SUPERIORE GENERALE CONGREGAZIONE DEI SACERDOTI DEL SACRO CUORE DI GESÙ ________ Rome, May 31 st , 2004 Purpose: Beatification of the Venerable Father Leo Dehon To the members of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus To the members of the Dehonian Family John Paul II, will proclaim Blessed the venerable Father Leo Dehon Dear brothers and sisters, Last April 19 in the presence of the Holy Father John Paul II, the decree which concluded the process of beatification of the Venerable Leo Dehon, Founder of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart was promulgated. This opens the gate to the celebration of the beatification which we foresee will take place in the first part of 2005. This solemn proclamation represents ecclesial recognition of the validity of the evangelical path Father Dehon walked and at the same time an authoritative proposal of his spiritual experience as a way which is today still valid for achieving the “universal call to holiness” which is the perfection of the Christian life and of love. So that this proclamation can truly become a source of new life, we need to return to the spiritual experience of Father Dehon beginning with the form in which he expressed it and, all the while docile to the Spirit, to receive it as a schooling which makes us capable of reading the signs of the times and of involving us generously and creatively in the proclamation of the good news for the transformation of our world. A look at the basic outline of this faith experience becomes a memorial which generates life. 1. An Integral Plan of Life The desire to consecrate himself totally to Jesus and to be at the service of the Church and society, like the fruit of a tree planted in good soil, appeared quickly in the young Leo Dehon from the example and training he received from his family and at school. This consciousness of a total consecration to God, which renders one disposed to serve mankind, will endure as the characteristic and unifying dimension of his entire life. Later on, recalling this desire to follow this path which began when he was 13, he will say that “What drew me on in my vocation was the fascination of union with our Lord, zeal for the salvation of souls, and the need of abundance of grace for my own salvation all at the same time” (NHV I, 29r). After a period of persevering investigation, in which unforeseen difficulties and failures were not lacking – headed by the opposition of his father—he was ordained priest at Rome, in the presence of his parents who by now were happy with his choice of life. On that occasion, he said: “I arose a priest possessed by Jesus filled entirely with Himself, with His love for the Father, his zeal for souls and His spirit of prayer and sacrifice”. He is now centered on Jesus and will grow every single day in his interior life in the total gift of himself through generous and creative initiatives of a pastoral and social nature and in the joy of allowing Jesus to “live in him” and to live in His spirit and to love the Father and mankind. This call to contemplation and its response taking place within the ambit of ecclesial and social problems and challenges make up the two sides of this single reality of the consecration of Father Dehon as well as the secret of his interior power and his prodigious activity. 2. The Call of the Heart of Christ Christ increasingly became his focus and his life's object. In the first place, Father Dehon found his inspiration in the word of God. According to the grace given him, he finds in the Bible the topics that speak directly to his heart and will become the governing elements of his existence: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Gal 2:20); “For me to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21); “I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance” (Jn 10:10); “For God so loved the world that he gave His only son…so that the world might be saved through Him” (Jn. 3:16). He insistently seeks a personal union with Christ which characterizes his life: “I can live only in union with our Lord. Otherwise I am lost and my soul goes adrift like a ship” (NQT IV/1887, I). This is the fundamental truth that lies at the basis of everything: God is love, love fully revealed and offered in His son Jesus, the Word incarnate. In this fashion, Father Dehon speaks about the Gospel: “The Gospel is the life of Jesus, an account of that great manifestation of love which lasted 33 years” (OSP 5, 477). And he adds: “The Heart of Jesus, the love of Jesus, this is the entire Gospel”. Indeed for him who was nourished by the great mystical tradition of the Church and the sensitive to the spiritual climate of his times, God is revealed in the Gospels as the love in the human Heart of His son. The Heart with which Jesus lived amongst us: full of compassion and mercy, welcoming, capable of healing and forgiving, restoring life and hope and opening people up to the joy of union. The Heart that at the end of the passion “the masterpiece of love” (OSP 2, 305), is opened up on the cross: the sign that “all is finished” (Jn. 19:30). With unwavering piety, Father Dehon receives the most precious