Orden de Predicadores. Capítulo General. Bogotá 2007.

The Evangelists passed on precise accounts, although with different views, of Jesus’ encounter with the first disciples (Mt 4, 18-22; Mk 1, 16-20; Lk 1, 5-11). In this meditation, I will explore two texts: Jn 1, 35-51 and Mk 3, 13-14.

In the book of Genesis (3, 8) we read: “When they heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” In Jesus, that is to say in God who loves with a human heart (Tertio Millennio Adveniente TMA No. 4), his footfalls do not cause humans to flee, but provoke total attention to Him and the expectation to find the font of his fullness:“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (Jn 3, 16)” (Mt 9, 13 Lk 19, 10).

“In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist.” (Deus Caritas Est 17).

To be a disciple, something characteristically Christian, begins when his glance crosses with our own, and we notice his footsteps, a call is provoked within us that begins to orient our whole life: “Come” “Follow me”. This call of the Lord comes suddenly. It is not something we planed for nor did we seek it out. In each of our experiences, there has been something unexpected; something that established itself as a privileged moment that we did not want to loose: “You seduced me, O LORD, and I let myself be seduced; you were too strong for me, and you triumphed.” (Jer 20, 7).

Jesus sought out each one of us; he came to us, discovered us and in the end, invited us to follow him in the footsteps of Our Holy Father Dominic. O that in this Chapter we would fix our sights on Jesus who passes by and wants a time of grace for the Order. O that we would feel his presence among us in these days; and relying on his help we open ourselves to the task we have been called here for.

As is proper for a contemplative heart, we fix ourselves on Jesus in this Chapter; Jesus who passes by; we perceive his footfalls in the Church, in our Society, in the Order, in the brothers and sisters who live with us, in so many poor who want for so much and who walk this earth without anyone fixing their gaze on them. Oh that we would feel the footfalls of Jesus in so many anonymous people who want to be recognized as persons. We all have the heart and the eyes of Dominic to be true disciples.

The one who passes by is Jesus – the Lamb of God – who comes to us, to our condition as sinners, touching our fragility and choosing us not for our own qualities, nor for our morals. To confess that he is or recognize him as the Lamb of God helps us to discover the gratuity of his choice and the joyous celebration of our salvation.

The Master who has invited us to be his disciples spent his life in the service of his brothers; he sacrificed himself to give life, and life in abundance (Jn 10, 10). The disciple is the one who ends up sharing the will of the Father in full measure with the Master. The Design of Love saw in the crucified one the greatest epiphany of his Love for humanity. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends” (Jn 15,13).

The risks and demands of the encounter with Jesus imply the way of the Cross for his disciples. We must follow him. He is the Way, and his way is that of the Cross: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it” (Mk 8, 34-35).

Those of us who have come together here in this Chapter do not fear Jesus’ encounter with our fragility. When he once again seduces us with the power of his Resurrection; with his devotion of Love on the Cross, we permit him to transform us that he may once again, for the edification of the Church and humanity, show the marvels of his Love; where the gift of God is stronger than our weakness.

This is the first word that Jesus speaks in the Gospel of John, spoken from the loving depths of God; it alludes to the real identity of Jesus: the divine wisdom. Wisdom that wants to be sought out that it may be encountered. “Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me” (Prov 8, 17).

The disciple is the one who found the hidden treasure that is Jesus Christ in the field of the Church. The disciple is the merchant who, seeking fine pearls, found the pearl of great price and is willing to sell everything (Mt 13, 44-45).To sell everything is to follow the way of conversion until one can say with the Apostle “I even consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3, 8).

Gathered here we are aware of the presence of the One who again wishes to ask us in this General Chapter: What do you seek? May prayer, the contemplation of the reality of the Order, reflection and fraternal sharing be our response to Jesus’ question in this “kairos” that he has foreseen for the Dominican Family.

Our faithfulness to the Lord, to the Church and to humanity will depend on our sincere response. From our fragility we permit ourselves to tell the Lord what we seek, so that in the partnership of our smallness and the greatness of his Love we can say with the Apostle “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12, 10).

Where do you live?

