor and powerless, then the disciple who accepts this transvaluation of all ~?alues cannot help but be in deep pain as he is assaulted by the suffering cries of the millions of the poor of the earth. He cannot help but want to identify with them and their plight, for he sees God's face in them. The more deeply one penetrates the mystery of the God of Christian faith, the more one sees the intrinsic connection of the incarnation and the cross. For incarnation is God's identification with creatureliness, finitude, powerlessness. And the ultimate consequence of this identification is the powerlessness of God in the cross of Jesus. To accept Jesus and his Father implies our taking this same powerlessness upon ourselves and our identification with the powerless of the earth. Paradoxically the more one loves this world, the more one is led in love to divest oneself of this world's goods in order to identify more completely with the dispossessed. In our own time it would seem that an authentic Christian spiritual-ity will call not for less poverty but for more. Meditating upon the massive proportions of human suffering, we cannot help but feel compelled to pray not only for the spiritual poverty of self-emptying love but for the grace to identify with the fate of the actually poor as well. The Contemporary Spirituality Of the Monastic Lectio .by Matthias Neurnan, O.S.B. Price: $.50 per copy, plus postage. Address: Review for Religious Room 428 3601 Lindell Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63108 Parables and Paradigms: Jesus' Journey and the Search for God Anthony Wieczorek, O.Praem. Brother Wieczorek, a seminarian, has taught courses on prayer and mysticism in the Continuing Education Department at Cardinal Stritch College (Milwaukee) and the Ministry and Life Center at his abbey: he lectures at St. Norbert College (De Pete). He resides in St. Norbert Abbey: De Pere. WI 54115. Scripture is the saga of a long and mutual search. God encourages and empow-ers all people to "seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for 'in him we live and move and have our being.'" (Ac 18:27-28: all Scripture verses are from the RSV). At the same time as we search for God, he searches for us. So much the searcher is God, so great is his longing for us, that "though he was in the form of God, he did not deem equality with God a thing to be grasped, rather he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Ph 2:6). God gives us an example of how to find him and be found by him in the life of the God-man, Jesus. Nowhere is the search in all its varied hues of meaning, or the spiritual life in all its mysterious rhythms, more clearly seen than in the life of Jesus, the Proto- Searcher. The life of Jesus is itself a parable and paradigm which describes the ebb and flow of the search for God in true fullness and balance. Some insight into the movements of the spiritual life can be gleaned from the following section of Mark's gospel. In those days Jesu~ came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when hc came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opencd and the Spirit dcsccnding upon him like a dove: and a voice came from heaven: "'You are my beloved son: with you I am well pleased." The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days. tempted by Satan: and he was with the wild beasts: and the angels ministered to him. 517 5"11~ / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee. preaching the gospel of God. and saying: "'The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent and believe in the gospel." That evening at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons: and he would not allow the demons to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to ~ lonely place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him pursued him, and they found him and said to him: ~'E\'ery one is searching for you." And he said to them: "l,et us go on to the next town. that I may preach there also: for that is why I came out"(Mk 1:9-15, 32-38). At least three movements with regard to the spiritual life are visible from this text: the journey of the Father to the Son (Jesus' baptism): the journey of the Son to the Father (Jesus" flight into the wilderness): and the journey of the Father with the Son (Jesus' return to Galilee). The Journey of the Father to the Son In Jesus' baptism the Father reached out to touch his Son. It is always God who initiates the search. Our search is a response to a search on the part of God. We seek and find because we have first been sought and found. What drew Jesus on to the Jordan'? May it not be the same as what draws us on to search for God? For a few, the spiritual life begins with an overwhelming experience of God's presence, an experience powerful enough to sustain them for years of diligent and serious searching. St. Paul's experience of the Risen Christ may be one such example. Many of us, though, are like Augustine. We search out of a want, a need, a hunger for something we do not possess or perhaps even know. God oftentimes initiates the spiritual life with a gift of hunger and longing, with emptiness rather than fullness. We are led on by the reality of our own emptiness. We may not know what we want but we know what we don't have. God some-times initiates the search with an itch. There is a wisdom in this that is often overlooked. The emptiness in which we find ourselves contributes to a condition of desperateness. No one is more ripe or willing to attempt an unheard-of cure or course of action than one who is truly desperate. Only one who has been readied by emptiness, hunger, and longing can respond to the impossible call of following God. Sometimes that hunger can build for years. Or, it may suddenly poke into consciousness even in lives which, in the eyes of the world, should be quite content and satisfied. For example, more and more people feel drawn to religious life during their middle-years, or at least at an age later than had been the norm. Whether their decision to pursue a religious life was a sudden thing or the result of many years of discernment, their choice to abandon one way of life and follow another is a response to a summons that is as persistent as it is intangible. Perhaps it is no accident that Jesus was well into adulthood