witness of John, the beloved disciple, and welcomes his prophetic invitation: “They will look on him whom they have pierced” (Jn. 19:37). In that love “to the very end” (cf Jn. 13:1), the Father will work out the reconciliation of the human race. The pierced Heart of the Savior becomes the fountain of the Spirit: the Church which is the holy spouse of the new Adam is born from it and a new human race and universe is generated to the glory and praise of God. To come to Jesus, to learn from Him, to contemplate His heart, to be nourished at this fountain of salvation for the sake of giving it to brothers and sisters through the numerous activities of the ministry and in the gift of life: in this fashion the project which Father Dehon lived and transmitted to us can be summed up. “The wound in the Heart of Jesus is an eloquent school of love. Contemplating it, we are irresistibly conquered by love, and we wish to love with this great love of compassion which, first melting the heart into profound piety, raises it up afterwards, and fortifies it for all our tasks” (OSP 5, 473). To respond together to the love received, he praises ardently along with St. Paul: “Lord, what would you have me do?” (Acts 22, 10). Like the apostle, realistically and humbly, he seeks and finds his answer in the community of the Church, in the word preached and lived, in the sacraments, in the persons who accompany his discernment and who help him to refine his contribution to the mission of the people of God. Everyday he renews his availability, making his own the dispositions of Jesus and of Mary: “'Behold I come to do, O God, your will' and ‘Here I am, the maid-servant of the Lord': our entire vocation, our purpose, our duty and our promises are found in these words” (OSP 6,401). 3. The Duty for the Kingdom of Heaven From “piety” to duty and responsibility: this is our Father Dehon! Open to the world of his times which he looks upon with all the confidence of a believer and which he is able to analyze in the light of history and the new challenges of the industrial era, a competent learner who gives priority to direct contact with reality, a man of great learning, capable of being present to the moment at which answers are sought for the problems of his time, he commits himself decisively to the transformation of society. He is well aware of “social evils”, he is not a stranger to problems and uncertainty, but he faces everything with a positive disposition, nourished in the contemplation of that love which saves: “nothing will ever separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Savior.” (Rm. 8:39). The evils in the Church and in the society of his times, found in him a response that led to action, putting at the service of Christ all that he was and had. He is aware that this requires him to let go those positions which are too facile and closed and to object to false perceptions in society and in the Church; he insists in saying that we need to leave the sacristies in order to “go to the people”, the privileged recipients of the Good News. Without excluding anyone, and in harmony with the Gospel, he brings himself near the sufferings, the legitimate desires and hopes of “the little ones”. In all of this, he intends to serve the reign of God, “The Reign of the Heart of Jesus in souls and in society”, the “social” kingdom which ought to lead to the transformation of society according to Gospel values. This his life's passion is made concrete at various levels. Profoundly convinced of the essential role of priests and religious in the service to the Kingdom and with profound respect for the grace of the priesthood and the call to consecration in religious life, he will develop unwavering attention to their spiritual and intellectual formation. The pastoral care which he exercised in the parish of St. Quentin in the north of France persuaded him to modify the methods of Christian formation. The problems of youth without a suitable human and Christian formation, which would permit them to be part of and make their own contribution to the Church and to society, provoked a special sensitivity and creativity in him. He dedicated himself to youth in a special way, personally, and in works of formation and instruction. The unjust and degrading situations in which the proletariat of his time lived, provoked in him a twofold response: a work of immediate assistance to deal with the situations of more immediate need and a commitment to deal with the causes of injustice and misery on the political, social, and cultural level. To accomplish this he became an ardent promoter of the social teaching of the Church, especially of the social encyclicals of Leo XIII. He participated actively in the Christian social movement in the XIX and XX century and became one its principal interpreters and promoters. Aware of the growing value of the means of communication in constructing the future he made wide-spread use of it and promoted it by founding a journal and publishing many writings with the sole goal of establishing the Kingdom of the Heart of Christ. Fully inserted in French society, Father Dehon did not limit his action to his native country. Travels begun from the time he was a youth, his intellectual openness and his experience with the Church opened him up to the realities of Africa, Latin America, and Asia where contacts with the western world revealed new opportunities but also produced new human and social problems. These new situations found him very attentive and sensitive and gradually became one of the chief hubs of his pre-occupation and action. Not having personally resided in the missions, he would make the “mission ad gentes ” one of the principal tasks of the Congregation that he founded. 