“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (Lk 9, 58).
“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father's side, has revealed him” (Jn 1, 18)

Jesus dwells in the heart of the Father and, living in him, is wrapped in the ineffable love of the Holy Spirit. The disciple, discovering where Jesus dwells, ends up discovering the Love of the Father for all humanity. Discovering himself profoundly loved, son in the Son, the disciple feels himself brother to all humanity.

Those of us gathered in this Chapter are called to relive the experience and the restlessness of the first disciples: “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Mt 18, 20). The answer is given, he dwells – is – here with us and he will be the answer to the realities that accompany us with light and shadows: The inauthentic conviction that there is a magic formula to solve the great challenges we face in our time certainly does not satisfy us. No, there will be no formula that will save us; but there will be a person: Jesus Christ and the certitude that he instills in us: I am with you!

Our Holy Father Dominic is an eloquent answer to the question that they asked of Jesus: he spoke with God and about God. He was a man of Prayer who understood the nothingness of humanity and the totality of Grace. He knew that without this divine force that changes hearts, the Word is of no use. He knew very well that the human bound to Christ is capable of obtaining this Grace through Prayer and Sacrifice. The God of Dominic was a God of PROVIDENCE AND MERCY, a GOD INCARNATED WITH HUMANS. For this reason, Dominic could not speak with God without speaking about his people, nor could he speak to his people without speaking of his God. The God of Dominic was the God of the Psalms in which the authors praised the active presence and providence of God in the history of his people, they cried out fervently for Divine Mercy for sinners.

“True prophecy is born of God, from friendship with him, from attentive listening to his word in the different circumstances of history. Prophets feel in their hearts a burning desire for the holiness of God and, having heard his word in the dialogue of prayer, they proclaim that word with their lives, with their lips and with their actions, becoming people who speak for God against evil and sin” (Vita Consecrata VC 84).

With the whole Church we must live in our time “training in holiness (which) calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer” (Novo Millennio Ineunte NMI No. 32). With all the more reason, a son or daughter of Dominic must distinguish himself or herself in the contemplative art, so that when men and women today ask us “where do you dwell?” we can answer in sharing the fruit of our contemplation.

The disciple who has undertaken the way of conversion receives from Jesus an invitation to live with him, to live as a friend and not as a servant (Jn 15, 15), to seek the glory of the Father and the salvation of humans.

“In community life, then, it should in some way be evident that, more than an instrument for carrying out a specific mission, fraternal communion is a God-enlightened space in which to experience the hidden presence of the Risen Lord” (VC No. 42). The fraternal life among us must be grounded in an eloquent sign of evangelization for a world divided by wars and conflicts.

We have come from many parts of the world. We have come as a Dominican family; the powerful action of the Holy Spirit will be with us during these days, so that the Church and the Order can be, and be built up with, the fruit of this Chapter.

Every human action tends to deteriorate and needs frequent and profound renovation. To renew is not to invent something new, but to recreate the profound significance of that which has become blurred; at times through routine and at other times through negligence. When we say that we need to renew ourselves, we are expressing the profound need for conversion that we all require.

The historical circumstances, complex and difficult, that gave birth to the Dominican charism made it imperative that Our Father, surrounding himself with the first sisters and brothers, be a witness to the need to return to the Gospel. People discovered through him, in his friars and nuns, that it was not necessary to leave the Church to live the Gospel in a radical way.

They went and the stayed with him that day Jn 1, 39

It is not enough to see Jesus. It is necessary to stay with Him and begin the experience of the disciple. He “summoned those that they might be with him” (Mk 3, 13-14) It would be a long process of formation so that afterwards he would entrust to them the mission that he himself received from the Father (Jn 20, 21). Here we have the base of the Christian experience: encounter Jesus, stay with him and then present him to others (NMI 40).

In following him, in going in search of him, they did not ask “Master what must we do to obtain eternal life?” or “Which is the greatest commandment?” They limited themselves to the simple question “Where do you live?” Their interest was not to know something, but to be with someone. This “someone” is “the Word made flesh who made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1, 14). Contact with the Word of the Father brings us to the knowledge of everything that the Father has to say to us: “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him” (Mk 9, 7).

