COMMUNICANDA 10
Rome, July 1, 1987
Gen. 250/87 Rome
SAINT ALPHONSUS
MISSIONARY TO THE POOR
A Reflection on the
Two Hundredth Anniversary of His Death
Dear Confreres,
"Accertato Alfonso
della volontà di Dio, si animò e prese coraggio;
e facendo a Gesù Cristo un sacrificio totale
della Città di Napoli, si offerse menar i
suoi giorni dentro proquoi, e tuguri, e morire
in quelli attorneato da' Villani e da' Pastori".
("Sure that it was God’s will,
Alphonsus found courage and started to act;
and making the total sacrifice of the city
of Naples to Jesus Christ, he offered to live
the rest of his days in sheepfolds and hovels,
and to die among shepherds and country folk".)
A.M. Tannoia, Della
Vita ed Istituto del Ven. S. di
D. ALfonso M. Liguori, I, 66.
1. These
words of Tannoia
offer the context of the reflection which
the General Council offers to the members
of the Congregation on the Two Hundredth Anniversary
of the Death of St. Alphonsus. During this
Bicentennial, we think it is proper to take
a look at St. Alphonsus in order to ask a
particular question: Does his life help us
to enter into the central theme of our last
General Chapter: evangelizare
pauperibus et a pauperibus evangelizari?
2. In
looking at Alphonsus, we must not try to make
him say things he did not say. His era of
history did not have the same questions or
understandings of the world that is ours today.
All we can do is examine his life and personality,
and try to discern the attitudes that speak
to our theme. In doing this, we will find
that, as our Father and Founder, Alphonsus
succeeded in unifying both his love for Christ
the Redeemer and his love for the poor. And
this appreciations will be a help to us who celebrate two hundred
years of our heritage received from the first
Redemptorist.
CONVERSION
AND THE WILL OF GOD
3. Alphonsus'
journey toward evangelizing the poor can be
studied in the light of his concern for "distacco"
(detachment) in order to follow the will of
God. This Alphonsian detachment is an attitude
which expresses his personal experience of
"exodus" and of conversion. And
this conversion involved a total focusing
of his life toward a new goal which was never to be set aside.
4. Alphonsus'
detachment was the consequence of his desire
to discover the call of his Heavenly Father.
Alphonsus was not a man with a fixed idea
or an ideological fantasy. He had to seek
the will of God through the very contradictory
signs of his time. Events, persons, sufferings,
successes, dreams, inspirations
– all of them together did not suffice to
make his way clear. Therefore, Alphonsus'
discernment had to be made in intimate dialogue
with the Lord. He will become the Master of
Prayer because he sensed the vital need of
it. He carried all these confusing signs before
the Lord and they were transformed through
a dialogue of faith into the decisions which
changed the history of Alphonsus' life and
that of our own.
5. From
the point of view of our theme, Alphonsus'
conversion is highlighted in
three important moments. First, there is Alphonsus1
.abandonment of the law courts which should
not be taken simply as a gesture caused by
bitterness over a defeat or by crushed ambition.
Is it not true, rather, that in this moment
he received from God an insight which brought
about a disenchantment with his entire world,
a disillusionment with a society which promised
justice but which would permit injustice to
triumph in its very courts of law. While we
cannot expect of Alphonsus a critical analysis
of society, we can certainly discover in his
spirit of detachment a critical sensitivity
which shaped his understanding of the social
world in which he lived. He perceived an injustice
and corruption which went beyond a lost legal
case and which penetrated the customs, the
norms and the values of the dominant society
of his day: "Mondo,
ti ho conosciuto"
("O world, I have understood you")
6. The
second great moment of conversion came as
Alphonsus cared for the sick in the Hospital
of the Incurables, that intense moment when
he heard the words: "Lascia il mondo, e datti a me" ("Leave
the world and give yourself
to me"). These words made him rush to
the shrine of Mary at whose feet he laid his sword. In this profound gesture, he set aside
his whole world and all it stood for. It was
a moment of opening his heart to wherever
the Lord would lead him.