4. The Congregation in the Bosom of the Church The Church, “the great work of Jesus” (OSP 2, 621), is the living environment in which the experience of fidelity to the Gospel was born and grew. Fervently, enthusiastically, obediently, Father Dehon loved the Church born from the Heart of Jesus. He loved and venerated those who, as successors of the apostles, received from the Lord the demanding task of feeding the flock in his name. And with all his heart, he rejoiced in belonging to the people of God, sharing his simple piety and his varied commitments to “go out into the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:16). His years of study in Rome and his participation at Vatican Council I, as stenographer, contributed decisively in making his sentire cum ecclesia firm . Aware of the values and limitations of the Church of his time, he did not restrict himself to a critically removed analysis of its reality but took seriously the call of God to make his contribution to Church renewal. On the eve of the opening of the Council (December 8, 1869), enthusiastically but also with a growing sense of responsibility, he wrote to his parents: “After having witnessed such manifestations of the Church, I experienced a new and burning love to work for the heaven for which the Church below is only a vestibule”. Having returned to France, while initiating his apostolic activity and obedient to the progressive work of grace, he turned toward the religious life to achieve his desire for consecration more concretely: union of his heart with the heart of our Lord in the apostolic ministry given him by the Church. This twofold dimension will bring him to found the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to which the grace of the Holy Spirit given him to serve the Church and the world was tied in a special way. Father Dehon did not bury his wide-reaching ecclesial sensitivity in the Congregation to which he dedicated his energies and resources. He, in fact, always saw himself at the bosom of the Universal Church, in a fruitful process of communion, which once begun among the confreres, shared itself with other religious institutions and with lay people in participating in the common mission to the world. To love Jesus and to serve Him among men and women, this was the manifestation most characteristic of belonging to the Church: “all is re-assumed in love” (OSP 2, 495). For this reason he did not cease to rally his followers around the prayer our Lord made at the very end: “May they be one”, “ Sint Unum ”, which in our institute / community was fashioned from a variety of tongues and cultures as an expression of the universal love of the Heart of the Savior. This communion is both expressed and nourished particularly in the Eucharist, “a gift of the Heart of Jesus” (OSP 2, 44), and is at the center of the life of the Church. Together with daily adoration which is its continuation, the Eucharist constitutes that moment of meeting of the spiritual, communitarian and apostolic life. Everyday the confreres are renewed by this living mystery of love: “The Eucharist is the focus, the foundation, the center of every life, of every apostolate” (NQT XXV/1910, 46-47). 5. To Live and to Die in Christ Rooted in the love of God which he believed to be the foundation and point of union of his entire existence, Father Dehon lived a life full of dynamism and enthusiasm, but also filled with many great difficulties, doubts, hesitations and failures. The sufferings, the effort and the tenacity with which he faced life, were nevertheless always united to serenity and goodness, attitudes which made him known as “Très bon père”. We find the secret of this peace and of this capacity to love, welcome and comfort and, equally, to react, fight, dream and plan in his personal union with the Heart of Christ: “Whoever wishes to extend the Reign of the Heart of Jesus should consecrate his entire life to it before all things” (OSP 4, 202). His final words are indeed an expression of a return to this love which he received and responded to. On his death bed, believing that the hour of his great meeting was at hand, he said, turning his face to a picture of the Heart of Jesus: “For him I lived, for him I die”. It was in this fashion that he fell asleep in the Lord on August 12, 1925. In his spiritual testament to his disciples, he had written as his last command that was at once a gift, a recommendation, and the way: “I leave you the most marvelous of treasures, the Heart of Jesus” (Spiritual Testament). 