6 September 1988
Celbridge, Ireland

The passage of St. Luke's Gospel, chapter six, to which we have just listened this evening, is one of movement. Jesus, Who had spent the whole night in prayer, moves from the mountain down to what St. Luke calls "a level place." (Lk 6:17). Jesus has moved from prayer to action. It is a characteristic feature of St. Luke's Gospel that there is what you might describe as a pendulum-like swing in Our Lord's activities. St. Luke accentuated the fact that Our Lord moves from involvement with people, healing and preaching and teaching them, to long periods of solitude when He devotes Himself to communing with His Father in heaven. From the mountain or desert place of prayer He will then descend again to continue the mission which He has received from His Father in Heaven, so that all may come to the knowledge of the one true God and Him whom He has sent.

This evening all of us gathered here are thinking of movement. The community which has lived here for ten years or so, is on the move. By no stretch of the imagination can we think of this locality as a mountain, nor as a desert place. However, it is appropriate to recall this evening that, when an alternative location to Blackrock was being sought twelve years ago, one of the factors that influenced the decision to choose this particular locality was its tranquillity. A certain distance from the din and bustle of a city facilitates growth and appreciation of that interior silence without which we cannot hear God speak. If we humans are to hear the voice of the living God, then there must be a measure of stillness and silence in our lives. "Be still and know that I am God." (Ps 46:11). That is a truth which Jesus Christ has taught us by word and by example. It is a truth to which St. Vincent also subscribed. When setting forth the ideal of prayer for his Community, he evoked the scene of this evening's Gospel. He wrote: "Christ, the Lord, in addition to his daytime meditations, sometimes used to spend the whole night in prayer to God. We cannot fully follow his example in this, though we should try to do so while making allowance for our weakness." (CR X, 7).

In the present day Constitutions of the Vincentian Congregation that ideal finds expression in this phrase: "Through the intimate union of prayer and apostolate a missioner becomes a contemplative in action and an apostle in prayer." (C. 42).

We are on the move. Our celebration this evening, however, is tinged with a certain regret. The stay of the Community here in Celbridge has been short. Buildings, however, do not make a Community. Indeed St. Vincent reminds us in our Rule that "we should not have a disproportionate liking for any ministry, person, or place, especially our native land, or for anything of that sort." (CR 2, 10). It is significant, too, that the name which he gave the members of his Congregation was that of missioners. He had a fondness for that word, mission. Missioners do not settle down. They are always on the move so that they may proclaim Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, particularly to the poor.

We are on the move. It is with regret that we leave this locality. The principal reason that prompted the Visitor and his Council to take this decision has been the fewness of vocations. Rather I should say, the fewness of applications. For it is salutary for us all to think that the truth may very well be that God has called and is calling men to our Congregation, but for one reason or another these men are diverted, distracted or, let us face it, even discouraged from joining us by what they see of the quality of our community life and apostolates.

We move with regret, but our lives must not be lived with regret. Our lives must be lived forward. With St. Paul, we do not look back to what is past, but rather press forward to the upward call of our vocation in Christ Jesus. (cf. Phil 3:14). The decision has been taken by the Provincial, not solely because of the fewness of applicants. It has also been taken in the hope that in the present circumstances the work of formation will be carried on more effectively elsewhere. The ideal of formation itself is unchanging. Those whom God calls to our Community must be formed to become apostles in contemplation and contemplatives in action.

We are on the move. As we go, we are accompanied by a host of friends and well wishers, a fraction of whom are here this evening. The Daughters of Charity, the friends of the Vincentians, and the Holy Faith Sisters, are more than well-wishers to us. They share with us the vision of St. Vincent. So this celebration is an occasion for thanking God and also for thanking that wide Vincentian family for the spiritual, material and financial support they have given us so constantly and generously over the years.

Towards the end of his life--two years precisely--St. Vincent was forced to give up a property as a result of a law suit. He felt the loss of it acutely. He capitalized on this experience to reinforce in his Community the need of adhering lightly to things in order to practice what he called holy indifference. I would like to end this homily by quoting a short letter St. Vincent wrote to a layman, a good friend of his, on that particular occasion:

Good friends share the good and the bad that comes to them; and as you are one of the best we have in the world, I cannot but let you know of the loss we have suffered in the affair you know of (the loss of the farm at Orsigny). However, I don't mean it is something bad which has come upon us, but rather a favor God has done us, so that you may kindly help us to thank God for it. I call the afflictions God sends a favor from Him, especially those that are well received. For, His infinite goodness, having prepared us for this deprivation before it was decreed in law, has also made us acquiesce in this unexpected result with extra resignation, and I venture to say, with as much joy as if it had been in our favor. This would seem to be a paradox to one who was not versed, as you are, in heavenly affairs, and who did not know that conformity to God's good pleasure in adversities is a greater good than all temporal interests. I beg you very humbly to allow me to put into your heart the sentiments of my own. (Coste VIII, Fr. ed., pp. 252-253).