7 His
detachment would then carry him toward another
world: the world of the spiritually abandoned,
abandoned because they were marginalized and
counted for nothing in the society in which
he had lived. We cannot expect to find in
Alphonsus the same understanding of poverty
or of an option for the poor which the Church
has in our day. There is no doubt, however,
that he made a real "option for the poor"
in his life.
8 It
was to this third moment of his conversion
that the Lord led Alphonsus, as he went one
day to the hills above Scala for a rest. Here
he discovered another world, until then little
recognized by him. And it was in this world
that Alphonsus found the people to whom he
was called to live and announce the Gospel
with all his strength: those who were spiritually
abandoned because they were poor. They were
to become the preoccupation of his life.
9. We
can now see the thrust of Alphonsian de tachment.
It was part of his exodus-conversion from
one world to a life-giving commitment to another
world. It moved him from a disenchantment
and total renunciation of one type of society
to the acceptance of another as the place
where he was to encounter Christ the Redeemer.
CONTINUE
THE REDEEMER
10. Alphonsus
found that the will of God for him was personalized
in Jesus Christ. Jesus was the incarnate will
of the Father, a will of saving love. Christ
will be the center of the spirituality of
Alphonsus. Every moment of the life of Jesus
will be for him an amazing manifestation of
the saving love of God. Crib, Cross, Eucharist:
these are the symbols making visible the paschal
force of the Incarnation, Death-Resurrection,
and Sacrament at work in the depths of the
life of Alphonsus. Christ is not just a model
for Alphonsus; there is rather a profound
rapport of love between the two of them,
that is akin to a sacramental identification.
The missionary power of Alphonsus grew from
that of Christ. As Christ's
loving union with his Father broke
out in his desire to proclaim this love to
all, so Alphonsus' loving union with Jesus
made him want all others to love Him too.
11. Alphonsus came to discover how Christ was to become incarnate for
him in the world of the abandoned poor. Alphonsus
saw himself called, not to see Christ in the poor, but rather to identify
himself with the Redeemer who became poor
that we might become rich. Alphonsus1
choice in favor of the abandoned poor flowed
from his identification with Jesus Christ,
not from an ideological commitment to a social
class.
12. For Alphonsus, Mary always stood out as the ultimate model of this
"Christification"
which he sought. She was the symbol of the
merciful love of Christ for all, especially
for the most abandoned. And
she more than anyone else could awaken in
others a response to this love.
EVANGELIZARE
PAUPERIBUS
13. When Alphonsus discovered those to whom
he was called, all his efforts and all his
talents came to be placed at the service of
a single objective: these abandoned poor.
Alphonsus the writer and musician will compose
simple meditations and sing popular songs;
Alphonsus the theologian will devise the "vita
devota"
and will teach confessors to bring mercy,
not judgment to the abandoned; Alphonsus the
preacher will invent a simple style of preaching
and the mission renewal; Alphonsus the bishop
will feed the hungry during time of famine.
Everything in him was to be united in order
to "evangelizare
pauperibus",
to bring the Gospel to the abandoned poor.
14. In
Alphonsus the preferential option for the
poor was one which did not exclude. He did
not refuse to frequently offer his ministry
to all classes: the clergy, to nuns, and even
to the nobility and well-to-do. Indeed, he
always tried to be available for these others.
But it was only for the sake of those who
were abandoned because they were poor that
he will become Alphonsus the Founder. Precisely
for them he will begin his greatest labor:
he will develop an apostolic community, the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer.
15. This
community was to bring to these poor folk
Alphonsus' kind of explicit, prophetic, and
liberating proclamation of the Gospel. This
was to be a proclamation which leads to conversion
because it is full of mercy and hope. Alphonsus
never limited himself to the denouncement
of sin, but offered a plan for a new life.
He was never satisfied to provoke only an
immediate response; he sought to articulate
a new and deeply Christian life. And although
he was not as conscious of social justice
as we are today, can it be denied that he
did extraordinary work to establish this Christian
life on the fundamental dignity of the human
personality of even the poorest and simplest?