6. The Challenge of Refoundation This is the treasure that we have received in the Church which Father Dehon has helped us to rediscover, live and proclaim. Like all the charisms in the Church, even this one is a gift of the Spirit toward the growth of the body of Christ. With the beatification, the Church recognizes it as a gift of God to His people and proposes it to the faithful as a way to communion with God, of bringing about fraternal love and commitment for the building of His Kingdom. This particular time is invested with a particular intensity, as a joyful celebration and as a challenge to the fidelity of the members of the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart whom Father Dehon wished to associate more closely to his spiritual experience and to his commitment for service to the Church and society. In light of this approaching event, the appeal of the last General Chapter of the Congregation for “Refoundation” of our religious and Dehonian life acquires a new force. Refoundation does not constitute turning our backs on the past, to begin all over from the beginning. On the contrary, it represents a positive assessment of the tradition we have received, which is taken as valid and fruitful even for the times in which we are now living. For us, refoundation means to turn toward those graces of our origins, accepting this newness of life which the Spirit is raising up in the Church and which Father Dehon, observing the indications of St. John, has taught us to see flowing from the Heart opened on the cross and remaining open as a fountain of life in the presence of the risen Lord in our midst. Refoundation also means to make our own the task of authentic renewal which characterized the life of Father Dehon. A declaration by the Church does not clothe his bequest to us with inert halo separating it from our times, but confers new visibility and dynamism onto it which we propose as a way of holiness. From contemplation of the Heart of Christ with Fr. Dehon, we begin to learn, to see the challenges, the resources and the problems of today's world and to give new answers living in solidarity and walking the road of hope. Listening to the Founder, the General Chapter proposed three pillars for this refoundation: to deepen and make our own the spiritual experience of Father Dehon through study, prayer and reflection that leads to life ( turn to the Heart of the Savior ); accept the challenges of communion by living in fraternal community, as the first witness and sign of the presence of the Kingdom of God ( open our hearts to the brethren ) and to be open with generous availability to the mission of the world of today with its problems and possibilities, contributing together with men and women of good will toward construction of the Kingdom of the Heart of Christ ( give a heart to the world ). In strict communion with the other institutes of consecrated life, especially those with whom we share the spiritual and apostolic sensitivity which characterized the life of Father Dehon, we wish to continue to give to the Church and to society the benefits of our consecration which is a contemplative opening to the mystery of the love of God and service to men which is in joyful communion, especially with the weakest and most needy. Father Dehon always shared his spiritual experience and his commitment to the transformation of the world with so many lay people, men and women of different conditions and different social roles. His beatification--which is recognition by the Church of the rightness of his path--will constitute a way of living Christian life which cannot remain fenced in by a religious institute but ought to be given to everyone. For all of us who take inspiration from him, this moment represents a challenge for a renewed commitment to live and to make known this same spirituality in the bosom of Christian community. The Dehonian Family, reunited by a spiritual affinity which takes its origins in Father Dehon, is called, therefore, to enrich the Church by this special attention to a core mystery of the Heart of the Lord which brings forth an attitude of available solidarity at the service of the Kingdom of God. 7. Celebrating the Heart of the Lord We are sending this message close to the Solemnity of the Heart of Jesus, a feast that brings us together and expresses the sentiments of the Congregation. We wish that this feast be a an occasion of renewed praise for God for the charismatic heritage we have received from Father Dehon, which makes us understand that the center of history and the life of the Church is the mystery of the love of God the Father marvelously revealed in his Son and constantly put into the hearts of believers by the Spirit. The approaching beatification will establish Father Dehon as an example, guide, and intercessor and should move us to live and propose to the Church and to men and women of today the message we received which is to make Christ the Heart of the world with renewed endeavor. May his intercession and grace sustain us on this path which, with hearts open and in fraternity, we wish to walk with him in history. Fraternally in the Lord, Fr. José Ornelas Carvalho, SCJ Superior General & His Council Want to know more? |