We are called to be with him, to remain in him: “remain in me, as I remain in you.” (Jn 15, 4). If we remain with him and in him, we have life, and it is life for all peoples. “Whoever possesses the Son has life” (1 Jn 5, 12).

May we in this Chapter, as disciples of Jesus, allow ourselves to be questioned by him in the Scriptures, may we live him in the intense joy of the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, and may we throw ourselves into the service of others, especially the most poor and needy, knowing that the best service we can offer to our brother is evangelization which helps him to live and act as a son of God, sets him free from injustices, and assists in his overall development” (Puebla 1145).

If we are Christians, disciples of Jesus, people should recognize that we are with him. Our Holy Father Dominic knew how to remain with him, he was an eminently contemplative man, and as such, knew how to feel with the heart of Jesus, given the situation of the Church and the distancing of a large part of the baptized.

The one who has truly found Christ can not keep Him to himself; he must proclaim Him

Where is your brother?
To begin the second part of this meditation, I want us to return to the book of Genesis (4, 9) and start with this question: “Where is your brother?” This is Cain´s answer: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” “Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things” (Gaudium et Spes No. 13).

Where is your brother? Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus. Philip met with Nathaniel and invited him: Come and you will see. He brought him to the feet of Jesus.

Only the one who has encountered Christ and is his disciple can answer the question “Where is your brother?” To be a disciple is to live the experience of communion, of fraternity, to see oneself as a brother at the side of another and want that others live the experience of Jesus.

The Church can not be missionary unless she constantly renews her attitude of putting herself before her Lord and Master as a disciple; unless she would always return to the feet of her Master to be with him, to learn from him and enter into a profound friendship and communion of life with Him.

He “summoned them that they might be with him and he might send them forth to preach” (Mk 3, 13-14). When he officially sent them, he told them: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Mt 28, 19-20).

The sending of the disciples takes place once the Paschal Mystery is completed, since this is the wellspring of the mission, the defining event for the Ecclesial Life. This is reflected particularly in the consecrated life. One might say that the mission is written on the heart of every religious (VC 25).

Where is your brother?
Entire groups of baptized have lost the living sense of their faith or they may not even recognize themselves as members of the Church, carrying on an existence far from Christ and his Gospel. In this case, a “New Evangelization” or “Re-evangelization” is needed (Redemptoris Missio RM No. 33).

There are baptized people who do not have any joyful experience of the life of Christ, of the richness of their faith, of Christian hope and charity. We must go out to find those who thirst for God and do not know his face, be they in our own countries, be they in distant parts of the earth.

The experience of a new life in Christ brings us a profound sorrow for the abandonment and loneliness of those who do not know it. This experience must make us go out, sensing ourselves as being sent to meet many men and women in the streets. Men and women who have fallen into the hands of highwaymen; stripped and beaten; half dead … The disciple is a missionary, a Good Samaritan who does not pass by indifferently before the needy …

It is necessary to see the needy with contemplative eyes, that is, with the eyes of Jesus, to come close to him, to see him with mercy, to bind his wounds and, making him part of ourselves, to put him onto our own mount and take him to the inn, saying: “Here is my brother!” And in this inn – the Church – he is cared for.

How I like to see in Dominic the Good Samaritan and announce to all: Dominic, Good Samaritan. He, Dominic de Guzmán, the contemplative, from the heart of God he comes and wanders the highways of humanity; finding a reality that has a response in the Word of God proclaimed and witnessed. Here he found the inspiration for his life and his project of a family of preachers.

If the proclamation of the Word fails, one builds in vain; only the Word of God makes it possible for the disciple to build on rock and his mission, in the same way, will be a joyful experience of sharing Christ, the sure Rock.

Dominic saw clearly that the root of the grave problems in the Church of his time was the neglect of preaching or of its deficiency. The fate of his brothers: those who were plunged into ignorance and error, with all of the consequences of the ravages that destroy community were the evangelical imperative in his heart of the Good Samaritan.

