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FRIARS OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS MASS OF THE JULY 26
ST JOACHIM AND ST ANNE, PARENTS OF THE BL. VIRGIN MARY NEW FRUIT From among the maltese clan, it fell upon me to deliver this homily on the occasion of the liturgical memory of Saints Joachim and Anne. First of ah, I would like to express my joy, and that of my con-nationals, in being here together with you ah. As for me, this is the first time I am attending a General Chapter as a vocal. I cannot draw comparisons with other Chapters. I can only say that the atmosphere here is, simply, great! I am confident it will remain like this till the end. This is due to the good spirit that we are allowing to flow in our various meetings. This is also due, and in great measure, to the great amount of effort and energy that has been, and is being, invested in the organization of the Chapter: by the Master of the Order and the Assistants at Santa Sabina, by the Provincial of the Province of Colombia, the Prior of this convent, the Secretary General and his assistants, all the staff of translators and all the other ancillary staff. Not least, by the group of students and their Master. It is being, surely, a great source of joy and encouragement to us all!, seeing this large number of students here. With their attentiveness and promptness to attend to our needs, with their youthful energy and liveliness, with their readiness to engage in conversation with us, they are making our stay in Bogota’ a pleasant and unforgettable experience. Now to Saints Joachim and Anne. To be honest, my first reaction on having to prepare this homily was: What can I say about these two figures, whose same names, most probably, are only the fruit of tradition?!! Yet reflecting on the role of Mary’s parents in the history of salvation, whatever their name could have been. I found myself in front of some interesting insights which I would like to share with you this morning, the hope that they be of interest to you too. First of alt, bearing in mind what great influence ah parents have on their children, we must attribute to Mary’s parents some of the gifts Mary had. Mary’s parents must have been those who nurtured her, who taught her, who brought her up. It was surely their teaching and example that helped her respond with such faith to God’s request through the archangel Gabriel. Their example of parenting must have surely been followed by Mary’ as she Brought up her, own son. Jesus. It was their faith that laid the foundation of courage and strength that allowed her to stand by the cross as her son was crucified, and still believe. Remembering Mary’s parents is also, in my opinion, reminding ourselves of the dignity there is in being human, and in ah human activity. God willed that his Son be brought into this world through a human being conceived in the manner all other humans are, excepting sin. There is no human activity which God cannot use for his aims and purposes. But above all, remembering Mary’s parents, for me, is also recalling the sense of history present in our lives and mission. It reminds us that we are here, because others were here before us — because others brought us here! Besides our natural parents, we ah have our spiritual parents’ — those who gave us birth into the Order and the Dominican family, who we should never forget. I don’t have in mind, here, only the Provincials who admitted us to the Order, but also al! those persons who God allowed them to influence us so much in our lives that finally we decided to join them in the Dominican Family as brothers, sisters or lay Dominicans; those persons who formed us; whose examples, maybe, determined our lives. As I mention this point, I cannot help, here, refer to what we are celebrating this year, as a Dominican Family: the 800 years from the beginning of our history. It is a moment of rejoicing and thanksgiving. It is a moment too, however, of feeling, once more, the responsibility that our glorious history puts on our shoulders, particularly on us, participants in this General Chapter. Like Joachim, Anne and Our Lady, we have a history behind us. But history is not only about the past! It is also about the future! Our history is not only our past, but it is also our present and, above ah, our future!!! The future we have the responsibility to build together ... the future for ourselves and for those who will consider us as their spiritua1 parents’. We are here, to build that future! By what we do, by what we decide in this Chapter, we are giving shape to the future of our whole Family. Like Joachim and Anne - always depicted, in tradition, as fairly old when they begot Mary - our Order may be old too (800 years is not a young age by any human reckoning!). But though old in age, the Order is still being called to bear new fruit. It is the same fruit that Joachim’s and Anne’s daughter. Was chosen to bear - the Word. The Word, at one time both old and new, that is The Way, the Truth, and Life itself. The Word that is the Hope of humanity, very often faced only with death and despair. The Word, that we, as Dominicans, have vowed to contemplate, to celebrate and to share with others in our preaching. Our future lies in the way we continue to be bearers of this fruit and in our ability to communicate to others the joy that this fruit can produce in the hearts of those who share in it. It lies in catching fire from Dominic - as somebody recently so beautifully put it - and, like him, be where the people are, particularly on the lines of brokenness — to use another expression, this time, of Pierre Claverie — to share with them their joys and sorrows, their hope and despair, their aspirations and frustrations; to lean from them, to listen to them, to walk with them the path that, ultimately, leads everybody to the Word itself. May Saints Joachim and Anne, may Mary Our Lady and Queen of Colombia. assist us with their intercession, as this Chapter continues to unfold. |
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Capítulo General 2007 - ORDEN DE PREDICADORES |
