14 April 1982
Beyrouth, Lebanon

My dear Sisters,

In speaking to you this morning, I am conscious that I am speaking to Sister Servants. Perhaps the most important task of any Superior, of any Sister Servant, is to assist the mystery of spiritual growth in the Sisters who are entrusted to her by the Providence of God. The principal task of any Sister Servant or Superior, according to St. Vincent's mind, is to help each member of her or his community to grow into the likeness of Jesus Christ. The principal task of a Superior is to assist each member of the community to grow in union with Jesus Christ and to accomplish the Will of our Father Who is in heaven.

Allow me to offer you two counsels, one negative and one positive. Negatively, do not force the growth too much. A farmer cannot force the growth of wheat in the field. We cannot force the spiritual growth of other people. It is important for a Sister Servant, as it is for everybody, to accept people as they are and to help them to grow, but not to force them to grow. It is significant that Jesus said: "And I, if I am lifted up will draw all things to Myself." (Jn 12:32). "I will draw all things to Myself." He did not say, "I will force all to do as I want them to do." As for the positive counsel, it is this: try to create around you the conditions that will help people to grow in faith, and in hope, and in love of God and the poor. The gardener can remove obstacles that prevent the growth of the seed in the ground. He can shelter, and when necessary water the ground, to assist the growth of the seed. So, too, with us, we should try to create around us the conditions that will enable people to come out of themselves into the light and sunshine of God's grace. I sometimes think that all of us underestimate what we can do to create within our Communities the atmosphere that will allow, not only myself, but others to mature in the love of the Community and of our vocation to serve the poor.

One of the most practical pieces of advice any of us in authority could receive is to start by taking things and people as one finds them, and not as one would wish them to be. Apropos of that, I think that one of the most practical pieces of advice in the New Testament is the letter of St. James. You will find much in it to help you in your task: "My brothers, you will always have your trials, but when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege." (Jas 1:2). Yes, all of us know that Sister Servants have often much to suffer, precisely because they are Sister Servants. St. James speaks of suffering as a happy privilege. I think it is important that whatever our sufferings are, we try not to talk too much about them, at least to our communities. If we speak too much to our communities about our difficulties as superiors, our communities will not be happy ones. An air of gloom will settle down upon them. I am not saying that a Sister Servant should not confide her difficulties to a prudent person. This week should afford you an opportunity of talking in general about some of the difficulties that you experience in guiding your communities, always respecting, of course, the law of charity. St. James would say that whatever your sufferings are as Sister Servants, through them you are becoming "fully developed and complete." (Jas 1:4). To be a Sister Servant is to receive a vocation within a vocation and all this comes under the loving Providence of God.

Secondly, St. James remarks: "If there is any one of you who needs wisdom, he must ask God Who gives to all freely and ungrudgingly." (Jas 1:5) To a young Superior who asked him for advice, St. Vincent in his old age made this precise point: "You will need wisdom as Superior: you will receive it in prayer." In crisis situations that arise, often the last means we adopt to solve them is to spend fifteen minutes in quiet prayer before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, asking that wisdom which we need and which He is ready to give freely and ungrudgingly.

Finally, St. James observes: "It is right for the poor brother to be proud of his high rank and the rich one to be thankful that he has been humbled." (Jas 1:9-10). That is a variation of St. Paul's idea, so dear to St. Vincent, that God chooses weak things of the world to confound the strong. For all of us in authority, it will remain in this life a mystery why God should have chosen us for this office. In our weakness we can draw strength from St. Vincent's consoling words: "As for your feelings of inadequacy regarding the duty you are carrying out, remember that Our Lord has enough competence for you and for all humble persons, and ask Him to have mercy on me." (Coste V, Fr. ed., p. 463).

To deepen within us the virtue of humility, we can often reflect on the fact that authority is only one form of many services that can be offered to the Community. It will help us to keep our sense of proportion right, if we are sensitive and appreciative of the good qualities that lie in the members of our Community whom we are now called by God in this moment of our lives to serve.