when he was Parables and Paradigms / 5"19 .baptized. Maybe Jesus had tried to put off his call? Maybe Jesus was drawn to the Jordan by a hunger he had always had but which the Scribes and Pharisees could not satisfy? Jesus' baptism was itself the result of a search: it was the culmination of a decision to believe. Jesus' baptism was a surrender to the Father which involved the acceptance of a call and the attempt at a response. Therefore, Jesus' baptism was the beginning of another search to understand what the Father wanted of him. For Jesus, as for us, the completion of one search--the decision to believe--led to the commencement of another: what form of response is our belief to take? The Journey of the Son into the Father How strongly it is put in Mark's gospel, "The Spirit immediately drove him into the wilderness." Yet, it is not hard to imagine being so overwhelmed by an experience. There have been times in each of our lives when we felt swept away by the devotion of a friend, by an act of love, by a singular twist of fate. Overwhelm-ing experiences often leave us puzzled or speechless as well as joyous and grateful. Afterwards, we feel the need to wander off for a bit, to be alone to consider what really happened and ponder the reasons and implications for our lives. Jesus was overwhelmed at his baptism. The Spirit that drove him into the wilderness was bestowed through the power of God's presence, a presence that possessed him and forced him to try to understand more fully what had happened. The flight of Jesus into the desert can be seen as his search to understand the experience of his baptism. Our response to any situation is mediated by our understanding of what took place. To understand something, though, is not primarily to know about it objec-tively. To understand means to enter into another reality. Understanding does not refer to the ability to master the secret of some mystery. Rather, to truly under-stand someone or something, it is necessary to surrender oneself to it. to pass into it, to participate in it from the inside. When Jesus went into the wilderness he sought the time and space to under-stand the reality of what had happened at the Jordan, to enter into it, to submit himself to it. By leaving his former life behind and going out into the wilderness, Jesus was saying "yes" (2 Co I: 19) to the possibility of entering into a new life. His quest for understanding involved his submission to faith, his entrance into faith, and his participation in the presence and activity .of the Father. The understanding Jesus attained was the understandiffg available only to those who know through loving. Through the bond of love people can know not only what others are thinking but also what is in their hearts. It is by loving that we enter into the life of another, that we can acquire "inside" understanding. Such understanding cannot be earned or purchased: it is the free gift of one person's self-revelation to another. The knowing that comes from loving comes from open-ing up and sharing the heart of another. At Jesus' baptism, the Father opened up his heart to the Son. Jesus' wilderness journey was a searching through the Father's heart. Such a journey can only be made if the giving and revealing are mutual. Therefore, Jesus had to open his heart to the Father. However, by doing 520 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 so he opened it to himself as well. We cannot know God and participate in his life if we remain strangers to ourselves. Understanding comes by loving, and loving is a mutual and freely given gift. If we want to know God and search through his heart we must be willing for the same thing to be done to us. But God will not enter where he is not welcomed. We must guide God through our own hearts, even though they are foreign and frightening. In making a commitment to know God, we make a commitment to know ourselves. The search for God will bring us face to face with reality, with the truth about ourselves. When he shows us himself, God also discloses the truth about ourselves. We cannot hide from one without hiding from the other. We cannot know the one without knowing the other. The wild beasts among whom Jesus lived (Mk 1:13) were not all external creatures. Jesus would have also lived with all the urgings and desires of himself. Luke's gospel brings out some of this in his temptation account (4: I- 13). Jesus had to accept even the beasts within him and we are called to do the same. To spend time alone with God means spending time alone with ourselves in the haunts and wilds of our own hearts. There can be no conversion if we do not first know the truth about ourselves, both our strengths and weaknesses. The Journey of the Father with the Son In the third movement of his spiritual life, the tide which drew Jesus into the wilderness now leads him back. It .is important to see Jesus' return to the people of Galilee not as a separate mission but as a continuation of the one search that led him into the wilderness. The spiritual life as lived by Jesus is not an individual venture, not merely a way of achieving personal self-fulfillment. It is, rather, a way of responsible involve-ment in the lives of others, a life of compassion and service. The temptation we face is to view the spiritual life as a "me and Jesus"enterprise which lifts us beyond the troubles of life. To live as Jesus lived, however, is to live in the service of the whole human family. We characterize the spiritual life as one of serene detachment, blissful tran-scendence from the everyday world. This is not Jesus" spirituality. He did not leave the wilderness to complete his search in even greater isolation. He returned to Galilee because only there could he fully live the search. Only by participating in the life of the world could he enter fully into the life of God. Jesus' search drew him into deeper participation in the love of the Father. God is not a God who remains untroubled by the plight of his people. He is not an indifferent God. Throughout the Old Testament, God continually acts within the realm of history to redeem Israel by empowering people to meet the challenges of the times. The God of Jesus is the God who raised up Moses to lead his people out of slavery. God took Moses out of the solitary life of shepherding and