There are many challenges before the Church in this moment. In our attitude of conversion, we must be aware of our weaknesses that may impede our being true disciples and missionaries. The threats that confront the faith and the life of millions of baptized must increase our missionary commitment; after all, what is at stake is that all should have life and have life in abundance (Jn 10, 10).

Each one of us is the answer on the lips of Our Holy Father Dominic. He knew how to respond, sharing like Andrew, Philip and many others the treasure and precious pearl that he found. He, with the sweet Word of Truth in his heart and on his lips, invited us to unite ourselves to a life of contemplative obedience at the service of the Holy Preaching. He hopes that each one responds, today as yesterday, to the good fortune of so many brothers and sisters. Docility to the Holy Spirit converts all of us against the backdrop of the Order according to our answer to the Lord’s question: “Where is your brother?”

We must be heralds of hope in a world that has lost its horizon and has forgotten true joy, because our world is tinged with shadows of death. Our communities have to evangelize, becoming places “where love, drawing strength from prayer, the wellspring of communion, is called to become a pattern of life and source of joy” (VC No. 51).

Is not the ordinary and fundamental mission of the Church the following?: Inject into the very heart of our times and into the daily rhythm of things the new life of the Spirit, that of putting into the heart, in the mind and in human tasks, the Gospel of Jesus Christ which transforms everything and makes everything new.

The missionary, if he is not contemplative, can not proclaim Christ credibly. The missionary is a witness of the experience of God and must be able to say as the apostles did: “what we looked upon … concerning the Word of life … we proclaim now to you” (1 Jn 1, 1-3). This, in Dominican language, is: “To contemplate and share the fruit of our contemplation”.

May Mary, woman of attentive listening, open our hearts and make of us the most fertile ground where the Word of God may give fruit in abundance. Just as in her, may the Word of God clash and rub against our lives and words, oxygenating our blood; only in this way can we become burning torches to illuminate the whole world, honoring our Dominican vocation and charism.

We nuns are celebrating 800 years since the founding by Our Holy Father Dominic …
The friars and nuns share a long history. Our fraternity has been at the heart and life of the Order for 800 years. As Dominicans, truth and transparency must be the hallmark of our relationship. Our relationship with each one of the friars is one of mutual strengthening. The friars’ service to us must be one that supports us in our own responsibility in the Order.

Each one of you is in our hearts, since God and Our Holy Father Dominic have entrusted you to us. We pray that you, in your diverse mission fields and in your admirable efforts to extend the Kingdom, see yourselves highly gratified by the number of persons that you bring, resting them at the feet of the crucified one – that they may receive from him abundant life to the glory of the Father.

We will grow as an Order of Preachers only if we strengthen each other and mutually give each other life, that is, we must breathe into each other the breath of God.

I want to extend an invitation to you that we might unite ourselves in these days of the jubilee year of fraternal edification, that we might together recognize the goodness of the Lord.

As Nuns of the Order, we are gratefully aware that the Lord has glorified himself in these eight centuries of history, making our monasteries true places of discipleship, projecting love, with missionary ardor and the zeal of apostolic prayer… The Jubilee year is a call to conversion and so we acknowledge our weaknesses; we do not want to deny them “so that in us the power of Christ may be made manifest“ (2 Cor 12, 9).

The history of humanity, lived in friendship with Jesus, is not invented at each step; it is received as a living memory, not as a memory of the past to mechanically repeat, but as an invitation to build it in friendship with Jesus Christ and with his Church, driven by the marvelous creativity at work in the Holy Spirit. To rethink our vocation and mission is an invitation to be closer to him who is our way, our truth and our life.

Our participation in this Chapter during this Jubilee year strengthens us because the love of Christ unites us and we shall have the opportunity to “find the visible manifestations of the love of God that brings forth in us the feeling of joy that comes from the experience of being loved” (DCE 17).

“We have believed in the love of God; this is how the Christian can express the fundamental option of his life” (DCE 1). We have believed in the love of God throughout these 800 years, since our profound identity is “the Holy Preaching, the holiness of preaching”. In the hands of Dominic, we are the answer to the question “Where is your brother?” Oh that today as yesterday this response would crystallize itself that our Order be an Order of Disciples and Missionaries of Jesus Christ, so that in Him all peoples would have life.