This inalienable dignity of the human person,
which comes before any natural or conventional
difference among human beings, shines strongly
in the moral theology of Alphonsus, where
the sanctity of the conscience of each person
has an indisputable primacy over every law.
Is it not precisely this affirmation of each
person's personal dignity before God which
is the first act of justice owed to everyone,
and which is the basis of our equality and
indeed of every other demand of social justice?
A
PAUPERIBUS EVANGELIZARI
16. The
second part of the theme for this sexennium
comes from experiences and thoughts of our
contemporary times. But in Alphonsus' life
there are some hints which indicate that he
found that the poor had a Gospel message for
himself and his companions. It is in this
sense that we can understand his demand that
Redemptorists must live among those to whom
they are sent. He saw only ruin for the Congregation if it
would move away from the poor to return to
the courts and palaces of the city, which
for him were the symbols of a society he had
rejected. They were powerful symbols which
affected one's interior dispositions. Away
from the poor the Congregation would lose
its mission because it would lose its sensitivity
to those to whom it was called. These people
would teach the members what salvation means
for a Redemptorist.
17. Alphonsus
did not attempt a life of "solidarity
with the poor" as this is understood
today. But on this point three things seem
clear from Alphonsus practice. First, as a
rich man, most of whose first companions were
from the upper strata of Neapolitan society,
he demanded of himself and of them a change
of life-style which was truly significant.
This was seen by him, not from the point of
view of identity with the poor, but with the
poor Redeemer: the one who left everything
divine to be one of us. In order to find him,
one must become poor.
18. Second,
Alphonsus always sought a direct and personal
contact with the poor. The poor were not just
received, but rather were sought out with
apostolic zeal in order to find the most abandoned.
Alphonsus took the initiative to begin an
apostolic Congregation so he could reach these
abandoned poor. His was a pastoral attitude
of doing and not just of reacting.
19. Third,
Alphonsus did not choose a life of impoverishment;
his practical bent united with his detachment
to see that material goods were used so that
confreres could effectively reach out to the
spiritual abandonment of the poor. The goods
of the community were to enable it to be available
to the abandoned poor to whom it was called.
They were not to be a means of separating
the community from these people.
THE
APOSTOLIC COMMUNITY
20. These
aspects of Alphonsus' life signify more than
a mere personal devotion; they are signs of
an authentic spiritual dynamic which he has
left to his Congregation as its inheritance.
21. "To
follow the example of Jesus Christ, the Re
deemer, by preaching the Word of God to the
poor" (Constitution 1). To follow the
Redeemer and to live for the poor always constituted
for Alphonsus a single reality which flowed
directly from his living experience. And it
constitutes the single purpose of his Congregation.
22. Alphonsus
quickly realized that the path to identification
with the Redeemer was not an individualistic
adventure. For him, the founding of the Congregation
did not simply mean the creation of a team
for pastoral work. Rather it was to produce
an apostolic community which in its being
and its acting would be a continuation of
the saving presence of the Redeemer. The apostolic
community, not just the individual Redemptorist,
was to be the visible sign of the Redeemer.
The community was to strive to create a climate
of mutual respect, support and sanctification
within itself. In this way, the community
itself becomes a living model of the Lord's
kingdom of justice and peace. As such, it
can preach with power and conviction to those
abandoned poor to whom it is sent.
CONCLUSION
23 This
is our Saint Alphonsus, sketched in a small
portrait with only a few of his features.
This picture seems sufficient, however, to
give us some clues about what our attitude
should be regarding the central theme of the
General Chapter: "Evangelizare
pauperibus et a
pauperibus evangelizari".
Without a doubt, our Alphonsian heritage should
lead us to accept this theme as a genuine
product of his charism.
24 The General Council offers these thoughts to
all our confreres and communities on the occasion
of the Bicentennial of the Death of our Founder,
St. Alphonsus. We hope that they are suited
to this important moment in our history.
Fraternally yours in J.M.J.A.
Juan M. Lasso de la Vega, C.Ss.R.
Superior General