thrust him into the very heart of the social and political arena of his day--even though Moses claimed he Parables and Paradigms / 521 was not equal to the task. The same was true for the Judges who led the people out of the threat of military conquest. God also empowered the prophets to speak on his behalf, taking, in the case of Amos, a vine dresser and making of him a missioner who confronted the social and religious injustice of the northern kingdom. We misunderstand the spiritual life if we sit back and wait until our spiritual lives are all in order before we enter the world of human needs. God takes the weak and makes them strong (I Co 1:27). He begins our transformation in the crucible of solitude but, for most of us, completes it in the arena of apostolic involvement. It was after John had been arrested that Jesus returned to Galilee. To be sure, Jesus considered John a prophet. Did Jesus feel called to "take up the torch" carried by John'? The search of Jesus led him into the responsibility of loving, as the Father loves. The return of Jesus to Galilee was response of love, not only toward the Father, but to all those whom the Father loved. Notice that Jesus came to Galilee, to the home of the outcast and oppressed, to empower the little people, to assure them they had not been forgotten by the Father. Jesus preached with both word and deed. He spoke and acted out of the Father's love. He proclaimed the fullness of time, the passing of the old age, the coming of the kingdom. He taught the necessity of conversion, of turning our lives around to face God (Jr 7:24). He proclaimed a kingdom where faith replaces distrust, love replaces the equity of finance, and understanding replaces judgment. To follow in Jesus' way, we are meant to be heralds and healers, echoing the Word with the quality of our lives. The healing Jesus brought answered a need that went much deeper than bodily illness. The town that gathered about his door (Mk 1:33) sought someone to heal them of doubt; he gave them someone to believe in. They needed to be healed of confusion: he gave them understanding. They needed to be healed from prejudice: he gave them love. They needed to be healed of their aimlessness: he gave them a way to follow. He healed them and so made them ready to undertake his own search. He restored their sight that they might see the way. He gave strength to their limbs to ready them for the march. He expelled the demons which bound them in fear to an age out of which they were afraid to pass. It must have been quite a switch from the solitude of the wilderness for Jesus to have found himself surrounded by demanding people. Yet, despite that switch, Jesus' ministry was a continuation of his interior search to follow the Father. He had .journeyed far down the road of faith during that day of preaching and healing. It is no surprise that Mark describes Jesus going out to a lonely place and praying (Mk 1:35). He had come a long way in a short time: from carpenter to hermit to preacher and healer. What went on within his heart? Had Jesus left the wilderness expecting to be a local prophet like John'? Had the need of the crowd spoken to Jesus of a new sense of ministry? God acted upon Jesus no less in his ministry than in the solitude. The scene may have changed but the voice still called. But what did it say? How had the new 522 / Review for Religious, July-August, 1982 forum altered the message? One step leads to another but where does the path lead? Where does the journey end? What is the price we must pay for following a whisper? Did these questions plague Jesus as they do those who follow him? For whatever reason, Jesus sought out the wilderness to again comprehend what had happened. He needed time to pray and reflect and understand where the Spirit had taken him and where he was to go. Blazing a trail is a much different matter than simply following one. We too need to withdraw from time to time to ponder the advents of the Lord in our lives. How has he spoken? What did he say? The voice is rarely so clear as to leave us certain. God speaks through daily events, but what does he say? Moreover, the hectic pace of life can cloud our sense of vision and distort our perception of the call. Living leaves us tired and numb. So many other issues seem more pressing than our private prayer. Amid the myriad tragedies of life, the pointless suffering and rampant injustices, how can we continue to thank and praise God? Life points more to the absence of God than to his presence. All this points to the necessity of continuing the search in the solitude of our hearts. The spiritual life is a relationship and no relationship is maintenance free. We need time for prayer and reflection if our spiritual life is to continue growing. It is no secret what happens in a marriage when the lines of communication falter and break down. Yet the time for prayer and solitude with the Lord is not simply a time to be "recharged," as though the Spirit were but a battery which served as a power source for our personal ministry. Our time alone is more than a time to be recharged; it is a time to grow in relationship with God, to share with him person to person. We withdraw for solitude out of the longing of lover for beloved. Jesus' solitude was interrupted by Simon's statement: "Everyone is searching for you." This was a time of decision for Jesus. He could stay where he was and let the people flock to him. Yet, this was not enough, he could not wait for them to find him. "Let us go out into the next town, that I may preach there also: for that is why ! came out" (Mk 1:38). A moment of insight, perhaps, when Jesus understood why he had left the serenity of his solitude with the Father and undertaken to come out and serve the people? He had left the wilderness not only to be found but to seek out and find a people who had become lost and scattered. Jesus, the Searcher- God, saw his mission as a search for the very people who sought him. He would not remain in one place as though he were the end of the search--he was the Way, the proto-type of searching. Those who followed him would be led by his light and come into the truth. He would tell them the way to go and show them the way to follow. The Son would become the shepherd, leading the Father's flocks back into their own pasture