Paul VI to the General Chapter OFMConv 1972
H.H. Paul VI Poverty, fidelity to the Holy See, devotion to Mary Immaculate
Address to the OFMConv General Chapter of 1972
(Monday, June 12, 1972)
Dear sons:
Our spirit opens to the warmest greetings as we welcome in you the worthy representatives of the Friars Minor Conventual. You have gathered in Assisi, the cradle and heart of the entire Franciscan family, to celebrate your 187th General Chapter. And after having carried out your laborious consultations and deliberations together with the sacred remains of your Holy Founder, you have wanted to crown your work by presenting the testimony of your fidelity to the Vicar of Christ.
In this significant act, which visibly establishes an intimate relationship between your filial devotion to the Father of the Order and your firm adherence to the Supreme Shepherd of the Church, we are pleased to see once again underlined the particular physiognomy of Franciscan religious, to whom your Founder - as has recently been recalled - wants "always subjects and subject to the feet of the Holy Roman Church" (2 R 12,4).
We thank you, then, for your presence; We thank in particular Father Vidal Bomarco, elected Minister General of the Order, for his fervent words, for which we have been able to learn, with immense consolation, your intentions and your purposes in celebrating the General Chapter, while we present our reverent greetings to the Father Basilio Haiser, pleasing us for the intelligent and tireless work that he has carried out for the benefit of the Order and in the preparation of the Chapter work. May the Lord bless you both!
Great and decisive the present hour of the Church
But now you are also waiting for a word of exhortation and guidance from us. We do it with great pleasure, limiting ourselves to a few brief reflections, although your persons and the present circumstances would deserve a much broader speech.
We will first of all show you our satisfaction when we see that the noble and pastoral desire for spiritual renewal, which under the influence of the Holy Spirit has invaded all the people of God today, has been the inspiring motive of all your work.
The hour that we live today in the Church and in the world is certainly great and, we could say, decisive. It is an hour of grace that will not be easily repeated; it is an unwavering invitation to support the work of the Holy Spirit, who makes believers feel in the conscience of believers the burning desire to save the world and to give themselves generously to its evangelization.
For some, unfortunately, this longing to respond to the demands of the moment often turns into feverish agitation that suddenly wishes to separate from all the past to follow totally new or insufficiently experienced paths.
Renewal and authentic meaning of religious life
The renewal of religious life sought by the Council certainly tends towards a wiser discipline and a more modern way of getting in touch with today's society, but not to the detriment of the true and authentic meaning of religious life, which will consist of mainly in a continuous progress in charity, in the spirit of sacrifice, in adherence to the word and the cross of Christ. “Those who profess the evangelical counsels - in these terms the Council itself expresses itself - must seek and love, above all, God, who first loved us, and take care to favor the hidden life with Christ in God. It is from there that love of neighbor springs up and receives impulse for the salvation of the world and the edification of the Church. This charity is the soul and the norm even of the very practice of the evangelical counsels. For this reason, the members of the institutes must cultivate with constant dedication the spirit of prayer and prayer itself, drinking from the authentic sources of Christian spirituality ”(Perfectae Caritatis, 6).
We are certain that the grave words of the Council will find in you a prepared ground and a spirit particularly ready to understand them. You have chosen a difficult path, the path taught by your Founder, whose unmistakable basis is the imitation of Christ crucified. "It was right," writes Saint Bonaventure, "that this fortunate man, Francisco, should appear distinguished with such a singular privilege, since all his commitment - both in public and in private - was based on the cross of the Lord" (Lm 6,9) .
Love of poverty
The way of the Cross: here is the authentic meaning of religious life understood as following Christ, according to the examples and doctrine of Christ who said: «Whoever wants to come after me, deny himself, take up his cross and follow me »(Mt 16:24). Saint Francis, mirror of Christ, is a living testimony of this. And you, who have been called to follow in his footsteps, have an ever-new, ever-urgent duty to offer authentic witness to this ideal as an example and support for the Church at a time when the temptation to remove from the Gospel is so strong the page of the Cross.
And here the speech spontaneously leads us to meditate on another point that constitutes one of the most characteristic notes of Franciscan spirituality: the love of evangelical poverty. Is it not, in fact, through total dispossession, as Saint Francis, the imitator par excellence of the Lord, found the way to reproduce in himself his sacrificial life?
As Blessed Angela de Foligno wrote: “Blessed Francis taught us poverty, pain, self-contempt, true obedience. He was, in effect, poverty itself, internally and externally; for it he lived and in it he persevered ”(Book of the true experience of the faithful). This spirit of poverty, which as the Council affirms "is the glory and the hallmark of the Church of Christ" (Gaudium et spes, 88), must be manifested in your austerity of life. Could it be thought that a true religious can give in to superfluous and worldly comforts? Even all the works that come from you must bear the visible sign of poverty; there is nothing ostentatious, even if unconsciously, even under the noblest pretexts, that can hide from the eyes of the world the image of Christ, who wanted to make himself poor for us (2 Cor 8,9); nothing can make us forget that the Church belongs to the poor, both in the spirit of detachment and in the stark reality of hardship and suffering.
In this way your works will be blessed by God and you will earn the esteem and trust of those who do not know how to imitate you. For you poverty is a strength, it is a dignity, it is "the perfect joy" Franciscan. This is what men ask mainly of you; and it must be said that the hostility of some is perhaps unconsciously the disappointment of those who, having encountered souls consecrated to God on their way, have not been able to perceive in them the features of Christ, as they yearned for from the bottom of their hearts.
Necessary fidelity to the Apostolic See
One last recommendation, dear children, we wish to entrust to your reflection: fidelity to the Apostolic See. We believe that at this point we can particularly count on you, who perpetuate in the world the testimony of Saint Francis, who, precisely because of this fidelity to the "Holy Roman Church", which he prescribed to his disciples in the Rule, was called "a Catholic man , totally apostolic »(Julián de Espira, Vida 88). It is about a fidelity that is based not so much on the external bonds of canon law, but rather on a deep love and a sincere intention of obedience to the will of Christ, who has entrusted his Church to Saint Peter and his successors.
Let us always keep before our mind the famous painting representing Saint Francis, who holds the Lateran Basilica on his back, that is, the Church in its visible and human expression. This is the vocation and mission proper to the great Franciscan family! And we hope that all of you, children of Saint Francis, will always be close to us and will know how to support us with your help, suffering with us, persevering with us in the generous service of God and of souls, firmly believing with us that no adversity will be able to prevail against the stability of the perennial edifice of Christ, the Church, one, holy, catholic, apostolic.
With this slogan of love and fidelity to the Church, we offer our best wishes for the work of your General Chapter, so that from your wise deliberations the entire Order may receive the necessary impetus to continue on its luminous path.
Hope in love for Mary
A consoling fact confirms our hope: the explicit declaration made by you that you have placed your General Chapter under the protection of the Immaculate Virgin and her most faithful servant, the blessed Father Maximiliano Kolbe, whom we have had the joy of raising to the honor of the altars. . This tells us that love for Mary Most Holy, a peculiar note of your spirituality, will continue to characterize your conduct, and that your service to the Church will have as a model the testimony offered by that luminous son of Saint Francis, the resplendent glory of Poland and of your Order. . May it be so always, dearest children!
And in the name of the Immaculate Virgin and of your brother, the blessed Maximiliano Kolbe, we warmly impart to you and to your entire religious family the auspicious Apostolic Blessing.
Comments
Post a Comment